Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

Drats! now I want a Rat, but Im going to want to explore the other chip option. haha Where does one get them and are they hard to replace? You said its easy, but is it easy to find ? Pretty much plug and play? meaning no soldering? Im pretty handy but dont want to risk tearing it up. Difference worth the effort?

You said the new ones are pretty similar tho right? the change make it smoother? more gain? Sorry for all the questions. I have a bad habit of not leaving things well enough alone, and dont want to tear it up, but also want to get things the best I can too.
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

BloodRose said:
Drats! now I want a Rat, but Im going to want to explore the other chip option. haha Where does one get them and are they hard to replace? You said its easy, but is it easy to find ? Pretty much plug and play? meaning no soldering? Im pretty handy but dont want to risk tearing it up. Difference worth the effort?

You said the new ones are pretty similar tho right? the change make it smoother? more gain? Sorry for all the questions. I have a bad habit of not leaving things well enough alone, and dont want to tear it up, but also want to get things the best I can too.
Click to expand...
http://www.monteallums.com/pedal_mod_parts.html
Scroll down to LM308N. He includes a chip socket.
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

This thread reminds me that I have a rat with diode switching (no germanium though, might have to swap out the 1n4148s for some 1n34a diodes) and a Paul Cochrane fat boostered (basically a jfet mu-amp with an input buffer) populated and ready to throw into an enclosure... Really need to pull out the soldering iron and get that project finished
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

BloodRose said:
Drats! now I want a Rat, but Im going to want to explore the other chip option. haha Where does one get them and are they hard to replace? You said its easy, but is it easy to find ? Pretty much plug and play? meaning no soldering? Im pretty handy but dont want to risk tearing it up. Difference worth the effort?

You said the new ones are pretty similar tho right? the change make it smoother? more gain? Sorry for all the questions. I have a bad habit of not leaving things well enough alone, and dont want to tear it up, but also want to get things the best I can too.
Click to expand...

Hmm, it was easy for me, but I guess I should qualify that and say I've been soldering for decades and have good tools. The MIC PCB traces will lift if you overheat them, so you do need to be a little careful. It's probably safest to cut the legs off the old chip, then heat the pins and pull them out one at a time. After that, go back and use a solder sucker or solder braid to clean out the holes.

You can also get the chips at www.smallbearelec.com.

Or, just buy one of these from China, already has the LM308 and a switch for the diodes in it - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Little-bear...438631?hash=item46454dd1e7:g:TfsAAMXQNo5Tbt66
 
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Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

Thanks again! I do all my own pup and pot/cap swaps and stuff. So totally green, but not an ace by any means.. Im very sloppy.. usually overkill everything with too much solder for fear itll come apart.. haha


Seriously? that pedal (little bear) actually work at that price?? Let alone sound good??
 
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Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

I don't see why it wouldn't work, most of the electronics in the world, including the Rat 2s, are MIC, they know what they are doing. Not to mention, pedals are really simple circuits.
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

LOL, guess I was alil vague.. meant will it cop that sound and have you tried? just seems too good to be true
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

No, I haven't tried one personally. There are tons of knock-offs out there and it's so simple, can't imagine they screwed it up, not to mention it shows the PCB in the auction and it shows a LM308 in it. But, yeah, I understand your hesitance.
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

Well, I scored one on Ebay, so we will see. Of course I don't have a regular Rat to compare too. His feedback is really good, so Im hoping to be pleasantly surprised. But my winning bid was a bank breaking $3.50.

Question for Rat users.. Is this like the bogner pedals where its best run on clean channel or you use to boost the gain channel? Im guessing boost the gain, right?
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

BloodRose said:
Question for Rat users.. Is this like the bogner pedals where its best run on clean channel or you use to boost the gain channel? Im guessing boost the gain, right?
Click to expand...

I no longer use mine (debate about getting another one just because of the classic tone) but when I did I ran it off of the clean channel and didn't care for it on the drive channel. I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe BUT I had the Gain Channel modded by a local Amp Tech to resemble more of a Mesa Boogie Rectifier gain...so not your typical HRD. FWIW, I play mostly Bluesy Rock and Positive Alternative/CCM style music.

Best of luck with the incoming pedal!
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

BloodRose said:
Well, I scored one on Ebay, so we will see. Of course I don't have a regular Rat to compare too. His feedback is really good, so Im hoping to be pleasantly surprised. But my winning bid was a bank breaking $3.50.

Question for Rat users.. Is this like the bogner pedals where its best run on clean channel or you use to boost the gain channel? Im guessing boost the gain, right?
Click to expand...
You can do either. RATs are pretty high-gain, and you can get all the gain you need with the knon at 10 o'clock

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

The Biyang Metal End distortion pedal was the answer for me when I was also on a (prolonged) metal tone quest a few months back. It is affordable - I got a new one on Amazon for ~$65. Check out this YouTube demo of it:


One odd but important aspect to note is that while this pedal can be powered with a nine volt battery, when it comes to AC power adapter, it requires a 9.6 volt unit. However an affordable one ($22) is widely available from DOD - their PS200R.

I tried the Rat (a reissue of the original with the fabled LM308 (sp?) chip) prior to this, and to my ears, the Rat sounded more like a fuzzy overdrive than a distortion pedal.
 
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Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

BloodRose said:
Well, I scored one on Ebay, so we will see. Of course I don't have a regular Rat to compare too. His feedback is really good, so Im hoping to be pleasantly surprised. But my winning bid was a bank breaking $3.50.

Question for Rat users.. Is this like the bogner pedals where its best run on clean channel or you use to boost the gain channel? Im guessing boost the gain, right?
Click to expand...

Whahoo ;-0 Wasn't the shipping like $19 or something from China? Still, pretty good score, less than $25 for a Rat clone. I think the box looks cool too. Let me know how it works for you. Maybe we can figure out how to do a comparison with my Rat 2 (with LM308) or something.

As far as using it, the answer is yes, to both questions. Gain up into a clean amp, sounds great. Gain down, volume up to boost a dirty amp, sounds great (that was Nuno's early rig, Rat into a JMP head).
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

Thanks ! Yeah, shipping is $18. So total score under $25. If it works well, then thats a killer deal! If not, then Im out a couple meals and lesson learned.
 
Re: Recommend me a Distortion pedal please....

Yeah, the Rat will work as a great pedal on its own or as a boost to thicken up a gainy tone and add a bit of hair. It's definitely one of my favourite pedals. I have an old USA-made one but without the lm308. For what it's worth, I've compared it to one that does have the chip and I found the difference to be negligible.
 
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