ProCo RAT

get the desire sound is easy like pissing...
trhee pot distortion, filter volume... is there any pedal much easy?

it' s incredible, how much type of sound you can obtain by this rectangular rat.
You can have fuzz like broken radio to little distortion for mood blues.
perfect for expressive rock, easy to obtain harmonic and other rock effect.

i use this pedal with gobson sg and orange amp

like another revisor A TANK

never talk

perfect distotion pedal, the only thing to improve is the sustain, but this is a distortion pedal and for this porpouse is simple perfect

simple as pop tarts...
much cleaner than the vintage ross i have...

am tele>vox wah>modded dynacomp>ross distortion>rat>fender hotrod deville 4x10 w/ boss rv-3 delay in the loop...
no noise or coloring..
great growl, my friend says almost marshallish...

a TANK

15 years playing and is one of the best i've tried.
a permanent part of my setup.
great sustain.
great for smart rock.

This is a very easy pedal to use, once you understand how the "filter" control works. It is not a bass / treble control in reverse, as one of the reviewer's thought. It is as the name implies....a "filter." It's function is to filter the highs. As you increase the rotation (clockwise), more "high frequencies" are filtered; thus leaving the impression you are increasing bass, when in actuality, you are cutting the highs.

I play mainly humbucker equipped guitars (ES335, Les Paul etc.) and strats. My amps have been a combination of tube and Solid State (Mesas, Rivera, Evans etc.). The type of sound I prefer is mainly overdrive and not radical distortion. I enjoy the blues, fusion and Latin rock (a la Carlos Santana).

By adjusting the gain at approximately 9 o-clock and the filter at approximately 3 to 4 o-clock, you can get a very nice overdriven sound, that will rival some of the best boutique pedals. I also have a Fulldrive II. I had purchased the Fulldrive based on the fantastic reviews in Harmony Central. I was quite surprised when I compared the two side by side. The old fashion Rat sounded just as good. Sure the Fulldrive II had a gain boost, but so what. Decrease the filter and up the gain a bit and the Rat was screaming with bone crunching authority. The Fulldrive is more touch sensitive, but for the money, the Rat is one of the best sounding overdrive/distortion pedals out there. It sounds like overdriven tubes and is perfect for blues and classic rock.

I use to play Santana tunes with the Rat and a 335 type guitar through a 70's Mesa Boogie. The Rat gave me a more controllable lead tone at lower volumes. People were blown away at my tone and thought I was playing through the lead voicing of my Boogie amp. By playing with the gain and filter you can go from blues, to a Santana type tone then a more rock type tone with more edge an attitude. Most pedals sound like pedals. The Rat sounds like an overdriven tube amp.

I am giving the Rat a "9" and not a "10," because it doesn't necessarily let the real sound of your guitar come through; but none the less, produces a very useful and convincing sound of overdriven tubes.

This unit is built like a tank. I've had it since the 80's.

Never needed customer service.

I have over 10 guitars (Gibsons, Heritage, Fender, etc)and several tube amps (Mesa - currently undergoing amp mod into "Overdrive Supreme" by Fuchs Audio Technology - see reviews). A great clean tone is very important to me. If I play an arch-top, I want to hear the acoustic nuances of a jazz arch-top. If I play an ES 335, I want to hear the lighter airier sound and likewise, a thicker sound with a Les Paul etc.

An overdrive/distortion pedal has to capture the sound of real tubes. For the money I paid for this pedal, it's defeintely a great bang for the buck. I am contemplating selling my Fulldrive II. If this was lost or stolen, I would definitely consider finding another one.

I have been playing for over 30 years and find the Rat to be a great sounding pedal for overdrive and classic rock tones.

No problems whatsoever wheresoever howsoever

Using it with a am. del. strat w/ noiseless pickups-CryBaby wahwah-Fender Hotrod Deville 4x10...

It's so bloody good

Enhances the tone (in it's own way), adds a nice edge to it... and a marvelleous dirty growl as alive as Eddie Vedder's voice screaming on Brain of J... especially with the gain between 10 and 11 o'clock

Very very fat around 12, goes insane beyond 2-3 o'clock. The filter knob will do anything you like. In my opinion it could be used for anything!

Wouldn't worry about this thing. Must be spawned from the roots of the mountains of something. You cannot break it.

Glory to ProCo - They did it good enough to basically relieve themselves of support workers

The best pedal I've ever seen. Kicks it. Warmly recommended!!

3 knobs, no probs. just fiddle with them, it took me about 10 seconds to get what i was after. easy!

i use gordon-smith sg>rat>boss ce3 chorus>boss dd3 delay>carlsbro 550 top head. the rat fits in with my chain nicely, and doesnt colour the signal at all. i dig heavy black sabbath/motorhead/black flag type sounds, and this baby covers them all. it sounds awesome with other effects too, especially the delay. i keep the distortion setting at 12 o'clock, which is very dirty and chunky with plenty of definition.i've used a lot of fuzzboxes, and this really is the holy grail.

totally. it even makes boss pedals look lightweight.

never dealt with them

i play heavy dirt rock along the lines of sabbath, blue cheer, black flag. i've been playing for around 5 years and admit i am addicted to distortion. i've used all the "classic" distortion/fuzz pedals in that time, but i'll never use anything other than the rat again. i've had it around two months now, and i deliberately held off writing this review til now so as i could fully road test it. i am usually excited by any new distortion for the first few weeks, and then go back to my boss ds1. this pedal smokes the boss. it's absolutely a distortion pedal, not a fuzz or overdrive. it's thick, clear and immensely heavy. think tony iommi, josh homme or greg ginn, and you're there. if i could only ever have one pedal this would be it, i've tried so many distortions (tubescreamer,big muff, ds1, ibanez sonic distortion, mxr,danelectro etc) and this is just so superior. my search for the heaviest metal is over!!!! buy one now.

So easy a child could operate it. and it glows in the dark!

Just a great sound all around. Perhaps a little anonymous at lower distortion levels, but turn it all the way up and you'll sound like the Butthole Surfers.

I never had a problem with mine. just plug it in and start stomping on it!

If you don't know what kind of distortion pedal to get, get this one.

3 knobs- cant get any easier

I play a fender strat through a fender hotrod deville 2x12
The tone is good for semi-high distortion but once the gain knob goes a little past the halfway point, the bass starts to take over, and thats why i dont like it. You cant cut through that well with the bass so god damn high, and when you turn down the distortion your bass goes away but so does you sustain and harmonix

15 years old, still runnning strong

TOO MUCH DAMN BASS

No manual needed with this one. Three knobs, distortion, filter and volume. A joy to use, the filter is the key to good tones.

Bought this thing in the mid eighties. It is by far the best distortion pedal out there despite the age. With enough tweaking you get past the fuzz and into serious tones. This pedal would smoke alot of the overdrive channels on combo amps. I've had enough equipment in twenty plus years. This is a hall of famer.

You want heavy metal? Good because that's what it's made of. You'll probably die before this thing does.

Never needed it.

Nothing more needs to be said. Take a look at how many reviews it has and remember this company has lived off this beauty. Leave me with one pedal and it would be the Rat...
Thanks Harmony-Central for the great site. Been using it as a reference for years.

It's a distortion pedal, of course its easy.

I only played the Rat for a short time in a store, but I compared it to a Big Muff with which I'm much more familiar. This thing doesn't have as much gain as the Muff, but its sound is much more dynamic. Hitting a chord on the Muff just creates a wall of fuzz. Impressive, but still kind of static. The Rat on the other hand continued to interact with the signal from the guitar. Actually it sounded almost like a faint flanger or chorus effect, but also similar to what I've heard from a good tube amp with gain cranked. Now I was playing this through a Vox tube amp, but again the Muff did not have this sound. As I said before, the Rat did not have as much gain as the Muff, but would still hold up well for a big rock sound. It also did not have nearly as much bass as the Big Muff, although that's a matter of personal tone taste, and this thing was still a bit bassier than most simple overdrives.

I know this review is limited, but I hope it would help someone.

Excellent fuzz/distortion pedal for rock sounds. I like the big wall of fuzz that a Big Muff provides, but this thing has a more dynamic quality that probably makes it better as far as tone.

This is a small box RAT, i am unsure of the year but it's probably late 70's early 80's.....not a reissue. You have to tinker with the 3 knobs, but it's pretty easy to get excellent tones! I like to have the drive set at the 9:00 position, and the Filter and Volume at the 3:00 position.

This pedal is a classic! I use different distortions for different things....and this is probably my favorite. Down and dirty, gritty distortion when used with my Marshall.

You would be hard pressed to kill the RAT.

N/A

As long as you don't over do it with the drive knob.....you can't go wrong if your looking for kick ass toneful distortion. If you crank the drive too much, you'll get a farty, flubby sound. Just use your ears.