Rats!

[sal paradise]

I don’t know why, but I wish there was a thread for rats. I love rats.

The last 4-5 years as my playing has moved away from tight, palm-muted sounds my love for rats has grown & grown. Super late to the party.

Since getting a white face, that’s beaten a lot of other pedals off my board. Turns out virtually all the drives Iove mostly sound like a slightly tidier rat.

Recently sold a Walrus Iron horse which I’d been using on my live board as a v dirty boost. That was a cool pedal. I guess rats are cool. So all rats are cool.

I accidentally acquired a 2nd big box reissue. It could be argued that I have too many…

[Larry Mal]

Rats are wonderful.

[JSett]

You know I had quite a substantial Rat collection, of which my original V1 was prized. But, alas, I sold that and a few more when things got particularly lean last winter at work. Currently I'm using my 1984 Whiteface on the home board and my 1994 one (my first ever pedal) is resting in a drawer.



I've owned almost every main version over the years, except the R2DU rack, but I have very few left after doing the long clear-out. Somewhere in the attic is a Turbo Rat and a You Dirty Rat but I have no idea where. I will always have a Rat on my board (at least at home).

[Alex!]

I’ve only had one rat in my entire time playing guitar but I’ve come to wanting to get another one this weekend I’m gonna trade my DS-1 off for a rat. They are the best distortion out there trust.

[fuzzjunkie]

I avoided Rats for a long while because I associated them with ‘80s metal bands and Super-Strats. Eventually I noticed Sonic Youth and MBV were using them, and a friend had 2 on his board, so I eventually gave one a try.

I have a Big Box Rat now, because Rats work great as a low gain boost/overdrive for a Vox amp. It’s fun to occasionally wind the gain up, but mostly it lives at the spot that adds a little Marshall style crunch to the AC-30.

[s_mcsleazy]

i have a bunch of rats but the one on my board is perfect. i can't describe it but it's just perfect.

[JSett]

I have a Big Box Rat now, because Rats work great as a low gain boost/overdrive for a Vox amp. It’s fun to occasionally wind the gain up, but mostly it lives at the spot that adds a little Marshall style crunch to the AC-30.

This is exactly where they shine. Either set to light crunch for a clean amp OR into an already cooking and gritty amp to push it into thicker gain territory.

[marqueemoon]

Big fan here too. I have an original 80’s small box, 90’s big box reissue, and an MXR-sized clone from Chicago Stompworks.

Sound-wise the big box is my favorite. It has a fullness to it that the others don’t. The original small box is nasty sounding in the best way. The Chicago Stompworks since it’s small, cheap, and has an LED has been the board Rat.

No other kind of dirt pedal has quite the same cut in a live situation. My usual pattern is I will try a different dirt pedal/fuzz for a while on my board for dirtier sounds and inevitably come back to a Rat after a frustrating practice or show where my guitar got washed away.

I saw Idaho last night and Robbie was running a bog standard newer Rat with a volume pedal for all of his controlled feedback sounds.

[JamesSGBrown]

I’ve had loads of RATS from whiteface ri’s to boutique, but my fav will always be the VFE Alpha Dog. Shame a tech toasted mine. Been using a Magnetic Effects Lonely Robot for a while now which is a bit more polite than the usual, but sounds fantastic on bass and guitar

[GreenKnee]

Here's my old collection from about 12 years ago. The only that I still have is my '86 as it covers all the ratty territory I'll ever need.

I should play it again soon, it's been far too long and I always find them really inspiring to write with.

[Dr Tony Balls]

Curious how people feel about the importance of the LM308 op-amp in these? Some folks tend to believe that's the real secret sauce but if i'm being honest I think many other op-amps sound just as good.

[GreenKnee]

Curious how people feel about the importance of the LM308 op-amp in these? Some folks tend to believe that's the real secret sauce but if i'm being honest I think many other op-amps sound just as good.

I modded the new one, next to my left foot in the above photo, to have an LM308 rather than the new op amp they put in them. Made no difference whatsoever to my ears

[JSett]

Curious how people feel about the importance of the LM308 op-amp in these? Some folks tend to believe that's the real secret sauce but if i'm being honest I think many other op-amps sound just as good.

I can barely tell the difference, but my ears aren't what they used to be. The older ones (pre 1995-ish) do seem to sound nicer - and I did a blind test to check. In a mix? No one can tell so who really cares The 1984 whiteface 100% sounds different, as did my V1

[BlueMelody]

I have a pretty good collection, right around 20 or so. Couple from the early 90’s (including one I got from David Pajo of Slint fame) but most are 80’s smallboxes/whitefaces and a couple of early Rat 2’s, one large box ‘83. And one first year Turbo Rat

[andy_tchp]

Curious how people feel about the importance of the LM308 op-amp in these? Some folks tend to believe that's the real secret sauce but if i'm being honest I think many other op-amps sound just as good.

Largely unimportant. I modded a new-ish ProCo Rat 2 so it used the LM308.

Overall it sounded much the same, maybe some subtle differences when played in isolation. In an ensemble setting you wouldn't be able to tell any difference.

I also later built a Rat which sounded subtly different from the store bought version, but again in an ensemble you'd be doing well to pick the difference.