ProCo Vintage RAT

Easy - set distortion, then filter (tone), then volume.

Proco claims this pedal does it all - Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz. I run an LP into a old Fender Vibrolux so I needed a good unit to dirty up the sound. Any distortion to be had by the Vibrolux requires cranking the volume - something I don't like to do. For classic bluesy overdrive (drive 9:00, filter 3:00), this pedal is mediocre. The vintage blues clip can be achieved, but to me its a bit harsh - which is exactly the point. That said, it will do the job if you've no other pedal. Which brings me to this pedal's specialities: Distortion and Fuzz. For distortion crunch similar to a Marshall (Distortion at 12:00; Filter at 12:00 to 2:00), this pedal really excels. Very crisp and sustaining punch to the sound, yet very full, musical and smooth. For Fuzz (Distortion 5:00 ; Filter at 7:00), this pedal sounds awesome - you can exactly nail the Stooges first album (1969, etc.). While the fuzz gets intense, you can still make out individual notes - impressive. I had a Big Muff in the old days (late 70's) and this fuzz is far superior to it - maybe the Muffs today are made better than that piece of junk! Overall - very pleased with this pedal's capabilities.

No one questions the reliability of these units from my understanding. So I'm really "forecasting" the reliability here.

Dunno.

If you're a tubescreamer fan looking to light a little fire under your butt for those screamin' Marshall type leads and crunch rhythms - this is the one. It kind of takes up where the tubescreamer leaves off, with it own unique tone. I've been playing so long I've lost the ability to hear sounds above 15,000 Hz...Most humans can hear from 20Hz to 20000Hz - so wear your hearing protection (well, there went my credibility in the sound quality section)!! That's OK since I tend to prefer warmer guitar sounds vs. icepick treble sounds - so you could say I have an automatic "filter" control built into my ears. The only knock on this pedal is its awkward shape/size - I wish it was more compact. Yes, if stolen or lost - I'd probably get another right quick!! Great tone and value.

Plug in between guitar and amp. Step on silver switch. Rotate one or all of the tree black knobs.

I use this with my little amp. My big amp doesn't need any extra distortion because it is a 5150. This does a real good job of making my V1512 sound good. Only gets a nine cause 10 is why we are always buying something else to get "that" tone. I think that tone is only really available at about 103 decibels.

This thing isn't like a tank, it is really more like a 64 Buick. I play every week without backups of anything. Whoever can afford backups probally isn't reviewing products here on harmony central. However, when I'm 70 I'll probably be able to sell the thing in good condition on eBay.

I have played for 27 years. This is the first distortion box I have owned. I am always searching for something to sound like a cranked half stack Marshall. I used to have one. I really like my 5150 combo, but I leave that downstairs. So in my bedroom I have a V1512. It's an Ok amp, but with no FX loop, delays are crummy. This Rat has made it into a much better amp. Now I hook my DD5 in between dist and amp. It also basically turned it into a two channel amp. The Rat has enough adjustment that I can dial in a good eq for 'clean' and don't have to re-adjust for Rat dist. I compared it to a Hughes and Kettner ZenTera but this was a $2900 less so I bought this instead. Not really. I tried to buy a Rat on eBay for weeks and weeks. I ended up buying one new because I thought if I didn't like it after a few months I could almost get all my money back, within about $30. This isn't gonna be sold for awile.

Easy...three knobs.

The VRat is used into a Fender Deville 2X12. I use my Carvin Bolt hardtail with it which has one bridge HB, and two smaller blade HB pickups. It's very quiet. The optimal set up for my taste is Distortion at noon, Filter at three o'clock and volume slightly higher than the regular signal from the guitar. The Rat really sustains and has a fat (not bassy, but more upper mids) tone on the low strings and nice sustain on the high strings. There is a metallic kind of chirp on the high notes as you pick the strings that really sounds cool. However, its not a metal pedal with scooped mids and all that crapola. You can even do overdrive on this if you set the distortion down to about 10 or 10:30 - but it won't sound like a tubescreamer - its different.

Very pleased with my Rat - very fun to play and responsive.

I play lots of styles and really like jazz as well, but I can't shake the fascination of rock guitar. I always come back to it - such a pure sound. So...the Rat is a great tool to get your distortion textures. Sounds hard yet smooth at the same time. I've really only compared this up against the DS-1 and it was very superior - no harsh overtones like the Boss. If it was stolen I suppose I'd get another.

Easy to get a good sound.

This is a follow up to the review posted previously in which I said this cuts your low end....yes - in a solid state amp!. I gigged running this pedal through a tube amp and it was a world of difference! Very fat tone with huge sustain. It was great.

I play many styles and the Rat can do both overdrive and distortion. Its a keeper!

Easy

This is a classic case of "It sounded good in my room, but when I gigged..." This pedal cuts your low end when you engage it. When transitioning from a clean tone, to this - the lows are greatly reduced no matter what filter and distortion are set to. Puzzled. At lower volumes, it seems to keep the lows, but at high volumes - I don't know. I only know that I brought it to the gig, I had to really crank the level on this pedal just to approaximate the same lows I had playing clean. Unfortunately, the highs were way over compensated yielding a scratchy crunch sound - bummer. Very puzzling. My Drivetrain doesn't do this. And I don't think anything is functionally wrong with the unit since it seems to sound great at very low volumes.

See sound quality - enough said.

Even my pet dog knows how to tweak it...simple..level...filter..dist..i can get my tone in less than 5 mins tweaking those knobs..

Sharp...jagged..smooth...alot of midrange...cuts thru the mix/band very well..all of the knobs are very reactive to each other which is a good thing..a very versatile pedal..put the distortion to the max and the filter at 9 o'clock will bring you to the smashing pumpkins big muff territory..put the distortion at 12 o'clock will bring u to the punk territory ala ramones/green day and etc...there's still more to discover on this lil rat..

btw ...my gear setup is..
Yamaha eg303 with lace sensor red at bridge..silver in the middle and blue at the neck...--> Pro co rat --> Zoom ultra fuzz [discontiniued] --> Big Muff russian re-issue --> BOSS CH-1 chorus --> Muzzle and co. 8 stage phaser --> Line 6 filter modulator --> BOSS DD-3 delay --> Electro harmonix synthesizer modul --> Rocktron noise supprasor --> Peavey Blazer 20 watts stack with another Bassman copy trannie / Fender twin reverb re-issue...

I play in an experimental / noise / punk / alternative rock band..
so a couple of distortions and modulation effects are a necessity in my chain...

I think this thing is built to last eventhough it looks abit fragile and stuff...but what the heck..
The only downside of this thing is the battery compartment...it keeps coming loose everytime..

I don't have to deal with them..

Superb distortion pedal...i can say its better than any big muff or boss shitty distortion combined...it has the mid range and highs that cuts thru a mix or a band easily...enabling yer guitar to be heard clearly...its a very versatile pedal too...and with a simple tweak of the knobs...it can bring you to the alternative, blues, punk and etc territory...and this baby manipulate feedback unlike any distortion pedal...some sort like a theremin noise effect...[the only dist pedal that come close to the Rat is the ZOOM ultra fuzz which is also a good pedal]...

Two thumbs up for the RAT..!

Simple standard controls, only the filter works backwards....still a no-brainer.

Well, if I decided to list all the over-drive boxes I have owned, I would need an awful lot of space. Suffice to say there have been dozens, and many "boutique" pedals in the mix, such as Fulltones, Klons, Xotic and many others. It's as ridiculous as the number of amplifiers I have owned. All in the persuit of tone. At least I can call myself a "gigging" musician, so this stuff has been put to pretty good use over many years of playing (31yrs!). So, enter the "Vintage Rat". My current main gigging amp is a early 90's Fender Concert 1x12, 60 watt combo. Cool amp, GREAT clean channel (voiced much like a 59 Bassman meets a Twin), and the drive channels, which are so-so, I use only for a lead boost. They work well in that capacity. So, I get my main drive tone from pedals through the clean channel, using a Telecaster and a Strat. I have a Keeley modded TS-9 which covers my Jangly stuff, the T. Petty tones and a bit beyond, but I needed something to deliver thick-crunch, more Marshallesque in character. The RAT does this, and in spades. Frankly, I am amazed at how great it sounds with my rig, how little time it took to get a rippin tone (about 10 seconds), and how well the pedal cleans up when the guitar is backed down. I run the drive pretty low, about 9:30, but it delivers plenty of fat, biting crunch that sounds very close to a JMP-50 that I used to have, only to tell you the truth....better! More musical, and more overtones. I love this pedal, it is fantastic. It also takes a boost well too. If I hit the Keeley in front of it, it rolls into a Jubilee-like growl, and does not freak out at all. Note definition is maintaned throughout, unreal. This may be the best value in overdrives/distortion units out there. I don't get impressed easily, but the Vintage Rat is just killer, period. True bypass as well....they really did a nice job on this.

A tank. Literally.

I mainly play roots-rock ala Petty/Wilco/Jayhawks/B. Crowes these days, ...been playing 31 years, and gig almost every week. If I lost this, I would go out, that very day, and get another. It will never leave my board. Funny after the hundreds and hundreds I have spent on over-rated, overly-hyped TS-9 knock-offs. The Rat is in a class all by itself.

Very easy to get good sounds - set up for left to right operation - distortion, filter then volume. Dial in distortion level first, then filter (7 to 12 o'clock - fuzz tone; 12 to 5 o'clock - overrdrive tones). No manual comes with pedal - don't need it. Because filter is a bit difficult to understand until you actually use the pedal, it gets a 9.

Set up is as follows: Les Paul Standard => Rat => Reverend Drivetrain II => H2O Chorus/Delay => Evans JE150 amp. Very quiet. The versatility of this unit really surprised me. If I had to do a gig with either the Drivetrain or the Rat it would be the Rat because of its extreme range. Don't get me wrong, the Drivetain is very good at what it does, but can't get to the Marshall crunch zone of the Rat. For the Paul, I typically leave the filter control at about 2:30 and keep the distortion at about 10:00 for a very warm, bluesy overdrive with a touch of harmonics. If I need cutting power, I boost distortion to 2:00 where it starts to get intense. Same warm ovedrive with a nice sharp, yet musical crunch on top - again with great harmonics. You can get stinging fuzz by dropping filter below 12:00, but although its the best musical fuzz I've heard, I don't play too many tunes with fuzz so its not used too often. As far as sounds from famous artists, I don't try to emulate any exactly, but the range and versatility of this thing should let you do most of the stuff you want except maybe ultra scooped extreme stuff. You should also know that this pedal does some compression which I find makes the rhythm pick up on the paul way less mushy for both chording and solos - great! I've been playing about 25 years and this pedal gives me an alternative to the same old mushy TS-9 influenced pedals out there - boutique or otherwise. Its a blast to play with really good note separation throughout its range (except maybe with distortion totally dimed). Gobs of sustain as well. At least this is the story to my ears!! A few other thoughts - I found the attack and harmonics of this pedal are accentuated by using a sharper pointed pick ( in my case - Fender Medium Jazz pick.) Pure nickel roundwound strings also help on the warmth spectrum. A nice quality amp doesn't hurt - like a good clean tube amp or an Evans. You don't need a two channel amp with this pedal.

Yes - built with quality strructure and components.

N/A

See sound quality section - it will be the workhorse for my overdrive/distortion rerquirements.

This pedaul is capable of great sounds. Run through a clean channel of a tube amp, no one will no its not tube distortion. I used it for a while as my main distortion for a nice solid crunch tone. I also used it for lighter overdriven sounds for a while at lower settings. It is very easy to get good sounds, it only has 3 knobs.
As for ease of use, while getting sounds is a piece of cake using the switch is awkward. The pedal is very thick and has a button style switch. Your foot can not reach the button adequately with out lifting your heel off of the ground and you do not have a led light that tells you when the effect is engaged.
If you are the sort of person that does a lot of pedal changes, in concert the lack of ergonomics could be a challenge. Especially if you are a guitarist/ singer. After using this in concert I missed many pedal changes.
I solved the problem by purchasing boss's line selector. This way I could leave the pedal on all the time and go to clean by using the channel selector.
I wish this pedal had the kind of ac adaptor on a typical pedal. Especially since I had a daisy chain power supply that works with all my pedals except this one!
I bought the pedal used and therefore have not seen the manual

I have used this pedal mostly with the clean channel of a fender Deville 4 10. My main guitar is a les paul. This pedal sounded awesome. If you like a nice crunch this is the pedal for you. It really has a versatile tone that can be used for many styles. If you back off the gain you can get a lot of good Overdriven sounds.
This pedal has a lot of grit , yet has a lot of clarity when playing thick chord voicings. The individual notes of chords aren't muddy sounding. It also has a decent high mid presence giving you a good cut through the mix. At the same time, this pedal doesn't have a harsh sound. Its very warm and tube like.

I never had a single problem with it, nor do I expect to. It seems to be built very solidly.

never had to deal with 'em

I play mostly modern rock. I like to use a lot of full chords, much thicker than just a power chord. I found this pedal very useful for this purpose as well as solo/leads. I sold this pedal when I bought my marshall JCM 900 amp, since I needed the money and was using my new amp for my distorted sounds.
I have owned many stomp distortions over the years and found this one very pleasing and very tube like.
As I said before it is a very uncomfortable pedal to switch channels. I don't understand why more companies don't desing the switch the way boss does.
While my final rating is a seven, I mean by that above average. I have noticed that so many reviews are over inflated in their rating scores. If I gave I 5 I would mean simply -good. To me a seven means better than good.

If someone can't figure out how to use it, they must be pretty stupid. There are three knobs, distortion, filter and volume.

I have not played my G&L S-500 (strat) through it yet, but I bought the pedal because I have a 1969 Marshall Major and I need distortion. The two guitars I have played through it both sound great - Gibson Les Paul Classic, and an Ibanez Jem 7vwh I just bought a couple months ago. I tried it out with an American Jackson soloist in the store through a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL and the distortion on the pedal not only sounded far superior than the distortion on the amp (I am not a fan of the JCM2000 though, but if anything I am biased against pedals too!), but it actually has more of that classic [80s] Marshall (modded JCM 800) tone !!!!!! And before playing the Rat, I always completely believed that distortion on any all tube amp would beat out distortion from a pedal, even if plugged into a tube amp

My precise settings: Put the distortion one dot lower than 12 o'clock to 12 o'clock (depending how much gain you want), set the filter around 10 o'clock and the volume appropriately, however if the filter is that low then I have to cut back the presence and treble of the amp which then kills the tone with the pedal off, but gives a little more of that chug in the sound. I usually therefore run the filter around 2 o'clock so that both on and off is satisfied, and the volume around 1 o'clock, again to create balance with the pedal off and it works great.

The pedal seems like it is pretty well constructed, so time will tell how well it will hold up.

I took the time to go around to all of the music stores in the area and check out each pedal they had, but there was not one single other pedal that could deliver a tone close to the Rat, and I got it at around the same price too!

While the tone of a Boss Metal Zone may suit ones style more then the Rat, I am sure that few sane people would argue that the tone of the Metal Zone is even close to the tone of the Rat.