ProCo Rat - any good?

AlexC

Thanks for all the advice/comments so far, people. This is interesting....

siraxeman

bingefeller said:

You should consider the Mooer Black Secret before spending a lot of money on the actual Rat 2.  They are supposed to sound pretty much the same.  

They absolutely do...i had both and the mooer does the turbo rat as well...so 2 for less than the price of one. Thing is though I'm not a huge fan and since sold both. I did keep the rat2 longer though ie sold the mooer 1st because dem lilmooer pedals ffootprint is too small sometimes to sit securely on a PT-2 board.


El

mike_l

One of the few dirty boxes I cannot get on with. 

LaCathedrale_UK

OK so the Black Secret from Amazon turned up this morning and I'm very satisfied. £45 delivered next day (infact, I posted in this thread just after I ordered it).

One thing that surprised me was how it DIDN'T work well at all with my amp's overdrive in a solo setting. As can be expected it rips out a good chunk of the bottom end when it goes into a drive channel, and by nature the sound gets quite choked up on itself. 

On the other hand, going into the clean channel was absolutely sublime - it's rough and aggressive and certainly has a very specific character. The sustain was great and diming all of the controls was still a lovely warm sound. Putting my klone infront gave it alot more bottom end (but the same character when applied to the drive channel, for better or worse)

It was only when I came to render this to MP3 I realised I had my delay on, but hopefully you can get an idea of a tonal character:

All dials at noon 0:00-0:25
Turbo mode engaged 0:25 to 00:50 (massive spike in volume)
Into the dirty channel on my amp 1:08 to 1:90
All knobs dimed for just sodding around 1:19 to end

https://clyp.it/nndqzwcb (please note, just sodding around!)

siraxeman

^^I'd say the RAT types are always best into a clean or crunchy amp...never into a solo'd up screaming amp....that'd be overkill.

JCA2550

If I remember correctly, the first Foo Fighter's album almost all the distorted and crunch guitars we're Gibson with humbuckers > Rat > Fender Twin?

AlexC

WilliamAyerst said:

OK so the Black Secret from Amazon turned up this morning and I'm very satisfied. £45 delivered next day (infact, I posted in this thread just after I ordered it).

One thing that surprised me was how it DIDN'T work well at all with my amp's overdrive in a solo setting. As can be expected it rips out a good chunk of the bottom end when it goes into a drive channel, and by nature the sound gets quite choked up on itself. 

On the other hand, going into the clean channel was absolutely sublime - it's rough and aggressive and certainly has a very specific character. The sustain was great and diming all of the controls was still a lovely warm sound. Putting my klone infront gave it alot more bottom end (but the same character when applied to the drive channel, for better or worse)

It was only when I came to render this to MP3 I realised I had my delay on, but hopefully you can get an idea of a tonal character:

All dials at noon 0:00-0:25
Turbo mode engaged 0:25 to 00:50 (massive spike in volume)
Into the dirty channel on my amp 1:08 to 1:90
All knobs dimed for just sodding around 1:19 to end

https://clyp.it/nndqzwcb (please note, just sodding around!)

Thanks for that. Sounds like a decent pedal.

Cirrus

JCA2550 said:

If I remember correctly, the first Foo Fighter's album almost all the distorted and crunch guitars we're Gibson with humbuckers > Rat > Fender Twin?

Think it was an AC30, but yeah, pretty much all Rat. It's a killer combo as long as you can run it loud enough.

english_bob

bingefeller said:

You should consider the Mooer Black Secret before spending a lot of money on the actual Rat 2.  They are supposed to sound pretty much the same.  

ENO Myomorpha is the same pedal, but even cheaper, isn't it?

FWIW, a RAT is probably a good option if you're thinking about having a go at DIY. Not too complicated, open to lots of mods, and you get a classic dirt pedal. BYOC and Fuzzdog both have kits for RATs with diode switching.

ewal

I've got a DIY Rat and a Black Secret. I use the DIY Rat for a low-gain very slightly overdriven always on sound. I was starting to have doubts whether it was the best pedal for this because it cuts the low end more than other OD's. However I then realised that's part of why I like the sound, because it means I can use the neck pickup and it combines well with other distortions/fuzzes without getting muddy. I use the Black Secret as a post delay distortion a la the suggestions for shoegaze/post-rock, however it very rarely gets used.

AlexC

Looking on-line I'm seeing I can get the Rat for about £60 and the Mooer for about £48 - which is pointing me towards the Rat TBH.

LaCathedrale_UK

The only reasons I went with the Black Secret was that it's smaller, and I have a small pedal board, and that it has a toggle for regular and turbo rats.

steer

The dirt cheap ebay Little Bear Rats from China are pretty decent, if you want a rat for  less doh. Like the Mooer, they have a 3 way switch for different modes. I think including postage mine was less than £20. 

LaCathedrale_UK

In the interests of transparency, after playing this for the last 48 hours I decided to return it - luckily with Amazon Prime that's no big deal. Ultimately I found that it had a really singing sustain, but I didn't enjoy the fuzzstortion or the fuzz particularly, and the dirty channel on my amp (marshall-alike) with a klon was much better for a driven/distorted sound.

shaunm

roberty said:

As @ICBM says it's very distinct. It's quite brash so I find it works well in energetic music, but not really in other situations

Edit: I have three including a deucetone if that's any kind of testimonial

John Scofield uses one on some quite slow music and it sounds great. The caveat being that he sounds excellent regardless as he is amazingly talented.