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.