Build Your Own Clone Mighty Mouse

It is very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. Level, Distortion, and Filter controls are pretty easy to understand atn the three-way toggle is pretty simple as well. With three different distortion modes and a very responsive distortion control you can get many different tones out of this pedal. I wish that the filter control had a little more control but it is still useful.

First of all, since this pedal is true bypass it is dead quiet and completely unnoticable when it is off. When on it is also quiet with no hum. With the three different distortions (I went with the turbo rat specs in by build) you can get a pretty wide variety of sounds. The "turbo rat" setting is a classic juiced up rat that was one of the best distortions of all time. The "boost" mode skips all the diodes and leds and is simply, well, as boost to your signal. Be prepared because it is significantly louder. Sounds great as an alternative to the Tubescreamer Boost sound. My favorite is the "vintage" setting. Just my personal opinion but I love this distortion. Not too over the top but still quite dirty sounding.

The filter pot is my one complaint, although it is a small one. It really only has an affect on the sound from 2:00 to 5:00 but it does change the sound quite a bit from that range. On the turbo rat setting don't turn the filter all the way up it sounds like a metal zone through a treble booster. Back it down to about 3:00 and you will like it much better.

If it screws up it is my fault and I would be able to fix it.

The guys at BYOC are easy to deal with and the forum is very helpful.

I play a little bit of everything. I have been playing for about fifteen years and I have tried a lot of different effects. It could be because I built it myself but I just really love this pedal. I love the three modes but I find myself using the vintage mode the most and the boost mode the least. You should really try BYOC. Building the pedals are a lot of fun and a good learning experience. Build one of these or one of the other kits and you will never pay $200 for a "boutique" pedal again.

This was built by me using the BYOC kit. It is a clone of the Keeley modded Rat pedal originally made by Proco. It came with pretty clear directions, so there wasn't much confusion in building it. You just need to know how to solder pretty decently and not be a cowboy and try to figure it out on your own. Once it's built and working, it's really easy to use. Three knobs - level, distortion and filter. Three changeable types of distortion - the original Rat distortion, more a vintage overdrive, and sort of a "turbo" overdrive that cranks the distortion and low end.

It's really easy to get a great sound out of this. Before I was using a Boss Super OD and Boss EQ running into a cranked Sound City M4 120 to get my really dirty/harsh sound for my doom/stoner rock band. I had to run both pedals to get what I wanted for crunch and bass response. With this, I barely need the EQ pedal with it. In the Turbo overdrive mode, the bass just taps out and gets oversaturated (aka, it can get me alone what I could only get with two pedals originally). All the distortion types are nice and crisp and clear. Definitely a boutique pedal without the boutique price.

Since you build it yourself, you're kind of in charge of his department. The more meticulous you are with your solder connections and the geometry of the internal parts, the more reliable it'll be. There's plenty of places to make mistakes, so the more time you take to get it right, the less problems you'll have (plus, you'll be familiar with where ever problems may occur).

My kit was missing a few small parts (with wrong ones in their place) and I got a bit frustrated trying to explain which parts were missing, because on some the directions have different names for how the parts are actually labeled. It took a few visits to their forum and emailing the owner several times before I got it through what I needed. Once that was clear they arrived pretty quickly though.

For what I play, it's a great match. I get a full range of distortion types for if I want to play with the pedal alone, or combine something a bit less harsh with others to blend the sound more. It's small and compact, and I get the satisfaction of when people hear my sound and ask what that pedal is I can say "Oh that one? Yeah....I built it myself actually."