Lower-gain Rat alternative?

[guitarsammy]

I have a Jazzmaster and an AC15, and a few pedals including a Rat. I like the Rat a lot, except for two issues:

- I only use it as quite a light drive (distortion set to somewhere in the 9 o’clock range). I kind of hate anything higher. I sometimes find it hard to find that sweet spot.
- It sucks some bass out of the signal. When I engage the Rat, I can really hear this. I have the filter off at all times.

Are there any pedals out there that might be a) lower gain but in the ball park of a minimally-distorting Rat, and b) have less of a bass cut than a Rat?

[JSett]

What you need to do is the Rat Ruetz mod. It's the simplest one out there and just involves cutting/desoldering one leg of one resistor. And is totally reversible.

This brings all the bass back and halves (or more) the available distortion. It turns it into a great gritty overdrive with a much more usable range. My main 2 Rat pedals both have this done to them and I wouldn't have them any other way.

[HarktheUmpire]

That’s an option. There’s an informative thread on that here

If you did want to try something that’s not a Rat, maybe a Subdecay Liquid Sunshine would be more your thing? Those are a lot more transparent than a Rat, don’t eliminate the low end but still let you brighten up your tone if you wish. Far bigger usable range of low-to-mid overdrive too.

[Dr Tony Balls]

The low gain situation is most easily achieved by replacing the gain pot with a smaller value one. Hard to do on a real Rat b/c of he PCB mounted pots, but easy in a clone situation.

[Gavanti]

EAE Longsword would be worth looking at. Dialed in, it can definitely pull a Rat-like core tone at lower or higher gain settings while keeping the low end. I use a Longsword for a lower gain push and hit the boost switch for heavier rhythm, while I use a Rat set up like a mid-gain fuzz to cut through on leads.

[fuzzjunkie]

This is a different direction; but when I used a low gain setting on a vintage Big Box Rat with a Jazzmaster and Vox AC30, my intention was to get some Marshall style crunch.

I had some of the same issues, lose of base and not as transparent as I would like. The overall tone was good though. It was just 90% of what I wanted and I wanted the extra 10%.

I found a pedal that was perfect for me, but it’s expensive and not a Rat substitute so I won’t mention it. However, there are a number of very good and reasonably priced Marshall-in-a-box pedals available now that weren’t around 10 years ago.

The Lovepedal JMP 11 is certainly one of them. Then there’s all of those that are based off the Angry Charlie and the zVex BOR. Some of those are trying to emulate the hi-gain Marshall sound rather than the lo-gain, but there are plenty of options if that’s the type of sound you’re looking to get from the Rat.

[JSett]

That’s an option. There’s an informative thread on that here

There's a lot of negative opinions of the Ruetz mod in that thread but I stand by it. It definitely takes a little of the Rat character away, but it's the bass-cutting, feedback-inducing, overly bright half it gets rid of (all the bad stuff IMHO) leaving a great low to still quite high gain pedal with its own flavour and I think it still sounds like a Rat. It's worth 10 minutes of anyone's time to try it I think. I've used a Rat as my dirt of choice since 1995 and discovering the Ruetz mod about 15 years ago was a massive leap in usability for me.

YMMV/etc

[spiffy chap]

Instead of cutting or removing the resistor, you could put a pot in place and use that to control the mod.

I prefer RAT stock, they don’t all sound the same to me, I’ve had countless and have settled on the few I have now.

Some other options are

T Rex Yellow Drive is a RAT style pedal I use now for lower gain and a general approximation of that sound and feel. Has a second side that is higher gain and can be switched between the two.

Also recently got an Ibanez LA Metal, which is based on a RAT, but has a completely weird gain sound almost between a treble booster and RAT.

[HarktheUmpire]

That’s an option. There’s an informative thread on that here

It definitely takes a little of the Rat character away, but it's the bass-cutting, feedback-inducing, overly bright half it gets rid of

I’d like to get rid or at least reduce the bass-cutting and overly bright parts, but the feedback I love.

I should get a used Rat 2 to experiment on.

[JSett]

That’s an option. There’s an informative thread on that here

It definitely takes a little of the Rat character away, but it's the bass-cutting, feedback-inducing, overly bright half it gets rid of

I’d like to get rid or at least reduce the bass-cutting and overly bright parts, but the feedback I love.

I should get a used Rat 2 to experiment on.

Oh, you can still get the feedback if you goose the gain knob a bit

[thenewromance]

Maybe the new Wampler Phenom could be worth a look. It's not exactly a Rat per se, but I believe it's close sonically and has both a ton of EQ variation and the potential for low-gain use. It's not too expensive, either.

[marqueemoon]

As a long time Rat user I now use a JFET boost for just giving the amp a little push, use the Rat for a crunchier sounds and stack them to get rowdy.

You could try a Rat with a clean signal blend. It’s a popular thing for bass.

[Tele295]

I have a Jazzmaster and an AC15, and a few pedals including a Rat. I like the Rat a lot, except for two issues:

- I only use it as quite a light drive (distortion set to somewhere in the 9 o’clock range). I kind of hate anything higher. I sometimes find it hard to find that sweet spot.
- It sucks some bass out of the signal. When I engage the Rat, I can really hear this. I have the filter off at all times.

Are there any pedals out there that might be a) lower gain but in the ball park of a minimally-distorting Rat, and b) have less of a bass cut than a Rat?

I was a Rat guy for years, even to the extent of cutting out certain diodes to give a low to medium gain sounds. And the I met Nocturne.

The original Nocturne Ubangi Stomp pedal was essentially a Rat circuit, and the controls worked just like my old one. Tavo was clever, and put all those diodes we used to cut out onto internal dip switches. The current version of the Ubangi is the Nocturne Marquesan, which adds greater flexibility and control to this circuit.

I am not financially connected to Nocturne, just a very satisfied customer. Best pedals I’ve ever found. #nocturnebrain #nocturneMarquesan

[jorri]

My rat clone used the BYOC trick of having a switch for putting diodes in the "tubescreamer position". That equalled much lower saturation. I basically used it like a treble booster with the particular rat EQ.

The other diode types like germanium or LED have more 'gain' but perhaps you really meant "distortion" in which case they have less. Less distortion but more volume.

I checked out the Dunes/Palisades and the Hudson Sidecar for Rat replacement and even though are supposedly Tubescreamer based they seem very capable of rattish flavours with different gain range. Control over bass.

And more in depth circuitry led me to change some caps in mine but no idea which commercially available ones do this. (The pulldown resistor/cap pair and the tone pot)

[Spitshaded]

You might like the Red Ryder from Oneder effects. It's a Rat style pedal that retains a lot of low end & has a clean blend on it, that helps maintain clarity even when you crank the gain. I also think the 1312 from Black Mass has some really good low/mid gain sounds.