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Gosh, I took out more drive pedals off from my board. I could get a nice chunky but smooth (non crackle) breakup tones from rolling back my guitar's volume knob for rhythm thing and crank it for louder parts of the songs.. you can really feel the energy of the distortion even on the low gain around 9 to 1 o'clock, and on higher gain it doesn't get fizzy since you don't lose the lows (fat switch : on) like in other Rats, even my previous whiteface reissue which kinda getting "thinner", I can only do so much by adding more filter. But it does still get to fuzz-like territory with the FR gain cranked, talking about versatility I can feel and hear the germanium-like fuzz characteristic in higher gain even without switching on the Mosfet switch, which they said it's combination of both germ & mosfet.

Boosting it with my arc klon for solo.. sounds fat and amazing! None of my previous Rats could do this good. Currently running on 18v for more headroom, and it doesn't get choked/compressed (in a weird way, like my turbo does) when it gets stacked with other drive pedals before it. And when I need just a nice and full sounding clean, I'll just deal with klon alone. Loving the super simple setup at the moment.

RATSHIT CRAZY UPDATE:

I have done more experimenting with the LM308N chip in the FAT RAT, and I'm finding that yes, it does make a more noticeable impact than I first thought. Granted, it is definitely quite subtle, but I am enjoying it more than the standard OP07 chip, so in it stays. There is no way it will make any discernible difference in a band mix, but that's okay, at least I don't feel like I wasted $5 on fucking snake oil. And, really, at this point in my extraordinarily subjective opinion not based in any sort of direct A/B comparisons, this is now the best sounding RAT I've ever come across. Is the IC mojo genuine?! The Shadow knows...

I also picked up a Whiteface reissue to compare FATTY McRATTY to, it will arrive soon. If they sound 99% the same I'll keep both just for kicks, but if it's more like 99.99745% then off the Whiteface shall wander! Because I prefer having a LED on my dirtshit. And hey, the optional Fat's Witch is a cool thing to have.

All that being said, I still regret selling my Beavis FKR.

Where did you get the 308 from? My ocd head exploded seeing bunch of them available in variants online, not to mention dozens of sellers out there.
By the way, did you guys notice any differences between the clipping switch? I noticed zero both in bedroom & loud band situation.

Hell yeah, compare them and report back. I'm more interested into a smaller '86 instead personally, but goddamn.. all this dirt quests has ended with this Fatty.

I just picked one up from eButt, tried to find the specific auction but it's gone now. Seemed to be a reputable source, and the devil in them details created better tone, so that is what counts. You can get one from Mammoth: http://www.mammothelectronics.com/LM308N-p/400-1096.htm

The MOSFET switch is definitely subtle, but I can hear it in a mix (barely). I keep it on STOCK instead, sounds slightly gnarlier. And I'm like totally into gnarly, dude.

Side note: there should be an electronics fair/festival called MOSFEST.

Interesting to hear that this sounds rad after the Klone! Usually rats sound like butt after a buffer! I wonder what it is about this one that is different...

ANOTHER THRILLING UPDATE!!!

Fat Rat with an LM308N does indeed sound incredibly close to a Whiteface reissue. Of course, no two fuxx thangs sound 100% the same, even those that are identical, but god dammit, these guys are pretty fucking close. Is that good? Is that bad? Neither, it is different. Wait, different is good! Okay, so it is good. Hooray!



That being said, there is some odd charm of the reissue that isn't quite there with the big boy, even if the tone certainly is. It of course begs the question why the hell I'm searching for mojo in a stupid RAT pedal, but hey, we all have our hobbies! If even I don't understand them, why would anyone else?

Update:

Okay, finally bought the 308 and swapped them out. I love the texture of the dirt even more, it is indeed noticeable in bedroom volume for now, I'll be off to practice with the band in few hours and give another feedback. One thing I didn't really like. Sounds like the tone range moved lower, I mean it's kinda less versatile. Don't get me wrong, even in the zero setting at 7 o'clock is usable this time, unlike the stock chip whereas we can get piercing sounding distortion when cracked all the way down: it's there when you need more bite.

With this 308, it's basically a sweet spot all over tone range from 7-12 o'clock, but once you pass 1 o'clock.. forget it. It's way too dark to the point of unusable. I might be back to the op07 since the stock fatrat was perfect. Stay in touch!

Meh, hated it. I switched it and went back to op07. It was just dull with the lm308n. Stock is awesomer & much more versatile.

Were you using the same settings with the Lm308n as you would have with the Op07 chip? I found when I swapped chips from the Op07 to the Lm308n the settings were different and needed to learn them all over again. I would never go back to the Op07. The Fat Rat is probably a much different circuit than my big box RI.

Forgot to mention, Firstly, I bought the chip from the reputable local seller, it was a nos American made National brand, if that matters at all.. not a sketchy Chinese ones although there might not be any difference whatsoever. This could be an endless discussion, but there might be differences in results on different brand of LM308N chips. I just chose not to sniff too hard on the cork and concern more about my band's materials instead

KaosCill8r wrote:Were you using the same settings with the Lm308n as you would have with the Op07 chip? I found when I swapped chips from the Op07 to the Lm308n the settings were different and needed to learn them all over again. I would never go back to the Op07. The Fat Rat is probably a much different circuit than my big box RI.

Totally different. With the 308, I couldn't get the Fatrat bright enough to bite and cut through even the filter was all the way down and my ideal of the op07 was merely at 11.30 o'clock. So the overall filter parameter was dragged down. But I gotta tell you one thing though just to be fair.. with op07, I dislike the stock (non fat) mode which is harsh and thin. The lm308n made the stock mode sound a lot better in a sense that it's warmer, slight better texture and usable whereas when I switched to the Fat mode, everything was duller. Not that the pedal turned into shit or anything, it's just not for the Fat mode imo. So I can see why ppl love the 308 on non Fatrat unit. Or it might just be a matter of taste, but I found out that the 308 was redundant when if you want a true Fatrat cos it's limiting the pedal's ability (filter range) in this updated version of Rat (fat mode) but again, it's just my opinion/taste. Your miles may vary but won't be too far off