Members GaijinGweilo Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 Anyone ever managed to get a good sound of of one of these things?I've had the thing for a couple of months now & i just got no use for it. My Marshall's distortion sounds better; so when i stick it on the clean channel i get an 'approximation' of my 2nd (od) channel's sound except not as good. It doesn't sustain, it doesn't overdrive (it mushes), the filter knob all the way to the left is too trebly, it has a fairly harsh & generic sound to it. I guess the best thing that could be said about the turbo rat is it has true bypass, which is good because you're only ever going to switch it off. My guess is this pedal's proper application would be infront of say a fender twin or something that doesn't break up easy, & the turbo-rat would emulate some distortion for it to work off of. Infront of a high-gain-voiced marshall however, fuhgeddaboudit!!(though i hear the guitarist from that metal band Thrice uses a stock one of these infront of an Ac30, & actually RECORDS what comes out of it! o0 got to try it before i knock it i guess). Self-distorting high-gain pedals seem a bit of a con to me, they'll never make your amp sound as good as a decent boost would. I guess i'll have to go with say, either a germ-fuzz or get a fully eq-tweakable distortion pedal like the old Marshall pedals (Guv'nor, Shredmaster, Drivemaster etc. what's the sound difference like between those 3 anyway?) People seem to be happy with the regular & the Vintage rats, so i guess i bought the wrong one (or they're just not using them with a Marshall). /end rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timeforheroes Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i use my vintage rat in front of a semi-clean tophat CR. sounds pretty good. Sounded better in front of a Hayseed 30!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GaijinGweilo Posted December 14, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i use my vintage rat in front of a semi-clean tophat CR. sounds pretty good. Sounded better in front of a Hayseed 30!!!! i believe these rats to be 'very much dependent on what amp you're using' type-animals those are fairly low-gain amps? Edit***ahh i see, the hayseed is a clone of the ac30, very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timeforheroes Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i believe these rats to be 'very much dependent on what amp you're using' type-animals those are fairly low-gain amps? Edit***ahh i see, the hayseed is a clone of the ac30, very nice! oh... good point.... i also keep the trebles on the rat VERY low. i keep the gain low and boost the VOLUME. more of a slam into the front of the amp then anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GaijinGweilo Posted December 14, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 oh... good point.... i also keep the trebles on the rat VERY low. i keep the gain low and boost the VOLUME. more of a slam into the front of the amp then anything else. that's possibly the main design flaw with the turbo rat in particular then, because its a 'turbo', it designed to be all high-gain so its possible the area of mid-to-low crunch is much smaller than on a regular or vintage rat. Either way, no matter what i do with mine it just doesn't measure up to using a treble-booster into 20 watts worth of el84's I can get the neck pickup to literally sing, nothing is singing about the turbo-rat, very unmusical (imo). Still, i would like to hear from someone who's actually got their TurboRat to work for them? if anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GaijinGweilo Posted December 14, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i should probably just trade in my rat pedal for a muff, people seem to like those(& get a wah-pedal while i'm at it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the_bleeding Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 normal rat set to low gain boosting a marshall is thrashy heaven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gambit Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i've had an original guv'nor recently and a shredmaster several years ago, and just recently got a drivemaster. i think it's the better of the three, but i was probably trying to get a metal distortion out of the shredmaster and failing hard so my memory of it being too low-gain for that purpose may be skewed a little. it's certainly not worth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gae86 Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 I think that the only prob is that the reissue of these pedals suck..I had both a turbo and a you dirty rat and it was the shortest honey-moon ever had:lol:The only thing it was great was the glowing "You dirty rat"..really cool!Anyway I've been forced to depart from it and I've taken the hartman distortion (rat clone) who seem to be really cool but I'm still waiting for it. Yesterday he told me he finished the powder coat of enclosure so I gotta wait:cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GaijinGweilo Posted December 14, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i've had an original guv'nor recently and a shredmaster several years ago, and just recently got a drivemaster. i think it's the better of the three, but i was probably trying to get a metal distortion out of the shredmaster and failing hard so my memory of it being too low-gain for that purpose may be skewed a little. it's certainly not worth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zachman Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 Anyone ever managed to get a good sound of of one of these things?I've had the thing for a couple of months now & i just got no use for it.My Marshall's distortion sounds better; so when i stick it on the clean channel i get an 'approximation' of my 2nd (od) channel's sound except not as good.It doesn't sustain, it doesn't overdrive (it mushes), the filter knob all the way to the left is too trebly, it has a fairly harsh & generic sound to it. I guess the best thing that could be said about the turbo rat is it has true bypass, which is good because you're only ever going to switch it off.My guess is this pedal's proper application would be infront of say a fender twin or something that doesn't break up easy, & the turbo-rat would emulate some distortion for it to work off of. Infront of a high-gain-voiced marshall however, fuhgeddaboudit!!(though i hear the guitarist from that metal band Thrice uses a stock one of these infront of an Ac30, & actually RECORDS what comes out of it! o0 got to try it before i knock it i guess).Self-distorting high-gain pedals seem a bit of a con to me, they'll never make your amp sound as good as a decent boost would. I guess i'll have to go with say, either a germ-fuzz or get a fully eq-tweakable distortion pedal like the old Marshall pedals (Guv'nor, Shredmaster, Drivemaster etc. what's the sound difference like between those 3 anyway?)People seem to be happy with the regular & the Vintage rats, so i guess i bought the wrong one (or they're just not using them with a Marshall)./end rant I F'ing HATE fuzz pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drasp Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 Have you tried setting your Marshall to where it's just starting to crunch & then setting the Rat to: Distortion: 9-10:00 Filter: 2-4:00 Volume: past 1:00 Use the volume to set how hard you want to kick your amp. Report back. Also, I know it's but I had a re-ish Turbo Rat w/o the LM308 & it really wasn't nearly as good/warm as when I swapped in a Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members theshoegazer Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 I F'ing HATE fuzz pedals. why? just out of curiosity. i love me some fuzz.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gambit Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 which did you say was better of the 3? the Drivemaster?i've always had my eye on one of those, probably because it usually doesn't go for as much as the Shredmaster or is as rare as an orig. Guv'nor. yeh, i'd say the drivmaster was the best, but i think i was hoping the shredmaster do something it wasn't so it might have skewed my perception of it. the guv'nor was a bit boxy sounding, and the eq was about half as versatile as the drivemasters. it's not like i'll be buying a shredmaster any time soon to re-evaluate my memory of it. its way too overpriced for that.. i guess the BYOC version might be worth checking out if you're interested in trying it though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ambient Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 yeh, i'd say the drivmaster was the best, but i think i was hoping the shredmaster do something it wasn't so it might have skewed my perception of it.the guv'nor was a bit boxy sounding, and the eq was about half as versatile as the drivemasters.it's not like i'll be buying a shredmaster any time soon to re-evaluate my memory of it. its way too overpriced for that.. i guess the BYOC version might be worth checking out if you're interested in trying it though I just started playing around with a shredmaster the other (bear in mind I haven't tried the other 2 though). I think if you tried to get a 'shred' sound (as the name suggests) you would be very disappoint. However, keep the 'contour' kinda low (ie mids kinda hight) and you can get some very cool mid-gain crunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KjStrat62 Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 I think any average pedal will sound just that through a average amp. But a average pedal through a great amp sounds= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melx Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 The Turbo is my least favorite RAT. The LED's in the clipping stage are just too harsh imo, I like the dirty rat best with the Germanium diodes, the 'Clean' rat is great too (no clipping).....if you want more of a 'amp-like' overdrive I'd take the LED's out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Exdeath Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 why? just out of curiosity. i love me some fuzz.... because no matter how expensive gear is, a kid with a broken amp and a fuzz pedal can step up and play something awesome enough to blow away rack man and his racks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zachman Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 why? just out of curiosity. i love me some fuzz.... Well... they just don't do it for me. Don't get me wrong, I'll use one if/when it's a sound I feel is "Right" for a part, but I really don't prefer them for achieving tones that peak my interest. A lot of guys who's tone I like-- use them, but the tones I like from them aren't the ones that they're using fuzz. Eric Johnson for example. Love his clean tone, hate his crunch tone. I LOVE David Gilmour's tone, but not so much that I'd try to achieve it and use as my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jorhay1 Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 not the 1st time i've heard this conundrum i know a few player guys who don't like fuzzbut like players who use them like Scott Henderson (who is great at using fuzz esp. octavia)alot of fusion guys and shred guys tend to not like fuzz it's just a preference thing i love fuzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echodeluxe Posted December 14, 2008 Members Share Posted December 14, 2008 i got rid of it after like two weeks. it wasnt that great with my bassman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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