ProCo RAT 2

easy to use pedal. Only three knobs. I got rid of this pedal and haven't had it in while.

When I first got this pedal a couple years ago, I thought it was pretty cool, I chose it over a big muff. I never used it as much as my ts-9 tube screamer reissue pedal, but when I did I would used it for more of a marshall sound. As time passed however, I realized how shit this pedal is. I have always switched back and forth between gibson les pauls and american strats. This pedal sounds so thin at least I feel. For rythmn, there sould be some cool sounds gotten, but for lead, Ugh! Actually one day of the week this pedal would sound good and the next week it would sound shit. If you are versatile, and like a lot of music, get the tube screamer and the metal zone for the crunch rock sound. I think if you are going for radiohead and blur, then the rat will work, just experiment. I guess it is just preference really, and I got rid of mine once i picked up the metal zone for 25 dollars. I just think there are better pedals out there than the rat

This is a pretty shitty sounding pedal, I think if you are using a tube amp, and a good guitar, the this pedal sounds sick. Rythmn sounds are all right, but the lead sounds ew man, ew. I think the pedal is worth a try, to anyone intersted, but I do not recomend it however.

3 knobs who the hell could screw this up?

I have been looking at these rat pedals for a long time and went in to the music store to place an order for an ernie ball axis super sport (kick ass guitar). i saw this in the display case and played with it for a while and loved it. right now i have an epiphone SG which in 4-6 weeks will be replaced by the axis super sport. amp is a fender hot rod deluxe. its a phat phat phat chunky sound and the harmonics are great. if you turn the filter knob to the left it turns into this cool burnt/sizzle distortion. im going to use this as my main distortion and use my tube king as a booster. bands i like that i can sound like with this pedal are: radiohead nirvana foo fighters mudhoney limp bizkit deftones.

wtf?? are you kidding me?? its a small steel box. it wouldnt be scratched if a marshall stack fell on top of it from a 70 story building.

i dont know but the product is so well made ill never have to.

one song i love that this thing conpletely nails is the sound of "dive" from nirvanas incesticide cd. its a great distortion box. foo fighters radiohead use it and so do i. i was looking at a 200 dollar zachary vex fuzz factory and opted for this instead. its less than half the price and twice as good. mmmmmm gotta love that rat.

This thing takes about 5 minutes to put the battery in, plug in, and turn knobs to what you like. It has 3 knobs, Distortion, Filter (Tone), and Volume... need i say more?!

Well I use it with a Carlo Robelli Ibanez copy thru a 25-watt Radio Shack amp, Laney 50-watt amp, or Fender 20 watt. It makes very little noise considering how much distortion it gives out. The distortion can be anything from bluesy-gain to Nirvana grunge to friggin' noise guitar heaven :-) Personally I am really into Mudhoney, Nirvana, etc and I can get it to sound exactly like Kurt. Just be careful cuz sometimes if you play really hard like me with the distortion up all the way it will clip a tiny bit.

Ok the thing is like a little fortress, made of metal and a durable footswitch. Haven't had any problems except a short in the footswitch, fixed by tightening loose nut (my problem, nothing was really wrong) The Rat is virtually indestructable. I would definitely use it for every gig, and you really don't need a backup so you should be ok

Never had any trouble

This is by far one of the best distortion pedals around because it is durable, versatile, and gives a hell of a sound! I'm into grunge/noise, this thing is excellent for any music though. If it were stolen or anything I would run out that same minute and buy another because I can't ever see myself replacing it with another distortion pedal. I used to have a Boss DS-1 but I thought it was kinda one-dimensional and I wanted something a little grungier and versatile and the Rat is everything i want it to be! Inexpensive too so all of you can afford it... buy one ASAP

very easy to use. you've got to be a dumb ass if you can't find the right sound.

this is my signal chain( Fender Jag Stang, boss ds2, rat2, big muff, EH deluxe electric mistress, boss super chorus, split thru Marshall Valvestate and Fender Princeton Chorus). Not a very noisy pedal in terms of unwanted noise. This is a very versatile distortion pedal. You can dial in a variety of sounds. for example, if you put the distortion level at around 10 o'clock and raise the volume anywhere past 12 o'clock you can get a bluesy type of sound. when you crank the distortion past the 2o'clock range, things get really crunchy, a pedal for all you Foo fans. One really cool thing about this pedal is that you can actually hear what you're playing, unlike DOD pedals where everything sounds like mush. This pedal could be used as a booster also. A real distortion pedal.

Very dependable. I always use it on my gigs.

had no problems.

Probably one of the best distortion pedals I've ever played with. Way fuckin better than the turbo rat( Dont buy this, i dont know why they added the word turbo in front of it). I would definately buy another one if i lost it.You can do a whole lot with this pedal, get that bluesy overdriven sound, saturated Foo Fighters sound, or get xtra pep when playing you solos when using it as a booster.

It is really easy to use, and it sounds good on all settings, to my ears at least.

I used this with a strat equipped with a bridge hot rail. To me, this is almost the definitive 'distortion' pedal. It sounds like distortion should sound, and has no weaknesses or flaws in it that many other so called 'sitortion' pedals have. Its tone is mid rangey, but not excessively so, and if this bothers you, you can alter it with the amps tone controls. In other words, some pedals have a tonal trait which is unpleasant that just cannot be altered, this one might have just s tad too much mid range, but it can be dialed out. This mid range makes it good for harmonics, feedback and leads, but it as a great all rounder, suitable for edgey distortion all the way up to saturated distortion. It gives you a good Cobain tone, much better than the piece of rubbish known as the DS-1 or DS-2. To back up this statement, I have a photo in a book on the band at home, and in it you can see Kurt has a RAT 2 in his signal chain, placed after the DS-1. This pedal was used on 'nevermind' and specifically as the distortion on the bass guitar in 'breed'. I believe that it was also used on 'drain you'. That should give you an idea of the tone this creates when the distortion is up high. The filter control can make things very muddy or very bright, and it sounds good set around midway. To me, the RAT 2 is the definative distortion pedal, in the same way that the (OLD) Big Muff is the definative fuzz. People who have used this include the guy from Blur, Jeff Beck, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters , Pat Smear in Nirvana. So you see this really is a worthwhile pedal, better than anything else in its area and price range.

It feels solid as a rock.

This is a great pedal for any style of rock or blues, and it's smooth saturated sustaining drive is what distortion should sound like. It works well with any amp, and you don't need loud pickups to get a good sound out of it, although this definately helps. I'd buy it again, and I'd recommend it to anybody looking for a really good distortion pedal. It's simply great.

it 's a distortion pedal. and its a rat. that means its very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal.

i'm using this with my jazzmaster and a fender superrack head .it is a little noisy because it definately doesnt have true bypass and it is pretty damn old. overall sound quality is low, but if i wanted something clean i would've bought a digital processor(uggghh, nasty)

i dropped it on my foot and damn near broke my toe.

i love this distortion pedal. i needed something to replace my real tube which i switched to my bass, andthe first thing that came to my head was a rat. but of course like all rats, it is it's own animal, with its own unique personality. this one sounds a little more like a fuzz than most rats(probbaly why i like it), its a little heavier than my turbo rat(not as trebbly) but not as smooth as my guitar players rat 2, and not as mean and crazy as my other guitar players rat2. but i do like it, and i use it all the time, and i would never let anything hurt it.

Very easy to use. Knobs are difficult to turn with your feet, you would be better off buying 2 or 3 and leaving the settings alone once you get them where you want them.

Excellent sound! Fender Start made in Korea, Randall solid state amp. I plug the guitar directly into the Rat, and it has all the output I need. It sounds good no matter how you set the controls, unlike cheap pedals where you have to play with the settings to keep it from sounding like crud. I've had pedals that were difficult to get good sound out of, but this thing sounds great no matter what you do to it. And I'm not even using a tube amp!
Artists-Alex Lifeson - I probably need a PRS or Gibson, but the Fender with the Rat gets real close.

Very tough unit, small but heavy. Haven't had it long enough to know if it will keep working, but so far it has been OK.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

Rush, KISS, and my own compositions. I prefer subtle, mild distortion as opposed to blow-out-the-windows death-metal sound. I've been playing for 25 years. I no loger use any other pedals but this, my Axe-grinder stinks in comparison. I would definitely get another one.
I love the sound most of all, it is versatile and sounds good no matter how you set it. I like the fact that it is heavy although it is small. It stays where you put it, doesn't tip over easily.
I wish it had good reverb built in, my amp doesn't really have great reverb.
I especially like how you can hit the stomp button without it making any kind of clicking noise. I had one box that would make a real loud pop when you hit the stomp button. Real annoying. This is a very quiet pedal! Very little noise.

Lets see three nobs= distortion,filter,volume. Is that so hard now children?? Just tweak it to your liking.

This is my main distortion and I love it. I play this through a 67 fender bassman head with a peavey classic 410e cab. It sounds great but is kinda noisy. I also have a boss super distortion and feedbacker pedal. If you put these to together get ready for feedback city. The thing I really like about this pedal is that it can sound very bluesy to very Yo La Tengo feeback distortion.

Ok this thing is metal and its black so it looks tuff and it is. Only complaint is the battery compartment. The compartment is held in by a little screw under the pedal and it comes loose some times.(I dont have the new rat2 with allen screw on the bottom) So that can be a pain.

Hmmmmm. Dont have much to say on that.

i play noisy/experimental music and this pedal is great for it. Then again this pedal is good for most rock and blues music. I would by this pedal if it were some how stolen but Im never going to pawn this thing. If you want a good distortion pedal and you like the sounds of Sonic youth, Yo La tengo or Radiohead this pedal is for you.

A breeze in setting up. One switch for on/off, filter volume, and distortion.

I used a Jag-stang and a 120w tranny half stack with it, while I was borrowing it. I whacked the distortion on full (force of habit), and fiddled with the filter- I ended up putting it as far anti-clockwise as it could go. It sounding good, if a little fuzzy. As hack into my guitar strings when I play, I need a pedal that can take the high input. When I did this with the Rat 2, I seemed to clip the distortion, so when I played hard, the volume dropped. I wasn't too thrilled. It's got a good sound, but could do with a little more gain, for solos.

It looked sturdy enough, for life on the road, and even if your roadie sat on it, I'm sure it with survive, AND still glow in the dark! Built like a... hard thing.

n/a

A solid, tough pedal, lackijng headroom for heavy grunge, but still sounds good for softer rock or blues. Use with another distortion pedal for great feedback.
8 for the pedal, 9 for the fact that it glows n the dark!

Three knobs: Drive, filter, and volume. The filter acts like a guitars' tone pot in that it seems to roll off the highs as you turn it clockwise.

It sounds great...for a pedel. I bought it mostly just for fun around the house. When I gig I use a class A tube amp ( Blue Angel ) to get dirty and I consider that the ultimate tone. Of course this isn't such a great thing around the house...enter stomp box. The rat is one of the best pedels out there. I'm mostly interested in a bluesy tube amp tone and with all three knobs around 11 O'clock it sounds great. As you turn up the drive it's very easy to get that "LA shred dude tone". As you push the drive all the way it really begins to lose high end and get mushy. The mushiness is a very cool 60's fuzz tone. So the Rat really gets the tones of a "overdrive pedel", a "distortion pedel", and "fuzz pedel". What a deal. My sound tests were done with a G&L ASAT Tele and a dot neck 335 into a Fender Pro Junior 15 watt all tube class A amp.

It's built very well. No problems so far.

As far as pedels go it's just fantastic. It's great value considering how many different tones it gets. I'd but it again for sure.