ProCo Rat 2 Distortion Guitar Effect Pedal

Pedal arrived promptly and in excellent condition. Very easy to dial in.
Big tone. Great pedal. Nice response going from quiet playing to loud playing.
Even with lots of distortion dialed in I am able to play supporting lines very smoothly and then get really loud when needed.
I really like the Filter on this pedal. Heavy filter gives more of a fuzz sound and less filter gives a clean saturated distortion as well as louder signal. I think the Rat is just a more practical pedal than Ibanez TS-9's or any other boutique pedals because of the price and sound quality. I know players with multiple distortions and overdrives in their effects chain which is totally cool but if I could only have one it would be the Rat.

The RAT is one of those pedals like the TS9 that everyone should have at some time in their playing life. But in my experience, the tone you get from it depends a much on your amp as it does the pedal.

I originally tied out a frinds early '90s RAT with a solid state practice amp. I hated it. I couldn't dial in a tone that sounded good no matter what I did.

After I bought my tube amp (a VOX AC30C2) I decided to give it a try again as I noticed that a number of my pedals I already had sonded much different through the tube amp. I was absolutley blown away. The RAT running through a good tube amp (even one like the AC30) sounded much better, much warmer, and really brought out some great FUZZ tones. That's right, I said FUZZ. YMMV but to me the RAT is as much a fuzz pedal as it is a "distortion".

If you want a great distortion pedal for your solid state amp, look elsewhere, but if you have a tube amp and you want it to get all fat, nasty, and broken up, even the newer RAT pedals will do wonders.

A side note: if you are proficient with a soldering iron, I would recommend desoldering the OPAMP and soldering in a DIP8 socket. Then try out a number of different OPAMPs in the circuit. The RAT is farily easy to mod on your own if you know what you are doing and there is a wealth of knowledge on the internet to help you out. Additionally, there are a number of mod services out there that will mod your "new" RAT to a more vintage spec at a resonable price. To date, I have modded mine with a standard BOSS/Ibanez power jack and changed the OPAMP and I couldn't be happier.

The proCo Rat pedal I now own and bought new produces a harsh buzzing distortion sound making this pedal unusable. It now sits on the shelf...

I seen the Pro Co Rat pedals for sale and noticed there were two that looked exactly the SAME...They both contained the same exact 3 knobs with the same names but one was called a reissue and sold for three times the price of the Pro Co Rat I bought.

I went with the cheaper priced version figuring they both looked the same so why the big difference in price...Now after owning it and using it I know why the price difference...This pedal is very harsh sounding and the buzz that it makes sounds ridiculous. The filter knob lacks any sweet spots and it's also very unusable. The volume knob does what it's suppose to do, it increases the sound but in this case it's so horrible why would you want to turn it any louder.

Here is what I experienced using the three simple knobs on the Pro Co Rat pedal to adjust sound...I use a Plexi high gain amp with No on board effects. I use a Gibson Les Paul studio deluxe and a Krammer reissue and a Godin RedLine 1...The pedal acts the same through each guitar.

The Distortion knob is self explanatory but if you turn it up past 10 o'clock it's an unusable signal because of the buzz sound that kicks in.

The Filter knob is suppose to be the life of this pedal but this pedals filter knob doesn't deliver at ALL. The filter knob when decreased turns OFF the bass and Mids and makes the pedal sound way to glassy and if you turn it past half way clockwise it takes out the treble completely and makes the sound DULL and bassy...
The filter knob isn't a mid scoop "which it should have been" rather than what it's set up to do. The pedals performance makes it unusable at any settings.

The volume knob works like it should but in this case because the pedals performance is so bad, the volume only makes the pedals horrible signal path sound louder.

This Rat proCo pedal isn't worth buying and now sits in it's box on my shelf. Pro CO Sound Inc should be ashamed for making this type of JUNK. I believe to correct what they did when they made this pedal they made a reissue of the exact same pedal and called it a reissue (white face)...That pedal is OVER priced and sells for over $150.00

To sum it up!!! I will never waste the money and buy another Rat pedal from Pro Co Sound, Inc. regardless of the price!
This pedal was the cheaper priced pedal but still was over priced considering how it performs.
In my opinion they should have played the pedal through an amp before production and considered fixing what was wrong with it before selling it...Total unusable pedal!

Hola,
Quisiera expresarles mi completa satisfaccion por la compra de mi Proco Rat.
La verdad viviendo en Argentina es impensado recibir en tiempo y forma lo que uno compra en otros paises.
Los felicito y obviamente voy a seguir comprando por Ebay.com.
Saludos!

This is a great pedal and small, very Radioheady and muffy.I recomend it to anyone who wants a really disorted sound but also a great boost and their sound. I t works also great in bass it can disort your sound and boost it great, with a pick it sounds great. It can me modded easily and will sound even better. It is small and can fit in any space. It is 9 volt and can does not suck tone. Id say it makes you sound better. Better than a lot of distortion pedals out there.