The RAT Thread

[metropolis_4]

The great thing about Rats is how versatile they are.

They sound great as a distortion, they sound great as a boost, and they sound great as a low gain overdrive too!

 

[PLX]

What mods?

I soldered in an 8-pin IC socket and auditioned all the OP amps that will work in that circuit:

-Motorola LM308AH (Motorola NOS metal can version)
-LM308N (National Semiconductor)
- LM301AN (National Semiconductor)
-TL071CP (Texas Instruments)
- LM741CN (Texas Instruments)
- NE5534P (Texas Instruments)

Ended up keeping the NOS Motorola Metal-Can LM308AH

I used non-standard diodes from what the ProCo RAT uses. After some trial and error trying different silicon types, I used 1N270 germaniums for a softer, more compressed sound.. same ones used in the MXR Distortion+

Installed the "Ruetz Mod" a.k.a "Sweep Control", which was an optional mod fabricated into the circuit board I sourced from AionFX.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, I'm using a TC Magus Pro, hence yet another Rat clone. I like it a lot and quite obviously, the three modes (classic, fat, turbo) make it even more flexible. Really covers a whole lot of ground and has become a stable on my board (fwiw, I kinda used to almost hate original Rats).
for €62 (new, I got mine for 35 used) you really can't do much wrong. Built quality is nice, jacks are on the top side, which I always prefer.

 

[kartikg3]

The great thing about Rats is how versatile they are.

They sound great as a distortion, they sound great as a boost, and they sound great as a low gain overdrive too!

Borderline fuzz even

 

[FuzzyAce]

RATs are life \m/

 

[FuzzyAce]

Borderline fuzz even

Most definitely.
Not trying to pimp a song or anything, just sharing a track I wrote last year using a stock RAT full bore into my DAW and using a Metallurgy 1960 cab IR, IIRC. All the fuzz-like tones are the RAT.

 

[kartikg3]

Most definitely.
Not trying to pimp a song or anything, just sharing a track I wrote last year using a stock RAT full bore into my DAW and using a Metallurgy 1960 cab IR, IIRC. All the fuzz-like tones are the RAT.

Love it!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Not trying to pimp a song or anything, just sharing a track I wrote last year using a stock RAT full bore into my DAW and using a Metallurgy 1960 cab IR, IIRC. All the fuzz-like tones are the RAT.

Hold on, are you saying there's no amp sim involved?

 

[FuzzyAce]

Hold on, are you saying there's no amp sim involved?

Yep. I cranked the distortion max (or almost) and the volume maxed, filter control to taste, into DI > DAW > Metallurgy Cab IR section only (no power amp sim).
Then added some slight EQ and post effects like delay and a subtle spatial plugin that gives a slightly phasey image in the mix. But the heart of the tone is all RAT.

edit: It's a fun tone, even though it gets flubby in a few sections -- but that's more on how I ran it. It sounds ratty.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Also @Sascha Franck , it was a totally unexpected tone. I tried it and thought "wow, this has a tube driver and a cool EJ fuzz thing going on". So that spawned the inspiration for the track and went fairly quickly.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Yep. I cranked the distortion max (or almost) and the volume maxed, filter control to taste, into DI > DAW > Metallurgy Cab IR section only (no power amp sim).
Then added some slight EQ and post effects like delay and a subtle spatial plugin that gives a slightly phasey image in the mix. But the heart of the tone is all RAT.

edit: It's a fun tone, even though it gets flubby in a few sections -- but that's more on how I ran it. It sounds ratty.

Yeah, sounds great. Will give it a testrun later on. Most often, not even some MIAB pedals yield proper results without running through a real amp or ampsim. I was actually hoping they would as my first foray into the land of hardware "modeling" was an AMT Pangaea, which back then was a plain IR loader (plus some EQ), but no dirt pedals really brought the sound up to life.
But your example, even if nothing like an "all day long for all jobs" kinda sound is really working nicely.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Yeah, sounds great. Will give it a testrun later on. Most often, not even some MIAB pedals yield proper results without running through a real amp or ampsim. I was actually hoping they would as my first foray into the land of hardware "modeling" was an AMT Pangaea, which back then was a plain IR loader (plus some EQ), no dirt pedals really brought the sound up to life.
But your example, even if nothing like an "all day long for all jobs" kinda sound is really working nicely.

Give it go, hope something works for you. I think it was a sort of happy accident. Running the RAT volume max really opened it up, but can't remember exactly where I had the filter set.
I should add the guitar was a partscaster with a PAF Pro in the bridge. That is all the main tones. Only the outro harmony guitars used the neck pickup (EJ neck). The bluesy breakdown lead section is not the RAT though. That was a stock Robben Ford preset in Helix Native, tweaked ever so slightly.

 

[jonathanthomas83]

Anyone tried a lil RAT and compare it to the big one?

 

[PLX]

Yep. I cranked the distortion max (or almost) and the volume maxed, filter control to taste, into DI > DAW > Metallurgy Cab IR section only (no power amp sim).
Then added some slight EQ and post effects like delay and a subtle spatial plugin that gives a slightly phasey image in the mix. But the heart of the tone is all RAT.

edit: It's a fun tone, even though it gets flubby in a few sections -- but that's more on how I ran it. It sounds ratty.

I've managed to get a decent sound out of a Friedman BE-OD clone I built by doing that trick.

Never tried it with a RAT pedal..

 

[Sascha Franck]

I've managed to get a decent sound out of a Friedman BE-OD clone I built by doing that trick.

I just fooled around with both the Magus (TC's rat clone, see above) and it's pretty nice. In some settings even as if the amp would get in the way of its fuzzy glory. Tried the BE-OD as well and it sounded rather meh. Maybe it needs another IR to work, but the Magus seems to work with pretty much anything. Quite interesting.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I've managed to get a decent sound out of a Friedman BE-OD clone I built by doing that trick.

Never tried it with a RAT pedal..

Give it spin! I will say that some post eq helps clean up some harsh frequencies a bit. Pretty sure I used the eq in the TH-U plugin but any are fine of course.

 

[PLX]

I just fooled around with both the Magus (TC's rat clone, see above) and it's pretty nice. In some settings even as if the amp would get in the way of its fuzzy glory. Tried the BE-OD as well and it sounded rather meh. Maybe it needs another IR to work, but the Magus seems to work with pretty much anything. Quite interesting.

The Neural DSP stuff is pretty great !

 

[FuzzyAce]

I just fooled around with both the Magus (TC's rat clone, see above) and it's pretty nice. In some settings even as if the amp would get in the way of its fuzzy glory. Tried the BE-OD as well and it sounded rather meh. Maybe it needs another IR to work, but the Magus seems to work with pretty much anything. Quite interesting.

I tried a power amp emulation at first go around too, but like you said -- it just got in the way. I think some careful eq and gain staging with the right speaker IR is enough to get good results.