A defining sound of underground rock bands of the 80's, the ProCo Rat has become legendary in its own right. Initially designed to capture the arena rock tone of an amp cranked beyond reasonable levels, ProCo created one of the hairiest, grimiest sounding distortion boxes ever to end up on pro player's boards. Used by players as varies as Jeff Beck, Thom Yorke, and Thurston Moore, the ProCo Rat will turn your guitar into a massive, screaming force to be reckoned with...or else.

One of my first pedal purchases was from a friend looking to offload some gear before he moved out of town, one of those pieces being an evil-looking black and red box labeled 'Turbo Rat'. I plugged it in and...well...I may have angered my neighbors a little. It was the gnarliest, snarliest distortion I had ever heard. I cranked the gain, dialed the filter knob to make it as bassy as possible and used it with my octaver to beef up some guitar parts I was writing for my band. While the Turbo Rat has a touch more gain available than the one pictured here, don't think for a second that you won't be able to smash open a portal to the darkest of dimensions with this one.

This particular Rat was born in 1985 and features the blackface graphic scheme and the famed LM308 chip, the key to its iconic sound. Wrapped up in a box that has withstood the test of time excellently, you're sure to crank out all the hair metal and blistering distortion you could ever imagine.

Call Soundpure today before this one crawls back into the alley it came from! 

From the very beginning, the RAT was destined to define “The Sound of the Underground.” It was, after all, born underground in the cavernous basement of the Pro Co Sound factory in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. From these humble origins, the RAT has evolved from a single, hand built prototype into a family of the most versatile and most recorded distortion pedals in the world.

Small Box RAT

The switch to the “Small Box” RAT was essentially just a cosmetic makeover. While the circuit remained the same, the enclosure evolved into a more compact version, with a 12-gauge U-shaped base. The Pro Co logo sat next to the RAT logo on the pedal top, silk-screened in black inside of a white box. In 1986, the logo was reversed to white on the black, painted metal.

Warranty

This item is sold without the Sound Pure 3-year warranty (used / B-stock / dealer-exempt). Coverage terms for items in this category live in Terms & Conditions, Section 27.

Returns

This item is not eligible for the Try-Before-You-Buy 48-hour audition. Standard return policy applies — see Terms & Conditions, Section 18 for details.