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.

No playing around here. Simple and to the point controls.
The Rat has 3 knobs. Distortion, Filter and Volume. All it takes is to set the distortion level to your comfotable easy-listening preference, and then just fiddle with the filter a bit, to tweak the sound to your ears. Nothing special.
They did lose two points here on one important issue. No god-damn LED! Looking at the electronics inside, it is no problem to wire one for yourslef, but it's a bitch that it doesn't come with one. How can you go and build such a great product, and forget such an important feature?

The Rat sounds amazing! I would've given it a 10 with no problem, but there is a feel, when playing, that you do lose a bit on the low-end. Don't forget this IS a guitar distortion, and if I know anything about electronics (and I don't know a lot), I'd say that it's meant to work at frequencies higher than what we normaly play.
It doesn't stop this baby from kicking ass, though. From the lowest of the lowest grouls to high pitched twangy solos and slaps and pops. It just sounds great.
It has a Filter knob, something you'll find yourself fidling around with a lot. It basically sets the tone of the sound, but it works more like a filter. When dialed in at 0, it gives you a huge low growl, filtering the high-end twangs of your pick or thumb. On my gear, it sounds more or less like the bass on Tool's Lateralus.
Turn the filter up half way, and you have a more active low-end, mixed with lots of mids. Sounds like the bass on any heavy Muse song.
But then you hit the high numbers of the filter, and **** starts hitting the fan. It just sounds wrong... like an electric guitar tuned a whole octave too low. This is basically the only sound problem I found until now.
The Distortion knob is a distortion knob. No explanations needed, I hope. I play it on about 30-50% at most, as it gets far too heavy for me if set higher than that, but it still sounds good. Hardly any feedback even at 80%. The metal types will love this, as it gives you such a gargantuan growl, you'd probably take over the whole sound of your band...

A god-damn tank!!! It's even quite ridiculous. The body is a huge metal box, black and square all around. If you take a look inside, the electronic board takes up not more than 30% of the space inside. A waste of space, makes for a big size, which is a downside, BUT, it's great for hiding drugs, which we know is a big problem for musicians
Three knobs made of hard plastic and an on/off foot-switch. I usually play bare-foot, and that switch is killing my foot. It's so painful! You actually need to use force to switch it. Meaning, the switch is good hardware, and will live long.
Turn it upside down, and there's a battery compartment, with a nice metalic cover. On the inside of the cover, it has two clips which will hold the battery in place. Changing batteries takes just a few seconds. No screws, no tools needed.

Amazing distortion pedal. Would've given it a 10, but the lack of a LED is really annoying me.
Something else bothers me though. Going through the GuitarGeek.Com database, you'd find that most proffesionals using the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff (Russian and USA), and not even one bass player who uses The Rat. Though they do have only twenty or so bass players in their database, so that's hardly a statistic.

To close this review, if you have the $99.99 (Music123) buy it!
If you happen to have double that money, check out Pro Co's Juggernaut, the bass distortion.
But whatever you do, don't settle on their cheap models (Rat 2, Turbo Rat, You Dirty Rat). The price tag really represents the quality of the product here.
They made a fine reissue, use it!

Some specs, taken from the Pro Co homepage:
- Input Impedance: 1 Megohm
- Equivalent Input Noise: -110 dB
- Output Impedance: 1 Kilohm
- Maximum Gain: 60 dB
- Filter: 6 dB/octave low-pass
- Power Requirements: 9V battery or external DC power supply (RPS-1)
- Battery Consumption: 800 ?A/600 hours
- Height: 3-1/8" (79.4mm)
- Depth: 4-1/2" (104.3 mm)
- Width: 5" (127 mm)
- Weight: 1.5 lbs (0.7 Kg)
- Shipping Weight: 2.0 lbs (0.9 Kg)

It's hella easy to get this stompbox working. Distortion, Filter out high or low end, and Volume- instant recipe for disaster! The manual just discussed how cool their pedal is and the sounds you get:from sweet blues or screeching rock n'roll.

I use this pedal as a lead boost. Let me explain how well it does for my tone (omigosh). I use Jackson whammy eqipped axes and I run it into an MXR Super Dyna Compressor and Maxon 6-band eq set for active pickup crunch. The amp I use is a Crate MX65R. My tone is good for some metal. When I plug the Rat in I get the over-the-top lead metal saturated tones with mucho sustain and harmonics galore. I bought this 'black box' 12 years ago and I never thought I'd use it again- sure glad I did. I does create some hiss, but when you're dealin' with high gain I mean..! Tone I get from my settings mixed with the amps distortion is pure heavy metal, not really a vintage tone which I thought I'd get (which I did not want).

It's built like a tank without treads. The, 'manual', says the switch is high grade- we'll see. I'd gig it without a backup, but I own '3',the vintage, vintage 2, and Turbo, so maybe I should'nt

Have no idea.

I play in a hard rock style but, I've been told it's similar to punk.I love this pedal, it's great for the stuff I express.I've been playing for as long as I've had this pedal:12 years. I love it's simple controls. I pulled the pedal out of it's darkness and upped the gain a bit (I think) to 9'o clock, and left the filter the same as I found it, and cranked the volume. If you're thinking of buying this pedal, be careful: it's like a fuzz box. It's good for heavy classic rock and retro-ish rock. But hey, I've got an '80's heavy metal tone out of it, go figure! Rock out!

Pretty easy to use, although it will take some tweaking to get the sound you want. The Filter switch seems redundant as you can do the same thing with the tone knob on the guitar.

I've been reading the other reviews on this site and I'm a bit puzzled because everyone seems either to love the PCRat or to hate it. I'm splitting the difference because I think that it does what it does well, but is very limited. What I mean is that it has to my ear a pretty muddy harsh transistor sound. If this is what a Marshall stack really sounds like then I'm not interested... but if you like that serious metal sound or if you want a Pumpkins fuzz it will produce that, but if you're looking for a warm stinging tube lead sound, forget it.

It made out of cast iron, but the battery shakes around inside.

NA

I play mostly roots rock, country type stuff so I don't have much use for this. It's fun to fool around with and get all Spinal Tap with my LP but I can't see using it either live or recording. My Boogie amp gets a much rounder sound and if I need punch I can use the Marshall Jackhammer. Very thin sounding on top.

3 knobs- you don't need to know anything else. One controls the amount of distortion, Filter adjusts the trebly-ness (far left means sharper, crisper sound while far right means really bassy, muffled-sounding), and volume controls the volume. Freakin awesome.

I play a Fender Jaguar (discontinued Japan line) >Dunlop Crybaby Wah>Boss Ds-1>Rocktron Pulse Trem>ProCo Vintage Rat>Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I can get a lot of good sounds with this. I am a huge admirer of Cake and really dig Greg Brown's guitar tone (on Motorcade of Generosity and Fashion Nugget). When I heard that he had one of these, I started to look into it. I really like the more-authentic sounding, crackly distortion you can get out of this, and I really admire the versatility of this thing. You can definitely get some good vintager-sounding tones with this, and cranking the filter up can give you this really bassy, fuzzy sound- a lot like the guitarist from the Black Keys. Less filter gives a better, sharper lead tone and more filter gives you an insane amount of fuzz that somehow still allows you to hear individual notes. I don't know who was talking about how they couldn't figure out how to get the right tones, like a "crunch" they wanted, but for me it's incredibly easy. You can definitely get a crunch sound, and I really like how you can just get mild distortion on this thing, unlike with my DS-1 where it's either all or nothing. This pedal is amazing for lead distortion, although if you play rhythm you might want to look into getting something else, like a DS-1, that can just provide standard, all-out distortion. Overall, however, this is a great pedal and I'm really glad I got it.

Haven't had it for very long at all, but it seems pretty damn sturdy.

I haven't had any problems yet

I play "Alternative" rock (whatever that means now)...like I said before, I really like Cake, and I don't like putting limits on myself and trying to fit some certain kind of style. This is great for me, especially great for lead guitar, and the pedal is extremely versatile, and much more natural-sounding than other distortion pedals I've been exposed to. I'd say this pedal's ability to cover multiple bases alone gives it an easy 10.

Three knobs: Distortion, Filter(a treble roll off), and Volume. Incredibly simple. It takes no time at all to dial in a great sound, and there are a number of great sounds in this pedal.

I'm using this with a G&L ASAT Special, ASAT Classic, Legacy, a Hamer 25th Anniversary Edition & an Ibanez NDM1. My amps are a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue & a 1971 Fender Champ. Obviously noisy with the Distortion turned up while using guitars equipped with single coild pickups. Other than than that, no more than the dirty channel of any high gain amp. In fact, less than a lot of them.
ProCo advertises "a Marshall feel to Fender amps", and the Rat delivers on this promise in spades. It's not "transparent" like a boutique TubeScreamer type pedal. The Rat has a character all it's own, and does more than just add grit to your tone. There's a definite Marshall midrange grind to this pedal. that's a good thing, believe me. My Fender Deluxe Reverb has excellent clean tones, and a wonderfulnatural power tube crunch when turned up. But sometimes that's way too loud at that point. Actually, MOST times it's way too loud. So I've been using overdrive pedals for classic & hard rock tones. The DRRI reacts VERY well to OD pedals so I've been a happy camper. But I wanted more for certain musical situations. then I remembered the ProCo Rat from my youth. Always wanted one. Glad I got it. It seems to pick up where the TS9 TubeScreamer leaves off, with a lot more(usable) gain on tap. Warm and bluesy on lower distortion settings and excellent hard rock/metal crunch tones as you turn up the Distortion knob. Dime the Distortion and the Rat becomes a fuzz pedal. This becomes more prominent sooner in the knob's range if you amp is on the verge of distorting on it's own. Pretty cool: Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz in the same box...all just the twaek of a knob away.
I find the best setting for the Filter is 12 o'clock(for my sound needs). As you turn thr knob clockwise, treble frequencies are cut. This can give you a very dark, bassy tone. "Muddy" for some, but a usable & unique sound.
The Rat has become my Overdrive/Distortion sound. Period.

Tough casing. Neat & clean wiring inside. Mil-spec circuit board. Sturdy feeling pots & knobs. I don't like the battery clip: it attaches to the (metal!) battery compartment cover with a 2 sided adhesive strip. Maybe this is just how it was done in 1977(when the Rat was first produced), and ProCo does this to preserve the "reissue" vibe. A metal clip welded to the cover would be ideal. I guess if it starts to bug me I could Super-Glue the clip to the cover. the cover secures to the pedal via a screw that can be tightened/remove without a tool.

All said, The Rat seems like it was built with gigging in mind. I'd trust it on a gig without a backup.

Five year warranty. Haven't dealt with ProCo. The dealer(Music123) has a 45 Day return Policy, but I don't think I'll need it. I've dealt with Music123 in the past, and they're a pleasure to do business with.

I've been playing for 18 years. I'm primarily a rock guitarist, but I dabble a lot in blues, funk & metal. The tones available from the Vintage Rat have made it THE pedal for me. My rig is now: Guitar--->Rat--->Amp. If lost or stolen, I'd replace it immediately. I've been looking for this kind of overdrive/distortion tone to complement my amp's cleaner sounds for years. It was under my nose the whole time.
I have come to a point where I just want a simple rig. yet squeeze every rock, funk, blues & metal I like out of it. the rat/Fender amp combination is inspiring.

I think it took me about 5 minutes to get the sound I have spent the last 10-15 years trying to get with other pedals/amp distortion. I bought this used, so didn't get a manual. I have found that by alternating the Distortion and Filter dials anywhere between 10 o'click and 2 o'clock I can get a fine variety of toney distortion. When I bought it, I didn't think not having an LED would be a problem, but if I had the choice, I'd like the light there.

Gibson Les Paul Studio -> Boss Noise Gate -> {Boss Compression/Sustainer -> Proco Rat -> Boss Chorus Ensamble-> Boss Tremolo} -> Bespeco Volume Pedal -> Boss DD-5 Delay -> Marshall Practice Amp.
I don't use this for fuzz, so I find this practically noise-free. I don't need the noise gate when using the RAT on it's own.
For warm, Marshall-type distortion this pedal is ideal and it is PERFECT for the Blur sound (well, Coxon uses rats, so no big surprise there), but you can also get fantastic Green Day / AC/DC rock distortion too by reducing the filter and turning up the distortion. This is very tonal, real distortion and retains your guitar's natural tone beautifully. For this reason, it is not suitable for heavy, artificial, heavy metal distortion like Anthrax, Pantera (Dimebag RIP), Metallica or anything that requires chuggy palm-muting. I occasionally want that sound, so for that reason, I have a Boss Metal Zone on order. I think you can safely say you'll never find a distortion pedal that does EVERY type of distortion well.

One minor problem - the switch started being a bit dodgy recently and not switching on. A quick squirt of WD40 into the base of the switch seems to cured that (fingers crossed!) Other than that, it's a big black box and sturdy as hell (unlike the top-heavy RAT2.

N/A

Like I said, if you want thrash-metal distortion, go for the Boss Metal Zone. For everything else - The ProCo Vintage RAT. Trust me, you'll never look back.

Cake.

This review is for an original Rat, not the reissue. The pots on this one date '79, which was the first year these were made. It says "tone" instead of "filter" on the middle knob (I think this changed in '80) and it says "Sound Inc." on the ProCo logo. And as you might expect, this early version blows the reissue away. The RI is good, but compared side by side, the original is creamy, smooth, and very real sounding (vintage Marshallesque), whereas the RI sounds thin and generally fuzzier. It also sounds more like the OD, distortion, or fuzz (yes, it really does do it all) is coming from the amp, not sitting on top of it.

I've had this pedal for almost 15 years now. I always go back to it. I play a tele and a strat through a 59 Bassman, JC-120, Vox Cambridge, and others. It seems an especially perfect match with the strat and the JC.

Oh my god. This thing's been through hell and back and has never let me down. People should start saying "Built like a RAT."

I emailed someone at proco once and somebody got back to me and was very friendly and helpful and kept in touch. I'm certain that if I ever needed service, I'm in good hands.

I play rock, classic rock, modern rock, punk rock, indie rock, some reggae, jazz, country, whatever, and this RAT has been in my chain for 15 years. I would shell out the $200+ for another original one in a heartbeat if anything happened to it. I bought a RI as a backup, but never needed it, and after using it as a second OD for a little while, I found that it just doesn't do it for me like the original does and got rid of it. If you can afford the original and find one, that is the only way to go imho. This is my favorite pedal/effect hands down (I also have a vox v846 Italy, roland space echo, supa-trem, etc.), and the original "vintage" RAT truely deserves the high marks.

Controls are distortion, filter (clockwise - subtly remove higher frequencies - not a reverse tone control, then volume. I find these controls pretty easy to use.

I just got this unit and ran my Paul standard through it into my Fender. If there is such a thing as a "Marshall in a box" - this thing comes closest to achieving it!! Weird thing about people saying it thins out the tone - I haven't experienced this. But maybe they haven't turned the volume up enough to make the bass frequencies level with the natural signal. For sure, matching the natural signal volume to this this boosts upper mids and highs. However - you can tame these by cranking up the filter. In the end - I think this thing fattens up the tone - but it really doesn't add more bass. My favorite settings are Distortion at 11-12 o'clock, Filter almost at 4 o'clock (I prefer a touch darker tone), and volume at 11:00 o'clock - this balances the unit against the natural signal. With this set up, my Fender turns into a Marshall stack complete with sustaining Malcolm Young crunch - very cool!

On the lead side, it's very fluid notes, with enough rasp to cut through - very Marshally, but unique.

For Fuzz - this unit is really nice. To be fair, I haven't compared this to other fuzzes, but at least you don't lose note definition when you crank the distortion into the fuzz zone.

For classic bluesy overdrive, at least with humbuckers - not so great - I leave this task to my tubescreamer. The problem is that with the distortion below 9:30, it starts sounding not so full with the internal compression more evident. While this compression works great in the mid to upper distortion ranges, it doesn't excel in the lower overdrive settings.

That said, for solid Marshall crunch and extreme fuzz, this is outstanding. If it had a good tubescreamer tone in the lower drive settings, you would not need another distortioon unit in your rig for sure!

I've seen the Keeley mod to make this more of an overdrive pedal for classic blues, etc. This might be a way to make this pedal a jack of all trades.

Don't know yet.

Great - very willing to answer questions.

My style in our cover band are very wide ranging across most musical categories from mellow up to AC/DC type music. I've been playing long enough to know various guitar sounds and styles. I've looked at a number of pedals for distortion and this one is the best.

3 knobs, work it out.

Stock this pedal isn't great, I couldn't really use it as it was impossible to get a similar eq between having it on and off, as it cuts the bass completely. The tone itself is slightly harsh and buzzy also. I performed this ultra-simple mod where you replace one resistor with a trim pot, and it lets all the bass through, and improves the tone, making it much more usable. It sounds really nice and warm with humbuckers now, but with single coils it still sounds thin.

Simmple to use.

I play professionally so have tried just about any pedal out there. This is the worst I've ever used. It thins you sound by about 70%,
has tons of tasteless muddy distortion so no matter what guitar or amp you use, it'll just make everything sound the same. Bad. I don't know what's the deal with the "filter", it's nothing more than backward working treble knob.
Why the hell they call it Vintage is a mystery to me. It don't sound vintage or modern either.

Looks well build but it's not. Bypass switch (cheap Mexican made) doesn't work right and the pots are somewhat loose and have plastic shafts.
I've dropped the peadal and the volume know just snapped of completely with the shaft so had to replace the whole pot.

Didn't need it.

Good pedal for people who are tone deaf or can't play guitar what so ever because with all this bad distorted sound no one will be able to tell what you're playing or if you play it right.
As for theprice tag one would have to be slightly retarded to pay about $100 for metal box with a chip and few resitors in it especially when it sounds the way it does.

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.

No manual with mine. Only 3 nobs,so it's pretty easy to work with

I mainly use a Marshall MG30DFX + Fender Std Fat Strat w/ Floyd with this and it sounds awesome. I needed to make my clean a little bit more dirty, and this suited that well. I play mostly rock, pop, and punk, and it was easy to find my desired setup.

This box is pretty heavy and it's big. The switch actually requires you to stomp on it to change channels which I think is a good thing. The only problem I have right now is i'm using a multi-voltage DC adaptor with it. It requires from what I last recall positive polarity with 6.5V or something. I set that up on my DC adaptor, but for some reason I have to wait a few minutes for it to start working. I'm guessing it's because my DC adaptor is a piece of crap, but I don't know. I may just get batteries and see if it works better with that. But when it works, it works absolutely wonderful.

never dealth with the company. I had never heard of them until I asked zzsounds what kinda distortion box I should buy for <insert genre>

Like I've said, I play mostly punk, pop, AND alternative rock. So this suits me well. I've been playing for about a year and a half. I've used this on my little brother's 10W amp, and it makes it sound so much better. If you got < 30W amp, make sure you get this pedal because it makes your amp sound like a >30W. If it were lost or stolen, I'd definitely buy it again. Like I said before, the only gripe I have is the thing with the DC adaptor. I really don't know why it does it, but I'm patient so I usually can wait till the box powers up. It makes everything sound so much crisper. If you don't own a JCM2000 stack or a Mesa boogie, then get this with ur amp. It rocks.

awesome pedal...get every distortion you want out of it. no need for a manual.

EH Qtron+ =>
Boss Compression/Sustainer=>
Ibanez Turbo Tube Screamer=>
ProCo Vintage Rat =>
EB Volume Pedal=>
Boss Noise Suppresor =>
Line6 DD5 =>
Line 6 DL4=>
into my Mesa Boogie Maverick (Dual Rect.)

Rat can be noisy with Gain at full blast...Still great though.

Yes and no. I gigged it hard for about 6 months until the volume Potentiometer stopped working properly. Still...See below...

The volume pot stopped working like it should after 6 months and I sent it in under warranty. It was prompty replaced and the shipped back with no delay. I was super impressed with their expiditing of warranty repair. They didn;t communicate much, but they got the job done.

It's well worth the money, for the functions. A little bit more height than most pedals I own, but still not a big deal.

Very easy, three knobs. Volume, Filter, & Distortion.

The sound is very jagged and sharp. It rips through almost any music. I have setup going Fender Strat > Boss Octave > Rat > homemade speaker ripper distortion(Death by Audio) > Vox wah > Fender Twin Reverb w/ Marshall 4/12" cab. Mostly just use the rat pedal for distortion, and hit the speaker ripper pedal for awesome sonic blasts. The filter knob is in the middle for deep lows and soaring highs. The distortion allows me to manipulate feedback like no other pedal can.

The only thing I dislike about this pedal is that the battery seems to slide around in the box. I'm afraid that this will tear the wires. Other than that, it's very reliable and has never needed to be serviced in the ten years I've owned it.

Never needed support

This pedal makes my other pedals sound better. I also have an old Big Muff and love that fuzz sound, but it makes every other pedal sound like mud in my setup. For metal, punk, shoegazer and pyschodelic rock, this pedal is highly recommended.

Simple really, three knobs, Distortion, Tone, Volume.
Would benefit from LED to let you know if it is on or off, but the True bypass it has is probably more use.
Has an unusual DC adaptor connector, which makes it harder to integrate into a pedalboard setup. I just use batteries, and in three odd months of regular use, haven't yet changed it.

Using a LP thru Teese RMC-3, Boss OD-1, Dallas-Rangemaster clone, to Either Laney VC50, or Homebuilt '59 Bassmann.
I guess the problem is that it is very hard to describe tone! The RAT goes from very little, to over the top gain, and has a lot of volume boost on tap. I like it set loud, but with the gain set, so things are just "chiming" or breaking up. With too much gain, you lose definition, and the original tone of your setup is swallowed. I tend to keep the treble cut at around 12:00, as otherwise the RAT is a bit shrill for my liking.

Metal Case
Well mounted battery.
Pots are soldered directly to PCB, which may make it more susceptable to breakage.
I gig without a backup, because at the end of the day, all you should need is guitar, lead, amp.

Bought Second Hand

In all honesty, I am still trying to find the perfect high gain sound. The RAT is useful, but doesn't quite capture my imagination. It is hard to describe, but it is hard to find the right balance between to shrill, and too dull. It sound better cranked - that is for sure - but there is so much volume boost on tap that it then means you can't equalise your amp's volume with the pedal on and off. It is a good Pedal, but to my taste lacks something.

Fairly easy to use, simple three knob operation as are most of your conventional od/fuzz/dist units

My main guitar is a Les Paul Standard, and I play thru a hiwatt head and a 2x12 cab. The effect is not noisy at lower volumes, but in louder situations it can start feeding back, which can be a good thing. I don't think this pedal can be used to emulate any one artists sound, and I say that in a good way, lots of other pedals may come an go but this will stay with me. It can do a fair immitation of almost any dirty sound from a little overdrive to thick fuzzy tones. Somewhere in between their is where it sounds best to me.

I think it's reliable, besides, it isn't that expensive to worry about.

Great pedal, will cover a lot of range. It's inexpensive, and the battery lasts forever, which is always a plus.

Just three knobs, easy to find the right sound.

I own a Gibson SG Standard -> MT-2 Metalzone -> Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble -> ProCo Vintage Rat -> Marshall AVT275. This is perfect for fuzz. It's not noisy at all and it can give a HUGE volume boost if needed. Very versitile fuzz too, it can match the sound of the Smashing Pumpkins perfectly or any other early 90's artist. This is a great pedal for fuzz, but don't try to play metal or anything with it because it's not meant for that.

Made out of steel, seems indestructible...

Haven't dealt with them before.

This is a great pedal and any serious guitar player should own it. I love its fuzz deeply and wish i had bought this sooner. As stated above, it is perfect for most early nineties artists, but should not be used for heavy metal. If it was stolen, I would definitly buy a new one.

Three knobs is all it takes- matter of fact its all it should ever take- volume, tone and distortion. The knobs are interactive. Very good volume boost.

Sounds like a modified germanium fuzz thats capable of going from fairly clean to fairly heavy. Nice wide range of distortion, and the tone knob has a wide range of tones available also. Gets too bassy when the distortion is all the way up- youll need to lower the tone knob as you max out the distortion. Nice pedal. Not noisy.

Built well, all metal construction- The Rat is built better than a Danelectro pedal.

Probably fine support- its made in the USA!

Cool pedal. I play blues and rock- Strats and Pauls into tube amps. The Rat is a nice distortion/fuzz pedal. The Rat is better than the MXR Distortion + but is not as good as the Roger Mayer Spitfire. Other stuff I own includes an Austone Millenium Overdrive and Austone Fuzz Nutz, Maxon OD-808, Maxon OD-820, Zinky True Grit (great overdrive in boost mode!), Barber Tone Pump, Roger Mayer Axis Fuxx, Banzai Cold Fusion, Wells 5:00 Shadow, Fulltone Soulbender, MJM Britbender (two knob model), Blues Pearl Blue Balls and Blue Screamer overdrive pedals, and the Boss SD-1 and BD-2 overdrives.

n/a

This is a follow up to a review I did almost a year ago. My setup and gear has changed and I'm now running the ProCo Rat thru a Blues Junior w/Les Paul Special. Before I was running thru a Strat and my Rivera and it sounded great...but thru a LP it sounds quite amazing. Very solid tone, and rolling back the tone knobs on the guitar creates a wide variety of usable tones. This pedal continues to amaze me - best 50 bucks I've ever spent.

No problems yet - and its a used model too.

n/a

You can pick this guy up used and it'll be the best 50 bucks you've ever spent. I did some home recordings thru the Rat and a delay pedal only (thru the Blues Jr and LP Special) and sent them to my friend who uses a Peavey 5150. His response: "How did you get your guitar to sing like that?"

No manual, however one is not needed. Just three knobs, all labeled. It took me about thirty seconds to get the sound I was looking for.

It has a great, what I call clear heavy distortion. With the highest levels of distortion your guitar/amp tone can still shine through. I use it with my SG and Marshall amp for my heavy distortion in my indie rock band. It gets all the noise I need, but with great tone.

I'd definately use it without a backup. This thing is built with solid construction. You can run it over and it would still work. My only concern is that the knobs stick up and could be moved accidentally by my foot if mot careful. I just taped them to my setting.

n/a

I play indie rock, and it's perfect for the fuzziness I need for Built to Spill meets Mosest Mouse and Sonic Youth. I've been playing for ten years this is the best distortion unit I've ever used. I'd definately replace it if it were stolen. I'd recommend it over a fuzzface or big muff even. You should try one out for yourself. It only took me two minutes to know I needed it.

This is the large box Rat without the led.
Easy to use- three knobs for distortion, tone and volume.

Great sound. This pedal is better than my Blue Pearl Blue Balls, and this Vintage Rat is better than all of the other Rat models also. This large box no led Vintage Rat is the winner.

Built like a tank.

Dunno.

Great pedal at a great price. Dont expect any pedal to turn you into a musician if you cant play the guitar to begin with- these pedals are for pro players, not little whinning kids who are better off with a ten dollar Danelectro toy.

Dispite the fact there was no manual with this unit with only 3 knobs this unit wwas pretty easy to get a usable sound out of. with just a minimum of tweaking I managed to get the tone I was looking for for my set-up.

I use a Fender StaT (David Gilhmour model) several Fernades strat Types, a Guild Starfire anda custom made guitar through an Earnie Ball Volume pedal, FireBawl Wah, TS-9, Tech 21 Tri-od, Rat, Boss CE-20 chorus, Boss RV-3 delay reverb to a Peavey Classic 50 head with a 410 cab or Peavey Classic 30. This unit seems to be the missing link I was lookin for. I play blues, Blues rock and classic rock and as stated fills the bill admriably. Unlike alot of guitarists I like getting my tone from just my guitar and amp first. Therefore the pedals must fit into the way set up. I like alot of British players ala E.C., Brian May, David Gilmour and Ritchie Blackmore plus players like Stevie Ray and what I get for tone is a combination of my tone mixed with theres. Thats the way I want it. The only weakness I can see is my Battery cover tends to rattle and no on/off indicator.

I lokked inside and much to my surprise no big mystery. It seems to be constructed as tough as anything else out there and yes I would gig without a back up. I have for 15 years. I've only been let down once or twice.

Haven't had to deal with them. but heard they were O'K'.

I filled in some of this above.But If it were lost or stolen I would definitly replace it It has become an integral part of myn sound. like a said the tone for me was like discovering the missing link. I wdidn't take up guitar until I was almost 30 but always was interested in music (high end stereo). I was a basement guitarist for about 10 years and now gigging guitarist for 8 years. As a r3esult I have a pretty good ear and know exactly the tone I'm looking for. The Rat gives me one. One thing I'D like to stress is when your looking for tones from pedals just don't go out and buy the current fad< take your time and your own gear if possible.

the knobs are pretty simple and you can get a sound out of it right away, but getting a good sound takes a little bit of time. it takes a bit of patience to tweak the knobs just the way you want it to get everything from a Kinks sort of sound to a thicker distorted crunch.

guitar - tu2 - marshall guv'nor 2 - proco vintage rat - boss ge7 - boss dd3 - roland jazz chorus 120

i use the rat to give me some great crunchy sort of sounds. almost a british invasion sort of crunch. the guv'nor gives me the extra sonic push that i need.

when working or not working with other pedals, it sounds great. it's versatile, i love it.

solid as a rock.

never had to deal with them.

i play all sorts of different syles of music and the RAT can be tweaked to adjust to everyone of those styles.

i would immediately buy another one if this was lost or stolen.

it just takes a bit of time to get exactly what you want to hear.

3 easy knobs to mess around with, no problems in this area, knobs are smooth and responsive, rats are very well built.

my yamaha sg2000 feeds my marshall jcm800 half stack, i found the drive to be simply dreadful. Thin, transistorised in tone, virtually no sustain....what folks call a bloody racket.this pedal was a massive underwhelming experience for me.

tough as nails but i only kept it for 2 days so i cant coment long term, im sure it would be dependable.

no contact with em.

tonally..............overrated piece of junk !
thank goodness i have my analogman ts9/808brown mod for geting those huge tones with. the rat is one dimensional, soulless, sustainless, uninspiring to say the least. i had mine 2 days and it was back on ebay.......good riddance !

Fat box (mine is a reissue), 3 knobs with glow in the dark indicators - one for the gain, one filter knob that controls the tone, and a volume control. It's not hard to get the sound you're looking for, and it's especially easy to get a good clean boost.

I've used this through a couple of different setups.

This morning, I tried it with my (stock) Fender Cyclone, running into an EH Holy Grail, into a Line 6 Delay Modeler, into a Mesa/Boogie Mark III running through a Mesa/Boogie Recto 2x12. Through the clean channel with the onboard graphic equalizer set in a "V", I could get a swell clean tone with the neck single coil on the guitar on, the filter knob all the way to the left, and the distortion knob on just enough to color the sound. It was very sharp and cutting but in a musical way. (If you've ever heard Built to Spill's album, "Keep It Like a Secret", I was nailing the tone from that.)

With the gain up a little bit more, and the rhythm channel of the Mesa engaged, I found myself with a much more Marshall-ish sound than I could get with just the Boogie alone. Very nice cut, still sounds a bit transistorish but in a good way, and it cleaned up very nicely when I rolled the volume back.

In fact, this pedal will CONSISTANTLY clean up very nicely when you roll the volume back on your guitar, except maybe if you've got the distortion knob up all the way to the right. That's something that really impresses me. It cleans up similarly to a good tube amp.

You can get a pretty brutal heavy metal chunk - modern (if you've got a graphic equalizer) or vintage british metal tone with the distortion knob somewhere around 11 o' clock or noon, and the filter knob more towards all the way to the left.

I also got a nice grunge tone with the neck single coil and the distortion and filter knobs all the way to the right.

I plugged this signal chain into a Fender Twin after this and it lacked the bottom end that my Boogie had, but it still sounded great. I didn't play with it as much.

Also sounds great running through the Boogie with my 1970 Gibson SG Deluxe. I had a Screamin Demon put in the bridge to get rid of microphonic feedback that was coming from the stock 1970 pickup (which I'm stil keeping around, just in case), and it tightened things up a bit. Sounded great for anything rock, from bluesy Hendrix stuff all the way up to Tool and modern metal and hardcore.

It's a bit noisy, but nothing that gets in the way of having supurb tone.

I have one of these and my guitarist has a mid eighties/late nineties RAT (the kind in the small box, before they put the light in the middle of the "A"). These things are pretty heavy duty, definitely more so than any Boss or Electro Harmonix pedals I've seen, and the battery case is very solid. I would use this without a backup, but we've got two of these babies just in case.

Essentially I'm in a band that plays indie rock and hardcore, but we fool around with ambient textures...it's not really important, but this pedal helps get the sound of a Marshall half stack (sounding the way a Marshall should sound - IE a JCM 800, not a JCM 900) out of a combo amp.

The other guitarist in my band was using a JCM 900/1960A 4x12 rig until just the other day. We were in Music Go Round and there happened to be an early eighties Fender Twin (the kind with the ugly red knobs and grey grill cloth, two channels - etc) that sounded great and only cost $500.

We traded in the JCM 900, and I reccomended a Rat based on the fact I've been able to get a great sound out of them no matter what the application has been - using the filter knob to get different tones during mixing, as a distortion pedal for bass guitar, or just as a distortion pedal for a guitar or a boost. So, we played a show that very night (which ended up being the best show we've ever played). There was such a drastic improvement with the Twin/Rat combination that we both sold our existing cabinets the next day and got extra guitars. Needless to say I'm very happy with this pedal, so is my bassist, and so is the other guitarist.

In my honest opinion, this pedal is one of the holy trinity of distortion pedals - the Big Muff PI, and the Ibanez Tubescreamer - and outside of those three, you really don't need any others. There are so many tones within those three pedals that, I, at least, couldn't see myself using any others.

I highly reccomend these. Especially with the price tag used. Fantastic value indeed.

All the settings sound great--from low distortion, volume boost, saturation and total full-on distortion. The filter (low pass) that controls the overall brightness is very musical and never allows you to get an unusable tone. Plug in, turn on and rock out.

My setup:

Guitar > Boss OC-2 Octave > MXR Phase 90 > Proco RAT > MXR 6b EQ > EH Small Clone Chorus > Laney 100w Pro-Tube Head > Marshall JCM 800 1960b cab w/ Celestion GT12's.

Previously I was using a recent unmodified Boss DS-1 and I wasn't getting as much 'cut thru' or gain as I needed to sound full with a 3 piece indie-noise band. Now I can cut thru with a full-bodied, harmonically rich sound. I'm going to keep the DS-1 in the setup by using my Whirlwind ABY box to use as a selector between the RAT and DS-1 set semi-dirty/clean when I get a dual mono 1/4" to 1/4" plug made.

The Rat is good for getting a strong midrange rock guitar tone. Overall it sounds tight, slightly compressed like a Marshall amp, and as bright or flat as you need it to be. I wanted a ton of gain and only had to put it up to about 80%--additional gain seems to to add a bit of mud, a bit of compression and roll off the highs too much for me. Just tweak the filter enough to hit a gut-churning mid-squawk that is characteristic of this pedal--although there are many sweet spots in this pedal.

The thing I like about the Rat is that it almost totally eliminates pick/plectrum noise, which I cannot stand. There is still a minimal attack, but none of that obnoxious pick clanking sound that I cannot stand. The distortion is full-bodied and rich, admittedly in a similar vein as a DS-1 but with more articulation and definately more tight low-end as well. Very good for an 'engulfing' sound.

Seems good and tough. Knobs could be a bit better, but I'm a nazi when it comes to build quality.

I almost got a Rat Deucetone, but ultimately disliked the high price tag. What I need is a mix of distortion sounds--HIGH GAIN, SEMI-DIRTY, and CLEAN. I intend to use the DS-1 in my setup with an ABY box to switch out between the RAT side and the DS-1 side (DS-1 disengaged when I need to go from HIGH GAIN to clean).

Don't get me wrong--the DS-1 is a great pedal but perhaps a bit too heavy metal for me. I want something that is full-on distortion but more controlled than a fuzz pedal, but more rude than your typical distortion box... but something musical--which discounts crap like the MetalZone, Xtortion and the like. I contemplated a Marshall Shredmaster, but I forget how they sound and didn't want to risk a used buy, plus those are trendy right now and the price reflects this. The Fulltone DP1 had a nice sound, but was TOO sterile and more in the lines of a Queen distortion sound... not enough chaos in the sound for what I'm doing. So I decided to go the cheaper route and hook up with the good old reliable Rat. It does what I need it to do so I can't complain.

Very easy to use. 3 knobs and they interact with each other. Sit down and play with the knobs until you get a sound you like :-)
I bought this used at a 2nd hand music store and it came with no manual. Didn't need one anyway! I looked inside the rat and found the year that this particular one is made, or revised. Dated 1991. Mine is stock but I would like to add a 'scoop' effect a la Univox Superfuzz someday.

GREAT distortion / fuzz box. $50 well spent IMHO. As others have said, you can dial back the distortion (gain) and bump up the volume and use it as a boost for your tube amp, if you happened to be blessed with one, or crank up the distortion for more insanity! It's true bypass too so it doesn't suck the tone out of your guitar. The distortion this box produces sounds midrangy if you're playing at a low volume so crank yer amp and it will sound *much* better.
I use the Vintage Rat (reissue) with a Hiwatt DR504 50 watt head (pedal is GREAT for boosting Hiwatts!!), Gibson SG special (1992 made) with humbuckers, and a Fender 4x12 cab with Celestions. Crank the Hiwatt and the bloody thing will feedback for DAYS! It does the 'Won't get fooled again' overdrive thing just fine if you turn the filter knob just past the 2:00 setting and the distortion setting at about 10:00 and the volume knob pointing straight up. Wonderful overdrive sound. Dial back your guitar's volume and it cleans up reasonably well. Compared to most distortion pedals I've listened to, this thing doesn't sound mushy unless you overdo the gain setting. It responds quite well to volume changes and pick attack, especially when used with a good tube amp.

The unit looks well built, unlike the cheapie DOD and Danelectro boxes I see in music shops. I would gig without a backup.

Never dealt with ProCo, and probably never will.

I play mostly classic rock, and I'm a die-hard fan of the Who. I played on and off for a few years (now getting back into it), and always wanted a good distortion / fuzz / overdrive box.
Pete used the Univox Superfuzz but since those are hard to come by and are also more expensive, I believe I got a good deal on this one. For the music I play, it suits me just fine and if it were lost or stolen, I would probably get angry, sulk, and then buy another one.
If there is one thing that I don't like about the Rat, it's the lack of an onboard LED indicator but not having one doesn't bother me too much. One thing that I noticed when I began using this pedal is it makes guitar playing much more fun.
As I mentioned earlier, I wish it had a midrange 'scoop' setting like the Superfuzz. Adding one shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Great sound right away.

I but on the noisy side. Use a G&L ASAT with an old BF Super Reverb. After many, many years of basically using TS-9 type pedals the RAT is really a lot of fun. For classic distortion it can be beat. I only use it for a half a dozen tunes during a set but I'm really glad I have it. My set up is: ZVEX SHO,KLON, TS-5,RAT, BOSS DM-2 Delay. I rarely use the pedals together bt I leave the SHO on ALL the time. It's my favorite pedal! Anyway..this is supposed to be about the RAT. It just sounds great and has a totally workable distortion and useable midrange tone that works well in a band setting. Giving it an 8 for the noise but, to be fair, back in the old days this amount of noise was par for the course for a pedal like this. Not bad at low gain setting either. It really shines in the high volume zone though.

Seems to be very dependable but I've been aware of the RAT's reputation for 20 years

ProCo is a good Midwestern company. They make a LOT of other great, pro-grade products as well (snakes, cable etc)

I play all styles but use the RAT when it's needed. Been playing since I was 10 so that would be 38 years. Have played professionally (weekends) since 1972. What I really like about this pedal is it's sound AND it's no-nonsense price. I've owned them all and this high priced boutique thing is WAY out of control. You guys should really be careful with your money. I love the KLON pedal and feel that that one , in particular is worth the money, however for it's contruction alone. You should also learn how to do those "mods" you're paying $45+ for because they are super simple to do. My point here is that I could be perfectly happy doing a gig with my NOBELS OD-1 ($40) or TS-5($5)and no-one in the audience (except a fellow guitar geek) could tell the difference. Except for the KLON, any overdrive priced over $100 is a little silly. I'm really glad I got the RAT. Makes the gig more fun and it's a way cool sound. www.southboundrocks.net

Gibson Les Paul Standard Doubble Cutaway Plus
and Fender Stratocaster Traditional
Marshall JTM-60 (3X10") and various stomp box

This stomp box sound is excellence and very verstatile !!!!
can be used in all music style like Blues, Punk, Rock even Metal


I love this stomp Box very much !!!
sound great and it has a TRUE BYPASS design ....

Build Like a Tank, all metallic design except those control knobes

One defect is it doen't has a LED to indicate power status

Give it 9 because it doen't has a LED

The pedal has three knobs: Distortion, Filter(Bass) and Volume.

This pedal can produce some great sounds. The Blue Voodoo/JCM 900-ish distortion is easy to get, and fuzz is equally as easy to obtain. With my settings, which are distortion 12:00, Filter 2:40 and Volume: usually 12:00, I can get some thick rhythm tones. As far as lead tones go, I haven't played a pedal that offers better. High notes really cut through and low notes do not get muddy.

At low volume, this pedal engenders above-average tone. However, it really shines at higher volumes. If you happen to try this pedal at a low volume and dismiss it because you do not like its sound, try cranking the amp's volume. Chances are, you will see what thousands of other musicians have seen in Rats.

It is made of metal and the footswitch is solid.

There are so many low-cost pedals on the market that are really terrible. Rats are an exception. They are worth at least 100 dollars more than they are selling for. I would definitely buy another one if mine was lost. It would be too difficult to find a distortion pedal I like better.

Three knobs, but don't be fooled. All the knobs are very reactive to each other. Even increasing the volume knob will drastically change the tone. The tone knob also goes the wrong way to normal. It's easy to get a good sound straight away, but it takes a while to understand how the knobs react to each other. It's easy to get an average fuzzy tone thats a bit boring before you find the sweet spot.

I use a Telecaster, a Laney amp and the following pedals: EH ring modulator, MXR Blue Box, Boss DD3, VINTAGE RAT, DOD Grunge (for nasty fuzz effects, I'm not 14 like most grunge users), Boss Blues Driver and a Colorsound volume pedal.
This pedal gives the classic RAT tone. It's an unmistakeable thick and saturated distortion sound. Many distortion pedals sound good in the shop or at home, but once you crank them up with a band they sound rubbish. The Rat sounds thicker and more powerful loud with a band and, most importantly, it cuts through the mix. I didn't really appreciate this pedal until I started to use it live and loud. At low volumes it sounds like an average midrangey fuzz.
The pedal does a clean boost, fuzz, crunch. It will even do death metal if you scoop the mids with an EQ. It reacts VERY well to volume swells too.
The pedal sounds muddy if you put the distortion knob past 1 O'clock. If you still want more gain you increase the volume knob. It's got far more gain that anyone can actually need. Too much gain just makes you disappear behind noise. (I use my DOD grunge for that :))

It's a big metal box but it had a loose transistor when I got it that caused it to cut out all sound when I turning it on. But it's fixed now. It seems quite light and hollow when you pick it up so it doesn't seem quite as dependable as a Boss or MXR pedal.

I play indie rock with noisy experimental bits. I've been playing for 6 years. I collect pedals and I always come back to this pedal when I reherse or play live. I've tried most of the main fuzz/distortions out there. It really does sound great with a band and cuts through when you set it right. It suits my sound fine. It may not suit you however. It doesn't suit everyone.
It's not noisy except at very high gains. It doesn't have an LED so I'm often not sure if it's on or not before I start playing. But the RAT2 has an LED and the batteries don't last nearly as long. I've changed the battery once in this pedal in 2 years of playing every day.
Good for Punk, Grunge, Indie, some metal. It's very popular with modern indie/alt rock players (from Elastica to Blur) because it's not a typical metal, blues or vintage 60's fuzz sound (which a lot of pedals seem to be aiming for). Be warned: notice that many of the happy RAT users here seem to use Telecasters. I don't know if that means anything.
Great pedal. True bypass too.

One knob for Distortion / Filter / Level...pretty simple but quite effective.

I've gone thru many different types of stomp boxes for 8 years now and they have all come and gone except for the Tube Screamer...and now the ProCo Rat. This distortion box is an amazing lil' thing that has a very nice distortion to it. It's best feature by far is the filter knob which shapes the distortion very nicely. I run my Rat thru an all-tube 30 watt combo w/ a modded Am. Std. Strat and a Les Paul Custom. This pedal has a strong and intense distortion but at the same time its not "messy" as many transistor based boxes tend to be. The gain can be dialed up high...can be considered "Marshall"-like, crunchy and thick but again it remains tight. Sounds great thru single coils...awesome thru humbuckers. A suprisingly very "usable" stomp box.

Metal housing looks tough to me...no problems yet.

N/A

I've been relying on tube-end distortion (boosting the clean signal and pushing the power tubes for gain) only for a long time as I've never had too many good experiences w/stomp boxes. I had the chance to buy the Rat used for a fair price and its the best investment I've made yet. The Rat gives nice response, dynamic, tight gain, and a tone that is VERY usable. If you have an innate dislike for stomp boxes try the PRoco Rat for a pleasant shock:)

Easy to use! Easy to get great sound.

Three knobs: Distortion, Filter, Volume

Has a wonderful crunch that allows the notes to come through despite its strength. It is a very powerful yet musical distortion. Similar to the Marshall Shredmaster I have, but it is stronger (although it doesn't have quite as wide a variety of sounds).

This pedal isn't seen as often as all those boss pedals and such, and you may not have heard of it, but it is very good. A professional distortion that you wouldn't be ashamed of using in front of any audience.

Seems very sturdy. It's a big metal box.

Never needed any customer support yet.

This is definitely one of the best distorion pedals out there. It is great for adding a real powerful rock edge to your music without sounding like so many of those awful guitar nerds.
I use it to play rock and roll with my music and I love it, even though I am predominantly an electronic musician. Don't waste all your money on the marshall shredmaster (it has gotten expensive since it is used by Radiohead) and get this pedal -- it is not a compromise at all.

There are only 3 knobs! How hard can it be?

I REALLY like the sound for both ryhtm and leads! If you crank the volume it will make a cool fuzzy sound.

Its a heavy little metalbox, and it has never failed me

Never needed it

I play rock/blues/jazz/punk and for that its perfect.
My gear (nut much but anyway):
Fender American Stratocaster/Epiphone Les Paul Standart>>Crybaby>>Vintage Rat>>Boss CE-3>>Hughes & Kettner Attax 100

It's definitely an easy pedal to figure out and get a great sound out of. Plus, the glow-in-the-dark knobs are nice.

It's got great sound quality - suberb sound and amazing crunch. I use it on an acoustic lap slide guitar and the sound is unmatched. Great box.

I've had it for over a year in my live rig and I've never had a problem with it in over 200 shows. Built tough and reliable.

Never had to deal with the company.

Great sound, strongly built - I wish Rat's would get more attention as an amazing distortion box because it's got a distinct and great sound. Buy one - I did, and it was the best investment I made in a distortion pedal.

It's easy.

I have 2 guitars I use. Mainly I use a refurbished Series A (2 Singal coil pickups), I bought at a pawn shop. The other is a Samick Fat Tele with (Humbuckers- probly a generic brand). For an amp, raight now I use a Fender automatic GT. And the only thing between that is my "ProCo Rat vintage". The sound is great, the clean tones are boosted and the distortion can emulate any distortion out there.

It wont break.

Well worth pedal.

It's almost too easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. Three knobs- distortion=gain, filter=tone, level=volume. This is the big box pedal and I do believe it sounds much better than the small eighties box I owned seven years ago.

This pedal has great bite which can be smoothed out or sharpened with the filter knob. It is much better than my HotCake- it jumps out of your guitar and you can feel the crunch everywhere. Proco makes one type of pedal-distortion- and they simply make the best I've ever used and after fifteen years of playing guitar in different eight rock bands I can honestly say this is all I need between my guitar and amp. No other boutique pedal or vintage pedal I've owned satisfies me, not even close, the way the RAT does. It's the only distortion pedal I've kept over the years.

Impossible to destroy- believe me, there have been nights when this pedal was soaked in beer and kicked off the stage, batted around and thrown back. It's never skipped a beat.

Never needed it.

From crisp, chest pounding boost to ripping overdrive to all out psychodelic mayhem this box is tried and true. As I said before, it sounds more responsive and sensitive than the smaller box Rats. It has that bite that makes you want to play constantly. I'm using it with a Deluxe Reverb and a '52 RI Telecaster. I hope no electro-geek tries to make a boutique copy of this pedal- I hate that crap.

This pedal is easy to use. Three knobs: Distortion, Filter(bass), and Volume. There wasnt a manual, but once you realize what the filter knob does, the rest is simple.

This is a solid fuzz pedal. I really dont see the Marshall in it, though that is more apparent with single coils for some reason. With humbuckers, nothing but fuzz. However, that is not a bad thing. After playing a few riffs, I nailed the distortion off the Deftones's Adrenaline album. So if you are looking for a comparison, there you go. Unfortunately, this pedal does not have the sustain I would like it to, but I can always get around that.

I would use this without a backup.

Overall, this is a good fuzz/distortion pedal. Just to keep this brief, I would likely get it again. However, I am more of a distortion person, so if it were stolen, I would probably look at other pedals.

It's only 3 knobs. Very very easy.
The Filter knob is a bit sensitive.
I didn't get a manual for my pedal. even thought it was new.
but I didn't need one anyway, 'cause it's so easy too use this pedal

I'm using an Epiphone LesPaul Custom Ebony - Vintage Rat pedal and a Boss Tremolo Tr-2 Pedal - Hughes & Kettner Blonde Edition Amp.
The Rat Produces a noisy, dirty and warm sound.
If you want to sound like Foo Fighters, or Radiohead this is a great pedal.
I had a Boss MetalZone before this pedal and I think it sucked.
This pedal is much much much much better.

It's a big fat black metal box.
I don't think it would break even if I threw in the wall.

I play rock. sort of like foo fighters and Radiohead, so this pedal suits me fine.
If it broke (but i don't think it will) I may try out a marshall distortion, I've heard the Shredmaster(Used by Radiohead) and the Drivemaster (Used by the best band in the world Kent, they are from sweden) wolud be really great, but I gladly buy The Rat again.

very easy to use- i like the fact that the distortion seems to be exponential as you turn it up. very different from most cheap pedals in that the dist and volume controls play of each other, and for absolutely incredible tone, the distortion only need to be at about 3 or 4 with the volume on 7 or 8, and a good amount of crunch in the amp. the filter unit is odd, you add tredle (and harshness) as you turn it down.

BEST DISTORTION PEDAL EVER MADE!!! seriously. i think way too much faith is put into most pedals, and you hear too many people saying "sounds like a marshall", "sounds like a full stack", etc. that's stupid. you're not going to sound incredible playing one of these on the clean channel of a crate GX212. but if you put this thing in front of a good warm, crunchy tube amp and a couple of 4X12's, then use the volume to boost your amp into overdrive, i assure you that you will melt on site. the volume adds harmonic response and drive, and the distortion will go all the way to fuzz, but i doubt you will ever need to go that far. true bypass doesn't suck the tone out of your amp. seriously this pedal, when set right, can increase the noticeability of everything you play, but remember to tweak your amp, too. keep in mind that pedals can only sound as good as your amp, and you should use them sparingly. just because you paid $65 for something doesn't mean you should crank it. subtlety is the key here.

reliable. i've lost my temper at practice enough to know that you can't break one of these.

don't know, but rumor has it they're good with it.

SMOOTH, really smooth. i've tried a lot of pedals, and this one beat every on of them. it's not for everything, but if you play with it, you can get an incredible tone-very original with lots of harmonics. i play hardcore, and would not turn to anything else. again, don't run it cranked through your clean channel if you want a lot of gain. you'll just be pissed. if you want to do that, go buy a metal zone or something. just tell me when you're about to turn it on so i can leave the room.

This is my favourite distortion device. It is so creamy, liquid and powerfull. It can be a mild overdrive, a rich crunch, a powerfull lead with incredible sustain or a 60's fuzz a la hendrix.
I can reproduce classic dark marshall sound.
All rats are cool it was difficult to choose. I got this because it is little more creamy and hotter.
It screams so cool with my tube screamer. If you put en eq after it , you can get incredible sounds.
I tried any kind of distortion boxes and for the price this is the best you can get.
With this pedal i can cover almost any kind of music i need.
For blues (but i don't use it for blues because i have my tube screamer),
classic rock,modern rock, heavy metal(with my boss ge7) etc..

It is very solid. the footswitch is silent.

never dialed with proco.

If it were stolen or lost i would buy ut again.
i wish it had a leed.

Only three knobs.

A good friend of mine bought one of these and I did a side by side comparison with my old Rat box that I bought new while on tour in 1989. The first major difference that I noticed is in construction, but I'll get into that in a minute. Tonally, they were night and day. Now mine is the small box and his is the large one and I didn't expect them to sound exactly alike. I keep the filter control on mine set around half way. With the same settings on the new one it's REALLY harsh. I had to turn the filter control up all the way to cut the highs and it was still quite shrill, forcing me to cut back treble on the amp itself. Not good in my book. The distortion characteristics were typically Rat, but all the high end is a major problem. I've never tried the old big box Rat, but I have a feeling that it didn't sound like this one.

Construction-wise, it's very flimsy compared to my old one, which weighs a ton, and has been stomped, kicked, and thrown for over 10 years on the road, and still works like brand new. I don't think that the new one could take all that. Although internally it may be fine, but I just can't get over how they cheapened the box itself. They get a low score for construction.

Couldn't tell you.

If it were me I'd take it back, but my friend is going to keep it. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed in how these units have evolved over the years. It makes me very happy to have my old one. I'm going to try out a new small box Rat to see if they're plagued with the same problems.

Overall, an easy pedal to use, (the knobs glow in the dark!) but the "filter" knob is deceiving. It is the same as a "tone" knob, but the bass and treble are located on opposite sides as compared to most other pedals.

After I got this pedal, I got rid of my Boss Metal Zone, the premier pedal of heavy metal players. This pedal doesn't produce the cold scooped "chug" of the Metal Zone, but it is perfect for that Swedish Death Metal sound. The pedal gnarls like a buzzsaw on barbiturates. It's very heavy, dark, overdriven. Also: you cannot get more harmonics out of your guitar than if you use this pedal. If you wanna be like Zakk Wylde and be able to hit any artificial harmonic at any time, get this pedal.

It's a big metal box, much bigger than the circuits inside so I doubt I'll ever have trouble with it.

Great for cutting-edge dark metal with lots of lows and highs. This is the pedal to get if you want to sound like Entombed/Dismember. I play Kramer floyd rose axes through Boss Compression Sustainer into The ProCo Vintage RAT. That simple effects chain goes straight into my Marshall VS 65-R, or I put a modulation effect like the Boss Flanger BF-2 right before the amp.

3 knobs....distortion, filter, and volume
Not too hard...the filter reacts differently depending on the distortion settings, i find...i didn't get a manual, mine was used...i put distortion at (oclock) 1:30, filter all the way down, and volume to taste

fender telecaster, tube screamer, rat, analog delay, 1975 fender champ for practice...its a noise box...plain and simple....i love the sound...nice and saturated, creamy distortion. honestly, im going for johnny greenwood, radiohead sound...(aren't we all), and although he uses a marshall shredmaster, i can get near his distorted tone..it does what it's supposed to do. it can also be used for an overdrive tone, with the volume up and the distortion turned somewhat down....i need two stages of drive, so i used the screamer, and the rat...im one of those people who won't give a 10 unless the pedal gives me superhuman strength...or possibly the gift of flight.

its a big metal box...with lots of room in between the outer casing, and all the electronics stuff....the jacks come lose sometimes, but that's because mine is used...battery is a pain in the butt to get too... switch doesn't look all that heavy duty in comparison to voodoo lab and fulltones...i'd use it without a backup...i can't really afford two of the same pedal...

never dealt with...i will therefore not rate

for 45 dollars, (which is what they go for used) how could you not? kickass distortion...great for britpop rock...ceratinly better than my old boss hyper metal (ewwwww). if it were stolen, i'd feel sorry for myself for a while, and then get off my lazy ass and buy a new one....

covered by everyone else.

nothing else does the Rat sound like this. There are two differences between the Rat and every other distortion pedal in the world.

1. It actually has as much distortion as you want, and you don't have to turn it all the way up to get there. No, really, it's the one distortion pedal that I can easily put the gain halfway up and still be a crunchy mofo.

2. It actually has a sound to it. The Rat produces a very thick, very midrange-heavy type of distortion. Not for that scooped-mid Mesa sound, in fact it's the exact opposite, but great for real thick, chunky distortion. More like a Soldano with a little more mid, or like a Marshall would sound like with the mid control on 10 and about 4X the gain.

My rat is actually a "vintage" rat. Probably over 20 years old. It looks like a big square box, it's covered with dents, you have to unscrew the whole bottom to put in the batteries. It's covered with old tape, it has no writing on it anymore, and various owners throughout the years have scrawled their names on it with screwdrivers or something. That said, ti still sounds prefect. I have gigged with it repeatedly and it has always come through. I have taken it to recording sessions and it has produced monster tones. I have suspended it in a pitcher of beer and played "Eruption" through. Not really with that last one, but this is definitely the toughest pedal I have ever seen or owned.

Never a reason.

I think these go for 30-50$ used, and new can't be over 90$. At that rate, this is the best distortion pedal EVER.

OH Please!!! 3 knobs: distortion, filter (a.k.a. "tone"), and volume. It is very very simple to use, as is any guitar pedal, really, (with the exception of effect racks and, lovetone pedals- agh! those things are H-A-R-D to use!! but sound awesome, by the by.) But i was not given an instruction manual and it works great. It gets a 9 for being dicks and calling tone "filter" to confuse everyone and sound supirior.

OOOOOOOH! AAAAAAAH! This thing is a beauty. Simply because it is very, very versatile. It can go from amazingly light, barely there distortion (or overdrive) to fucking gnarly, disgusting noise. In my opinion, the best settings are right down the middle, or a little to the cleaner side. But, man, this thing beats the hell out of any distortion out there. I owned a boss DS-1 pedal prior to this one, and I actually liked it but to be honest it was very basic and unoriginal, and one annoying thing was that it was nearly impossible to control the volume level. Not that it sucked. In fact, i hung onto mine since it's sound is very different from the RAT and is smoother. The RAT is really great though, and you can get a wiiiiiiide range of sound sounds out of it. I use a Gretch Country Classic Jr, (a jr. on a gretch is the normal size of any other guitar.) and it sounds very good, but i noticed that EVERYONE who owns this seems to like the combination of a Fender Telecaster and the RAT very much, so if you have a tele, then this is something to consider an extra bit. NOTE: do NOT be fooled by the name!!! "vintage" does not mean "the original!" it just means it is a REISSUE of the original. So if you are one of those guys that loves old stuff, then don't be fooled. It sounds awesome either way, though. Also, i do not believe that this pedal is the end-all be-all of distortion pedals that everyone says it is. It is absolutly great, but do not buy it just because everyone else likes it. Buy it because you do. ANOTHER NOTE: I noticed that TONS of professional bands use these, for example Radiohead, Blur, the Foo Fighters, even Kurt Cobain a little. You can get their sounds, but more importantly, this thing is versatile enough for you to get your own too.

Built like a rock. Will never ever die. Don't even worry about it. Also, people always bitch about this things battery case that you have to unscrew- they lie. It is noooooo big deal unless you are the laziest man in the entire world.

never talked with them, and you shouldn't have to either since this this is so solid.

this is a wonderful pedal. i would buy it again if i got it for the same cheap-ass price. it is very good sounding and rocks. better than most pedals out there, althogh it's not like i've tryed them all. if you are looking for versatility, then this is it. buy buy buy. honestly, i don't see why anyone would buy another pedal over this one if they tryed it out. kickes the crap out of pretty much everything. of course, i honestly don't think that good distortion pedals should be any bit too hard to find. they are very very basic. however a lot of companies have managed to make bad ones. this, on the other hand, is awesome.

really easy to get a GREAT sound. it sounds great all over the place! really good distortion, really good harmonic fuzz too! sounds more like an overdrive pedal than a distortion

as i said before....excellent. i am using an american standard telecaster and an american fat strat texas special as my main 2 axes. i have 2 backups that are crap but hey, thats why they are called backups (memphis and ibanez....eeeeew) the distortion effect is rich and really creamy and the fuzz is to die for. great on harmonics. sounds almost JUST like tom morello and ed obrien and thom yorke. precision!

phfffft yeah dude! its a big metal box

never dealt with them

i love this thing straight up, it rocks really hard! and not in that metal zone way, in a rock way!

Simple as it needs to be, with just 3 knobs, but it would have been nicer to have a battery compartment without using a screwdriver ;)
(Do they have to make it THAT authentic?)Dont rely too much on the glow in the dark markers though, 4 gigs

Park G10R > Rat > Edward the Compressor (Marshall) > Mexican Strat (Silver logo)
On its own, it sounds very loose, natural and vintage sounding, especially on higher gain settings (It's hard to get a good tone if you just want a mild crunch) and it doesnt't go too well with heavy compression, but that might be more my guitar. What it does very well is letting you get good punch at sociable volume levels

The thing is built like a flippin brick, so it will last u a lifetime,

Never need to get in touch with them

I got the pedal for stripped down rock music, classic rick, really and it does that very well. Fans of more polished stiff may not like it as much but i would definitely be pissed off if i had it stolen. It's a great sound you get, but you cant get a totally distoted sound from it, only heavy overdrive. The tone control is superb, though, with none of the positions giving you too thin or too muffled a sound. I used to have a Boss DS1 and it obviously puts that to shame, but i do miss the smoother sound of some of thats settings. All i'd ask 4 it is more gain, but i suppose you can get the turbo rat, anyway, so if i wasw to get anything else, id get that

I just got my Rat the other day. I remember my friend having one back in the 80's, and me loving that great distorted sound. The unit has three knobs, which take some getting used to, especially the filter used with the distortion. Just play around with them, and you will dial in the perfect sound for yourself.

I am using three Warmoth parts guitars, all loaded with a SD humbucker in the bridge, and a single coil in the neck. My amp is a plexi Marshall 50 watt head, running thru a 4/12 Mesa/Boogie cab. My other effects are a MXR flanger, phaser, Boss chorus, and a Bad Horsie wah. I play mostly hard rock, some rock/blues type of stuff. I love playing Van Halen, and old Aerosmith, and making up my own stuff. The Rat blends in with all my effects and makes my Marshall head scream like never before.

The Vintage Rat is built like a TANK. You can drop kick it, throw it, etc, and it will never let you down.

Have not had to deal with them as of now....

I have beeen playing for over 15 years now, and I have bought just about every distortion pedal on the market, and I must say the Rat lays waste to all of them. I really love it. I just wish I would have bought the Rat in the beginning...

You got your Distortion... Filter(tone)... Volume...

I use a fender Roc Pro hybrid amp(head/4x12 enclosure). The RAT makes a real warm sound that goes great with my telecaster. It just really fits that rock sound. It's not too noisy for me at all. I'm always compairing it to my DS-1, which is just weak against the RAT. I found that I could get that low Weezer-like sound when I tuned my strings down (as weezer does), turned the distortion up, and the filter down. Even on my wanna-be tube amp it sounded great. It does get a bit punchy at high volumes, but hey, if that's what you like...

It's a rock. I bought it used and it looks new. I wouldn't suggest pounding it with a hammer but i'll bet that wouldn't phaze it.

Never called Pro Co, never had the need to.

I play Hendrix, pearl jam, foo fighters, pink floyd, etc... A lot of different stuff. This pedal can do it all with the right settings. I'm sure it will sound much better through a real tube amp. You want a real all-around pedal, get this one.

It's have just 3 adjust knob for dist., filter, & vol. When I turn on my fender tube amp I need to plug it together and that's enought.

I use it with my 57strat custom shop and control vol.just 8 for rythm and 10 for lead Hot Rod Amp(press bright, vol-5, t-6, b-8, m-12, rev-0 & present-12) and set the rat at (11/09/11-12 o'clock)

It's preety good for blues, Jazz rock, Rock n' Roll. Before I'm use just ts-808 but now I use just RAT It's more fuzz but not distortion.

This has been pretty well covered by other reviewers. The key to this pedal is definitely the "filter" knob which rolls off the particularly harsh highs. All the way to the right, it can sound a little tubby, but at about 3 o'clock, just about any distortion level sounds good. A little distortion goes a long way with this pedal and a good guitar and tube amp. This pedal is certainly capable of full-bore Marshall sounds, but it's also a beautiful device to add a little edge to your tone. My favorite settings:

Distortion: 9 or 10 o'clock
Filter: 3 o'clock
Volume: 1 o'clock or to taste

Well, my first distortion pedal was a real "vintage" Rat (which I still have and will never part with). I bought this primarily as a little different flavor to the Rat sound I already knew and loved. This model lacks the brittle top end of my older pre-indicator light model, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes it a little easier to fit it into a chain of several effects.

I've used this pedal mostly with an American Standard Tele (stock pickups), but have also used it quite a bit with a reissue Jazzmaster (and an original '63) and an '84 Les Paul Studio Deluxe (all mahogany, two full size humbuckers). Amps are Dr. Z Carmen Ghia + Carvin "vintage" 4X10 (yeah, I know...), '66 Bassman head, mid '60s Vox Cambridges, and a '79 Vibro Champ.

My main signal chain right now is:

Tele>Ernie Ball Volume Pedal>Morley Bad Horsie Wah>Vintage Rat>DOD Performer Analog Delay>Fulltone Fat Boost>Carmen Ghia + Carvin Cab

This pedal responds nicely to subtle volume pedal changes, and works really well with the wah. I think it would be a bit harsh with a digital delay, but the analog delay compliments it nicely. The Fat Boost is really magical with the Rat. I've borrowed a friend's Fulldrive 2, but it's just too damn *tasteful* compared with the Rat/Fat Boost combination.

Obviously, my effects chain is not as quiet as it could be, but it does the job well enough. I've used a Boss Dimension C from time to time with this pedal, but frankly the Dimension C sucks too much tone to be used with any other pedal, much less a rather primitive distortion like this.

Nothing else sounds like a Rat. Period. It's the perfect balance of growl and sweetness. No other distortion pedal I've tried has such wonderful feedback characteristics either - especially with a wah. While it is definitely capable of tasteful tones, this pedal is never tame sounding, and that's what makes it great. As far as the actual tone goes, think The Who, Radiohead, and Television as opposed to Jimi, Stevie Ray and Clapton. Yo La Tengo and Built To Spill also use these puppies frequently, if that tells you anything.

Unfortunately, this pedal does produce a small amount of noise when switched off. The switch itself is a bit noisy too, which could be a drag in the studio. But, if you like the sound, and the way it gooses a good amp, then you'll be willing to put up with its various shortcomings. After all, what piece of guitar gear worth a damn is actually perfect?

This is a very reliable pedal, and it has never died on me. At first inspection, it seems a little on the cheap side construction-wise due to its light weight and thin bent steel case. But, the pots and switch seem very solid. I'm confident this pedal could take a pretty serious beating. No backup needed here.

As I mentioned before the switch in this pedal can be pretty noisy. This can be lessened somewhat by giving the switch a little workout (hitting it 20-30 times rapidly), but the pop never completely goes away. The switch never quits working either, which is more than I can say for other pedals I've owned (is anybody at DOD reading this?).

For those with pedal boards, this pedal takes a really silly mini plug-type power supply. This may make it hard to run it from a multi-pedal power supply like a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power or Batt Man. The good news is that batteries last *forever* with this pedal, and even if the battery is dying on a gig, it will probably get you through your set.

I've never had to deal with ProCo, but they seem to have a good reputation. These puppies are made in the good ol' US of A by a company that's been around for a good while. I can't really comment on their service, but I'd rather buy this than a cheesy Danelectro piece of junk any day.

As I mentioned earlier, this is not a well-mannered, tasteful pedal. If polite blues or country is your main thing, you may very well hate it. Metal players my find it too punk sounding, and bedroom jammers may find it disappointing as well, since this pedal really requires a cooking amp to really show its stuff.

While I've always loved my original Rat, I've tried many distortion boxes over the years in stores, and nothing can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end like one of these pedals.

If I had anything to suggest to the folks at ProCo, it would be to produce a higher end model of the same beast (better grade chips, case, switch etc...), but other than that I really can't complain.

If this were stolen, I'd probably hunt around a bit and see what's out there (I've heard good things about the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive), but it would take a truly amazing pedal to get me to switch.

i got this without a manual, so it took a sec to realize that the filter works the opposite way that most tone controls do. that said, leaving it right where it was, at twelve o'clock, seemed to be the most balanced sound. as far as stompboxes go, distortion units are usually the easiest to figure out, and this holds true for the rat.

the drives my american standard tele nicely. i put it through a fender twin, as well as a few other boxes, a digital delay, a ring mod. for really dissonant stuff. it sounds better with my band than the old big muff i had, because it, unlike the muff, actually has midrange. the sound cuts through the mix better. the sustain is great, and it works really well with the music i play, which i guess you could call drone rock, if you want to get into labeling. i think ira kaplan of yo la tengo uses one of these...i can get good dream pop sounds too...oh, i'm labeling again. theres a bit of hiss when its on, but who wants pristine clean sounding distortion?

seems built well. whats a backup? i barely could afford the fifty bucks for this one. made of bent metal, but very light--not like an MXR or something. nice clip for the battery, but don't lose the screw that holds the battery compartment on, though. knobs seem loose, but mine was sitting dusty on a shelf used with no box. i'll give mine a 7.

never dealt with them. hopefully wont have to.

this is a good match for me. i like to swirl around in distortion thats shimmery, not fuzzy or scooped. no metal dist. here, thank god. it has no LED, but if you cant tell whether or not a dirtbox is on, maybe guitar playing aint for you. i would get another if it were lost, i really like mine.

Very easy to use. Distortion interacts with volume heavily though. Filter is inverse of tone (which seems to confuse some people for some reason).

I'm using a Peavey T-60 with a Jeff Beck in the bridge and a Gibson 496R in the neck through a Crate GX15 amp. I've also used a semiacoustic and a Strat through it. The sounds you can get out of this pedal are wonderful and many, but all of one category: fuzzy and sometimes crunchy (the semiacoustic made it sound like an overdrive). It's definitely not a distortion which screams and squeals in a punk sort of way. It's more of a metal, cool radioheadish fuzz sustain (lots of compression), or occasionally overdrive type distortion. It's very nice for really chugging lows (especially with a lot of filter)...it can almost sound like palm muting with enough filter. The distortion can go from clean to totally indiscernable, which is really nice (and sadly quite rare).

I plugged my guitar into the output on accident once and it totally burnt up a resistor. After replacing this resistor, I thought it was still a little messed up (would go silent when I switched it on). However, I might have just been putting shitty batteries in it. I use it mostly with a DC adaptor now and it seems to work fine...I think.

Never dealt with them.

Excellent pedal, very versatile, but I still need something else to do overdrive (a TubeWorks RealTube) and screeching punk distortion (not quite sure what to use yet).

three knobs-one switch-gets a good sound no matter where i set the dials-no l.e.d but i can tell weather its on or off by the way it compresses the clean sound on my amp and gooses the mids-very cool battery compartment-one of the best battery compartments i've seen on a stompbox-although the little plastic braquet that holds the battery to the battery access hatch is a little cheesey-very easy access to the battery-doesn't drain batteries quickly-sounds great with carbon batteries-has a nine volt adaptor jack-mono input and output jacks-pretty self explanetory-baught it used so it had no manual-thinking about installing a fulltone triple throw true bypass switch-might drill a hole in the top and install an l.e.d if i get more pedals

through my experiance i've found that tone comes from my heart-not from my eqipment i.e. i say something to someone and their rebuttle is "i don't like the tone of your voice."i didn't have a guitar in my hand when i was controling my tone-anyway the only difference between my rig and a fender sqire strat pack is about fifteen hundred dollars-fourteen hundred of which i paid for marketing-anyway i put a fiftytwo reissue tele through the rat and then into a pro junior-i like the rat because it makes the junior sound like a different amp all together-it compresses the sound nicely and gooses the mids-no noise-though it will accentuate any noise inherent to the rig-sound is so relative to me so yes it always sounds great

built like a brick shit house-wouldn't do any gig without back up stuff

i play rock-punk-metal-pop-blues-and try anything that catches my intrest-this pedal works great in any situation-been playing for sixteen years-i would buy it again-i love how the pedal sounds like a dimed marshall-i chose this pedal for its simplicity-it definatetly inspires new riffs

It's very easy to get a great sound out this Vintage Rat. Three controls-distortion, filter, and volume. I bought brand new and it came with a discription of the unit, but instructions. If you can't use this without instructions, stop playing guitar!

I play two Fender American Stratocasters, one with texas specials and the other with delta tone pickups. I play through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10. My pedals include the Vintage Rat, Boss OD-3, MXR Phase 90, Boss DD-3,and a Boss Super Chorus. Occasionally I use a Morley Flanger, and a Fuzz Face. I replace the Fuzz Face with the Vintage Rat because I liked the tone and the sound was what I was looking for. It's got great tones and is different from anything else out there. I would say this closely represents what Radiohead's guitarists use and Jeff Beck. I really don't like Jeff Beck that much, but this pedal will give you distortion/Fuzztone like you never heard. You can really experiment with this thing.

It would take a nuclear blast to make a dent in this thing! It's bigger, badder, and tougher than the Rat2 or the turbo Rat. It looks really cool. It's the Big Bad Black Box!

never dealt with them.

The Vintage Rat is best fuzztone/distortion for classic rock, and modern rock. I look at it as more of a Fuzztone than a distortion unit. It ranks at the top for Fuzztones/distortion. I would get another in a second!

This pedal is really easy to use.Three knobs and thats it! the filter knob is great !

Ive played my through a fender deluxe 1x12 using my 75' les paul standard,epiphone les paul,fender tele,and start.It works best with humbucker loaded guitars I think. If your looking for a distortion that is heavy yet clear enough to hear everything that your plaing ,this is the one! The sustain is without a doubt the best ever!

hell yeah

For metal ,blues or rock this is the one to go with ! sustain,natural (not cheesy tone like the boss metalzone) tone this is the best.

All around, easy to use. It took me a little while to get the "perfect" sound out of it, seeing as it only has a filter (tone), volume, and a distortion knob. I found the perfect sound for it though...it's pretty easy.

Well, my set up goes as follows----- fender american std. tele, or ibanez rg 220, through a ps25 pedalboard----digitech whammy xp100, proco vintage rat, boss mt2 metal zone distortion, boss bf2 flanger, boss ph2 phaser, and hopfully soon...boss digital delay dd5 into my fender hot rod deluxe. This is only as noisy as any other distortion pedal out there. The effects on this are great, the tone quality rocks for radiohead......jonny, ed and thom all use these i believe. jonny does, and thom uses a turbo rat. not too sure about ed though.

VERY VERY RELIABLE. all this thing is,is a big metal rectangle. I would definatly gig w/o a backup

Never dealt with the Co. but I hear they are great

I love metal, rock, and especially radiohead. I have been playing 5 years, own a fender am std telecaster, fender hot rod deluxe skb ps25 pedalboard, boss phaser, flanger, and dist. also a digitech whammy. hot rod deluxe too. this was all mentioned above. :) This pedal is a great match, i love everything about it except the no led part, (glowing knobs is cool) . I'd just like to share that this is a sweet pedal, and go buy it. I did'nt really like the sound right away, but it is my favorite distortion now!!! AND OH YEAH........radiohead is sweet.

The knobs are a little difficult to use as they really don't have equivalents with many other pedals. The volume and filter knobs can change your tone drastically with only minor adjustments. I bought this used, so I didn't get a manual and as such have no idea what many of the suggested settings are. I'm still trying to find my "sound" with this pedal.

I'm using a Charvel Model 3 and an Epiphone Les Paul in the following chain: ProCo Vintage RAT->Danelectro Fab Tone->Danelectro Cool Cat->Boss 300H Volume Pedal->Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. This pedal is completely unlike any other pedal out there for a number of reasons: first is that it generates almost no noise. I generally have to hit a note to even know that it's on a lot of the time. The fact that it has no "ready" LED only exacerbates this problem. Second, it has true-bypass, and I'm not talking Boss low-interference circuitry, I mean TRUE-bypass. Once I plugged in and started playing for a while, hit the pedal and all noise stopped. Curious what was happening, I opened the thing up and discovered I'd forgotten to put a battery in. The sound had stopped when I turned the pedal on. Aside from that, I have very ambivalent feelings toward this pedal. Because it covers such a wide sonic range, I've had a lot of difficulty dialing in the setting I want to hear. It seems that about every three months I find something wrong with my previous setting and start over from stratch, only to create something completely new. The sonic range is that of a nice, smooth overdrive (which I once upon a time used this pedal for) to a raunchy, obnoxious punk snarl to a screaming, chainsaw fuzz. I bought this used off a cousin because he said it could do a great crunch, but I have yet to find it. Incidently, as far as I know this pedal comes closest to matching the sounds of Foo Fighters and Blur (the guitarists from both bands, incidently, use some form of this pedal as replicating its sounds with another one is probably damn near impossible).

My cousin owned this for at most four years before selling it to me. It evidently never caused a problem for him and I doubt it will cause a problem for me. I'd gig without a backup. Incidently, it can be hard to track down an adapter for this thing because it uses some kind of male-female plug I've never seen before--it looks like headphone plug.

I wrote the company asking where I could find an adapter, they wrote back within a day pointing me in the right direction. They seem like really nice folks.

I play in my own style which has influences from metal, punk, hardrock, pop, blues, and jazz. I have a love/hate relationship with this pedal so I use it at odd intervals. If it were stolen, I don't know that I'd buy it again as it'd cost me ten times what I originally paid for it and I don't know if I could justify it to myself. If nothing else, it's something to play with. For a while I got really pissed at this pedal and bought a Boss DS-1 to replace it. The DS-1 was soon given away, though, as I found I couldn't extract any unique sound out of it--everything through it sounded like either Nirvana or Green Day. As such, I went back to using this pedal and my love/hate relationship with it continues to this very day. If nothing else, it's very unique sounding and I like unique. Features-wise, there's nothing more I could ask of it.

This box acts like an expansion to your amps controls, almost like adding a second channel but not independent. This means that if you change the sttings on your amp, the sound from the Rat will become drasticaly different. It is not hard to remember your settings though. The knobs have a stiff yet smooth fealing and hold there postion very well. Componsating for EQ seams to be the most diffocult. It is hard to tell how much one must raise the filter control to componsate for the increase in trebel you get from backing off the distortion. It can actualy get pretty painful when the distortion control is just over the halfway point but there is no filter. However, once you get the hang of it it is not too hard. The initial learning curve is diffocult. The only other diffocult thing is working the volume since it changes in relation to the amp and has a large impact on the sound, higher volumes yeild a crunch sound while lower volumes yeild a "fuzzy" sounding distortion flavor(though the sound is far from that of a traditional fuzz). Once you get through the initial learning curve, it is not hard to dial in everything from Metalica to Clapton to Gilmour.

I usualy just run a home-made re-issue of a '54 strat with Lindy Fralin pickups and String Saver graphite bridge saddles in to the Rat, and then strieght to a modified(hot-rodded and brought to "true" vintage specs), vintage(I'm not sure of the year) Fender Bassman. I very the settings some but mostly keep them on the following: Distortion - all the way up; filter - all the way back; volume - 2 to 3 o'clock. I play around a lot with the amp's EQ. This box does basic heavy distrotion very well. You can back it off and do the darder sounds of the 70's or drop the amp mid EQ and yeild very cool death metal tones. This box goes very far but is not built for ultra heavy tone. It sustains very well for a strat. I tried using the same settings on everything except the guitar which I switched for a '57 Les Paul with a '59 P.A.F in the trebel postion. The guitar had a Bigsby(?) tail piece. Yes I know that this kind of guitar is extraordinary it is worth metioning that using I got effortless sustian, months went by and still it sustained. Seriously, it seamed to get much better tones out of humbucker equipped guitars. This pedal is very good for straight out, no frills distortion. My only quam is that, on higher distrotion settings, individual notes aren't dicernable in chords. It is sometimes diffocult to dicern somethings as simple as major and minor chords.

I have not gigged with this pedal yet, but I could be persuaded to gig with it and not bring a back up. It is built like a bomb shelter and is very reliable.

I got it used and have not yet thought about talking to the company.

I usualy play rock-based music and this pedal is good for basic distortion, "Blow by Blow" era Jeff Beck, new-er Santana and Metalica(does Hammet and Hetfield) tones, definatly not a fuzz. Good for anybody who just wants to rock.

Three knobs - volume, filter and distortiion, plus foot-operated on/off switch. How easy can it be be? No led light to tell if the pedal if off or on.

Set-up is Marshall VS15 with Epihone Les Paul. Basically I use the pedal to switch between clean and overdrive. I have three other distortion pedals: Danelectro FabTone, Marshall JH1 and Boss Super Overdride SD1. This is easily the best and the most versatile. Its's much punchier than the Boss which has to be turned on full to get a really meaty sound and certainly more flexible than the FabTone. I haven't had the chance to compare it with Marshall JH1 yet (ie through the same amp) but I would definitely say it's better, more authentic; out of the four I would say this is one that gives me that me that Ac/DC, Thin Lizzy sound that I like. It also seems to have the best bypass facility.

I've only had one day so can't comment too much. Major drawback is definitely the dact that it doesn't have an LED light to tell you if its's on. For that reason probably wouldn't use it without mains supply, ie relying just on battery. But as I've never played live with pedals I don't think I'm experienced enough to comment.

Normal style of music I like playing is Thin Lizzy/AC/DC/Puple. This is best distortion pedal that I've heard so far. But I've only been into pedals a few weeks. Bought a Danelectro FabTone a few years ago and I hated it. Mainly because the clean sound was so poor. But then I was playing it through my old Samick amp and this might have been the reason. Have since bought a Marshall VS15 amp, and a few weeks ago I bought a Boss DD5, a Marshall JH1 and Ed The Compressor and also a Boss Super Overdrive SD1. Didn't really try any of the pedals before I bought them (ie didn't compare them with other products). Tend to go on reviews, looks and sheer gut feeling when I choose a pedal. Not very scientic, but I'm still such a novice when it ccome to pedals and as I'm not completely sure what I'm looking for until I find it. Besides it's not till I get home and try them for a few hours that I can form an overall impression.

Basically I'd say the Rat is best pedal (that I've got) for sheer tonal quality. But then it's over #20 more than the Marshall JH1. Is the difference worth it? I'd say so.

3 knobs, standard conrols. I'm using it with various guitars into a Hot rod Fender and a 50 Watt Marshall JMP. It's very sensitive, so it can be hard to get the sound you JUST had, because even small adjustments (especially to the gain knob) create big changes.

I use it while overdriving the amp a bit. Volume is set at 3 oclock, gain at 9 oclock, filter a little right of center. It gives a nice crunch to the tone. On the bridge pickup, it really accentuates pick attack, like a marshal kind of. Higher gain settings tend to generify guitar tones,however. Set the filter too low and you get a lot of treble (this thing lives up to it's name). That's why Jeff Beck likes this thing, I guess. Keep it near the middle, and this pedal steers clear of buzzy solid state sounds. The way I use it, I can even leave it on all the time just for the added bite, and clean up with my volume knob. This is not to say that the Rat is particularly responsive, but it works, and is useful. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound great on low volumes. For what I use it for, I give it an 9, but most people don't do that. Bonus: This thing is true hardwire bypassed.

It's a rock.

I'm playing rock stuff. This thing does what I want it to do. If you want real natural drive, this isn't for you. But this thing has possibilities for those who like to experiment with different distortion textures. Hardwire bypass is a beautiful thing, too. And for only 65 bucks, c'mon.

It was a little surprise when I unpacked box.
"I changed that to my Metal Zone...!!" There is too less buttons and so on...

Sound quality is great: My brother asked me "is that tubedrive?" that sound is so warm and umm... good with gibson LesPaulSpecial and Carlsbro Lead tubeamp. There were some differences between MetalZone and Rat. With Crybaby sound is pretty cool!!!

Reliability is best... I have no other dist. pedals or etc.
I have owned it for 1 and 1/2 year and it has been used in gigs and so on... It won't never let me down

No contacts

This dist. pedal fits in all of my musics. I play rock, punk(rare), heavy, funk, soul, blues, pop, etc. It depends on my agression. I've played
4years with my gibson and carlsbro. Half an year ago i finally bought new guitar: handmade Strat(it sounds like 60's guitars). I have BF-2 and OS-2(both of them sucks.:-) ) I would buy it if someone stoles it. I love this pedal because of it sound and ease to use.(i'am one kind of jerk)

Three knob pedals usually don't have much tonal control but this one does. It took a while for me to make it sound good and worked out what the hell 'filter' ment. The knobs are super-sensitive unlike the tonal controls of my amp and therefore can produce heaps of sounds but a slight adjustment can throw it out.

I am using it with a JCM900 50 watt Marshall and it sounds like a more elaborate version of my amp. It can be more cruncy but heaps more fuzzy. It sort of completes my sound as the marshall didn't have quite enough gain for some of my songs.

I've only had it a day but it looks pretty solid. Switching from on and off is really quiet which is an advantage for people who switch on and off heaps.

They bit me.
Actually I've never seen them. I hear there pretty groovy baby.

The only thing which makes the rat hard to use when switching from clean to distorted is the tonal difference the volume knob makes. While this can produce more sounds, you have to have it at a certain level (about 6) to equal the amps volume. The volume knob seems to add middle and presence.

Easy to use, as it has only three knobs, but difficult to use in that in ONLY has three knobs to get the sound you want out of it. The knobs are rather sensitive to each other--a minute turn on the filter knob can really change the sound.

At first I was a little disappointed. But I've grown to love it. I've tried it with my Squier Strat (with Fender Lace pickups) and my Ibanez EX (old '80's heavy metal typ guitar) running through my VOX Pathfinder with a big stereo Crate amp as a speaker cabinet. I do wish it had a little more bottom to it, but it has this great cut to it. Single notes sound authoritative and menacing. I'd say it's better for lead than for rhythm. I got it because I'm a big Radiohead fan and I like the sound of their Rats, so I thought I'd try one. Overall pretty good sounding, if not little dirty (it's a true dirt box).

I've only had it 2 days, can't tell yet. It's lasted 2 days at least.

Haven't had to deal with them and hopefully never will.

Overall I really like it. I wish it had a little more bottom to it like I said before, but it'll do. I'd love to see this thing and a Big Muff combined. I've been playing guitar for about six years and have tried many distortion pedals, and generally don't like them. I have an old Boss DS-1 that, if I had some explosives, I'd blow it up. I can't wait to try the Rat out with my band. This is a convenient, neat little pedal.

Well it's got the three little knobs and it's a stomp box it's pretty well obvious how it works. The hardest part is putting a battery in after that your home free. I bought mine used and it came with no instructions (which were not really needed anyways) and i'm doing just fine.

Well i'm using a shitty (10") peavey amp with a fender strat. The amp sucks, but i basically feel the rat helps cover up the faults of the amp. it can be noisy i guess with the wrong settings, but it is distortion right? and i've played it on better amps which greatly improve it's performance. The distortion is great, and with some tweaking you are also able too match almost any sound with it's great range (you won't hear the end of that from me). I mean with a dunlop crybaby and the rat's tone turned to low and distortion turned down you can get a fat wha sound. And lastly i feel that overall it far surpasses the boss distortion DS-1 (the K.C. pedal)

I bought it used, and it looked kind of old when i got it, but i've had a year with it and no problems so far. it seems to be really tough and also matches up to the durability of boss pedals. I don't really Gig just jam but if i did i would deffinitley pack this along with my gear. It's part of my guitar now.

Couldn't tell you i've never dealt with pro co yet bought if there employees are as reliable as the pedal then they probably rule too.

I've been playing for four years. I mostly play classic and modern rock but it will even give you the loose high toned ska sound. If it were stolen or lost...which I wouldn't let happen, but anyways if it did i would be very disapointed and of course i would replace it. It rulez. Again what i like is the tone and ranges of distortion. From soft and mellow to grinding noise with feedback. The favorite feature of mine is probably the simplicity of it. A good addition is the rat logo and print on it will glow in the dark for a while if you have the lights on then turn them off. Even though i was.... well still am a huge nirvana fan Yeah again i feel it surpasses the boss DS-1 (and for like 3/4 the price or something). The only other gear i own is the zoom 505 which serves the purpose of exposing a guitarist to a lot of different effects at once for a low price, but every one knows how multi effect dist. is right? Ok Anything i wish it had Ummm yeah i wish it had a built in lazer light show and a stun gun that zapped me and made me a better guitarist and i wish it flew around...Of course not it is the shit. I hope Pro Co doesn't modify it in anyway. And Yep it helps me make a lot of music, noise, or whatever you want to call it. Everyone who plays a style that requires distortion or a variety of tone or thicknesses should own one!!

The Vintage Rat Is very easy to use. It only has 3 knobs that do exactly what they say the filter knob has to be turned down all the way with the distortion on high. With the distortion low, it sounds best with the filter mid way.

I use some crappy solid--state 1x8 combo and considering the sucky amp, the pedal sounds great. But when I first bought it, it sounded very buzzy and unclear. But I bought a 6-band eq that makes this my favorite distortion thus far. ProCo did great with this pedal

I bought this thing used and the guy had it for a long time, Not one scratch on this puppy. It is very thick! The same battery is still going too.

Haven't had to call ProCo.

I play a wide variety of rock. Some metal, some Led Zeppelin\Ac\DC rock, all kinds of stuff and this pedal sounds good no matter what you like. However, if you have a sorry amp and you dont have a EQ, you might not like it. The EQ gives it some serious depth and more highs.

Three knobs Distortion, Filter, and Volume. Plug in, twiddle the knobs until you find a tone you like (shouldn't take more than a couple seconds), and wail!

I am running a Michael Dolan '62 Jazz Replica to a Demeter preamp powered by a Carvin DCM 1000 (great amp for the money) to a SWR Goliath II. The tone of the pedal is awsome. I used to run it with Distortion at two o'clock, Filter at either ten or two o'clock (depending on the song), and Volume at twelve or two o'clock (I don't need too much more gain). Lately though I have been using a bit of an extreme setting I call WorldWar III. Distortion and Filter full bore and Volume at twelve or two o'clock. This setting melts paint off of walls! For you guitar players, if you need lots more gain it is in there in spades.

I confidently use it without a back up. I have yet to encounter any problems with this pedal. It is built to last in the USA, not the pacific rim like some of the other big name pedals out there.

I have had no need to deal with ProCo. From what I have heard they have a reputation of excellent customer service, which is reassuring.

Being a bass player, it was nearly impossible to get a good distortion/fuzz tone. I started out trying the Boss Bass Overdrive, but it sucked out too much of my tone...strike one. I then tried the Boss Metal Zone. I though that a three band eq would help, but like the overdrive it butchered my tone...strike two. At that point I was fed up with Boss, but my singer had a simple Boss Distortion pedal he was kicking around so I gave it a shot. Needless to say it leeched my tone as bad as the other pedals...strike three. Boss, you're out! My friend recommened a couple of pedals to check out, "The Rat" and the "Big Muff Pie". With the Rat he told me to stick to the Vintage model, and I would find what I was looking for. I had heard of both of these pedals before, but had never really considered them because of their silly names. The first one I tried was the Rat, and I was blown away! There was the tone I had been searching for! I tried the Big Muff, but it was too woofy, plus it was bigger and ugly as sin. Needless to say I bought the Rat new for half the price of one of the boss pedals and have been happy since.

Hmmm, 3 knobs, just mess about with the gain and the filter to work out how they work together and thats about it.

I use a L/H Fender USA Strat with 10's, through a Fender Ultimate Chorus (on the gain channel with the amp-gain down low, with the RAT the clean channel sounds dreadful, altough I could possibly see some use for it).
For distortion I use a DOD FX-53 Classic Tube, cranked up to the max with the tone turned a bit to the lower end, into the RAT with gain set to the max and the filter usually from about 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock.
This is an absolutely gorgeous, on its on it provides a nice thick distortion, from understated through to balls to the wall nastiness. Definately one of the best I've tried. I mainly use the DOD (a bit crap on its own) to add extra volume, harmonics and a nice lower end undertone to the sound. Altough using it like this can get a bit noisy the RAT sound is still stamped all over it.

No chance of knocking it or breaking it with that box.

The RAT is a lovely well rounded box with lots of nice sounds in it, I've had some nice bluesy sounds all the way up to Smashing Pumpkins fuzz, and I'll probably use it for a long time to come.

Foot button, 3 knobs...if ya can't figure it you are the knob...even a monkey could figure it out...difficult if you had a labotomy I guess...

I am using this with an "ok" Crate VC20...the sound that comes out of the Rat is superb...Ii have a couple of Boss pedals and this is by far quieter than any of my Boss pedals. Elastica uses this pedal with their Teles and I can get that kind of sound...good deal of a pedal

Built like a tank...

Overall this was a good deal...more expensive where I ordered it from, but it came with an AC adapter and a kick ass 10' cable. I would definatly get this pedal again if something happened to it.

easy, unless your stupid or something. If you cant use this pedal there is something wrong with you!

sounds great to me. little to no noise. I normaly set the dist @ 2 the tone @ 10 and the Vol @ 9. The only reason I set the tone @ 10 is because I'm runnin it into a 76 Marshal JMP Super lead on the hi channel and it's real bright. What I like most is that you can turn down yr vol on guitar and it cleans up, so I normaly leave it on at all times. This is the only distortion pedal I use regularly. I have a red lama, black dog, ans a few boss distrtions, but they all rob my tone more than the vintage rat. I love this pedal

back up? I don't need no stinking back up this is the definition of a reliable pedal

n/a

I play sonic death type noise art pop and it's perfict for dirt. If you dig Foo Fighters you can get that tone, radio head whatever this pedal is great for all music. I'm not saying it's for everyone but it's a great distortion pedal, i'd recomend it for sure rock on

There are three pots (Distortion, Filter, and Volume). It is easy to use and sounds cool. Unless you are retarted, you will not have any problems operating this.

This sounds unique like no other distortion pedal. It gets kinda noisy when you crank it up.

My friend had one and it crapped out.....but mine is fine.

This pedal is cool and if you want to be an originator and not sound like anyone else, get one. They sound really cool.

Tree knobs. Very difficult.

In my opinion, the best ProCo pedal. I use it with Fender guitars (single coil) and the sounds are fat and juicy. Good harmonics. This pedal actually can be made to sound similar like one of the new Sovtek Big Muff's. It's a little smoother and clearer sounding with less low end than a Big Muff, but it will cut better through the mix. When playing in a band, the low end of the Big Muff is too much anyway.

No probs.

Never needed.

I buyed this one as a replacement for my Big Muff who went broke. Would buy it again. Cool pedal with cool sounds.

best with humbuckerz, very blendy sound, smooth, loud, searing, heavyer trudging sound. The Melvins use(d) it so does Helios Creed in Chrome reunion tour(this guy has all knobs cranked up completly!) as do many many bands. the distortion kinda takes over your amp/guitar sound ..but if you have a sh*ty rig...IT'S GREAT

I bought mine used then played it every day for 8 years eventually the foot switch broke through 'cause i would always be stompping on it to turn it on or off comparing my sound and since it has no led light...Is it on? Bring a screwwdriver w/u on tour to change the battery - four big screws on bottom

na

With only three knobs, this is really a pretty easy set up. I found, however, that the Filter (tone attenuator) takes some getting used to.

Les "This one goes to eleven." Les Paul Custom thru RAT thru 2 TS-9 reissues into 66 Bassman with 4x10 Marshall cab. I keep everything set a 1 o'clock. The RAT is a bit noisy, but that seems to be the nature of distortion pedals. This is a very strong sounding unit, gets my Bassman sounding very "Marshally". If you don't go to the extreme with the settings the character of your axe still comes through. If you dime it, it doesn't much matter which guitar you play (character's gone, pedal takes over). When I first experimented with this it, I kept the filter rolled down to about 11 o'clock - big beefy plexi tone! When I started using the RAT with my band I found that I had to turn the filter up to 1 o'clock get thru the mix. I just saw a video of my band recently, and from what I heard, looks like I should bump the filter up just a wee bit more. I don't care for the RAT with my strat. To my ears it works better with full sized humbuckers. Gary Moore tones lurk within this baby, as do the more gained out sounds of 80's shred.

Absolutely dependable. I've used this pedal on countless gigs without backup!

Never needed.

Overall I'd give this an 8. I play blues, and don't really use the pedal more than twice a night during a 4 hour gig. For the price, yea, I'd get it again. It's cool to be able to have all that gain even if it's only used occassionally. Also, I dig how I can get that Marshall tone out of my Bassman. Wish it had an led indicator, but to be truthful, you'll know when this baby's on. I hate the battery compartment. Have to use an allen wrench to open it. While distorto guitar is not my bread and butter, this delivers when I need that tone. (got to admit - it's kinda fun to slam a chord or hang a note with the RAT engaged).

Three knobs: Distortion, Filter, and Volume. The Filter knob is so named because it cuts high freqs as you turn it up. Can't get much simpler. There is no on/off light because this unit has true bypass switching. In other words, when it's off, your signal is completely unaffected. Anyway, if you need a light to tell you whether or not this thing is on, you need an audiogram.

A good example of this box can be found on Jeff Beck's "People Get Ready" solo. Yes, it certainly is killer. For me, this box sounds best with American (Fender or Boogie) style amps. I use a G&L ASAT, and this box adds just the right amount of bite to an otherwise even, Fendery sound. Single coils and British (EL34) amps don't seem to mix as well with this unit as, say, a VoodooLab Overdrive. A PRS McCarty model sounds great with a RAT and a 50 watt Plexi, though. I guess the extra beef from the guitar makes all the difference. It isn't very noisy at all.

The pots and stomp switch seem stocky enough, and I've dropped this unit about 100 times. No problems. I'm only giving it a 9, because I haven't had it very long, so I've yet to run over it with the van.

I have no experience with customer support. I've had this unit for a year with no problems.

I think this is my favorite distortion box ever. The only other box I've got that I use as much is my Voodoo Overdrive, which is also killer, but sounds better with Marshall-style amps. Great tones, the price is right. Wow.

There's only three knobs (distortion, filter & volume) and a button to stomp on, so you can't get lost. When I asked the guy in the shop what 'filter' did, he said all this shit about sound conouring and stuff. It works a bit like a tone control. It could take a few minutes to work out what settings will get the sound you want, but after that it's really really easy. Lose one mark for no LED to say when it's on :(

I'm using it with a Washburn guitar (two singles and a hummer) and a shitty solid state amp with no mid control. This thing's *really* quiet compared to nearly every other pedal. The distortion on it is an absolutely wonderful thing. One of the things I found on a lot of other boxes were that the distortion was a bit too edgy. When I was trying it in the shop I had all the distortion pedals lined up together and this one was by far the best sounding. It's really versatile as well. I can make it sound (sort of) bluesy and (just about) metal-ee, but I mostly use it for a Radiohead sound (which is easy to get because Jonny Greenwood uses it).

I would throw this at a brick wall. And it would probably break :) But it seems a lot more reliable than nearly any other pedal.

Nope. Dunno.

I like playing a whole range of things (mostly RH) and it covers nearly every style I can think of. I was originally thinking of buying an MT-2 (the huge array of knobs tricked me into thinking that it could make more than three noises...) but this beat it by a long shot. It's really good for the money, as it's much cheaper than a lot of other pedals. And it sounds better too. It could do with a little LED light, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem sticking one it myself.

This thing's as easy as it gets. 3 simple, intuitive controls (Distortion, Filter and Volume) and a bypass switch. Plug in and Go! One interesing and quirky note - the knobs operate backwards from what you'd expect. You roll them counterclockwise to increase the intensity of each control.

This thing has it's own vibe. It dosen't try to sound like something else. Smooth, yet gutteral tone. I think it can get too tinny sounding on occaision, which is easily remedied by rolling down the filter.

Very Reliable. You could probably throw it against the wall and it would be fine. Just don't lose the screw that holds the battery cover on.

Very friendly. I sent it back once for some problem I thought it had, so they checked it out but didn't find anything wrong with it. They promptly sent it back to me and even threw some Tootsie Rolls in the box!

I always seem to be looking for a variety of distortion tones to have avilable to me. I use a Mesa/Boogie Mark III as my main amp, and when I compare the Rat to the Boogie's lead tone, the Rat sounds kind of one-dimensional. But I don't really think that's a fair comparison. Like I said before, the Rat definitely has it's own thing going for it . I consider it a positive flavor for any electric guitarists sonic pallete.

Three knobs, self-explanatory. Distortion must be 1/3 up or more to get any volume out of it. This pedal doesn't complement vintage Fender amps well--use it with anything else.

I've used mine to get some great sounds on tape. The filter knob is the coolest thing--I keep it way up most of the time for a sound that blends well. Lower filter settings at higher distortion sound more like fuzz than distortion. At higher volume and distortion settings, I get this great volume "sag" on my attack. If you really sting a note, it will hit, drop quickly in volume, then swell back up. I also get some pretty convincing octaves with the neck pickup of my Legacy and the guitar tone all the way down.

It's a solid hunk of metal. Take care you don't lose the bolt that holds the battery compartment in.

Who knows? I'd probably buy another one if mine broke, since I've had it for five years. I could always use the switch, enclosure, and jacks for a homemade pedal, too. In fact, it seems ideal for that application (I wonder if proco sells blank enclosures??)

Stomp on, Stomp Off. Three knobs - distortion, filter, and volume. Everything's easy to hit, you could even do the knobs with your feet if you had to.

Even with single coil pickups, this unit is still relatively quiet. Adjusting the 'filter' knob minimizes noise.
With my strat in neck pickup position, tone turned all the way down on the guitar, distortion all the way up on the rat, filter all the way up, volume at about 11 o'clock, and my amp's reverb cranked, this sounds _exactly_ like the lead guitar in Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns n' Roses.

I can't tell if this one's actually metal like the original vintage rat, and the smaller rat pedal, but the battery door is fastened with a hex nut, the stomp switch looks very sturdy. The knobs are large, and attached to pots with fairly large shafts. This doesn't look like something that would break during normal use.

Haven't had any problems requiring this yet.

Not a bad device. Much better than the "RockTek" it replaced.

3 Knobs. (Volume, Filter, Distortion) Can't get much simpler than that. Filter is cool- adjust for mids.

Good for lead work when distortion is past 12 o'clock. Might be better for humbucking pickup- I have single-coils only.

Built like a tank.

Hasn't died yet.

Again, great for lead work. You might want to find something for rhythm work (brittle or dead at lower levels of distortion). If you want to sound like Doug Martsch (Built to Spill), this is it.