Proco Rat 2 Distortion 4-stars Reviews

The legend of the RAT

Having heard so many great reviews of the rat I decided I had to try one. I'm not really into stacking pedals so maybe I expected a little too much from it. I found this great for chords but thinny on lead used on its own. I've heard them being fattened up using Tubescreamers and sounded brilliant but ultimately I sold it on. The other issue is that I found the noise level of it much higher than other pedals I have.

Decent, versatile distortion pedal.

It's hard to fault this pedal. It punches perfectly within its weight as a cheap but good sounding and versatile distortion. It has a very rich saturation and tweaking the distortion control gives a wide range of tone in terms of gain and harmonic content. I find that as you turn up the distortion it quickly goes from a light overdrive to a fairly bright drive sound; however the pedal also has a low pass filter that you can use to dip the higher frequency content without making the distortion dull and muddy. Aside from that the only control is a volume knob, which is as exciting as it sounds. So the pedal isn't loaded with features but what it does - it does very well.

The build quality is very good. The pedal is housed in a heavy-duty metal case, with a quality switch and very sturdy knobs. It's definitely ready for years of abuse. However, those looking to integrate the pedal onto their pedal board need to take notice of the fact that the AC connection is not a standard 9v connection so an adapter is necessary to hook it up to a standard power supply.

great but not very versatile.

build like a tank.

This is a classic!

When I first time plugged in this pedal, I thought "this is the sound I was looking for!". This pedal allows you to sound like most famous rock stars: foo fighters, ramones etc.

This is a heavy duty device, built like a tank, no chance to break it in any situation: club, open air...

But, there are few "special things" you have to know. First, of course, the "filter" knob. It works like a "tone" knob but in the other side: it cuts high ends i.e. when you turn the knob to the right you get more low ends and almost no highs.

Second, the AC adaptor for this pedal must have different plug (similar to input jack).

Despite everything I think this is one of the best distortion pedal you can get for your money. Must have!

it used to be made in the USA

One of the legends but with a change of production place.

ProCo Rat 2 - Not like any other distortion pedal

ProCo Rat 2 is an excellent pedal for lead solos. It gives your tone a smooth and a bit fatter sound which sounds amazing in solos and kicks up your volume depending on how much volume you need. Otherwise it's also very good for chunky distorted rock riffs. It's not really like any other distortion pedal. The sound you can get can be quite mellow, but also very vintage like, depending on the settings you use. Furthermore the ProCo Rat 2 is also really easy to use - you've got the Distortion knob, the Filter knob and the Volume knob. Additionally the quality of the pedal is great, it's built for the life on the road. Great pedal worth the money.

ProCo Rat 2

Delivered to the UK with no delays and I could track it online.

The Rat has the basic features for a distortion pedal; distortion, filter and volume (what else would you need?). It takes 9v like most other pedals with a small jack adapter.

Sound wise I use it mainly for jazz - with the the distortion on 1, filter on full and volume just under halfway giving me a lovely warm almost crunch, something which I've only found on the Rat. Rock - The distortion on 3, filter on 5 and volume again just under half way giving you a great crunch like no other pedal.

Quality wise the thing is superb, I gig constantly with it and never had any problems. It's a total brick as well and is more likely to damage everything else if dropped as it is rather heavy and solid. I have even considered using it as a weapon at a particularly 'hairy' gig. Also fairly inexpensive compared to relative boss models and I'd say better.

Overall a great pedal which I shall never replace unless I get an older model which they don't make anymore.

4.5 out of 5