The Nux Morning Star is a compact overdrive pedal from Nux, built on the circuit of the Marshall Blues Breaker. Nux describes that circuit as "a very transparent, low gain drive," and says the Morning Star "lights up all of the classic aspects of a great blues breaker pedal" with an added feature of its own, the Shine treble circuit12. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley characterized it as "a low-gain drive pedal that doesn't colour your tone too much"3.
For a player, that means a pedal meant to push a clean amp into gentle breakup or stack in front of another drive, rather than deliver high gain on its own. The Bluesbreaker style it follows is widely used for exactly that role.
A low-gain Bluesbreaker-style drive
The Morning Star belongs to a family of pedals tracing back to the Marshall Bluesbreaker, a lower-gain overdrive than Marshall's Guv'nor. Guitar.com's reviewer Richard Purvis called the original "a simple and sweet-toned low-gain cruncher that's not just for blues fans," rating it 9 out of 104. NUX describes the Morning Star as based on the Bluesbreaker circuit, "a very transparent, low gain drive"2, and packs the circuit type into a Mini Core series enclosure2.
Nux has used the same circuit family elsewhere in its range, including the Queen Of Tone and the NDO6 Queen of Tone Dual Overdrive. Premier Guitar described the Morning Star's circuit the same way Nux does, as a "transparent, low gain drive"5.
The controls and Shine mode
The Drive knob sets the amount of gain. Nux says settings from 0 to 5 yield "a balanced overdrive to your clean tone," and that turning it higher produces "thick overdrive with a bit more" gain1.
The pedal's extra feature is the Shine circuit, which Nux says "adds a whole new level of tone brightness." You engage it by pressing and holding the footswitch1. Pedal of the Day called this "the iconic SHINE mode for a crystal clear treble boosted tone"6, and Premier Guitar described it as offering "more treble sound to create clear tone"5.
| Control or function | What it does |
|---|---|
| Drive knob | 0 to 5 gives balanced overdrive over your clean tone; higher settings give thick overdrive with more gain1 |
| Footswitch | Engages and bypasses the pedal1 |
| Footswitch press and hold | Activates the Shine circuit, adding high-frequency brightness1 |
Bypass modes and power
The Morning Star gives you two bypass options, True Bypass or Buffer Bypass, which Nux describes as covering "your essential signal chain needs"1. You select between them by pushing and holding the footswitch while powering the pedal up: a red LED indicator shows True Bypass and a green LED indicator shows Buffer Bypass1. Being able to choose matters if you run long cable runs or many pedals, where a buffer can preserve high end, or if you prefer the straight-through signal path of true bypass.
Power comes from a standard 9V DC supply with a center negative plug, drawing more than 100mA. The supply is not included with the pedal1.
The power supply is not included, and the pedal needs more than 100mA at 9V DC center negative, so check that your pedalboard power supply can deliver enough current on one output1.
Videos
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Questions
Is the Nux Morning Star true bypass or buffered?
It can be either. The pedal offers two bypass modes, True Bypass and Buffer Bypass, and you choose which one it uses. A red LED indicator shows True Bypass and a green LED indicator shows Buffer Bypass, so you can tell at a glance which mode is active.
How do you switch bypass modes on the Nux Morning Star?
Push and hold the footswitch while powering up the pedal. That selects between True Bypass, shown by a red LED indicator, and Buffer Bypass, shown by a green LED indicator. The same press-and-hold action, used while the pedal is running, engages the Shine treble circuit instead.
What power supply does the Nux Morning Star need?
It takes a standard 9V DC supply with a center negative plug, drawing more than 100mA. The power supply is not included with the pedal, so you need to supply your own. It is a Mini Core series sized pedal, so plan board power accordingly.
Is the Nux Morning Star a Bluesbreaker clone?
It is based on the Bluesbreaker circuit, which Nux describes as a very transparent, low gain drive, and it reproduces the classic aspects of that pedal. Nux also added its own Shine circuit, a footswitch-hold treble boost that the original Marshall pedal does not have.
Sources (6)
- Morning Star, NUX Audio, 2025-11-27
- Queen of Tone, NUX Audio, 2025-11-06
- Does NUX's Ace Of Tone offer more value than any other dual overdrive pedal in the world right now?, MusicRadar, 2022-01-21
- Marshall BluesBreaker: can it pick up right where it left off?, guitar.com, 2023-08-18
- Nu-X Introduces the Ace of Tone Dual Overdrive, Premier Guitar, 2022-01-11
- NUX NDO6 Queen of Tone Dual Overdrive, Pedal of the Day, 2023-04-29
