What is 'THE' Rat sound?

[sopachrga]

I've never owned or even been in to the Rat pedals and all their variations.
Everyone always seems to compare the new versions to the original and judge them based on how close they are to it.

So what is this elusive original Rat tone? What songs/demos etc show it off the best?

[jeremyb]

I have an Eno one for sale for $30, does the modern and vintage Rat sounds

[aliasceiza]

That's not what he was asking...can't help either though...I've hated every rat pedal I've tried!

[jeremyb]

That's not what he was asking...can't help either though...I've hated every rat pedal I've tried!

For sure, but he could borrow it and try it out

[alanp]

Built a Rat in a 1590A once, Ironbird13 liked it. First pedal where he didn't automatically kick the gain up.

[Clanger]

Song 2 by Blur is a good example. When he feels heavy metal, and he's pins and he's needles.

All the rhythm on Kill 'Em All. Both Coxon and Hetfield using Marshall 1959's also.

There's a bunch of RAT clones/copies that probably do just as good'a job out there. I know JHS pedals mods the new ones to sound as good as the old ones if you send it in to them.

[sopachrga]

Hmm, interesting. Cant say either of those tones are of much attraction to me.
Seeing as I've never used or owned one, I often wonder if I'm missing out on something. Haha.

[jeremyb]

To post something useful, out of the stuff I like... early Radiohead (e.g. The Bends) Omar's guitar tracks on Relationship of Command, REM's Monster, Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing, pretty sure Nuno used one on the early Extreme albums

[sopachrga]

REM's Monster

hmm, that's a pretty cool tone. Wonder how much of it comes from post production though.

[TmcB]

To be honest, it's a funny old pedal. The first 1/3 on the dial is overdrive, the middle 1/3 is distortion, and the last 1/3 is fuzz.
I know the first Foo Fighters album is Rat into AC30, and Eric Johnson uses one in the way I'd use one. It's really compressed and can do a greasy hair metal sound but works really well at low gain levels into AC30's.

The main difference between the older Rats (big box, whiteface) and the newer rats (Rat II) is the midrange. There's a slightly different filter which makes the older Rats sound less gainy and have a more marshally midrange. The Rat II sounds more 'greasy' and hair-metal. It's not chalk and cheese though, they're pretty close.

The mooer/eno clones are excellent clones of the Rat II and if you were after a Rat I'd hit one of those first. If you were after the older Rat sound, try and find an early Big Box RI or buying You Dirty Rat, changing the diodes to silicon, changing the filter resistor to 1.5k, the compensation cap to 30p and maybe the RC caps to be tantalum. Or buy a Fat Rat.

[Mini Forklift]

...pretty sure Nuno used one on the early Extreme albums

He actually still uses a RAT as his main OD/distortion today. I've watched a few recent interviews with him, and with the exception of his amps his gear has changed very little over the last 25 years.

[MogwaiBoy]

'THE' Rat sound I would describe as...

Tight, crunchy gain in the lower ranges with a healthy midrange that gets looser as you wind it up and tops out at near heavy fuzz levels of compression and sustain. You can see why it's been used by such a huge diversity of bands and players because it's pretty flexible.

However, palm mutes at high gain just sound weird in that the attack is slightly spongey.

I've had a DIY Rat clone and a Mooer but they both paled in comparison to my 1980s vintage Rat. Shame that it needs an adapter to run off powersupply and it's a tonesucker too.

[jeremyb]

A rat into an AC30 is a glorious thing, but I couldn't get to grips with the eno clone I had, my AC15 wasn't that fond of dirt pedals tho'...

[druz15]

my AC15 wasn't that fond of dirt pedals tho'...

Wtf was wrong with it? Which model did you have.

AC15s and Dirt pedals are like sponge-baths and Claudia Schiffer, they just GO together

[jeremyb]

my AC15 wasn't that fond of dirt pedals tho'...

Wtf was wrong with it? Which model did you have.

AC15s and Dirt pedals are like sponge-baths and Claudia Schiffer, they just GO together

AC15C1, everyone says you need to clip the bright cap if you wanna use dirt pedals with it, which may be true... but....

I found fuzzes were ok, the musket was awesome thru it, but pretty much any OD's or Distortions I tried just sounded meh