Effects Bay

Drinking my coffee this morning, late morning due to well deserved sleep in (thanks kids), I came across a sweet deal on a classic pedal. This deal is on the Pro Co Rat2 distortion. Classic, classic pedal for some great distortion tones. Normally this pedal lists for $134.99. You usually see it available for $95 or so, but is currently on sale for only $75.51 at Amazon.com! This pedal is also eligible for FREE super saver shipping!

For those of you not familiar with the Pro Co Rat2, here is the official description:

Pro Co Rat2 the standard that all other distortion devices are measured against. Heard on thousands of recordings, it has helped define the sound of the past three decad’s most influential bands. The beauty of the RAT2 lies in its versatility. Used as a primary distortion, it excels at arena rock rhythm and soaring leads. Do you have an amp with too much headroom for the gig? The RAT2 nails that sweet spot where a tube amp goes from sparkly to clean, to warm overdrive. Turn it to the right to roll off brittle high-end frequencies. Having trouble cutting through the mix? Turn the filter down and allow the natural brightness of your instrument to shine through. distortion and Volume controls dial in the perfect amount of gain while keeping the level consistent with your clean tone. The Pro Co Rat2 is backed by our “any excuse even abuse” lifetime warranty.

Again, the Pro Co Rat2 Distortion is currently on sale for $75.51 at Amazon.com! At the point of this posting, there were 13 pedals in stock. They usually bump up the price when it reaches 1 or 2 left in stock, so if this is interesting to you, you’d best jump on it.

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A while back I posted “Any guitarists out there that you’d like to see on EffectsBay with their board broken down?”. There were some great artists listed there, and I’ve been slowly chipping away at this list. Jay Wallsten suggested The National. I personally really dig The National. I get suckered in with baritone vocals.. every time. I have a few albums.. Boxer, Alligator and High Violet.. and dig all of them. I didn’t know much about the gear or the musicians, so this I felt was a great opportunity to learn more about a band I already like. This breakdown will focus on Bryce Dessner the primary guitarist of The National.

I found various pieces of information spanning from 2006 to 2010. Overall, his pedal gear has remained somewhat consistent. I came across this nice article from Guitar Player Magazine article that was originally published in 2006. In this article, he mentions his line up to be the following:

Pro Co Rat -> Klon Centaur (Gold) -> DigiTech Whammy -> Boss DD-5 ->  Boss FV-50H Volume Pedal -> Line 6 DL4 Delay

In 2009 in a Harmony Central thread, there is a photo which shows an additional Delay  (EHX Memory Man) and the Whammy fell off the line:

Boss TU-2 -> Boss DD-5 -> Pro Co Rat -> Klon Centaur (Gold) -> Electro-Harmonix Memory Man (Deluxe Echo/Chorus/Vibrato)-> Line 6 DL4 Delay -> Boss FV-50H Volume Pedal

Finally, I found a photo from May 2010 where you can see the addition of a Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and a Earnie Ball Volume Pedal JR (replacing the Boss VF-50H).

Photo was posted by thereesaanna

If you have any changes and/or comments, please comment below!

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Today, I came across a very nice deal on the ProCo RAT2 distortion box at Amazon. The list price on this pedal is $134.49, and is usually available at Musician’s Friend for $94.99, but is currently available for only $75.51 at Amazon, and is eligible for FREE super save shipping! That’s 44% off list price for this pedal, not bad at all!

Here is the official description of the ProCo RAT2 for those not familiar with it:

Pro Co Rat2 the standard that all other distortion devices are measured against. Heard on thousands of recordings, it has helped define the sound of the past three decad’s most influential bands. The beauty of the RAT2 lies in its versatility. Used as a primary distortion, it excels at arena rock rhythm and soaring leads. Do you have an amp with too much headroom for the gig? The RAT2 nails that sweet spot where a tube amp goes from sparkly to clean, to warm overdrive. Turn it to the right to roll off brittle high-end frequencies. Having trouble cutting through the mix? Turn the filter down and allow the natural brightness of your instrument to shine through. distortion and Volume controls dial in the perfect amount of gain while keeping the level consistent with your clean tone. The Pro Co Rat2 is backed by our “any excuse even abuse” lifetime warranty.

Again, the ProCo RAT2 distortion pedal is currently available for only $75.51 at Amazon

Popularity: 3%

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I just received a quick email letting me know that there is a sale on the Pro Co RAT2 distortion. This is now on sale at Amazon for $67.49 and ships with FREE super saver shipping. Also it is available for the same price at Musician’s Friend (which also comes with free shipping in the lower 48). This is 50% of manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Not bad.

Here are the details on the Pro C o RAT2:

Pro Co Rat2 the standard that all other distortion devices are measured against. Heard on thousands of recordings, it has helped define the sound of the past three decad’s most influential bands. The beauty of the RAT2 lies in its versatility. Used as a primary distortion, it excels at arena rock rhythm and soaring leads. Do you have an amp with too much headroom for the gig? The RAT2 nails that sweet spot where a tube amp goes from sparkly to clean, to warm overdrive. Turn it to the right to roll off brittle high-end frequencies. Having trouble cutting through the mix? Turn the filter down and allow the natural brightness of your instrument to shine through. distortion and Volume controls dial in the perfect amount of gain while keeping the level consistent with your clean tone. The Pro Co Rat2 is backed by our “any excuse even abuse” lifetime warranty.

I found this video by Dave9494

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The other day I saw a tweet mentioning @guitarnoize demo’ing long time EffectsBay.com friend @cubisteffects ProCo RAT modification called the Four Headed RAT. Basically, it’s a modification that  provides additional voicings (two overdrive and two distortions for four overall voicing options). Along with the voicings, he replaces capacitors, ICs, and DC Jack. Christian at Cubist Effects also offers a ‘noise’ mod as well.. which gives you additional noise/feedback, etc.

Basically, you send him a ProCo Rat, you pay for the modification, and get back the four headed RAT. Check out his pricing here.

Below is a great video by guitarnoize which goes into great detail of what this pedal can do. Very cool.

If you’re interested in the ProCo Rat2 Distortion pedal, you can pick one up for $94.99 at Musician’s Friend.

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The ProCo ’85 Whiteface Rat is a limited  run reissue of the classic Rat of 1985. The folks at ProCo is not only ‘reissuing’ the pedal but replicating it to exact specifications (if parts were still available). The used the original circuit board layout and used the crucial LM308 chip. It’s housed in the classic “RAT” steel housing, and is built like a tank. Since I mentioned it is a limited run, they are only producing 2000 units total.

The pedal has three settings – Distortion, Filter and Volume. There is no LED indicator on this model staying true to the original design. Distortion controls the level of distortion to the pedal. Filter smooths out the break up, counter clockwise it will deliver more aggressive top end break up while moving it full clockwise will smooth it out and darken the tone. Volume will be the overall pedal gain. Unity gain appears to be around 2-3 o’clock.

This pedal definitely falls in the ‘fuzz’ family. You can get some nice break up, crunch to fuzz. The mid-range is scooped, and has the classic RAT sizzle/fizzle tone.

For this pedal review.. yet again, we go to my long time friend.. Jimmy Rolle. For this demo he is playing a Rivera Knucklehead 100W head through a Marshall 4×12 cab with Greenbacks and G12H30 Anniversary speakers. He is playing his Les Paul Elegant Custom Shop guitar. Audio was captured using Shure SM57 microphones to laptop.

This first demo Jimmy is using ‘slight breakup’ settings on the amp and demonstrating what it can do.

Hight quality MP3 audio is also available:

The second demo Jimmy is playing the Rivera with high gain settings.

High quality MP3 audio is also available:

The fuzz is not as creamy as a classic fuzz, and has a more ‘muff’ like fuzz, but with the classic RAT tone. This pedal can be used in many applications, but could be great with a medium gain amp, such as a Marshall JCM800, for aggressive classic rock to metal tones.

You can pick up the ProCo Whiteface RAT Reissue from ProCoWhitefaceRat.com (via Direct Pro Audio). It’s is available for $199.99. Also be sure to follow ProCo on Facebook and Twitter. They’re giving away a lot of gear these days, so you’ll want to be tapped in for those.

I wanted to send a special thank you to Stephanie at ProCo for sending the pedal our way. If you’re interested in having any gear demo’d, please contact me.

Remember, if you like reading about these pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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Today’s Free Shirt Wednesday post, I’m proud to announce ProCo! Again, I’m always amazed about the people  I seem to meet on a regular basis via Twitter. I absolutely love it! A little while ago, I talked with @ProCoSound about the possibility of reviewing a pedal (I guess you’ll have to wait and see the result of that particular conversation ).  I was happy to see a ProCo package in the mail which included this shirt.

During this photo, my daughter is demonstrating “how to stand still”. The shot makes me smile, so I thought I would post it. Okay, enough of me…

Now, ProCo has been around a long time in the music world. Famous for the RAT pedal, but also a ton of other items, ranging from cables to snakes to interfaces, etc. I fact, at one time, I was a partner of a small recording studio here and we had a nice ProCo 24 channel snake running to our board.  Never had a problem with it.. and it always was super dependable. But EffectsBay.com likes to talk about pedals, so let’s focus on their big buzz item right now, the ‘reissue’ of the ’85 “Whiteface” RAT.

So ProCo has released the original ProCo RAT distortion (no LED version), and are releasing it in limited quantities (only 2000 pedals will be made).  ProCo has reproduced this pedal down to the exact details (sourcing original LM308 chips, etc).  You can own one of these limited bad-boys for $199.99 at ProCo’s RAT website: http://www.procowhitefacerat.com/ There you will also be able to hear additional sound clips, etc.

Please check out ProCoSound.com, ProCoWhiteFaceRat.com. Follow ProCo on Twitter and become fan of their Facebook Page!

Now, if you want to be featured on Free Shirt Wednesday.. it’s really quite simple. Send me a shirt, if it’s music related (ie: guitar builder, band, pedal builder, guitar shop, recording studio, etc) I’ll dedicate a blog post about your biz, band, etc. I’ll take a photo with my aging, slightly pudgy mug and post it. Great simple, cheap form of advertising. Still interested? Then check this page for more info

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