RAT pedals

Clay · Guitar God Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Earth

I am a bass player at heart but have recently found work playing guitar and without a lot of guitar equipment or money I faced tough decisions about what amp/effects setup to go with. I tried a few affordable multi effects units but none really sounded that great or seemed user friendly enough to use at gigs. After several stomp box sampling sessions I ended up going with a RAT pedal mainly for lead boost. Funny how it works best with the distortion backed off and the level on high... it boosts your volume for leads without drastically changing your sound and it enhances the amps distortion rather than changing your tone. Most distortion and volume pedals that I tried were hard to manipulate and consistant tone for lead boosts were non existent until I tried the Rat pedal.

Deadman · Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 6:03 am Post subject:

I've always fancied a RAT but I use my overdrive button on my amp as a general rule.

Graham Coxon used one on Blur's 'Song2'. You definitely have a proven RAWK distortion there Clay!

Skybone · Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 11:39 am Post subject:

I really liked the "Vintage RAT" for it's gnarly vintagey distortion/OD colouration of my guitar sound, especially with the volume maxed into an already distorted/breaking up amp (high volume/medium gain). Uber nasty.

I ended up getting a "boutique" fuzz pedal earlier this year because the RAT was really limited in the EQ (Filter) section, as the sound was becoming muddy. I think that this was a mixture of mid-biased pickups and Vintage30's, but I had to retire my trusty RAT.

I'll NEVER sell it though...

dosmun · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:41 am Post subject:

I have a Rat History page I made if anyone is interested.

http://webpages.charter.net/daosmun/

Mole Man · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:30 am Post subject:

Ahhh, the Rat pedal - how those 1980's memories come flooding back! Although I never actually owned one myself for some strange reason though.

Strangest application I ever saw for one of these was for Gerry Hogan (pedal steel player in Albert Lee's band). Sounded great!

Best regards,
Darren/Mole Man
_________________
Moling around...

Ozeshin · Guitar God Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 2076

Here in Australia RAT pedals were mostly marketed to the punk/grunge guys rather then metal.
They always seemed to abrasive to my ears...too 70's fuzzbox-like as opposed to the more popular Tube screamers of the day.

leadguitar_323 · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:21 pm Post subject:

I'll have to disagree with you on this one Oze, the original RAT pedal was the best distortion pedal i ever owned. I used it with my old Jackson super strat and it could melt cast iron..

Not fuzzy at all, wished i had never sold it.

Mick
_________________
so many guitars....so little money...