Let's talk about Rats.

[Spit on a Stranger]

No it doesn't. It has more mids thanks to the 'flat mids' switch/mod.
It has more of a muff meets Marshall amp crunch feel and sound.
i don't find the scooped sound of muffs useful when playing with a band.

Man, now I really have to get my hands on one. Part of the reason why I went with a Rat instead is because if I'm running a one-dirt setup, I figured a Muff would just get lost in the mix at gig volume without my trusty Tube Screamer driving the front end of it. I'd describe the sound of my TS and Peachfuzz stacked together as a Marshall getting fucked by a Big Muff, actually, so that kind of sounds perfect.

[OffYourFace]

i was in the studio and used my Rat & Arc muff together. I'll make a new thread and post a clip in the near future.

Anyway, the engineer and assistant were both impressed with the sound I was getting with the two pedals straight into my '78 Marshall 2203.

[Spit on a Stranger]

Nice, I'd like to hear that.

Also, my Rat and Pedaltrain Nano are scheduled to be delivered today. Can't wait! Time to pack up my PT-2 and other pedals.

[MrShake]

Mine arrived! It sounds wonderful! Hope yours is ready to be put through its paces... I have a feeling you're going to be enjoying it all evening. Using a '96 Rat 2 (LM308 equipped) for comparison, the WF seems very harmonically full... a very "blossomed" sound... thick and warm with gain cranked, without losing note clarity or definition.

(Edit: Surprised to see that it had the Boss-style barrel power input jack. It makes no difference to me, but as I understood, this was supposed to be an exact reproduction. I thought the old ones had the 1/8" style like the standard Rat 2. Curious.)

More description later. Sustain now. And thanks again for the suggestion, SoaS! My tone palette is richer now thanks to you!

[dan_abnormal]

(Edit: Surprised to see that it had the Boss-style barrel power input jack. It makes no difference to me, but as I understood, this was supposed to be an exact reproduction. I thought the old ones had the 1/8" style like the standard Rat 2. Curious.)

That's strange...mine (I've had 2) have always had the 1/8" (mini-jack) power input.

Like this:


Would you mind posting a pic of yours?

[OffYourFace]

(Edit: Surprised to see that it had the Boss-style barrel power input jack. It makes no difference to me, but as I understood, this was supposed to be an exact reproduction. I thought the old ones had the 1/8" style like the standard Rat 2. Curious.)

That's strange...mine (I've had 2) have always had the 1/8" (mini-jack) power input.

Would you mind posting a pic of yours?

yeah, do it!

[Spit on a Stranger]

More description later. Sustain now. And thanks again for the suggestion, SoaS! My tone palette is richer now thanks to you!

No problem! Glad to spread the word. I'm actually at work until 11 tonight, so I'll have to do the initial test-run at low volume when I get home. No worries, though, I'll just crank it extra-loud tomorrow!

Weird about the 9v jack, though. Even the Rat 2 I almost tried at GC had the 1/8" input. I say, "almost" because the guy helping me gave me a standard barrel power adaptor, and I couldn't get his attention after that. Perhaps ProCo ran out of correct parts and saod "fuck it" since this is the last batch, but that sounds unlikely because, like I said, even the Rat 2's have a 1/8" input.

[MrShake]

That's what I thought (and that input you posted is exactly what I was expecting, lol, had the spot on my board ready with the 1/8" jack, ready to just drop it in when it showed up!) I just figured that I either hadn't done my reading, or this was a "fuck it" situation. Took a nap and woke up to requests for pics, so here we go...







And then some gut shots, for those of you curious about that kind of thing.





I assumed that I'd just under-read about the subject (IC chips? Researched. Power inputs? Not researched.), or that it was a "fuck it" thing, but waking up from an "it's too hot to do anything but sleep" nap, I saw all of you saying that seemed strange. So after I uploaded the pics, I sent a nice email to ProCo (the pedal really does sound good, and honestly, if it doesn't affect the tone, isn't a Boss-style input preferable for useability?) -- excerpted below, just so you folks can know what I'm asking. If you have any other related questions that I might follow up with, please feel free to chime in. I love a good mystery, and I know how us gearheads can get worked up over the minutiae!

to ProCo:
"My question to you regards the power input. It doesn't really matter to my end result, but the WF Rat I got... has a Boss-style negative polarity power input (the barrel type), as opposed to the 1/8" tip I've seen on, well, all of your other products! [...] I was wondering if you could fill me in on the details of the switch! I was under the impression this one was a "100% reproduction" of the original '85 model, and I've seen others with the 1/8" input, so I was just wondering what the deal was with this one in my hands! [...] (just curious,) what's up with this different power supply, and why did the switch get made?"

Will report back as soon as I hear anything! Meanwhile, SoaS, how are you liking yours?

[Spit on a Stranger]

So, I just finished setting up the PT Nano with my Boss Tuner, WF Rat, and T-Rex Replica. Unfortunately, I've got house guests sleeping in the basement tonight, so I'm going to have to wait until morning to try the Rat out.

But, mine has a barrel style input too. I wonder if this is a company-wide switch. Any one recently buy a Rat 2 or You Dirty Rat pedal? Either way, doesn't make much of a difference to me, but it does seem kind of strange considering these are supposed to be a complete replica of the 85 model.

Also, does anyone know where I can get some patch cables shorter than six inches without having to fuck with a soldering iron? I'm using two six inchers to chain my pedals right now, but on the Nano, even with all three pedals spaced out as much as possible, the cables are still too long and poke up above the height of the pedals. Just looks kind of dumb.

[MrShake]

Glad it arrived... and hope you have fun in the morning!

Honestly? I'm kind of happy to hear someone got one with a similar power input from a similar batch. Multiple examples exist. And we're breaking the story right here on OSG.com! Future historians will dig back to this thread to find out what the deal was with these! Seriously, though, it means mine wasn't some weird fluke, or "worst case scenario", a mod someone did on a pedal they later returned, which somehow slipped through the cracks shipping back out.

Hey, Spit on a Stranger, now we have the advantage! These will become the "Late-Batch Neg-Input WFRI" ultra-collectible Rats of the future. Super-rare. Vintage ones are gonna be all the rage in 2022. We'll make a fortune on eBay and can sell 'em to fund the limited "Vintage 'Vintage Rat Reissue' Reissue" we'll all be freaking out about.

Spinning disc 2 of "S&E" all night. You were right.

Next up is "The Bends".

[HorseyBoy]

^Makes sense that they're finally using the same 9volt plugs as everyone else. Should have no effect on the tonez

[dan_abnormal]

^Makes sense that they're finally using the same 9volt plugs as everyone else. Should have no effect on the tonez

^^ This. I see it as a plus, not as a minus. Anyway I'm curious to read ProCo's reply.

Congrats to both purchasers, the WF Rat is a great pedal!

[OffYourFace]

The boss style jack is a welcomed addition in my eyes. I modded my old '86 Rat to use one and added an LED.
The 1/8" jacks don't hold up over time.

[Spit on a Stranger]

Used the Rat this morning for a little, just enough to check the sound out and find a setting I like. I've got the distortion maxed and the filter set around 1 or 2 o'clock. Sounds amazing... nice and warm, but still cuts.

Unfortunately, I'm having some serious noise issues with the new setup, which are detailed in another thread. It's pretty frustrating, especially since I'm at work and can't do any further investigation until I get home tonight. I hope it works out, I'm worried that the Replica and Rat just don't want to work together.

[Spit on a Stranger]

So, I got the noise issue worked out, and had some more time to play with the Rat. I love it! I ended up dialing the filter back a ways to add more treble, and I think I'm set on that for now. I'm mostly using it for higher gain with the distortion dimed, but if I bring it back to about 2 o'clock, I get a really cool sound where the natural plunkiness of my Jazzmaster still translates, but with some extra grit and oompf to my tone. Amazing!

I'm almost tempted to buy a second one and run them both, but then I'm afraid I'd void the entire idea of a scaled down, utilitarian board, and besides, I don't think I could fit another Rat on the PT-Nano

I'm also kind of surprised to hear a lot of people describe Rats as being kind of shrill, because this pedal is super smooth and rich, even with the Filter way back. It doesn't seem to take away from the smoothness of the distortion, it just makes it cut through a little better, which is great if you need a solo to scream. Also, I've heard a lot of people say they're unimpressed with the sound of a Rat running into a Blackface amp, but this thing sounds great through my Super Reverb. This is probably the closest I've gotten to getting Marshall tones out of a Fender.

I need to get some new strings on my Tele Deluxe so I can see what it sounds like with humbuckers!