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Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 11:18 am
by BlindtoFaith
Just got an awesome Rat 2 reworked by Forrest. Fucking sounds so damn good. It has a 301 chip in I think and I bounced it against my 308 rat....not fucking diffrence. The one Forrest reworked sounded clearer and less fizzy though. I attribute that to the improved components.
I love the Rat circuit. I must have about 4 or 5 rats and clones at the moment. Is the Hartman 308 distortion based tightly to the Rat? I need to try one.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:19 pm
by Gone Fission
I'm still on my big box reissue with 308 that I got 19 years ago. Corksniffery says it's not quite the same as the originals, bt once I "got" the Rat, it has become indispensable. Smaller on the board would be nice, and a Boss-type power jack would be a hair more convenient, but there's nothing I don't love about the sound, from cleanish boost through overdrive through all ranges of distortion.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:51 pm
by culturejam
Glad you like it!
I fired it up just before I packed it up just to make sure it was 100% functional (you never know). And after like 20 minutes of "testing", I was like, "Fuck, I don't want to get rid of this."
It really comes down to the op amp. I replaced all the resistors and most of the caps with the same values but "nicer" parts, but I couldn't hear a difference. But swapping op amps was the ticket.
Damn, I just realized I forgot to include the other op amps for you to test out.

Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 2:18 pm
by theavondon
I'm on my third Rat variant. The Rat Tail really is quite amazing. but, then again, you can't go wrong with any of them, in my opinion.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 2:39 pm
by bigchiefbc
I've only played a newer rat 2 and a turbo, and dug the turbo far far more. That was a really cool ped.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 2:56 pm
by Adoom
Tommy from the band has a Turbo Rat, and when he first started trying to use it with my Laney, I hated it. Really, really hated it. But he'd been plugging it into an old Line 6 spider or something, and hadn't tweaked it atall. I think he's using it more as a boost with a just touch of drive now, the rare times it's on.
Sounds much nicer.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 4:19 pm
by Zounds Perspex
I need a radd Rat of some kind.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 9:10 pm
by coldbrightsunlight
Friend of mine has used one as his main distortion for years and he always sounds good when he plays live, so I've wanted to try one out with my rig for aaaages but haven't got around to it. One of these days...
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 10:25 pm
by Gone Fission
I think the Turbos are still American made, with better component quality than the current 2s. I understand the difference from the traditional Rats is that the clipping diodes are LEDs and that a cap value is different. Yeah, and if recent, it's not the lm308 anymore.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 12:07 am
by Toonster
Turbo Rat on bass, tried it a few times, awesome!
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 12:23 am
by devnulljp
I finally caved a year or so ago and got an 85 WF Rat with the LM308 in it -- thing sounds killer.

Re: Rat love
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 12:27 am
by Mudfuzz
I need to get another rat one of these days...
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 2:07 am
by Engine Boy
i've never played a RAT, but would like to someday.
Re: Rat love
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:10 am
by culturejam
Engine Boy wrote:i've never played a RAT, but would like to someday.
The Rat is the Big Muff of 80s distortion tones.

Re: Rat love
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:54 am
by the Life Aquatic
how is the rat tail from fuzzrocious compare to a proco rat? cant seem to decided on getting a rat or a clone. rat tail looked good