ProCo Deucetone

Not a 10 because the cable plugged in backwards so made things a little awkward to get used to. As for many people stating not useable overdrive, well, NOT TRUE!. This is the sweetest sounding drive / Distortion pedal I have. I have sold all my other pedals and only kept this one. You have to get used to it a little bit, and then dial in the tone you want. The tone tweaking is limitless especially when you start cascading the 2 channels. I use this with my Strat, Les Paul and ES335 thru a twin Reverb. WOW!. I now feel like have a nice 3 channel amp. I have tried all sorts of Real Tube Drive pedals and Solid States. Best thing is to get a nice clean amp and then try all sorts of pedals to find one that works for you. This was my favorite after trying many different drive pedals and this gave me the flexibility of having multiple drive / distortion pedals in one unit with vintage circuit layouts and MOJO sound.

MOJO TONE MY FRIEND, MOJO TONE!.

Not noisy at all. I use batteries so noise is very low to non existent. LOVE IT. Great Scofield, to Carlton to Smashing Pumpkins!. Wow What a combo of tones. Also, Love the true Bypass. It actually works.

I use this with a Fender Twin Reverb so I have super clean and When i kick in the drive YOWZER! I was very impressed for this being a non tube Pedal.

Built LIke Rock. I would gig without a backup. Works great and if you get caught in a scuffle, toss it at your opponent, should knock him out cold!. Like a black metal brick!!! Proco has excellent reliability in general. built for gigging musicians.

Haven't had to deal with them but from what I hear, if it needs repair even beyond the warranty period, they take care of it as long as you are willing to pay for shipping to them. Cannot beat that.

Play Rock, Jazz, Blues, Fusion, Alternative, and Christian.
Playing for 15 years
Would replace it immediately if it were lost or stolen.
What I love about it - Great tone and Very low to no noise even when engaged.
COmpared it to many different drive pedals, Big Muff, SD Twin Tube etc etc.
Wish it had a treble and bass tone control instead of just a filter which rolls off the highs and drives up the lows. But gives it a kind of Class A Tonal Quality.
Creativity is opened up once you turn it on. Super Sweet.
Buy one and you won't regret it.

Ok, this pedal is a bit hard to use straight from the box. The input and output jacks are on the opposite sides of the pedal than they are on normal pedals for one though this isn't to much of a hassle. Second it takes a lot of fine tweaking to get to the exact sound you want. I know a lot of people that just plug in and play. I'm someone who is very concerned with his sound so this pedal takes a lot of time to zero in on the perfect sound.

On to that sound I was trying to tweak in. That is a 10 you see here. I've seen a lot of people here giving this pedal bad sound scores because it's hard to dial something in or because it doesn't sound exactly like an old Rat or a Turbo.

The first thing I'd like to say is that it is the Dirty Rat that doesn't sound like this pedal since the Dirty Rat was made from this pedal. With that aside I've had no trouble dialing in any Rat sounds. I own an original "The Rat", a "Small Box Rat", a "Turbo Rat", and the Deucetone. I can get any of those pedal's sounds perfectly....with the right tweaking that is. I have noticed that when I do achieve the sound of say, The Rat, even though the pedal is selected on the deucetone the dials are set differently. SO if you're used to an older Rat sound and just try to dial in the same settings from it it isn't going to sound the same. You need to wrok at it to get it perfect.

IF you do stick with it though you can get almost any distortion sound you are looking for between the different pedal settings and cascading the two together. I'd just keep a notebook handy for when you decide to play around with it.

I'm pretty sure the Deucetone came out in '02 so I guess that makes it 5 years now that I've had it. I do a lot of gigging and this pedal has seen some hell. A big reason I got it was because I didn't want my older Rats going through the ringers now that they're getting on in age.

I've dropped this pedal, had crap spilled on it, definately stomped on parts of it that weren't supposed to be stepped on and it's still working in perfect shape. Mine could use a decent cleaning though.

I've never had cause to doubt that this pedal wouldn't work for a show.

I haven't had to actually deal with ProCo about my Duecetone but have in the past sent my older Rats in for FREE repairs. Yes ProCo will fix almost any problem with their pedals, for free, as long as you pay the shipping. So I'd say that's about as good as customer service gets.

With great customer support, a large range of sounds, and it being 2 pedals for the price of one I'd say this pedal had been one of my best purchases. It's not a pedal for those that want to plug in and start playing though. It takes a fine ear to train this pedal to something you want. However, if you're really picky about your sound and want something that can really get you exact what you are looking for I'd say get this pedal. There are very few pedals as diverse as this one.

I understand the frustration of many reviewers here.

For me, the main problem with this unit is design. The selection switches on the back, coupled with the "in" jack on the left and "out" jack on the right (streeeetttcch those patch cords) make everyday use a real pain in the butt. Not cool at all.

And then there is dialing in a sound. Because of the options available, this is necessarily going to be more difficult than a single distortion pedal, and you will spend time getting to know the settings. So, there's also a bit of a learning curve compared to your basic pedal. There's a lot to be said for pedals that don't require much tweaking; this isn't one of those. I'm still getting used to it. Once you get the concept (which reminds me of nothing so much as the chemistry of cooking--a little more salt here to cut the vinegar's bite there) you are good to go.

My amp (Vox AC30) is not footswitchable between channels. I wanted the standard "clean, crunchy, and lead" options at my feet, preferably in the same pedal, which would then quell the desire for other distortion pedals. The Deucetone Rat, happily, delivers.

Again, it's tough to just plug and play and be happy. You need to spend a bit of time seasoning the stew. But once you get how to use this pedal, you've got a wide array of sounds to play with. Note: some better than others, but many quite Rat-ty. It is possible that the Rat responds better to humbuckers than to single coils. I've spent more time with my Les Paul than my Tele with it, and when I've switched between the two, it required a whole new tweakout.

Use their settings guide as a start. They are fairly accurate to their "source" in a generic way, and they give you a sense of what each Rat option (Vintage, Dirty, Turbo, Clean) sounds like. Then, season to taste--using the tone filter knobs is key.

When I first got this unit I was kind of annoyed because, frankly, I didn't think the Turbo Rat setting sounded quite like a Turbo Rat, nor did the Vintage Rat setting sound like a Rat of Olde, etc. But those sounds are there--you have to sort of put your preconceptions aside and use your ears and digits.

I've found great tones using various options on Channel A (usually, Vintage or Turbo), which I "boost" with the Clean Rat setting (actually something of an overdriven compression) on Channel B.

The Rat pedals are known for their aggressive sound, and there is growl, howl, and buzz galore within this unit. For my ears, that certain snarly growl is the "special" sound of the Rat; for your more gooey, more syrupy distorto sounds no doubt other pedals can be more "special." However, if you look at the triumvirate of iconic distortion pedals--the TS808, the Big Muff, and the Rat--you can get a very decent approximation here of any of those sounds, and many others.

Built strong.

Never had to deal with them.

A dual pedal like this suits a certain market--people looking to have a few "channels" to switch between without having to fuss with different pedals. Otherwise, you just get two pedals, right?

Of iconic distortion pedals, the Rat has always been the most versatile, able to go from the natural snarl of an overdriven tube amp to "face-melting blister." This pedal gives you the ability to do that without reaching down and turning the knob up, with plenty of options to tailor the sound. I'm not sure you "fall in love" with a pedal like this, at least not at first. But it can become a reliable and trusty friend on your pedalboard.

The online manual is pretty good in giving you sample tones to work with, though I question the accuracy of who they're actually supposed to sound like (the Gilmour and Brian May in particular sound very dissimilar). I found it very very difficult to get good sounds from this pedal, in particular balancing the two Rat units so that one wouldn't cancel the other out or be too quiet when cascaded together.
The interface is fairly straight forward, but at certain points, turning the dials doesn't seem to make a difference!

I play with a 72 Telecaster Deluxe (humbuckers) and a US Strat through a Marshall 30. I experimented trying the Rat through the clean channel and then through a very slightly distorted channel, the clean option was slightly better.
The pedal is very very noisy. On it's own, straight to the amp there is virtually no hum (except with Strat, obv). But I play with it in sequence with a Wah, a whammy pedal, a phaser and a delay unit and the amount of hum created when I connected the Rat was ridiculous. I also found that if both Rats were cascaded together in the effects loop, a painful hiss occurred. Absolute nightmare.
The most disappointing thing was that there was damn near no difference between the four different Rat Options of Clean, Dirty, Vintage or Turbo. The clean reached annoyingly high distortion levels just past 12 on the distortion dial. The Vintage and Turbo were indistinguishable to my ear.
This lead to me finding it very difficult to jump between two levels of distortion for solos, heavier sections. I was in particular trying to recreate the tones of Tom Morello, attempting to recreate the double tracked heaviness of his riffs, and Johnny Greenwood's work with Radiohead. The pedal would be better just using one of the channels to boost for a solo...but then why not just buy an individual rat

I wouldn't use to gig because of the stupid hiss and hum. Buildwise though it's a brick, wouldn't worry abot breaking it.

No need

This is definitely the most disappointing pedal I've ever brought. All the features Id' gotten excited about were a total let down. The 'three individual rats' it boast have very little variation and the cascading of the two pedals is completely redundant, they either combine to make a hideous squeal, cancel each other out or just make no difference at all.
I brought this pedal so I could jump between two/three distortion sounds mid song, a la Greenwood, Morello and pretty much any other guitarrist. I found it impossible to configure my own sounds to do this.
I'm putting the pedal back on ebay and opting for two seperate distortion units.

Easy to find good sounds. This is the kind of box where you can immediately be pleased with a sound and stop foolin' around. Even when switching from single coils to humbuckers, I find the perfect sound right away, and the knobs are just a matter of quick adjustments. One could be disappointed not to able to store sounds, but that does not matter to me.

From far my best effect, for months and months. I can actually live without any other effects in my arsenal, MT-2, GT-6, Tonelab, MXR104, Dime, Zombie, Big muff, BB-2, (perhaps even without the POD XT Live) but life would be absolutely vain WITHOUT THE DEUCETONE.

Graal reached. Period. Next mission please.

Rating: 10 (at the power of 10).

My fav are Clean(?) Rat and Turbo Rat. What a cream !!! I rarely daisy chain, as I always love each character of the models and go not further. When I do, it is like a roaring lion, screaming all lungs out. Thanks ProCo: I have stopped running a binge on effect boxes (until getting real sick) and I spend much more time banging away the guitar.

Would not live without it. This pedal should be illegal.

N/A

I play Hard Rock, Rock, Trash, Blues, Country.
But as soon as I activate the led on the Deucetone, forget about country and easy music: I go damn nuts with monster rock tunes.

Easy to use channels individually. Easy to hook up for 2-channel use. Pretty easy to dial-in some nice tones, you just have to experiment. (Running in dual-channel mode increases the difficulity in finding useful tones.) THE BIG ISSUE FOR ME: It would be a MUCH BETTER design if the diode switches were on the FRONT panel rather the rear, so you could read them easily! I'm downgrading from 8 or 9 because of this feature. Check out the Radial Tonebone Classic or Hot Brit to see what i mean. I don't have a problem with ProCo attaching their own silly names to the switch positions (as opposed to Radial's functional names) - but, rear-end switches is really a BAD design. ProCo management needs to re-think this.

It is possible to find a variety of unique, quality tones. Some of the tones are nicely compressed. And, it IS possible to get good tones from either single channel, rather than only the 2-channel option (as another reviewer wrote.) Keep in mind that ProCo sells individual pedals - such as "You Dirty Rat" - which are actually a subset of the Deucetone. You really DO have a wide tone pallate. The Clean and Turbo Rats especially, are nice. I play a Strat and a LP Custom through a Marshall clean channel, and both sound great with the Deucetone. I also externally EQ my signal for added texturizing, which complements the Deucetone nicely.

So far so good.

The Deucetone can accommodate classic rock, blues, and heavier stuff. Maybe not balls-out metal, but pretty much every other genre of electric guitar. If you keep the "Distortion" dials low and boost the gain, set "Filter" for the degree of smoothness you want, then search for useful diode settings, you'll find some really nice tones with a Strat. Again, i want to emphasize that the placement of the diode switches is a real minus for me. They work alright, just hard to get at & read.

Pretty easy to find nice tones. The dials are basic but functional. The one thing i would say about the diode switches: it's good to have them, as they provide categories of selectable tones - i.e., once a switch setting is made, use the dials to fine-tune. It's bad where they're located; it'd be much better to have them on the top panel along with the dials, like the BoneTone pedals. Also, it would be nice to have some on-board EQ like "High", "Low", etc. rather than simply a "Filter" dial.

There is a wide range of tones available, from either channel individually, or chained together. One reviewer was unable to arrive at satisfactory sounds - to quote: "...sounds like a fuzzy metal zone with less gain. " Well, that would certainly be ONE particular tone you could find....along with DOZENS of others. It's always hard to judge an extreme comment, because you don't know what else is going with that person's setup, equipment, venue, etc. Another comment from the same reviewer: " ... I also started having some led problems right before I sold it " Well, that might be the clue ... a defective Deucetone? Anyway, rest assured that there are MANY varied, quality tones available with the Deucetone, despite one or two users who are having specific problems. Tip: Buy it new, then return it if unhappy! The Deucetone ain't the only stomp out there ... the field's ripe with options. But it's one of the few that affords you such a rich variation of quality tones.

So far, so good.

No opinion.

A fine distortion stomp. Two-channel design is nice, and compares to other models of this type (although it isn't designed with 12AX7's like several other models are.) There are many good-quality tones available. (Another reviewer remarked that you have to chain the channels together to arrive at good sounds ... not so. Either channel individually can produce several nice sounds, EQ'ed to your taste. Chaining adds to the mix! (Ex: try the "Turbo Rat" setting combined with the "Clean Rat" .... EXcellent.)

Hard to get a good usuable RAT sound. Doesn't sound as "alive" as the classic rats. Less fuzz that a regular RAT. That's a bad thing because IMO when it comes to RATS no fuzz= VERY thin tone.

DOES not live up to the RAT reputation.

I play all kinds of classic rock. For Zeppelin to floyd, radiohead, guns to iron maiden which is about as heavy as it gets for me. At first try I noticed it sounded thin. Of course, since I am a fan of the RAT sound, and a radiohead fan, I gave this pedal a huge chance. Try 3 hours of my time. That's a alot of time just sitting tinkering. Determined... Everytime I thought I got a decent sound I would switch to my Turbo rat or RAT (no-led)and they would instantly sound amazing compared to the Deucetone. The Deucetone couldn't do it for me. I can see how someone playing at bedroom levels can think this pedal sounds great, but have you ever tried cranking your amp? Regular RATs tend to loose bottom end, but the deucetone comepletly looses it's bottom end and sounds thin thanks to the lack of fuzz. I strongly advise trying the other RATS if you like the Deuce. If the Deuce impressed you, you've only got a slight taste of what a RAT can do. Do a little research and find out what the perfect rat is for you. For me its my no-LED RAT.

No manual. If your familiar with the rats and the boost concept you shouldn't have any problem. But if you don't it could be a little hard to set this one.

Telecaster deluxe -> CryBaby535q -> Small Stone Phase Shifter->Deucetone Rat->Voodoo Lab Tremolo->Ibanez AD9->Fender Deluxe 90

I bought it a year ago. I spent a lot of time searching for a distortion that has good crunch and a fuzzy reminiscence. I play through diferent devices untill i get a RAT 2. It was what i was looking for. I was satisfied with this one but I want something with more midrange and a booster too, I decided to buy the Deucetone.

I set de turbo rat on channel A and Woooow!!! thats what I wanted. Crunch and midrange with a little fuzz... damm good pedal. The vintage rat sounds more like a RAT 2 (I haven't tried a real vintage one) but a little less fuzzy. Great compression and big sound, even at lower distortion settings. The dirty rat is a nice fuzz with good sustain, not punchier as a Big Muff but has a rat touch that sounds pretty cool. The Clean Rat is hard to describe... very useable as a clean or dirty boost and it can makes your sound fatter when you cut the treble and increase distortion. Nice feedback when you combine it with the other rats.

For distortion I used the Turbo on channel A and the Clean on channel B for boost.

I often use the Vintage on channel A when I want more compression. And use the dirty the few ocassions when I want fuzz.

It works better on tube amps(more harmonics)... it gets a little harshy on solid states, but it can be controlled with the filter and rolling back the distortion.

very dependable

I play alternative, indie, hard rock, grunge, blues... I've been playing for 15 years. This pedal covers all my needs.

3 knobs per channel. 2 channels. Also a 3-way switch per channel. Difficult to get a sound outta this thing. It does an alrite Gilmour Rhythm sound but leads sound distant and non present. Besides Gilmour there isnt too much in this thing... And if that the tone your after I HIGHLY recomend a Skreddy Top Fuel. Anyways they have the pedal in a nice bombproof casing so don't hesitate to throw it out the window when you get it.

At first this pedal sounded great. I find most pedals do, simply because most people fool themselves into thinking this pedal is the shit. The novelty wears off! You???ll get over the fact you think this is the ultimate rat. I???ve be playing for awhile and I remember trying an old rat. 21 years ago I would say. I was very impressed with the sound, I loved it. It was my rhythm guitarists favourite pedal. Our band split and I forgot about the RAT. Then I picked up the Deucetone thinking it would bring back that awesome sound. It didn???t. Sounds nasal, and I can???t find a good sound out of it. Well, u can???t blame proco, almost every guitar company seems to go downhill after they???ve been around awhile. Anyways problem solved I got a vintage rat from about 21 years ago and I???m very happy now. I???m gonna go write a review for that badass, just though I???d write a review for this guy first and warn people this pedal is nothing like the older rats. The best sound I could get almost sounds like a fuzzy metal zone with less gain. I also started having some led problems right before I sold it.

Thx to the bomb proof casing this section would've got a 10. BUT to my amazement the Deucetone outdid itself again... As I mentioned I started having LED problems right before I sold it. Thank god my friend was kind enough to take it off my hands for 70 bucks. He's a bedroom wanker so he didnt care about no LED. BTW he has a solid state amp and let me warn you: the overfuzzed, muddy, dark sound out've my tube amp gets multiplied into terd heaven thru that thing.

Thanks to my friend they never had to hear me bitch about how this product DOES NOT live up to the RAT reputation.

HIT THE BACK BUTTON ON YOUR BROWSER AND LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT PEDAL. Whatever it is you want this pedal to do there are pedals out there that do that 3x as good for 1/2 the price. In other words if your after marshall crunch in a box and david gilmour tones, get 2 seperate pedals! They'll have a better resale value and sound quality. I learned my lesson on buying a "multi pedal" once and for all. Its too bad all the reviewers before me were noobs. Then I might have got some warning about this pedal's sound issues... I might look into an MI-audio Crunch Box for screamin marshall in a box tones ( most reviewers before me said this pedal NAILS those tones...morons...no wait i'm the moron for beileving them.