ProCo Turbo RAT

easy knots and easy use!

It's a nice pedal and produces nice sounds.
I use it mainly for blues..and use it as a boost when playing heavier musics.
It's just a wide range pedal,and can manage all the sounds you want

so far so good

dunno

nice!!!

A little tough to get a good sound out of it at first. I found it is great for blues/jazz... both for lead and chords. I really can't get a "fully saturated" sound out of it that I am satisfied with but it is "killer" for blues. It has a really sensitive range of distortion adjustment, there is some great "sweet spots" - different of course with different guitars.... I like to have all the knobs around the "11 O'Clock" position with my humbucker guitar for playing blues. This sound great for playing slow blues with a fair amount of reverb. This pedal sounds great when you really "dig in" with aggressive pick attack. It is very dynamic at filter settings that allow the highs to come through.

Great for blues, jazz.. but not so good for heavier stuff. Great for "raking" style playing, arpegios, blues chording (9ths/7ths) with just the right amount of "hair" around the notes. It is dynamic at the right settings, great with both single coil and HB equiped guit boxes. It is NOT noisey. I have used it with various amps and find it sounds great into my solid state (digital!!!) Line6 Spider on the clean setting with the reverb up about half way. Nice warmth and presence.

I bought it used so I opened it up to clean it and spray some spermwhale juice into the controls. It is built VERY well and well worth the 59 Canadian "funny money" dollars I paid!

Great customer support. I emailed them about a "wall-wart" adapter and they got back to me on the next business day. Highly recomnended.

I play most genres of music with a focus on blues, rock, jazz and heavy metal. I have played for around 30 years. I would miss the pedal if it were lost or stolen but it was a pawn shop find to add to my collection so I don't know if I'd buy a new one - (cost). As compared to my other pedals this one is more subtle in its settings (compared to Boss Metal Zone and Landmine)It is however very similar to a low wattage tube amp when cranked up. It saturated like an overdriven tube amp with a tube rectified power supply. The bass "sags" with this pedal... this is not a bass heavy pedal. It sound a lot like my Bogen tube rectified P.A. (which I use for guitar). You will not get a "scooped mids" sound out of the Turborat but it is great for blues, jazz and rock.

It is not that easy. It takes a while to find the right settings.

Great. The turbo is an overdrive, a distortion and a fuzz at the same time and sounds excellent with both single coils and humbuckers. It has a strong midrange and IN YOUR FACE
sound. Some boutique pedals may sound nicer but the Rat is a players pedal, which will cut thru mix and responds to what you do.
No menatones fulltones, xotics could convince me like the turbo rat did.

I have to mention that it is an older (Made in U.S.) version from the early nineties, it also has
the LM308 Motorola chip. I heard the new ones are not the same ... what a pity.

15 years old, no problems.

I found this little treasure in the garage. After trying it out, i sold all my expensive boutique
stuff. Just kept an old tube screamer (STL) and this one.

Fairly easy to use but some time needed with it to get the sound you're looking for.
No manual with mine (bought second hand)
Dont bother with downloading one, the presets are shithouse.

I play an epiphone firebird 7 (minibucker equiped) through the Turbo Rat and straight into a Laney VC-30 (Vox Ac30 Copy). For what i'm looking for this setup is perfect. I can just about get any distortion tone, except for maybe extreme metal, with this setup. Some say that the downside of the Turbo Rat is the lack of sustain, bvut with a half decent amp and some fiddling you won't have that problem. Occaisioally i put the rat through the effects loop for a slightly warmer tone, btu my lack of good leads restricts me there.

can't be harmed.
Also make for a good weapon if the roadies get smart.

havn't dealt with them

Playing anything from slightly overdriven blues through to hard rock and metal the Rat will just about handle it all.
From what i hear it very easy to Mod.
the only qualm is the time it take to get a good mix between the filter and distortion levels.
Craps all over Ds1, Ts9, and any marshall amp distortion.
Great product.

eh i dont really like it. i own a DKMGT(somthing rather like that) jackson with an 81 and 85 emg actives and i really dont need more distortion. but for somthing with a ton less distortion its good
BUT IT HAS TO USE DAM BATERIES (unless u buy the plug in thinger which i have yet to find)

sound quality is great with my old guitar. made a crappy starcaster sound like a strat (vox mini amp 5wat)
they always sound cool cuz u can get nice high gain or low ass gain

oh ya ive dropped this thing so many times. its fucking invincible and as long as its batery works and the cables used work it works

none

nice for other guitar styles (not metal ect)
great for guitars without bitching humbuckers
its invincible
but its fucking hard to push down the button ESPECIALLY WITHOUT SHOES

There are 3 controls that you turn either left or right for less or more wet signal. After about 5 minutes you should get the hang of how to produce the sounds you want using those three controls (Distortion, Filter, Volume). Once that happens you're ready to rock.

Someone here mentioned in an earlier review that this was a 'dirty' kind of distortion. Well I must agree, this one is thick, but not necessarily metal thick. It's more diabolical, suited for music with a totally out there edge but one not so hung up on shredding. I'd say think industrial meets shoegaze meets indie and you're around the right area.

Actually when I first played this pedal at Long&McQuade I was very impressed. The distortion provided great flow, no fizz and a real strong overall sound. It will beef-up your sound without a doubt with favourable results. I use either an Eastwood Ultra-GP or an Epiphone Custom through a JC-120 and it's immaculate, exactly what I wanted. It basically provides the distortion that my Boss GT-8 is lacking.

I've had no problems with it thus far, and there's been a lot of stomping going on.

Haven't utilized the service

I am in a shoegaze band and this is exactly what I was looking for. A lot of my guitar heroes used the ProCo Rat or RatII, although I must say that when I tried out the Rat pedal it sounded a lot more thin and tinny compared to the Turbo, that is waht I liked about it so much, it really helps carry the sound without sounding too thrash-heavy. It's thick yet, but in a real groovin way. It's perfect for any sound that utilizes a lot of effects and for music that is pure sound focused.

I've been playing off and on for 11 years now, or 8 years of actually sticking with it. I'm no Steve Vai or John Petrucci or any of those lads, but I can play one hell of a melody and I focus a lot on effects. This little Rat fit right in to the sound.

I'd like to be critical of it, I really would, but as far as it goes right now, I love it! It's better than the DS-1 MS-1 or any Boss Distortion pedals (though I do dig em) and is right on par in sound quality with a Tube-Screamer, even though that one is for overdrive. They both sound great.

I don't think the sound will be for everybody but if you like something a bit different this is the one for you.

The general layout is simple:

It only has the 3 knobs BUT they are very sensitive.
It takes a while to get what you are looking for, but after tweeking it for a while you will be very happy.

The Turbo Rat does come with a manual but it is very limited.

I love this pedal!
I've been playing for 22 years, mostly classic hard rock;
ac/dc, zz-top, james gang, etc. I'm able to hit it all with the aid of this pedal.
My setup is Heavily modded strat or a vintage gibson sg ->wah->
boss tu2->voodoo labs microvibe->turbo rat->vintage ts9->mxr dynacomp
->Marshall 1/2 stack

Keep in mind it's actually a fuzz with a major attitude that makes it believe it's a true distortion pedal.
Depending on how much time is spent with it will depend on what it'll do for ya. Also cleans up wonderful when you roll off the guitars volume knob...very nice!

It's a brick shithouse man! you aint gonna kill it.
More Solid than most pedals out there. Like the proco ad states "made to withstand the abuse of the road!"

Awesome!!! Very nice people.
I was corrosponding with them about some mods and they are open to all suggestions.

Awesome pedal, but I won't recomend it because then you will have MY sound! But really it is great.
Ive played with dozens of distortion pedals from Boss, ibanez, MXR, electro-harmonics, and DOD ...None of them are even close.
If you really want that late 70's to early 80's killer hard rock tone,
then this is the holy-grail! (NOTE: when i mention 80's i am not talking about foofy queer warrent type garbage..I mean the the deep purple and ted nugent type stuff)

Pretty easy to use. Gain, tone and volume knobs. Tone works in the reverse of what you might expect eg. turning clockwise makes the tone darker.

I'm using this on bass. I find that the pedal tends to kill your tone, and put its own 'rat tone' on everything you play. The distortion is ugly, angular and very slightly syth like. If you want a pedal that preserves your tone and touch, avoid this pedal. If you want a pedal that jumps through the mix and adds nasty, angular fuzz to your bass, like I do, then I strongly recommend it. Minimal bass drop out and true bypass make this pedal very usable for bass. It wont be for everyone, but if you like the kind of tone this pedal was conceived for, there are few better at this price.

Gigged with it many times. Hasn't broken yet.

dont know

Something of a niche product, especially on bass, yet it makes no pretences about what it is supposed to do, and it does it very well.

Very easy pedal to come to grips with. It can be a little tricky in a live setting to get the right sound to sit in or cut through the mix, as desired.

I am using a Bartolini MMX/MMC equipped dual-humbucker Epiphone Ripper predominantly. That runs into a bunch of other pedals into a Trace Elliot head and custom 4x10 with Eminence Beta 10s.

Sound quality is great, true bypass is an absolute delight, no tone suckage. On some settings it can get really noisy, but isn't that the charm of this pedal. It ranges from downright nasty to fairly smooth, but not nearly as smooth as an old Russian Big Muff. It does destroy some bottom end in your signal, but that can be compensated for by adjusting the volume.

I have been chasing one of these for nigh-on five years. I was easily influenced by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, and I believe the sound I have is the closest I would want to get to her sound. This thing is colourful, and will give you a certain sound, but I find it doesn't bleach all your tones. I wanted ANGRY, and I got MEGA PISSED OFF! :)

Rock solid. I am using it without a backup, and on battery no less. I will power it as soon as I reqire my board.

No dealings with ProCo yet. I got a free cable in the box, which I am using from effects board to amp because my other cable died. Bonus!

I play progressive pop/rock style music, with its fair share of dynamics and experimental tendencies. I like big stand-out bass tones and this thing just adds another colour to the pallette.

If it were stolen, I would buy another. Only gripe is a slight lack of bottom end, but that's no huge loss in the end.

Ok its a stompbox, there are 3 controls which are placed at the top, not too far apart, not too close, turn easily but not too slippery.
Switch is ok, wear shoes though! hurts bare foot.
The tricky bit is the battery, the screw on mine was well tight!!! and I had to pull the lid a bit to get it off. Overall easy to use.
I got no manual, didnt really need one.

Ok so Im using a 2002 Fender Mexican Standard Stratocaster (sss)--> Jim Dunlop GCB-95 Cry Baby wah-->PROCO TURBO RAT--> mid. 90's Peavey Express 112 Transtube series. I bought this basically because I wanted Nick Zinners sound (guitarist of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) hmm.... i have been playing it for 30mins now and so far i cannot achieve this! I wanted a deep bassy riff machine with good sustain and will make that "chunk" sound when I mute the strings at the 1st fret and smack the strings with my pick. Not found that so far either....It seems to me that this pedal is good for a sharp, vintage sounding rythem sound...I tryed soloing with this and there seemed to be not alot of sustain!!! Mind you, I have only been playing 30mins...
The filter knob is a bit useless, from 1/2 way (12 oclock) to the left (7 oclockish) you get a sharp tone, very sharp on bridge coil, okayyish on neck coil... anything greater than 1/2way (12 oclock) you get toneless (the guy in the shop said it sounds like a big muff, idiot)
The distortion knob is ok, although when it is maxed out, it doesn't seem to be as distorted as my amp distortion (which I thought was quite week) perhaps its that filter knob again.
I think choice of amp(s) (use 2 I would) makes a big difference to this pedal, I used a Vox tube amp instore and it sounded "ok" solidstate, It sounds like one of the effects off my crappy Zoom 505mkII which I don't even use anyomore.
This was my first ever distortion effect (I've been using amp effects for nearly 5 years!) so far Im a little unsure, Definately need to spend more time with it!!!!

This thing seems nice at sturdy, metal (feels like coated zinc) bottom and sides, hard plastic front top and back. Hardass plastic feet, nice and grippy. Switch not loose, knobs not loose.
Generally feels like a mini tank!
I would gig without a backup, mainly because I can't afford to buy backup stuff!
nah, no need for a backup, if you did ever need a backup, you bought a dud!
Gave a 9, switch is the most vunerable part...

Not had to yet, I don't think I ever will so I cant really say...

I've been playing for 5 years and I've heard some pretty shitty effects through high school and college!!! (too many wannabies!)This sounds like it may well be one of those effects...
I play every thing really, so ill give you a little list...
Funk: not good at all
Blues: could get some rythem tones no solo
Hendrix: yes if you like a challenge when it comes to solos
Yeah Yeah Yeahs style: not really, need more bass annd sustain!
Pop punk: get a compressor and a Tom Delonge Strat. You would be a wannabie then.
REAL Punk: yeah, actually, could use it for that trebley crash of noise
Santana: no way
Use it for chords, thats ok
If it were stolen I would not buy a new one, I would try something else.
I compared this to a RAT vintage, Boss DS1, Boss SD1
RAT vintage is the same but less distortion. The Turbo sounded better (have no idea how to describe it) than the Boss pedals, although, they were pluged into a Roland Cube30 (great demo amp that, fools)
I really do think that if I had the chance to spend more time with this and the other pedals in the store with the same amp, i would of walked away happier (I hate music shop people, there always unhappy to help)
hmmm.... i dont know, i just dont know.... Im gonna have to buy more pedals!!! this one might be ok in a few weeks time, Im a total newbie to the world of stompboxes really!
The fact that it was only #50 compared to the rrp of #89 made me buy this thing.

please email me if you have any comments!