Mooer Matchbox

The Mooer Matchbox (sold as the MOOER 013 Matchbox) is a digital preamp pedal in MOOER's Micro Preamp series, a line of mini pedals modeled on desirable heads and combos. The Matchbox captures the clean and crunch of Matchless combos, described by Guitar Interactive Magazine as "A highly sought after, modified, vintage US Combo."¹²³

What it does

The Matchbox sits on a board in place of an amp's preamp section: it reproduces the preamp voicing of its source combo, and its built-in speaker cabinet simulation can be switched on or off depending on whether you are feeding a real cab or going direct. MusicRadar's report on the line described "built-in optional cab simulator and on/off or channel A/B footswitching," so the single footswitch can be set either to turn the pedal on and off or to switch between its two channels.³

Like the other Micro Preamps announced at the same time, it packs "dual channels with independent gain, volume and EQ parameters," meaning each channel keeps its own gain, level and tone settings rather than sharing one set of controls.³⁴

Where it came from

MOOER announced the Matchbox at NAMM 2018 alongside two other new Micro Preamp mini pedals, expanding a line "based on desirable heads and combos." MusicRadar reported at the time that all three pedals would be "available soon for $99/£95."³ Guitar.com's NAMM 2018 report confirmed the same feature set for the series.³

How it compares

The Matchbox is one of many preamp voicings in MOOER's Micro Preamp range. Others in the family include the Mooer 017 Cali MK IV, the Mooer UK Gold 900 and the Mooer 006 US Classic Deluxe, each modeled on a different amplifier. For players wanting more than a single preamp voicing, MOOER later released the dual-channel digital Mooer Preamp Model X2, which adds editable presets and third-party IR support. See the full range on the Preamp Pedals type page.

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