What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

[Liam1963]

Re: What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

I've never owned one, I have a Big Muff Pi, and a couple of MXR Distortion + pedals, what does a RAT do that those don't? Or should I just pick one up (fairly inexpensive) and see for myself? How many different variants of the RAT are there?

[devastone]

Re: What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

Rats are great, and yes with the gain down it makes a nice boost, but it's not 100% clean, it still has a little grit. Turn it all the way up and it goes past distortion into fuzzy tones, I don't know of any pedals that have that much range in their distortion, and yes, it does impart it's own tone to your signal. Definitely worth a try if you don't have one. FWIW, Nuno Bettencourt's early tone (before ADA) was a Rat pushing a Marshall JMP, although I think he pretty much always had one in his rig.

[Zombiwoof]

Re: What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

I’ve owned a few. Jeff Beck used one for many years before replacing the Rat with a Klon.

Beck’s my favorite rock guitarist but I never could get 100% comfortable with a Rat.

It’ll get fuzzier than my Klon KTR. Almost as fuzzy as a Big Muff. The Klon KTR isn’t a fuzz.

There are settings on the Rat that allowed me to turn it on, turn the volume on my guitar way, way down, and get a cleanish but slightly gritty clean tone...and then turn my guitar’s volume up for different degrees of more and more overdrive.

The Klon does that even better than the Rat though, and I haven’t owned a Rat since buying my first Klone. Now I use a Klon KTR.

A RAT is my go-to dirt pedal if I have only one choice, it does lend it's own voice to the sound, not a transparent pedal at all. I have used a RAT II for years, also have a big-box Vintage version, and a couple of others. Yes, it is versatile but don't expect it to be a clean boost or transparent OD. It's a fat sound with a lot of harmonic content that is quite pleasing to my ears.
Al

[Lewguitar]

Re: What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

I’ve owned a few. Jeff Beck used one for many years before replacing the Rat with a Klon.

Beck’s my favorite rock guitarist but I never could get 100% comfortable with a Rat.

It’ll get fuzzier than my Klon KTR. Almost as fuzzy as a Big Muff. The Klon KTR isn’t a fuzz.

There are settings on the Rat that allowed me to turn it on, turn the volume on my guitar way, way down, and get a cleanish but slightly gritty clean tone...and then turn my guitar’s volume up for different degrees of more and more overdrive.

The Klon does that even better than the Rat though, and I haven’t owned a Rat since buying my first Klone. Now I use a Klon KTR.

['59]

Re: What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

Anyone else got anything to say about this pedal?

[NegativeEase]

Re: What's The Cheese On The ProCo Rat?

It is indeed versatile. As someone who owns every type of distortion, overdrive and fuzz -its one of the top for desert island triple duty -some of MXRs also being really versatile.

But to me the magic of a RAT is the harmonic and feedback response under your fingertips walking the fretboard. It has a pleasant thing -it can even make a greenback speaker wail in feedback.

It reacts a little different than other pedals.

['59]

I've heard that this pedal can do anything from a light OD to wool sweater layers of fuzz, how's this hold up? How does this thing perform in terms of the EQ, feel, texture, versatility, and other categories? What can this pedal do that others can't? What are its strength's and weaknesses? What pedals and pickups does it play well with? What settings are particularly usable on this unit?

What particular model do you prefer as well? I hear that there are a few on the market. I'll be using this for anything from bluesy OD to hair metal levels of distortion in conjunction with my EHX Soul Food.