I have a love-hate relationship with RATs. They sound midrangey and muddy when the amp's running clean but I find that if there's a bit of dirt already, it brings some sizzle and bite into the sound. Which is the opposite of what happens when I use a Muff - the sizzle's only there with a clean amp and preamp gain turns it to sludge (which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not).
Your OCD probably has the low gain side covered and the Muff does the thick high-gain, so an in-between sort of distortion like a DLS or Dist+ might do the trick. Either that or a quirky 'character' pedal like an octave fuzz or a fuzz-wah might be fun. Fuzzes with 'texture' or 'sag' controls give some nutty gated and ring modulated sort of sounds that are pretty interesting.
I really like the Mooer Flexboost Xotic AC boost clone I have. It's only dirt pedal I've kept for more than a few months, it's been on my board for a couple of years now and I've not found anything to kick it off yet.
Yeah I play into a Twin Reverb so it's going into a totally clean amp. The OCD definitely does the light breakup thing really well; I usually have the gain set between 9 and 12 o'clock.
I was thinking of some kind of silicone fuzz thing, I dunno.
Yeah I play into a Twin Reverb so it's going into a totally clean amp. The OCD definitely does the light breakup thing really well; I usually have the gain set between 9 and 12 o'clock.
I was thinking of some kind of silicone fuzz thing, I dunno.
If you want a cheap silicon fuzz check out the tonegasm guitar face, its fuzz face with an added bias control for spitty dead battery sounds if you want them. They are hand made by a chap in Wales, he sells via ebay and they tend to go for under £40.
If you want an OD that does a brilliant clean boost and fuzzy od maxed out I can't recommend the DOD 250 highly enough...
I put my Greer Ghetto Stomp on my board for rehearsal today and it made my big 2x12 Hiwatt sound like a piece of shit Supro amp about to explode.
Ticked all the boxes for me.
benecol wrote:BONUS THING: turn the distortion on a Rat to 9 o'clock or below to really see what's best about them (hated Rats before I started this).
I only discovered this recently (quite probably because Benecol, or another Scaler, posted it here). I also find it sounds great in front of other dirt pedals like this.
Edit: should possibly clarify that I don't have a real Rat but a Mooer Black Secret rat clone. Not sure how close to a real one it is.
Fran wrote:I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
gusman2x wrote:I think you should check out one of Tim's Harmonic Percolator seconds. I listened to a demo last night, and they sound awesome to the max.
THIS. My board is literally two of Tim's HPs and nothing else.