Re: Q'ns: PH-1r and RAT
The PH-1R was the aftrunner of the original PH-1, no *R* no resonance control, that of course was added later on. I have an original PH-1, still can't find a schematic for it or the 1R and Roland doesn't list them anymore in their tech department. The PH-1 or 1R is a 4 stage phaser (the MXR Phase 90 was a 4 stage as well), 16secs to 100mSec sweep, very light and natural sounding phaser, pretty quiet and is voiced very well. The reason for adding the resonance control was to get a deeper sounding phase shift from only four stages. Excellent little pedal, very well suiting to slide work, jazz and fusion, funk, classic rock, and for getting a bit nutty when placed *after* a distortion pedal. Don't be fooled by the number of stages, 4 stage phasers have a sound different than higher number of stages, they have very solid uses.
The MXR phase 45 and DOD 201 phaser were 2 stage phasers, even lighter in effect. BOSS's problem with the PH-2 was that it only had the choice of 10 and 12 stages (with filter points set differently), it couldn't do the light stuff ... The PH-3 can do the light stuff and the phycho phase as well, and it's features make it worth it's weight in gold for the phaser crowd, but you won't get it at the price of the PH-1R.
Point is the PH-1R is a nice, natural, smooth sounding pedal that will cover a lot of range, super thick smallstone phaser with the colour switch in the deep position ... nah! That it won't do, nor was it made to do it either.
As far as the Rat, I have an older Rat II (led, glow in the dark control legends), and I believe that currently there is no difference between the Rat II and the vintage rat (that may have been not the case at one time though), the Rat IIs are still good to great. The Turbo I'd stay away from as for the *brat* (do they still make that thing?), the deuce tone seems to be the most flexible, but you'll pay for it also. Bang for buck, I'd stick with the Rat II ... good solid pedal, the distortion control will fool you though, as it turns into a kinda compressed fuzz when maxed out ... maybe useful for really low output pups, but that's about it, and the Rat II boosts amps very well also, although the turbo rat has higher output voltage, so is probably better in that light. I just found it very harsh on it's own as a distortion pedal.
