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I owned few RAT based pedals: BSRI Audio SFG, Earthbound Audio Iron Pig and Deathmaster.
Of all these I've kept only the SFG, because it sounds more modern than a normal RAT would (it has a 2 band shelving EQ and a super cool clean blend you may also use as a clean booster).
Iron Pig was also cool, many options and tweaks available, very vintage to my ears (when compared with the SFG).
But the RATs have such a peculiar way to distort that I don't personally like so much.
I find them to be super nice at low gain, but when you crank up the gain to me it sounds to rough and "sputtery". I better like HM2 or Big Muff, which tend to be more versatile and fluid.

Yeah, you like the Rat roughness or you don’t. And the bass cut accentuates it, and if you overdo the filter you lose a lot of detail and still don’t fully nuke the edge. The roughness makes them a gateway fuzz for some people, kind of a Tight Fuzz before there was a Tight Fuzz. But, like you say, some fuzzes will get you into smoother sounds much more easily. (Bog standard silicon Fuzz Faces will do that for me.)

But all of this and the massive output make them an infinitely better overdrive than a Tube Screamer.

I've been using one for maybe 20 years. Everytime I wanna try something else, I just end up putting it back on the board. I still find it a bit too rough, or harsh, but as soon as you're playing with a band, not so much. It cuts through the mix like nothing else. It's one of the rare pedals that is worth having around, whether you're crazy about it or not, cos it will always come in handy somewhere along the way.

Christophe wrote:I've been using one for maybe 20 years. Everytime I wanna try something else, I just end up putting it back on the board. I still find it a bit too rough, or harsh, but as soon as you're playing with a band, not so much. It cuts through the mix like nothing else. It's one of the rare pedals that is worth having around, whether you're crazy about it or not, cos it will always come in handy somewhere along the way.

Thats my take on it, just to have the sound in a pedal format would help my creative juices flow.

So much good information!

Sad I am going to have to trade and let something go to have space for one

I've been using a Rat based pedal as my primary distortion (iron pig) for like 10 years and while I love it most of the time I do find myself battling against the sag quite a bit. Which is funny, cuz I think most Rat fans seem to really dig the sag. To me it smooths out the pick attack too much and reduces the aggression.

The Black Mass 1312 is the Rat I'm using most. It has a variety of clipping options and sounds good at many different settings. It's small with a soft touch footswitch and not too expensive.
https://blackmasselectronics.com/produc ... distortion
ACAB

John Matrix wrote:I've been using a Rat based pedal as my primary distortion (iron pig) for like 10 years and while I love it most of the time I do find myself battling against the sag quite a bit. Which is funny, cuz I think most Rat fans seem to really dig the sag. To me it smooths out the pick attack too much and reduces the aggression.

This is my take right here! I find the sag hard to deal with. The tone is great though.
I know that Morbid Angel tone (shut up, it exists and I think it's killer) is just a Rat slamming a Marshall, and that big bass cut is a key in getting that to happen. But that's not the sort of set up I have, so I live in the sag problem zone.

Let me know if you want a good Rat - I owe you a pedal

vidret wrote:I don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I think the rat filter sucks. It's so incredibly dull.

I love my Rat, but it strikes me you’re not wrong about the filter. That’s why I keep it pretty open—too much just kills any distinct character or note definition.

So a different tone or eq scheme makes sense. But that gets me thinking about something like the CBA filter/tone circuit that’s in the Bliss Factory, which switches from a pretty normal sweep through a mildly resonant two-pole to a very resonant four-pole—it seemed meh at announcement but it’s a powerful tool. So filter-less Rat into a multi-mode filter could be interesting.

Rat+hm2 eq is likely fun

Jero wrote:Rat+hm2 eq is likely fun

i think the drunk beaver is this plus an ordinary hm-2 switchable

Pretty sure Dunn makes a Rat with an HM-2 eq.

goroth wrote:Pretty sure Dunn makes a Rat with an HM-2 eq.

I meant to say, sounds like something Dunn would make