A whole NEST of Rat's!!!!!

I wasn't aware the Ibanez LA Metal was a RAT clone? I bought one used in 1992 without trying it first. I got it home and I was horribly disappointed because I thought it was going to be a bright "hair metal" pedal but instead it was a dark, thick, and fairly low gain pedal. So I really didn't get the name?

It sat in a box for a long time until I replaced a few components to try and get more gain. Even after modification it sat unused forever. A friend who plays bass was complaining about his Tube Screamer and how it didn't thicken his bass sound. So I gave him my modified LA Metal which really fattened up his sound. It was a much better bass overdrive than a guitar overdrive.

The La Metal wasn't a Rat clone, it didn't even have any clipping diodes. That's why it didn't have much gain and sounded nothing like a Rat. A Rat can do the LA Rock/Metal "hair metal" (hate that label) thing in spades and has more than enough gain on tap for it.
 
The La Metal wasn't a Rat clone, it didn't even have any clipping diodes. That's why it didn't have much gain and sounded nothing like a Rat. A Rat can do the LA Rock/Metal "hair metal" (hate that label) thing in spades and has more than enough gain on tap for it.

Watch the video...it is a clone of a pre-production Rat.
 
Then you could just save money and buy a real Turbo Rat or even a Rat2 and and swap the clipping diodes/resistors for some red led's to Turbo charge it. That's if you like it enough to buy it. :D

That was my point: I don't need to buy the JHS pedal but the demo vids were very useful to me because now I know which Rat I like. Still not sure I want go buy a Rag at all, but if I do it will be a Turbo.
 
Just like with the Muffuletta and Bonsai, I'd love to try one of these and figure out what I like, then proceed to buy the single pedal version.
 
Watch the video...it is a clone of a pre-production Rat.

I don't know what video you're talking about? The LA Metal is not a Rat clone, the Ibanez Fat Cat was their take on a Rat and it still needed mods to get there. The LA metal was built on the same board as the Fat Cat and could be modded to be a Fat Cat and then further modded to be a Rat. Out of the box an LA Metal is nothing like a Rat.
 
I don't know what video you're talking about? The LA Metal is not a Rat clone, the Ibanez Fat Cat was their take on a Rat and it still needed mods to get there. The LA metal was built on the same board as the Fat Cat and could be modded to be a Fat Cat and then further modded to be a Rat. Out of the box an LA Metal is nothing like a Rat.

I'm sorry...I guess you know more than Josh at JHS pedals. You don't know what I'm talking about because you didn't watch the flipping video.

Pay a-freaking-tention. WHICH Rat is it? "You are judgey and it came back to bite you just now"

Go to 2:50

 
I'm sorry...I guess you know more than Josh at JHS pedals. You don't know what I'm talking about because you didn't watch the flipping video.

Pay a-freaking-tention. WHICH Rat is it? "You are judgey and it came back to bite you just now"

Go to 2:50


So it is based on a Rat that was never in production and never seen the light of day. Ibanez was the only one to make a "variation" of it which the "LA" setting is a variation of a Ibanez pedal baring the same name that is based on a porotype of a Rat that really never existed. So really not a Rat per say just another companies "variation" based on the Rat circuit and named for that. So no, not a Rat as we know it. The Ibanez FC10 he mentioned is the Fat Cat I mentioned that is based on a Rat but still has differences in components that needs to be changed to sound like a Rat. The LA is a variant of that pedal without clipping diodes. But from what he said about the actual Rat Prototype is what the 3rd setting on the GFS Brownie Classic/Biyang Mouse is. A true Rat circuit and values with the clipping diodes lifted out of the circuit. So is the LA setting really based on the Ibanez LA or is it the actual Rat circuit/formula with the clipping diodes lifted like the Brownie Classic and Biyang Mouse? Anyways it's cool to know now that my Brownie is actually a WF Rat, Turbo Rat and a Rat prototype without clipping diodes that never existed on the market. :cool: It would be cool if Josh would clarify if the mode is actually based on the Ibanez or the actual Rat prototype. They still are not the exact same thing either way but lots of people already knew that about the Ibanez offerings. They are only their take on a Rat with tweaks/mods of their own done to them and can be modded to sound like a Rat.
 
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Just like with the Muffuletta and Bonsai, I'd love to try one of these and figure out what I like, then proceed to buy the single pedal version.

And you would probably end up paying nearly as much for the individual pedal as you would the JHS pedal that has all the variants. Why do that?
 
Do you guys that have these multi-mode pedals with tons of settings get down on the floor and change settings between songs, or do you pick one and rarely deviate from it?

Seriously asking and not trying to be a dick. For me, when I have used pedals like this, I always end up only using one setting, thus negating the benefit of multiple options. Same thing with Strymon stuff.

I recognize that the presence of many options increases the odds that there is something that I will like, but most single function pedals have something useful in them too.

Just trying to understand what drives other people to choose what they do.

I wouldn't use a pedal like that out. I'd get a used Rat 2 and roll with it.

I'd play that at home when tweeting and futzing with tone was how I wanted to spend the afternoon.
 
And you would probably end up paying nearly as much for the individual pedal as you would the JHS pedal that has all the variants. Why do that?

This is assuming you'd be buying the original a mode is based on. There are affordable clones out there costing far less than each of these JHS boxes. Besides, any purist is going to want the real thing regardless of cost.

Don't get me wrong, these JHS pedals are a great achievement if you want a comprehensive history of circuits in a box, but for real world use the value is overstated here.
 
This is assuming you'd be buying the original a mode is based on. There are affordable clones out there costing far less than each of these JHS boxes. Besides, any purist is going to want the real thing regardless of cost.

Don't get me wrong, these JHS pedals are a great achievement if you want a comprehensive history of circuits in a box, but for real world use the value is overstated here.

True..but the Bonsai, for example, are the real circuits of all of those pedals so why not have that pedal if you like any of those circuits? I am going to get the JHS Rat pedal just to have it. No Rat pedal would ever be my core tone but I can see in certain situations having one pedal with a lot of options could be a nice option and could provide a quick solution in those situations.
 
I can accept that if you want all options at the turn of a knob, then what Josh has created is indeed incredible value.
 
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The Rat is a simple circuit that sounds really good. With some small exceptions, and the change to the OP07 opamp, the Proco versions are basically the same with different clipping diodes, super easy to take the Rat 2 and add a switch to get the Dirty, Turbo, and Standard Rat versions out of it. You can also get creative and pull the OP07 and put in a socket to try the LM308 and other single opamps should you desire. I've done that to a few Rat 2s. Josh has gotten really esoteric with some of the choices on this pedal.

FWIW, I haven't watched the whole video, but Mr 80s is correct, the Fat Cat was Ibanez's direct take on the Rat pedal.
 
Josh says it doesn't make a difference. Since he is a guy who has had every version in his room, and ear, I tend to believe that is a useless exercise. Interwebz mythology.

I was just saying it was possible if that's what floats your boat, wasn't commenting on the validity of it. FWIW, I have done it and seemed to noticed a slight change, but that may have been psychological (I'm not above it). Relatively speaking, the LM308 is a pretty crappy opamp compared to the OP07, theoretically it's slower slew rates could attribute to a slight difference in sound, but not sure if it would be noticeable. FWIW, I love shooting down interwebz mythology, guitar players are about as good as conspiracy theorists at finding stuff that doesn't exist.

I'll try to listen to the rest of the video at work, I like Josh's vids, but I also realize that these videos are also part of his marketing strategy.

BTW, if you have a spare $1500 you want to blow on an IEC power cable, I can point you to the website. Supposedly it's better than Viagra.
 
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