Rat pedal as a boost?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mchn13
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mchn13

mchn13

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It's been since the early nineties since I've owned a rat pedal and got all nostalgic over all the old pedals I used to boost a Marshall back in the day, so I picked up a rat2 at GC while I was getting some strings. Sounded crushing boosting my marshall, more saturated and blurry than my maxon, but very "metal" sounding. Should get some more time tomorrow to dial it in with my setup and judge it a bit more. Just wondering if anyone else boosts with these instead of the usual suspects?
Now I want to get an original od-1, and an hm-2 as well.
 
Yellow SD-1 as a boost into the 2203/2204 with level knob at 5:00 and drive knob at 7:00 tone knob at 1:00 (YMMV) crushes RAT-2.

RAT-2 is "good" for that certain 80's thing (always sounds like DefLep's High and Dry album to me) , but an orange Boss Distortion DS-1 is so much thicker and dynamic IMHO.

Just my $.02...worth exactly that much.
 
Starman22":1agwxrbw said:
Yellow SD-1 as a boost into the 2203/2204 with level knob at 5:00 and drive knob at 7:00 tone knob at 1:00 (YMMV) crushes RAT-2.

RAT-2 is "good" for that certain 80's thing (always sounds like DefLep's High and Dry album to me) , but an orange Boss Distortion DS-1 is so much thicker and dynamic IMHO.

Just my $.02...worth exactly that much.
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Wish I had a way to record while playing. I like the sd-1 as well(own one), and my od808 is my favorite for the last 10 years or so, but one of the reasons my 800 is so cool is I can just use a different boost for a different tone. I a/b'd the rat, the sd-1, the maxon, and an eh soul food tonight, and each was cool in its own way.
 
Try putting an overdrive in front of the rat. I run an 808 with an extremely mild setting into my rat and it absolutely sings through my Boogie. Could be overkill but nails a ton of great metal tones for me.
 
mchn13":2fdq8gje said:
Wish I had a way to record while playing. I like the sd-1 as well(own one), and my od808 is my favorite for the last 10 years or so, but one of the reasons my 800 is so cool is I can just use a different boost for a different tone. I a/b'd the rat, the sd-1, the maxon, and an eh soul food tonight, and each was cool in its own way.
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Agreed! You do the same as I do, a collection of od's parked in front of my 2203x gives me subtle differences in tone and punch. It great how the JCM800 enjoys OD pedals!

In the end I agree an 808 is epic with these amps, as well as the Boss SD-1. I was using a Friedman BE-OD but it honestly added way too much gain even with the gain pot reduced. It did however make the low input sound incredible but I just don't ever use the low input....
 
The Rat into a Marshall JCM 800 is the Obituary Tone. I Should also mention that Obituary turns off their tone knobs.
 
Peeps have used almost any distortion pedal as a boost/pre distortion eq. Depends on min gain available.

Cannibal corpse boosts rectifiers with metal zones!
 
I was thinking about trying this a few days ago. I have a few boxes full of old overdrive, boost, distortion & fuzz I have not used much in years.
 
moltenmetalburn":2pvrropl said:
Peeps have used almost any distortion pedal as a boost/pre distortion eq. Depends on min gain available.

Cannibal corpse boosts rectifiers with metal zones!
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They Used to. The Last time I saw them they were using Maxon Pedals, The OD 808 & The ST9 Pro+. The Metal Zones were Keeley Modded Metal Zones.
 
stephen sawall":3e18rvr8 said:
I was thinking about trying this a few days ago. I have a few boxes full of old overdrive, boost, distortion & fuzz I have not used much in years.
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I ran the rat 1/4 dist, 1/2 filter, and 3/4 level, on top of the Marshall set to crunch. Although it's a distortion it acts like an overdrive with the dist set low and adds a ton of gain
 
I used to use a Metal Zone as a boost. It was surprisingly awesome sounding.
 
dirtyfunkg":qi0x67lc said:
I used to use a Metal Zone as a boost. It was surprisingly awesome sounding.
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I've heard of people doing that. Tons of eq options with that pedal.
 
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