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I have this old mxr distortion+ that the knobs only work from 1 o'clock on. Everything before that the pedal goes silent. Also running a transparent overdrive (v1 danelectro) and a rainger fx dwarf fuzz. Looking at a rat but unsure about the new ones.

Seen older rats with a Motorola chip? Are the new rats any good?

How about the new mxr distortions? Do they hold up?

Open to other pedals, hoping you guys and gals (if there are any here) will have some ideas.

The answer is always and forever:

The Elements.

A bit pricey. Sounds good though.

Dod Death Metal is cheap and sounds nice to me.

Elements can do it all.

The Elements is of course a go to, and has already been mentioned.
Death Metal is also great, but only for THAT sound, IMO, but does clean up reasonably well with the vol knob.
All the MXR stuff I've had has been solid. They are a bit heavy as the enclosures are steel. I don't really like the jacks, but that's a small nitpick.
Distortus Maximus is cool, and I happen to be building one.
I hear good things about the Dirty Little Secret.

What kind of stuff are you doing with said distortion?/What flavor of dist are you after?

They are a bit heavy as the enclosures are steel

Never crossed my mind that the physical weight of a pedal could ever be an issue.

How do they smell?

I'm personally not a huge rat fab, but depending on your rig and on what you stack it with, it can be an okay bang for the buck imo.

So to answer your question: The newer ones are fine imo, the actual tonal differences between any/all of the Rat versions aren't at all as big as a lot of forum bullshit makes em out to be. Having said that, if you insist on an lm308 rat...They're not impossible to find for normal used prices. There's ofcourse also a ton of tweaked/improved/hotrodded clones out there you could check...

Crowther Hot Cake.

Jero wrote:The Elements is of course a go to, and has already been mentioned.
Death Metal is also great, but only for THAT sound, IMO, but does clean up reasonably well with the vol knob.
All the MXR stuff I've had has been solid. They are a bit heavy as the enclosures are steel. I don't really like the jacks, but that's a small nitpick.
Distortus Maximus is cool, and I happen to be building one.
I hear good things about the Dirty Little Secret.

What kind of stuff are you doing with said distortion?/What flavor of dist are you after?

Heavy shoegazer type stuff. Very thick & layered. I have the mxr before my whammy (v1) and the overdrive & fuzz after.

spacelordmother wrote:The answer is always and forever:

The Elements.

osbornkt wrote:Elements can do it all.

Yeah. Do what needs to be done to get an Elements.

If you like the slightly more abrasive shoegaze toanz, I would go for a Rat and something else to A/B.
Elements can do it all, but Rats have a unique voicing/eqing/whatever that is awesome for boosting fuzz.

I flipped my Elements 'cuz I had too much dirt and I like the SS/BS crackle too much

now I'm thinking, what if the Elements had the crackle circuit...

would preorder SO HARD

Too much dirt