Review of the ProCo Whiteface Rat Reissue

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.

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