ProCo Vintage RAT

If you have this pedal, you *must* make the resistor gain mod. Its just one clip of a resistor leg and best to drill a hole so you can mount a switch. It totally changes the response of the gain curve, to a point where I've never switched it back to stock mode since doing the mod.

Pre-mod, too fuzzy, not enough bass and the gain curve was clumsy. Post-mod I absolutely love this thing, the gain stage now offers whole worlds of smooth fuzz-free OD with warm bass. The output gain is huge, running it at full is probably an extra 12dB or so, Its pretty quiet for a fuzzbox too. Did I mention you need to mod this ? I'm really fussy about distortion, especially the break-up point and where the sound goes from there. I generally play single coils into valve amps, to try and keep a little more bite and note to the signal. The modded Rat performs fabulously as an OD, and you can flick the switch back to stock fuzz if you like.

Solid, good pots and switches, and no problems so far.

No issue.

I now think of my Rat as a hi-gain OD rather than a distortion/fuzz, its become far more useful in this capacity. I think I'd like a dedicated treble and bass instead of the roll-off tone pot, but I can usually work around that. A keeper.

Three knobs. How easy is that? Well, see below for one small issue.

I play noisy post-punk rock, in the vein of Sonic Youth, Big Black, Slint, Jesus Lizard, etc. My tone comes from the Rat, a Boss EQ pedal, a '65 blackface fender showman, and a 2x12 mesa rectifier cabinet. Using the EQ to shape the sound and act as a pre-amp, I get a great overdrive tone from my amp, reminiscent of Jesus Lizard, Shellac, etc. I use the Rat when I want to get a really raunchy sound that lets me play articulated notes with lots of sustain as well as generating musical, controllable feedback. So I put the distortion on 100%, filter at about 20% I suppose you could use this for an overdrive-type sound, but I think it shines when you let the distortion flow.

What is nice is that with the rat, you don't lose the notes amidst even an avalanche of distortion. Also, it raises harmonics to the level of the actual notes...sort of like what I've heard about the harmonic percolator, but not nearly as pricey!

I had a problem with this pedal with recordings, where I found that even with volume at 100%, I would find that the levels dropped when I hit the pedal. This puzzled me for a long time, and even prompted me to rely on other pedals that I don't like as much. I finally found that if I run the EQ AFTER the rat, then the rat can scream and boost your volume significantly. I don't know why, perhaps some kind of compression that is in the pedal. Anyway, with the EQ lined up afterward, it also solves the low-end drop problem reported in other reviews, and gives it a viciousness that I can't find from any other pedal

Totally dependable. I have never had a problem. One annoying issue was that the plastic battery holder came loose and would flop around inside the pedal. But a little duct tape fixed that easily.

I emailed proco recently about the volume drop and never got a reply. I guess this makes sense considering that they no longer make this pedal, but geez, how hard is it to answer an email? Fender immediately replied to a series of emails about my showman, even though that was made over 40 years ago!

This is a great match for the kind of music that I play. I've been playing for 20 years, and I haven't yet found a pedal that gives me a tone this unique and powerful. If stolen or lost, I'd hunt one down on ebay. If you play grungy, noisy, rock, this is an essential pedal. It's also a fantastic value. Almost every other distortion box I've tried gives a really fake, compressed sound. You can pay $100 more for some boutique pedal, I suppose, but why?

The more gain you use the less filter you need, set the volume to taste. That's all you need to know to get lots of tones from vintage rat.

The RAT is an institution like the ts-808, but unlike Maxon ProCo never screwed it up (too much). The RAT is to rock as ts-808 is to white boy blues. The definitive distortion pedal. This is the distortion pedal all other distortion pedals are measured against. Is it as heavy than RAT? Tighter sounding than a RAT? Muddier than a RAT?.......

Somehow a lot of guitar players have never used a RAT. WHY!? I have heard it said many times that every guitar player should have a DS-1 at some point in thier lives. B.S.! Every guitar player should have a RAT at some point in thier lives.

A rat pedal sounds raw and agressive, but somehow transparent and focused. Depending on your pickups you may loose a touch of bass, but in a band setting this positions you clearly in the mix. You will be heard if you play through a RAT.

The rats great strength is that it covers almost any gain range from ultra light barley there overdrive tones to balls out fuzz tones and works well for rhythm and lead. You can always hear your strings and pickups. The sound is distinct but it doesn't take over your tone and mask it with synthetic garbage like most distortion pedals.

Much like those other type of rat it is hard to kill a rat.

Still made in the USA and it's not even "boutique". RAT RULES!

Easy to get the right sound with these three controls. Three pots and on/off button - easye....

I use this on a Marshall and Use either a Fender Strat or Gibson LP. If I play on a "clean" channel and use this for distorting the sound - it gets verey "vintage" and Bluesey distortion. It does not take away the character of the instrument.

And it seems that it is true bypass too.

Solid as Rock

I Play Blues and Rock - mostly, and i Really think it is a good match for this purpose. Played for 30+ years, and own a lot of gear.

If somone stole it I would try to get anotherone again.

I have compared it tot the other standard distortion pedals, but I liked this best

Duh! A switch and three knobs.
That being said you should know how to control the tone and volume on your guitar and amp.

I've used this with my Les Paul Deluxe and the sound was good but not great. Then I plugged my '96 MIA Fat Strat Deluxe and was blown away. I'm not big on effects. I like to use my Cyber Deluxe on the Champ settings with my Strat and needed a little extra push. The Rat is just amazing. It's better than the Digitech and Boss pedals I've tried. I saw one "professional" gave it a 1 and two others who didn't like it. I don't know what they were running through it but I've been playing twenty-five years and to my ears this is as good as it gets in the distortion pedals avaiable today. You'd have to pay double for one of those boutique pedals and not get much more out of it.

Seems well built.

I don't know.

These aren't being made anymore. They'll be very much in demand in a few years. A vintage Vintage Rat.

Very easy to use; it has three knobs: Volume, Distortion, and Filter, which is a backwards tone knob. The heavy-duty push-button is a little difficult to use live, but it allows for a more durable pedal. I like the idea of the glow-in-the dark knob marks, but they're pretty much useless in most settings.

Excellent. It's a very silky-smooth distortion that can range from a warm overdrive (distortion at 9'o'clock/Filter from 9'o'clock-12'o'clock) to a sharp albini-distortion (distortion all the way up, and filter all the way down). But because the distortion is so smooth and silkey, it is very predictable and beefy... as in: not a lot of feedback, no pops in volume between notes.

Very reliable. Should have an extra distortion pedal or 9v adaptor for giging. Again, the push-button switch can be difficult in accuracy.

N/A

I'd like to try out a turbo rat to see what it's like. But otherwise, I really don't need other distortion boxes. I also use a 70's Fender Twin Reverb with the overdrive pop-out switch; so I can cover a lot for a little. If you have a solid-state amp, you should consider a Boss overdrive, or something else a bit more warmer and crunchier. I will admit, the Rat gives a lot to single-coil pickups, more than other distortions I've used. And in general, I think the Rat is extremely versatile and well worth the price.

Three knobs... I think it's enough! The filter is not so easy to understand at the first try, and that's why I didn't give it a TEN.

Simply GREAT. It's the best distortion I have ever tried, better than the Muff, better than any other stompbox. I have been looking for years for that hot, creamy and still aggressive distortion: eventually I got it! Since the first time I plugged it in, I couldn't do without.
I play classic rock (Hendrix, Page, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Cream): the Rat it's my goldmine! I use it with a Telecaster, and through a Ts-9 and a CryBaby. I don't need anything else to have my sound.

Never ever had a problem. Furthermore, it fell on the floor a lot of times: it's ACTUALLY a tank!

Never dealt with ProCo.

If you play what I play, you couldn't find anything better. Ultimate vintage distortion.

It's pretty simple. 3 knobs! Thay don't give any manual, no need of.

Distortion : You can go from an overdrive-like sound to a more distortion sound. I like when it's all way up!

Filter : Well, it's not really an "inverted treble knob", but it seems like! I'm not an electronic freak, so I can't really say why but... it's a filter! I really really love that characterestic!

Volume : hum hum...

I really love the Rat. The Rat is a pedal of it's own style. It's one of the first distortion stompbox! It sounds a little fuzzy, but it's still a distortion. I like it for solos or things like that. I don't use it like an agressive distortion, but you can. Line 6 and DigiTech copy the rat but you know... the original is always better ;) (but the line6 copy on the pod is still good).

The rat is my favorite pedal in my setting and I looove it!

I never had problems with that black box!

Never had problems.

I really love this pedal! It's my favorite distortion for solos. But when I need an agressive sound, well I don't use the Rat... I really love the filter knob. The rat has it's own sound! Use it on a tube amp... it's not that great on solid state... but I tried. It's still great!

First of all it needs a negative power adaptator or an hand-made short-cable with negative polarity(obviously connected to a positive adaptator);for this reason its use isn't immediate but there are lots of pedal with this charateristic. I would have preferred to have a led indicating when the effect is on,I don't understand why they didn't put it.The manual is very good and explicative however,like few pedals.

I'm using a fender stratocaster and a telecaster with a fender DeVille 4x10,and I must say it doesn't make noise,but I also use a boss ns-2..It's the best distorsor I've ever had,I used a boss ds-1(very bad,false sound),an MXR dist+(very good on light settings but too much treble).It's a very powerful,rich and fat sound.If you know the Gilmour's solo of Echoes(live at pompei version)you will get somthing very similar to it.Even with a low distorsion it has a great sound.

I'm having it for a short time but it seems very strong.The case make me think about a second world war armed van(I don't know the translation for carro armato).

Well,I just registered it on the proco web site,very simple.

I play 60's rock,I play in a pink floyd cover band (www.terzacorsia.it)I love the old sound but also radiohead,kula shaker(great crispian mills)u2,Hush.I use a crybaby,boss ns-2,ts-9,small stone,vibratrem,univibe,ibanez de-7,boos vol pedal.I play also original songs. Every year I play from 60 to 80 times in live shows,so I can test my setup in very different situations:my overall rating is very good,it's the distorsion sound I've been serching.

Distortion, Filter, Volume. Pretty easy. If you can't figure it out then
I feel sorry for you.

Ok, I plugged it in, kicked it on, thought to myself "sounds like a more harsh version of my amp overdrive (AVT150 Halfstack). I turned the pedal off, and the amp overdrive. Wow, total difference. The Rat is more midrange. It isn't JUST what I was looking for. I still love my Big Muff. My whole purpose was to get more colours to paint with. That is exactly what I got. The rat is very verastile working with the amps eq and a graphic eq.
I play it with a Gibson Sg standard through a marshall AVT halfstack. I like the overdrive on the marshall but was looking for a broader colour range to work with in my studio.
The rat has good high end, mids are very present, it cuts a little bit of low end, but it's not bad. It's totally different from any pedal I have heard before. It's alot brighter than a big muff (russian version all the way). The filter knob is cool, I guess it sweeps alot of the mid and high frequency. I have yet to try it with my fender mex strat, but I'm sure it will be heaps good.

Looks like a lil safe box or something. Doesn't look easy to break.

Havn't dealt with them, don't think I will need to.

I play alternative rock. I usually have my gain/distortion knobs around half way to one third of the way up. It says "vintage" rat, but I get a real not vintage sound out of it. It gives me another tone to work with.
At time yea, it can sound a little big muffy, but in a very good way. The Rat is a perfect addition to my bag of tricks, I am very glad I gave it a try.