Broken Rat.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:21 am

I was recording with my band at the weekend and my ProCo Rat decided to stop working. Basically the problem is that if you engage the pedal the light comes on but no distorted signal can be heard, it sounds pretty much the same as the clean signal - only when you turn the distortion control right up will you get a distorted sound but it sounds rubbish compared to how it used to or should sound.

I know I might be expecting a bit too much for a diagnosis via the forum without anyone actually seeing the pedal, but it's monday morning, i'm at work, i'm a bit bored and knackered from a weekend of recording. If anyone can help me out with a possible diagnosis I would appreciate it. Even better would be a suggestion of someone who can fix, I live in London by the way.

kim · Post by **kim** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:55 am

maybe something with the power supply ? broken ac jack or something ? it's the only thing i can think of, i've never owned a rat or had a pedal break on me so can't be of much help.

Skip · Post by **Skip** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:04 pm

did u open it up and check the wiring?

Post by **Mike** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:18 pm

I might be able to take a look at it for you, but I would suspect a loose wire or something, have any of the jacks been turned?

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:53 pm

It's screwed down to my pedal board so I doubt the jacks have been turned also the LED lights up nice and bright so I wouldn't have thought it was a problem with the power supply, but then I know nothing of electronics.

I'll take it off the board and have a look inside for any loose wires etc and report back.

kim · Post by **kim** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:46 pm

haha, i guess i missed reading the part of the led working, not power supply then i guess. maybe a connection to the knobs is broken

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:59 am

I've opened it up and and I couldn't see anything wrong with the wiring, but as I said before I know nothing of electronics - even if there was something really obviously wrong in there I would probably miss it. One thing I did notice was that it had a silver thing in it shaped like a small hat which had LM308H written on it, is this the famous LM308 chip the Rat purists are always going on about?

I'll connect it up to my amp tonight and give it a go to get a full description of the problem but if Mike would be happy to have a look at it for me i'd really appreciate it - i'd obviously provide payment for his services.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:11 am

That's a metal can version of the LM308N, yup. m@j@ and all that.

I am fairly busy at the moment but if you don't mind waiting I can have a look at it for you at some point. PM me if you want my work address for postage.