Rat Distortion

Destroying Angel

Destroying Angel

New member
Can you guys give me some info on the ProCo Rat/ Freakshow Brown Rabbit? A friend of mine told me that i'd love the Brown Rabbit through my Vht. From what i've read the Rabbit is a tweaked Rat distortion, the problem is i've never played through a rat so i don't know what to expect.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

I don't know anything about the rabbit.....but a Rat is a VERY cool pedal. The key is the LM308 chip, otherwise they just don't sound right.

My guess is that the Rabbit addresses 2 of the problems people have with Rats. Number one being that unity gain is at about 2-3 o'clock on the dial. The other is the Rat's tendency to sound like the low end is lopped off at low volumes. The Rat does have a quirk in that it sounds like it has holes in the sound if the gain goes above 3 o'clock or you tune below D.

What style music are you playing, and what VHT are you using? A VHT and Rat isn't an ordinary combination. Fender and Rat or Marshall and Rat (specifically vintage style Marshalls) are far more common. The sound you can expect from a rat is like an old school stack. I plug my Rat into a cranked Fender or JTM45 style amp and you are talking instant Joe Walsh or Jeff Beck.

Luke
 
Re: Rat Distortion

a lot of great 90's bands use the rat as a main distortion. names that come to mind are smashing pumpkins and radiohead (paranoid android i believe)
 
Re: Rat Distortion

The Brown Rabbit is a rat with all the problems fixed. It also works well as a semi-clean boost. You can find clips of it on youtube. It is a very versatile distortion pedal.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

The Brown Rabbit is a painted up BYOC Rat. literally. I've seen photos of the insides of one of the early ones, and it was built on a BYOC PCB. Same goes for the Digilog - it's a version 1 BYOC delay.

Boutique my ass ;)
 
Re: Rat Distortion

Oh yeah, but on topic - the Rat is a great pedal but I always preferred the Turbo Rat. Lots more gain and low end if you need it, plus it just sounds tighter and less flubby. It can do all the low to medium gain stuff well too.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

Luke Duke said:
. The Rat does have a quirk in that it sounds like it has holes in the sound if the gain goes above 3 o'clock or you tune below D.

What style music are you playing, and what VHT are you using? A VHT and Rat isn't an ordinary combination. Fender and Rat or Marshall and Rat (specifically vintage style Marshalls) are far more common. The sound you can expect from a rat is like an old school stack. I plug my Rat into a cranked Fender or JTM45 style amp and you are talking instant Joe Walsh or Jeff Beck.

Luke
Click to expand...


Im playing through a Vht Deliverance, i do tune below D. I play in a metal band, but im going to use that term loosely since im not going for "the bag of bees metal tone' i like to think of the sound im after as a thicker brown sound, kind of Mick Mars-ish. Thick, harmonic midrange, smooth top end, enough lows to get a nice low mid growl without the bass frequencies booming. He basically told me the Brown rabbit was similar to my tube screamers midrange with thicker bottom end and the highs were 'a little ratty'(go figure) but could be tamed with the tone control all the way down.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

sorry to hijack, but was a rat used on Kill 'Em All? someone told me that once, but I never found out.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

Think radiohead and david gilmour. That's about as Rat as it gets.

Not for everyone, but one of the great stomp boxes of all time.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

Destroying Angel said:
Im playing through a Vht Deliverance, i do tune below D. I play in a metal band, but im going to use that term loosely since im not going for "the bag of bees metal tone' i like to think of the sound im after as a thicker brown sound, kind of Mick Mars-ish. Thick, harmonic midrange, smooth top end, enough lows to get a nice low mid growl without the bass frequencies booming. He basically told me the Brown rabbit was similar to my tube screamers midrange with thicker bottom end and the highs were 'a little ratty'(go figure) but could be tamed with the tone control all the way down.
Click to expand...

For a thicker Mick Mars tones I think you could use a Rat and be fine. Its just like a germanium fuzz though. You must realize in advance the limits of the pedal.

I'd do a little research on the brown rabbit, because if it's a BYOC like these guys are saying you'd be MUCH better served getting and 80s Rat for 50-100 bucks and sending it to Keeley or Analogman.

Luke
 
Re: Rat Distortion

Luke Duke said:
if it's a BYOC like these guys are saying you'd be MUCH better served getting and 80s Rat for 50-100 bucks and sending it to Keeley or Analogman.

Luke
Click to expand...

It definitely is mate, I'm not bad-mouthing them for no reason. Hell, I'm not even bad mouthing them - BYOC rules are that you can build them and sell them on as your own as long as you don't associate BYOC with it - I'm just letting it be known what they actually are.

In fact Freakshow effects did 3 effects last time I checked - a Rat, an Octave Fuzz and a Delay, and all 3 were built on BYOC PCBs right from the outset. The rat and the octave fuzz are stock, and the delay has a mod that's listed over at the BYOC forums as a verified mod - basically a momentary feedback loop switch.

I think as the company grew, they started using their own PCBs as it's probably cheaper to buy a bundle of 500 custom printed PCBs than it is to buy 500 PCBs from BYOC, but you can bet your bottom dollar it's the exact same circuit, and probably even the same layout.

So all that said and done, the BYOC stuff is really decent, I just imagineit's cheaper to buy from them direct and not have to pay for someone else's whacky paint job.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

I think that for a Mick Mars kind of tone a Rat would be a GREAT starting point!!! Don't buy into the boutique hype and crap, just hunt down an older Rat with the LM308 and be done with it.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

castiron said:
a lot of great 90's bands use the rat as a main distortion. names that come to mind are smashing pumpkins and radiohead (paranoid android i believe)
Click to expand...


I hear Trey Azagthoth of Morbid Angel used a Rat on the Blessed Are The Sick album.
 
Re: Rat Distortion

Screw the Freakshow stuff, those are kinda pricey for something i could have built myself. So basically im looking for an older Rat then?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top