RATs for grownups

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marqueemoon
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RATs for grownups

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:11 am

Looking for something that's really optomized for low gain use. The ARC Soothsayer has really impressed me from the demos I've seen. Just wondering what else is out there.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by brucer » Fri Nov 04, 2016 12:52 pm

marqueemoon wrote:Looking for something that's really optomized for low gain use. The ARC Soothsayer has really impressed me from the demos I've seen. Just wondering what else is out there.
If you don't mind building your own, then I'd recommend the Madbean Slow Loris: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/S ... s_2015.pdf I love mine. The addition of a Sweep pot and the LED clipping option give you everything from overdrive to classic Rat distortion tones.
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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Fri Nov 04, 2016 6:04 pm

Honestly, my RAT 2 does low gain great. That's why I started the thread about stacking 2 RATs. I'm sure a more expensive version would also do great, but I am very surprised at the versatility of these.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by andy_tchp » Fri Nov 04, 2016 6:14 pm

Any of them?
Unicorn Warrior wrote:Honestly, my RAT 2 does low gain great. That's why I started the thread about stacking 2 RATs. I'm sure a more expensive version would also do great, but I am very surprised at the versatility of these.
This. There's a big range to the distortion control.
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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by Bothand Nether » Fri Nov 04, 2016 7:43 pm

The guitarist for the Bus Boys told me to try an original ProCo Rat
(the other versions didn't exist, then)
to add some nice slight boost to the Vox Pacemaker (tubed) I had.

I loved that pedal, it worked wonders on that amp.
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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:01 pm

Bothand Nether wrote:The guitarist for the Bus Boys told me to try an original ProCo Rat
(the other versions didn't exist, then)
to add some nice slight boost to the Vox Pacemaker (tubed) I had.

I loved that pedal, it worked wonders on that amp.
Rats love voxes that's for sure.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by soggy mittens » Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:34 pm

i use a timmy for low gain, works wonders, doesn't color the sound too much. recently put my bass soul food on our singer's board for low gain, also amazing with it's blend control. Basically I prefer the gain structure of the timmy but prefer the blend and tone controls of the BSF. :P
Using a distortion for low gain never made much sense to me, though stacking my turbo black secret on top of my timmy is heavenly. ;)
If OSG has tort me anything...

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Nov 04, 2016 9:11 pm

soggy mittens wrote:Using a distortion for low gain never made much sense to me
It's weird on paper for sure, but that's what works for me. I like a little more rasp at low gain settings.

Here's a RAT/OCD comparison that illustrates this well I think.

https://youtu.be/Uu8PO-vbCl4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My ideal pedal is probably just a RAT with a clean blend. I tried a Visual Sound Route 66 the other day, and while I didn't care for the flavor of OD, I really liked the clean blend option. The compressor section was super solid though.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by soggy mittens » Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:05 pm

try a rat in a boss line selector ls-2?
If OSG has tort me anything...

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by caliban » Sat Nov 05, 2016 7:12 am

I don't see what about a regular Rat is not suitable for grownups...

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by jorri » Sat Nov 05, 2016 7:51 am

All the children are dooming it out in the playgrounds with rats on ten.
And michael gira became a blooze lawyer.
Some kind of apocalyptic future has happened?

Anyway, I know what you mean. The new proco versions, and the mooer clone were best at heavier sounds.

If you are into DIY:
A BYOC mouse is a good way to go. Its got an overdrive position selector, which really makes it sound more amp-like, putting the diodes in 'tubescreamer' position but dw it still sounds like a rat, just more picking detail.. Its also got space for adding your own diodes. I found germanium (OA90) with mosfet was miles above anything else. Its generally a lot better at lower gains anyway.
If you want less treble, instead of the 'ruetz' mod, try swapping the tone control cap for something with a LOWER value (yes, lower) which will allow you to turn it down more without going completely dark, keeping the mids.

To say the rat is a 'distortion' pedal is a massive oversight. Distortion as an all encompassing term, maybe. Its an overdrive, fuzz, and distortion, and especially some of the modified versions allow a clean, coloured boost.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Nov 05, 2016 10:38 am

jorri wrote: A BYOC mouse is a good way to go. Its got an overdrive position selector, which really makes it sound more amp-like, putting the diodes in 'tubescreamer' position but dw it still sounds like a rat, just more picking detail.
Really dig what I've heard of this.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by parry » Sat Nov 05, 2016 2:25 pm

Maybe I'm missing it? :derp:
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Ruetz mod for the Rat. Clip the germaniums out of the circuit - done and done.
Or if you have the skills, you could put it on a switch... but clipping the clippers is suuuuuuper quick and suuuuuuper easy :whistle:
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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by jorri » Sat Nov 05, 2016 4:11 pm

I did mentioning in mentioning better alternatives.
If you've got a soldering iron there are about ten other things to do first.

Well i personally don't like it anyway, just sounds like a really dark tubescreamer and nothing to do with a rat anymore.
If you can swap the resistors, instead of removing entirely, much better!
Then next to those are caps, increase their value.
And there's a parallel rail which is more high mids, decreasing that resistor had a more usable effect for me.
(and that's just 4 components out of many in the rat that change the frequency response, what about the caps in the feedback of the IC for example, that cause the rolloff and the reason people chose the LM308, you can increase those to roll off more)

Its kind of just a rare instance where you can use clippers to mod a pedal, nothing special or particularly great about it..

Well if interested, go to 'electrosmash' website, which tells you what every single component does in detail.

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Re: RATs for grownups

Post by andy_tchp » Sun Nov 06, 2016 1:43 am

('Ruetz mod')
jorri wrote:Well i personally don't like it anyway, just sounds like a really dark tubescreamer and nothing to do with a rat anymore.
Agreed, it changes it into an incredibly boring sounding pedal. Thankfully I did it as a switchable mod on my (first) RAT and didn't just clip the leads.
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