Proco Rat 2 Distortion Reviews

Love this.

Brilliant little pedal. I bought this to run my Rev2 synth through and for me it just sounds dirty….which I like!

Absolutely my favorite distortion pedal

I generally play 80s-style hard rock, so I had a pretty specific idea of what I wanted out of a distortion pedal. My intention was to play through the clean channel of my amplifier and achieve whatever distortion I wanted using pedals, so that my tone would remain reasonably consistent at any volume. The ProCo Rat 2 delivers what I want almost exactly. The distortion can be adjusted from a relatively mild overdrive to a snarling crunch to fuzz. It is also a fairly quiet pedal, which honestly surprised me for such an inexpensive piece of kit.

Cons:

Construction. This pedal is built like a tank, but the casing is held together by screws which also hold the little rubber feet in place. In order to mount the pedal to my board using Velcro, I had to remove the screws, remove the feet, then replace the screws. The battery cover is also held in place by an enormous screw which must be removed in order to use Velcro. And the paint finish has an odd texture that makes adhesive-backed Velcro hard to attach. This is all easily overcome, but still a bit irritating.

The Rat 2 also doesn't play well with other boost/gain/overdrive pedals. The sound is a little "dry," so have tried throwing both a TS and a TC Electronics Spark Plug in front of it' both give me a somewhat "wetter" sound, but they also introduce more noise than I would like. I regard this as a problem with the other pedals, though, and I'm sure I'll find something quieter.

PROS:

The price. I'm amazed that I found a pedal this good for around euro 75!

It's solid as can be!

The sound! I absolutely LOVE the way this pedal sounds, and how flexible it is.

Edit: unfortunately, the noise problem is NOT the other pedals but appears to be the result of the 1980s-era circuitry. Although I really loved the Rat 2's sound, I just couldn't stand how noisy it was in combination with other pedals and ended up replacing it with a clone.

However, this is still a good classic pedal. It didn't work for me, but the popularity of this pedal with big-name recording artists of the past says a lot about it. I would still recommend it to people who want to experiment.

Great sounding distortion pedal

Legendary pedal, it has a specific sound and it does that great.

It's very easy to use, I would prefer a full 3-band eq to the one tone knob for more versatility but it can still shape your sound in a great way to. From dark sounding 'muddy' distortion to clearer and brighter distortion, this pedal can handle it all, and at a very good price.

Nice n Gritty

I found this pedal to be great for the use I had in mind, but I had to work at it.

Possibly not its original purpose, but I have put my Moog Mother 32 through this, so just a single oscillator synth but with adjustments of the Rat pedal and the synth, I was able to achieve a very nice gritty distortion to the synth sound that I was hoping to achieve.

The Rat pedal is very strong in construction, thick metal casing, good strong foot-switch and sturdy rotary controls.

Not a conventional power supply connection but the power units are available, a friend of mine found one on ebay.

A classic distortion pedal that shaped the sound of the rock and metal music. It can be versatile and do many things from hard rock distortion to really thick fuzz sounds.

Unfortunately I couldn't compare it to the original.

My first reaction was meh... But still on my board

My first reaction was meh... But some months after, I returned to this pedal and finally realized why it is so loved: great sustain, good mids and great crunch - you just have to know how to tweak the knobs but it's worth it! in the inside the soldering is not perfect, looks flimsy, but it hasn't failed me yet!

Classic tone

Often copied, never the same. By this if you like vintage 80's or 70's tone. It is also very reliable. It is on my pedalboard for a very long time and it is ON every night.

Its the sound of the underground.

This pedal really takes your sound to a dirty basement filled with power and wicked sounds.

The filter knob does an amazing job giving this pedal 2 very different sounds, and the distortion can take it from a slight distortion to a fuzz.

If you're looking for a distortion pedal with no gimmicks and just pure raw distortion this is the one.

I really like it it has been with me for a while now and can take a beating on the road.

Very good sounding pedal for the price

Sounds very good, very very dirty fuzzy distortion. Good sounds for doom and stoner metal.

followup to the legendary Rat distortion.

The Rat distortion generally doesn't need any introduction since it was used a lot in older rock and metal songs. this pedal can give a FAT tone to even single coils and tends to get fuzzy on higher gain settings with the tone (filter) rolled off (great for stoner and doom!)

That being said it can also be used as an overdrive for blues or even jazz. The only thing it struggles to do is modern high gain tones cause this is everything but tight sounding.

Great for metal music.

I use this in combination with my bass guitar.

The distortion at full setting is massive with very good mid & high.

There is a filter to darken the sound.

The volume control makes it easy to set the distorted volume at the same level as the dry signal.

Sturdy metal casing with outputs at the back.

I didn't find any negative aspects on this pedal for my use, but if you are looking for a gentle distortion, this may a bit too rough.

This is exactly what I wanted, it makes my bass sound like a growling metal monster.

Built like a tank

Way more flexible than you might think.

That sound!

Great pedal with a great name.Domestic use, with different combo (small transistor and medium tube). The manufacture of the pedal is great, the sound is unique. Very warm sound, you can play a lot with the distortion and the filter.

It is a distortion, but a not very aggressive setting can make it sound as an overdrive; if you upset it, can sound like a fuzz.

Maybe you do not like the sound, or it does not suit with what you play, but give it a try!

Using it on synths

Easy to use, and robust construction, using it to distort synths on electronic music.

Works fine but sometimes you have to bring the noobs to maximum to get a decent processing.

great price quality ratio.

Modern Classic?

Not so modern but very classic. It's a must have for me in my pedalboard. From ligt od to blistering fuzz, it has it's own way to hit your amp input. I can't live without a Rat :)

Great Pedal

I use this one in a chain after a TS-9 and really like the noise. You get can get a really tight sound in lower ranges if you play with the dials. The pedal is well built and has never let me down.

Sound is subjective and all I can really say is try it with your rig. If your into distortion you will have fun

1990's in one pedal.

Pros:

- Sonic Youth & Nirvana in a pedal.

- Gives tube amps a much stronger aggressive sound.

Cons:

- Noisy controls, inconsistent sound. (see below)

- Unusual power adapter type. Same as old Big Muff's.

I used this with the clean channel of a Marshall tube combo to drive the power amp. For aggressive music, it sounded twice as good as the Marshall's tube distortion channels.

Notes: Mine developed noise problems after about two years, especially when turning the knobs.

Solid tank with sweet dirty juice

Nice disortion pedal, got familiar good old vintage disortion tone. It's really loud, loud in a good way. Huge sound, you can do a lot with this little box. Love my rat, rat with a solid body and warm soul. Can punch in your face madly, but can be very smooth and gentle, very versatile pedal. Got nice addition - glows in the dark, cool and smart.

Be wise, buy one, plug it and tweak it till morning. Solid, classy and raw pedal.

I 'm very very impressed, you could be too. Definitely worth more than this price.

Classic!

A classic distortion box you can't go wrong with. Controls lets you dial the tone the way you want it. The box is sturdy and made for ages.

Classic sound used on many records.

When you plug this baby to your amp you can see why so many people use this pedal to this day.

Used on several records by famous artists this pedal lives to its expectations. From this pedal you can get from a nice overdrive to a crunchy distortion and even to a fuzz sound.

The EQ is very responsive and has a wide range, being mostly famous for its nice amount of mids.

This pedal at this price is a very good purchase. I recommend this pedal to everyone.