ProCo Sound Vintage RAT

I got this pedal for 65 dollars plus 5 dollars shipping at zzounds.com about one month ago.

Wow. What a great pedal. This is definatly different from every other distorion pedal i've ever tried, and I mean that totally in a good way. It has great sustain and an awesome, warm fuzz sound. This pedal can pull it all off. It's versitile, too. It can pull off a whole range of sounds. It's especially good with hard rock, which is perfect for my brand of playing.

While, I'm not crazy about the shape of this pedal. It's wider than it is tall, and is very thick, which kind of makes it hard to stomp on because of the large knobs right above the activator. Plus, it could use a status indicator. I've drained numerous batteries because i've forgotton to turn it off when I was done. Oh well. I guess that's "vintage" for you.

The pedal is made of metal, and weighs a good amount. It's black and has effective rubber stoppers on the bottom. Three large knobs are placed at the top. Distortion, filter, and volume. The input/output jacks are located on the back, along with the slot to put in a AC adapter.

I love my Vintage Rat. Even though I feel it could have been designed a little better, the sound is where this pedal shines. It's fantastic. Go get one! You'll be glad you made the investment.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The pro coat Rat pedal is what is his iconic distortion pedals that it's been one of the most legendary distortion sounds in all of rock history. Much like the boss pedals and even Ibanez tube screamer this pedal goes down as one of the most highly used most recognizable distortion pedals in the music industry. It's a very simple design that produces a nice gainy sound. This is a sound that is somewhat unique to itself and it doesn't really sound like any other distortion pedal that you've heard. It does capturing the gaining distortion you looking for but the voice is slightly different.

UTILIZATION


This pedal basically asked three control knobs. You get the distortion control, filter control, and volume control. It has the foot switch along with the inout and output plugs and that's pretty much about it. It's a very simple design and you won't be hard pressed to figure out the best sound in this pedal.


SOUND QUALITY


The tone of this pedal is quite unique but still falls under the nice gain distortion that you've heard from basically any other distortion pedal. It's a cool vintage unit and if you really like that legendary rat tone, and I'm not talking about the band, than this is the only pedal to achieve that with. It's a cool sound and it's good for boosting already overdriven amps such as a Marshall JCM 800. If you like Nuno Bettencourt than this is probably a pedal that you would want to invest in. Nuno use to use this pedal in front of a old Marshall JMP amplifier. So if you dig that sound than this is a cool pedal to own.

OVERALL OPINION


You can find these pedals for well under $100 used. I don't find that the vintage ones to sound any better than the new or ones so I suggest just by passing that whole idea of the vintage rat battle. There's a lot of hype that's involved with the vintage rat pedals and I don't suggest drinking the Kool-Aid on that. These are cool pedals but they're very unique to their sound so if you're not digging the sound but I suggest getting a boss pedal or in MXR distortion pedal.

The ProCo Sound Vintage Rat is an analog distortion pedal designed for use with electric guitar.  It has both a 1/4 inch input and a 1/4 inch output and can be powered by either a battery or a power supply.  This isn't a rack mountable piece of gear as it is a stomp box. 


UTILIZATION

The make up of the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat is really basic and is extremely easy to follow.  It simply has three different knobs to control distortion, filter, and volume.  Everything is pretty self explanatory for the most part as the labels for the parameters are found on most distortion pedals.  Even if you don't have any experience with a distortion pedal, the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat won't take too long to understand and for this reason a manual really isn't necessary.


SOUND QUALITY

Even though it is only useful for rock and metal, the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat has a thick distortion tone that is really full bodied.  I usually use this pedal with a Gibson SG plugged into a '76 Fender Twin Reverb as the amp doesn't have any built in distortion, so I feel I'm getting a pretty accurate representation of what the pedal sounds like.  If you play a lot of harder rock, the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat will give you a great tone for that type of music, but probably isn't all that useful outside of the genre. 


OVERALL OPINION

I've been using the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat for about three years and this pedal definitley is useful and while it isn't all that versatile, it is great at what it can do.  It is incredibly easy to use and has a really fat sound to it that although is best suited for metal and harder rock, you could probably stretch to use it elsewhere, it just depends what you are going for.  The price of the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat is about average but I do wish that it was a bit cheaper than it is because it has a simple make up and is somewhat one dimensional.  Compared to the regular ProCo Sound Rat, this pedal is a bit more gritty sounding.  All in all, if you are looking for a pedal with a lot of bite to use with harder rock music, the ProCo Sound Vintage Rat is worth a shot.

(Originally written by victhebig/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
SELF-MADE VINTAGE RAT:

PCB: tonepad.com

Components: smallbearelec.com

- 8-pin LM308AN chip (I removed the 30pf condenser because the LM308AN doesn't need it unless you want a more aggressive distortion sound)

- Silicon diodes

Modifications: switch for the original 1µF output condenser and 4.7µF condenser for the lows.

Another possible modifications: chip replacement with a NE5534, op O7DP; serial germanium diodes (I already tested this and it sounds great), diodes replacement with LEDs, cut-off switch for the 47-ohm condenser (Ruetz Rat) or replacement with a 1 kOhm potentiometer.

UTILIZATION

Very simple configuration.

My favorite settings (distortion / filter / level): 10 o'clock / 10 o'clock / 9 o'clock = powerful overdrive

10 o'clock / 12 o'clock / 12 o'clock = Nirvana distortion

12 o'clock / 10 o'clock /8 o'clock = guitar or bass boost

11 o'clock / max / max: fuzz reminding Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Gilmour, etc.

SOUND QUALITY

POWER IT WITH A BATTERY!!!!!!

This way, you get maximum low-frequency overtones.

The device shows its real quality when battery operated (like a Fuzz Face)...

Ultimate and best tube simulation. It works very good with a solid-state amp and it's a unique weapon with a tube amp.

OVERALL OPINION

I build all my effect pedals myself: TS808 boutique models, Orange Squeezer, Small Clone tremolo/chorus, RATs.

It costs me half the money and I double the quality and power. THINK ABOUT IT! Get in touch with me if you have any question about building a RAT pedal!