You Dirty Rat Review

The You Dirty RAT combines the sound of the garage with the spirit of innovation. This is the most classic sounding of all RAT distortion pedals. Think '60s garage rock. Think early punk. Think about the bands that changed the sound of rock 'n' roll.

Ease of Use:	9
Sound:	7
Reliability:	8
Impression:	9
Overall rating:	8.7
Reviewer rating:	8.3
Users rating:	9.2
Votes:	9

overall: 8.3

Reviewed by: Jonny02, on august 28, 2007

Purchased from: Merchant City Music

Ease of Use: Typical distortion pedal set up, three knobs: gain, volume and filter. The filter acts as the reverse of a treble/tone knob, ie as the knob is turned anti-clockwise the high end increases. Does take a bit of tweaking to get a good sound, I found the knobs to be very sensitive, one little dunt one way can totally change the overall tone. // 9

Sound: I mostly use this pedal as a lead boost on the dirty channel of my Orange Rocker 30. The Rocker is quite a darkly voiced amp and the Rat really emphasizes this, I can get a tone similiar to Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age. I do use this pedal on the clean channel for rhythm sounds as well and would suggest that you set the filter knob quite low as this pedal can get very muddy. All in all is great sounding though, adapts to every rig differently with tweaking I've found. Can also cut through a live mix very well. // 7

Reliability & Durability: Extremely sturdy and reliable, built like a tank. The battery consumption aint great though, I usually keep a few spare batteries at gigs just incase, this is the only pedal on my board not powered by a power supply so it's not a big concern for me. // 8

Impression: I play a little of everything in my personal playing and found this pedal to be very versatile. IMO it prefers guitars with humbuckers, I've had better luck getting nice tones with humbucker guitars, for example I can get an amazing lead tone with my friends LP, but struggle more to get a really useable lead tone on my Strat, not that it can't be done. My one gripe with this pedal is muddiness that sometimes is hard to get rid of, again it can be done with tweaking, but I wouldn't describe this pedal as instantly satisfying. Overall it's great and has become an important part of my sound, but try thouroughly before you buy. // 9

Comments

[Nazi zaschzi]

i love RAT it's a great sound

[qotsa1998]

Strats dont exactly handle high gain well. They do better on mid-gain stuff.

I rly like Josh's sound, and if i can get some of his more recent sounds off this, then ill buy it.

[ArcherTheVMan]

qotsa1998 wrote:

Strats dont exactly handle high gain well. They do better on mid-gain stuff.

I rly like Josh's sound, and if i can get some of his more recent sounds off this, then ill buy it.

i disagree on the part of strats, although what exactly you mean by high gain may be different from what i think (some people have strange conceptions...). i think that if you adjust the eq to fit you can easily get a good high gain sound out of a strat, obviously its not going to sound as thick or "chuggy" as a humbucker equipped guitar but you can get a decent sound out of a strat in high gain situations (although having noiseless strat pickups helps a rather lot in the process too lol).

[KapaStarky]

Man, if you have a Punk-Rock Band This Pedal it's for YOU, this pedal brings an amazing sound, reminds me an a vintage or garage sound, i have a Punk-Rock band and i use this stomp box for my principal distortion and solo, uh yep it's very versatile, ahm sounds very good w/ a strat, By the way; I love that Piece of Shit!

[Skin & Coffee]

Does anyone have any say on how this pedal goes on a bass rig?

[JakeBluesRocker]

Am sure it isn't just for punk am not a big fan of puck rock,but GOD THIS THINK SOUNDS AWESOME FOR AEROSMITH AND GUNS N FUCKING ROSES!

[Gristlepig]

Ugh... (in response to above)

[Way Cool JR.]

Gristlepig wrote:

Ugh... (in response to above)

Rely nothing wrong with what hes saying. These sound a lot like the original vintage Rat and the Rat was made to basically replicate a British amp like a Marshall. This way they could get the sound of a cranked Marshall at reasonable volumes. So yeah they could work great for GnR and Aerosmith if used right.

These are great for 80's Rock, Hard Rock, and Hair Metal. When I think of these being used for Grunge and Punk Rock it makes me ill since I don't really care for that kind of music. I fricken love Billy Idol though he is the king of punk. But when I here anything about the Rat pedal I think Classic Rock and Classic Metal not Grunge and Punk Rock.

[Gristlepig]

Billy Idol is the King of Punk? That's a joke, right?

Billy Idol was in a punk band 35 years ago. That is the extent of his punk-ness.

[Way Cool JR.]

Gristlepig wrote:

Billy Idol is the King of Punk? That's a joke, right?

Billy Idol was in a punk band 35 years ago. That is the extent of his punk-ness.

No joke at all dude! He has always been punk from day one, maybe not your typical punk but that's what makes him more Punk than your typical one. But in reality he is more punk than anyone past or present it's in his blood. Not to mention he is also the most successful .

You need to listen to his music more dude it is heavily punk influenced, also look at his image. I stand by my words he is the King of Punk, and there is no extent to his "punk-ness".