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Soooooo, I just got a spotless, beautiful, vintage rat big box reissue that doesn't have the lm308n chip, which was a 50/50 crapshoot when I traded for the pedal. I only tested it out briefly on my home setup and I love the way it sounds. Is there going to be that much of a difference in swapping out the chip for a 308? I don't have much soldering experience but I wouldn't want to do amateur work on something like this, but I know a guy who could do it for me on the cheap. It's not the money or the time, it's just.... does it make that much of a difference?

I just don't know if this is a case of the emperor's new clothes (but... teh CHIPZ!! I must have TEH CHIPZ!!!!!!) or it's really significant. I'll test it out at my space a few times stock before I decide anything of course, it's more like a morbid curiosity than anything else.

If you don't think you need it, don't bother -- that said, there is definitely an audible difference.

If you like the sound as-is (is this your first rat?) there's not much of a need.
I think some of the other mods will give you more mileage for the effort

If you like the sound as-is (is this your first rat?) there's not much of a need.
I think some of the other mods will give you more mileage for the effort

if you arne't too used to soldering and decide to do IC stuff, I suggest soldering in a socket

Not my first rat - I've previously had a rat2 on loan for years, a Mooer black secret I flipped and I currently rock a dirge rat on my bass board. I've got a friend who'll swap it out for me, I'm going to test it stock this weekend and then try it with the 308 after.....

Socket it!
That way, you can swap chips in and out!

If you had the Mooer then I think you heard the LM308, IIRC they come with that chip.

I've got the same big box reissue that had the same cheap chip. I did the socket mod and installed an lm 308 chip. With a/b tests I found the cheap chip had a quieter noise floor but the dirt sound was meh. The lm 308 chip had a little noisier noise floor but the dirt sound was a lot nicer.The slightly noisier lm 308 chip is the one I chose to keep in the end.