Modified Pro Co Turbo Rat from Modest Mike's Mods

Description

From Modest Mike’s Mods
This listing is for our modified Turbo Rat (you get the modified pedal).
Just google "Modest Mike's Mods." Check out the reviews at sites like The Gear Page, Harmony Central, Telecaster Guitar Forum, Strat-Talk.com, Pedal-of-the-day.com, The Amp Garage, Noisy Music, Ultimate Guitar.com, and even TalkBass.com, and GBase.com.
Quality workmanship, great customer service, low prices, and
the sound!
Nobody beats Modest Mike's Mods!
Modest Mike’s
Phat Rat
is no big secret. We have sold bunches of these with a little help from
Griff Hamlin.
If you don’t know Griff, do a little googling. He
has had a successful and varied music career that has spanned nearly three decades. Griff
used one of our first Phat Rats when he made this youtube video.
And I can't emphasize this enough...
USE YOUR HEADPHONES!
Griff Hamlin Demos Modest Mike's "Phat Rat" - YouTube
Video will open in a new window
[isdntekvideo]
The only difference
between our Phat Rat and our modified Turbo Rat is the
clipping diode configuration:
The stock Rat and Rat 2 use
1N4148 silicon clipping diodes
to get that classic distortion sound.
The stock
Turbo Rat
uses
LED clipping diodes.
The pedal is still a distortion pedal, but LEDs yeild
slightly
less distortion and
more of a push
similar to an overdrive pedal. But believe me when I say, it still has plenty of distortion! And we added a toggle switch to this one. This gives you the option of using the Ruetz Mod- flip the switch to the left for less distortion and a smoother sound, switch it to the right for full distortion.
A few years back I got my hands on the AMZ Ebook at
https://www.muzique.com/
. I studied those mods, and then more study of variations of the original
Ruetz
Rat mod. We wanted to
smooth out that harshness
, and the Ruetz mod was a good start! Then we replaced a few key capacitors and resistors with
metal film capacitors and resistors
, some with different values. Jack Orman's mods (AMZ!) were a big help.
We replaced the
op amp
(chip), with
the
OP07.
We added a
germanium diode
in series with one of the other diodes.
What a difference!
This mod
takes the edge off of the harshness,
and this pedal now sounds
smoother
more like an
overdrive/distortion
…instead of distortion gone wild. This
overdrive/distortion sound
was exactly what I was looking for. When the band gets loud, you can crank this baby way up now. We have
improved the bias
and
raised the input impedance.
This pedal gets a
full bodied sound
, warm in the middle, and
remains transparent
when you push it.
Instead of sounding like a noise in the background, your sound
cuts right through the mix.
You can now be heard nice and clear above any band.
Our
modified Turbo Rat
has it all...
no pedal stacking needed here!
A few months back we added a toggle switch to give you the option of more gain/distortion. This gives you the option to restore the signal that is taken away by the Ruetz mod.
As you can see, we also took out the little outdated quarter inch power jack that comes stock on this pedal. We drilled the hole out to one half inch, and installed a heavy duty
standard 9 volt power jack.
This pedal has a 3PDT footswitch and is hardwired for
true bypass.
Question:
"Mike, what do you think of the LM308 chip?"
Well there is a lot of talk (hype?) about the LM308. I may lose a customer now, but I gotta tell you...by today's standards this is not the greatest of chips. It is a little noisier and has
a slow slew rate (shock and dismay?).
This will not sound so modest, but a new Rat modified by us is going to sound better than any old Rat, stock, with the LM308. A friend of mine, Bill at Griffin Effects once said
"People hear what they want to hear."
P
ro Co decided to replace the LM308 in 2003.
In the beginning we experimented with a high speed low noise NE5534, TL071, TL070, and the
OP07
.
I like the
OP07
. It is quiet and seems to sound a little better for the highs. Let me know if you prefer a different chip.
I will share this secret with you. For those who still want that classic LM308 sound, we now use the TL070 with a larger compensation cap.
By overcompensating the TL070, it drops the slew rate to match the LM308 which slews at an anemic 0.1v/us.
OK
,
it sounds the same EXCEPT it isn't as noisy.
Here are a few emails we got from folks who bought our modified Rats, or who had our mod done to their pedal:
"Dear modestmikesmods,
Hello Mike,I just finished up trying out my new modded Rat and IT SOUNDS AWESOME, nice punch and tight bottom with a very pleasant high,it also sounds a little more compressed....this is why I'm a TONE JUNKIE....Thanks for modding my pedal....Kevin"
“Hey Mike,
Everything arrived quickly and safely.
I LOVE your mods!! I am going to send you my wah pedal over the next week or so for your mods on it.
Also, the blue light is excellent!
Thank you for your professionalism...quick turn around...and excellent playing (I have listened to your youtube Steely Dan stuff....truly outstanding! I will certainly pass along your name.
Thanks again,
Patrick W.”
"Your modded RAT is awesome. It will definitely find a permanent place on my pedal board! Thank you very much!!! Cheers, Markus"
"The only good Rat is a Phat Rat!" Buyer: Member
id ocgdude
“Excellentcommunication & packaging, speedy delivery! Super distortion pedal!!!" Buyer:
handlebar_mustache
We got this email from Joseph a little while back:
"Hey Mike, I have an odd request from surfing your website. I had my Rat 2 modded pretty recently by another pedal maker and I'm not really digging the outcome. Is it possible for you to re-mod (if you will) a rat pedal into your "Phat Rat"?"
We did the Phat Rat mod, and replaced the switch that the other guys had put on there with our own gain switch. We just got this email back from Joseph:
"Mike, this Rat mod is incredible... that switch is great! It does great high gain, great low gain and can even be used to put some more hair on my amps dirty channel without feedback."
We received this email from James:
I received your modded Phat Rat, and it isn't hateful sounding as the reissue one. It sounds just like the youtube demo, I'm real happy with the tone starting smoother and the sustain really holds notes strong with clarity. The treble isn't at all harsh so the tone capacitors you replaced are right on!
"Hey Mike,
I just wanted to thank you again, the Rat sounds great!
I used it with the whole band yesterday and this thing rocks!
Much more usable than before (not counting when it was out of commission).
With a little eq I can get some great Marshall-esque sounds. It can definitely create some very dynamic, versatile tones now.
I'll be contacting you soon to mod my Dyna Comp and TS-9, hopefully next month when I have a little more money. Keep doing what you're doing!
Best,
Charlie"
Jay sent us his Rat 2 for our mod, and also paid a few dollars extra to replace the footswitch. Turns out he did not need a new footswitch, it was an easy fix. We got this email from him today:
“Hey Mike, Just wanted to say thanks for the mod. I think it sounds great. Perfect for the 80's hair band I'm in.
Thanks for sending back the . I swear the switch wasn't working. It wasn't clicking, it was behaving more like a momentary switch. Wierd.
Anyway thanks again, very cool of you because I would've never known the difference.
Anyplace I can put up a review for you let me know.
Jay”
Thanks Jay, maybe you can get us on Angie’s List
J
July 4th 2013 from eBay member
bassman74bass:
“Worth every penny!! The phat rat is amazing!”
From Griff Hamlin:
"I love the Phat Rat... seriously it's the best sounding one I've played and I still use it a lot. I had a Keeley Rat also for a long time. You're welcome to use the video to promote it or demo it. And if you need a quote for your website or something I'll be happy to provide it.
Thanks,
Griff"
Who’s next?
“We make your sounds...sound good!"
Thanks for looking, and keep rockin!
Mike
Check out all of the mods and pedals at our eBay store! Click here:
Modest Mike's Mods