Used to have an old non-led small box Rat. Loved it to bits, but I switched my then amp to a channel switching amp & figured out I don't need it & the Rat didn't really like that amp, so I let it go for good money. Now I'm back to single channel amp and I miss my Rat.
Haven't gotten into getting a new one yet, but have been thinking about a Turbo Rat.
"Sucker love I always find, someone to bruise and leave behind..."
Ok, found another one by the same guy that lets you hear the RAT a little more. Do keep in mind that it's the Dirty Rat and not the RAT 2. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUngARRaRLs[/youtube]
I'm just starting to explore Rats myself but what from what I have seen around the interwebs the Freakshow "brown rabbit" seems to be one of the better hand built variants. Nels has one on his board currently. Just something to look at. -T
My friend plays a Rat Turbo and it is one of the worst sounding pedals I have ever heard. It is incredibly tinny and for some reason it just gives off a bad vibe, maybe a mod would help it out. He claims that it's because of his amp and that it sounds great on his amplifier at home though. . .
The Turbo Rat is a weird one - I used to play it when I used a bass with active pickups (a Music Man Stingray) and it sounded great. Then I changed basses to a Fender Jazz w/passive pickups, and it sounded like crap. They seem like fairly sensitive beasties to me.
Tell-Electro wrote:My friend plays a Rat Turbo and it is one of the worst sounding pedals I have ever heard. It is incredibly tinny and for some reason it just gives off a bad vibe, maybe a mod would help it out. He claims that it's because of his amp and that it sounds great on his amplifier at home though. . .
Turbo needs a good tube amp,that's for sure...old style,that is.Dunno for bass,but for guitar I am yet to hear a better sounding od/dist/fuzz pedal. It's not in my over-the-top bag,but for my 'normal' dirt needs,it gets the job done...better than most dirt pedals I've tried over the years
I want to try the You Dirty Rat, I think it's supposed to do a pretty decent late 60s kind of garage rock sound. Otherwise, the Turbo Rat seems pretty awesome. I know Jonny Greenwood used one around The Bends era.
owned a vintage "the rat" from the 90's... I stinking loved it!! I played through all el84 amps. It rocked! You could nail early foo fighters. It's great for open chords too!
My friend's stoner metal band just recorded, and the bass tone was so rad, I had to ask what it was.......RAT. It did lack a bit of very lows, but the break-up sounded awesome. I bet with a low end mod or blend mod the Rat might be great for bass after all.
Last edited by sev on Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tell-Electro wrote:My friend plays a Rat Turbo and it is one of the worst sounding pedals I have ever heard. It is incredibly tinny and for some reason it just gives off a bad vibe, maybe a mod would help it out. He claims that it's because of his amp and that it sounds great on his amplifier at home though. . .
Turbo needs a good tube amp,that's for sure...old style,that is.Dunno for bass,but for guitar I am yet to hear a better sounding od/dist/fuzz pedal. It's not in my over-the-top bag,but for my 'normal' dirt needs,it gets the job done...better than most dirt pedals I've tried over the years
ok that makes sense then, he's always saying it's just the amp but we didn't really believe him.
my smile is stuck, i cannot go back to your frownland
Tell-Electro wrote:My friend plays a Rat Turbo and it is one of the worst sounding pedals I have ever heard. It is incredibly tinny and for some reason it just gives off a bad vibe, maybe a mod would help it out. He claims that it's because of his amp and that it sounds great on his amplifier at home though. . .
Turbo needs a good tube amp,that's for sure...old style,that is.Dunno for bass,but for guitar I am yet to hear a better sounding od/dist/fuzz pedal. It's not in my over-the-top bag,but for my 'normal' dirt needs,it gets the job done...better than most dirt pedals I've tried over the years
ok that makes sense then, he's always saying it's just the amp but we didn't really believe him.
I played a Turbo Rat with an active Carvin bass and a solid state peavey head, and it rocked my lame ass. I never really tried it with any other basses or amps, though.
I own a Turbo Rat and I absolutley ADORE it. When paired with a bassey tube amp and some humbuckers you can get a realy genuine 80s alt-rock/noise-rock sound out of it. It's no surprise Thurston Moore, Lee Ronaldo AND Kim Gordon all use Turbo Rats. You can also get a pretty decent trashy 70s punk sound out of it by turning the Filter all the way down and putting the distortion at about 10 o'clock.The Rat has a very particular sound and doesn't have a very wide sonic range, this why fans and haters of the Rat are so many. Of course there are also people (like my bandmates) that hate the Rat merely because of it's name.