FAO RAT users

[samzadgan]

i have the You Dirty Rat...love the warmth of it...i set it somewhere between distortion and fuzz...on quiet amp at home, volume at 1 o'clock, filter at 2 o'clock and distortion at 3 o'clock

[richardhomer]

I can't recall exact dial positions, but what I do is this: First I start with the gain and output at 12:00 and adjust the filter to get rid of the fizzy stuff and until I like the general quality of the sound. Then I switch the rat off and pay attention to the volume of the bare amp with my ears. Then I switch the rat back on and turn the output knob up or down until the volume matches the bare amp volume. Then, keeping the volume level constant, I sweep the gain/output knobs simultaneously in opposite directions until I find the amount of gain I want (i.e. when you turn the gain down you need to turn the output down, and vice versa, to keep the volume constant-ish). Finally, I add a touch more on the output knob to slightly goose the amp, and I'm done.

I really like my rat. It works great in front of both the clean and dirty channels of my amp.

Could you just run that by me again?

[uncle_psychosis]

Cheers guys

There's so many tones available, and I don't have a lot of tinkering/playing time these days so its good to have some "presets" to start with!

[citizen68]

Just bagged a Rat 2 and got to try it today - can't believe it's the first time over 25 years of playing that I've tried one of these - initial impressions after a quick blast at volume (before I have to collect the family) are 'holy shit that sounds good' - can't wait to gig it on Saturday night - it even sounds good with my Strat! Winner!

[ballandbiscuit]

There's a Rat in my kitchen and I don't know what to do

I had one before but unfortunately I only seemed to use it to A/B with my Digitech Distortion Factory as it didn't go well with my amp. However I have since tried one with a Night Train which i now have, and on the strength of it sounding brilliant I've ordered a Mooer version. I think the setting i liked with the NT was very fuzzy, but with a bright Tele, Filter I think was pretty much on full whichever direction makes it fuzzy rather than distortiony. Great stuff!

[ICBM]

i have the You Dirty Rat...love the warmth of it...i set it somewhere between distortion and fuzz...on quiet amp at home, volume at 1 o'clock, filter at 2 o'clock and distortion at 3 o'clock

I got an incredible Neil Young amp-blowing-up tone with one of those, but I can't remember the settings. That and the RAT II are my favourite models. Must get a YDR .

[Dave_Mc]

^ do you happen to know what the differences are between all the rat circuits? Just out of interest. I think the rat and turbo rat only differ in the clipping section (silicon diodes and leds respectively), but i've never seen anything about the other versions.

[ICBM]

^ do you happen to know what the differences are between all the rat circuits? Just out of interest. I think the rat and turbo rat only differ in the clipping section (silicon diodes and leds respectively), but i've never seen anything about the other versions.

Not quite - although the basic circuits are the same, some of the component values are different as well as the clipping diodes. I'm not sure how much of the differences - which are quite noticeable - between the different models are down to the diodes, or the other values.

There's a chart somewhere on the web that lists the differences in grid form, I'll see if I can find it.

[Dave_Mc]

thanks I didn't realise that, I just assumed the rat and turbo rat were the same since so many pedals have a switch to go between the two- i should have realised that it was probably a half-assed approach to that, lol. FWIW the mooer (which i'm guessing just switches between the leds and diodes- I'm just assuming that because it's cheap and it's just the one switch, I haven't checked to see what the switch actually does) does sound pretty different in the two different modes.

I just looked on freestompboxes for the differences between the rat, i didn't think to do a google search. I'll take a look and see if i can find that chart, will save you the bother.

is this it?

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/ma...i-RAT.png.html

[Cirrusband]

I use mine as a thick, sustainy almost fuzz tone, so the gain is up at about 2 o'clock, basically as high as it'll go without sagging too much on the low strings. With the gain that high you can have the filter relatively low, mine is about 10 o'clock at the mo but I just set it while my bands playing so it sounds smooth but not muted. Volume a touch above unity.