Master of Disaster -- The ProCo Rat Pedal

It's a beast of a distortion pedal, played by some true monsters: David Gilmour, Bill Frisell, Dave Grohl, Thurston Moore, Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg of Pavement, Ichirou Agata of Melt-Banana, Jerry Cantrell, Peter Buck, James Hetfield, Joe Perry, Kurt Cobain, and Nels Cline of Wilco. It turns innocent little chords into city-leveling behemoths. So why does the Rat get trashed by so many people? 

Over many years of gigging with a seriously loud power trio, I always had a Rat in my chain, and often it was the ONLY effect I used. The Rat sound is solid as granite yet not without bite, and if handled in the right way this little box yields tone without comparison. But you do have to know what you're doing. I have heard players who made a Rat sound really shitty -- weak-yet-harsh high mids and grainy distortion, so the pedal's shaky reputation does have some basis in fact. But don't pass this little sucker by. 

"This post is meant for those of you who are looking for a mammoth buzz without a lot of the usual scratchy bullshit, and have not yet discovered the stone-hammer simplicity of the Rat's sound."

The Right Way to Use The Rat, Part One

Before I began using this box, sometimes on the road I would come across other guitarists using a Rat in their set-up. It was from these experiences that I developed my out-of-hand hatred for the thing, because these otherwise fine guitar players were using their Rat to get a thin, harsh, whine. Finally, at an otherwise shitty show in Ohio, a dude named Adrian showed me the mistake so many others make: the problem stems from a design quirk involving the Rat's tone control. Most pedals (and amps, and quitars) feature a tone control that adds treble as you turn it to the right (clockwise). On the Rat, this is backwards: the tone control gets more trebly as you turn it to the left (counterclockwise). 

"The temptation to access all of that buzz is strong, but it's a constantly receding goal."

So I think what tends to happen is that your typical Rat user realizes the tone is too harsh, and tries to dial back the edge by turning the tone knob the usual way -- but all that's accomplished is ADDING treble to the sound. You need to crank that sucker to the right at least 3/4 of the way to lose the crappy hi-mid and start accessing the warm, heavy, power that the box has in spades. I put mine at about 3 o'clock, which gives my sound a heavy, warm, yet ripping tone. Add treble on your amp, or with a separate EQ, and you can get a little of the bite back without losing that sweet Rat vibe.

 

The Right Way to Use the Rat, Part Two

I soon discovered another another quirk of this pedal that needed to be controlled for optimum destruction: the available distortion goes way beyond what you or anyone else needs. It's like there's enough distortion in one box for three players. The temptation to access all of that buzz is strong, but it's a constantly receding goal. I learned the hard way that going all-in on the Rat's impressive distortion really just buried your signal under gauzy layers of fuzz to the point that there was no clarity and hardly any power. It was a sure-fire way to get instantly lost in the mix, especially in bigger clubs. 

It was at this point that other players on the bill started coming up to me to ask how I "got that sound."

I realized that the problem could be fixed by working with the original signal from the amp. Since the Rat's distortion does not play well with others, it's wise to just let it be the only source in the chain. This means finding a very clean, very punchy amp tone and letting the Rat do the rest. Instead of using the Rat to punch up a solo, then, I used it to get a really great default tone, and when I needed more gain I used the amp's foot switch to turn to a channel with some boost. It was at this point that other players on the bill started coming up to me to ask how I "got that sound." And I have to admit, it was pretty impressive -- heavy as hell but with an almost chime-y edge to it.

 

How the Rat Distortion Pedal Works

I've never been much of a gear geek -- I rarely use many effects pedals other than the Rat, and once in a while a Crybaby wah wah pedal. But according to those who know, the Rat uses a simple circuit built around a pre-amp called the LM308. Some people think the 1980s version of the Rat was the best, but I can't tell a huge difference in the more recent ones. It was invented in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1978 by a couple of gear-heads who were modding existing effects pedals and decided to create one of their own. They made ONLY TWELVE of the first Rat pedal, down to the hand-painted box. I would love to get my hands on one of those...

 

 

The New Rats...

These pedals use a slightly different circuitry than the earlier versions, and some purists have been offended by the change. I myself can tell the difference, but it's negligible -- the Rat's best qualities are there in spades. While you can find the old ones on eBay, they're expensive -- and I would worry about the durability factor, since all pedals are among the most fragile pieces of rock and roll equipment. I have one of the newer Rats happily destroying eardrums in my current setup, and I probably always will.