The Pedal Projects Custom Rat Clone is a distortion pedal built by Pedal Projects, a small builder whose designer Ásgeir, as Pedal of the Day's reviewer put it, "decided to make a Rat of his own". The circuit is based on the Pro Co RAT distortion, but the pedal was designed with bass guitar in mind, and the reviewer found it worked just as well on six strings: "This pedal was actually designed for a bass guitar, but it sounds incredible with my Tele on the other end as well."1
Controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Works in conjunction with Gain to set output level1 |
| Gain | Sets the amount of distortion; the reviewer found "incredible presence and range" across its travel1 |
| Filter | A reversed tone control: left brings highs forward, right lets them fade into low end1 |
| Toggle switch | Selects between 2 different clipping diodes1 |
The Filter knob is the pedal's most distinctive control. The reviewer described it as "sort of a backwards Tone knob: move it to the left and the highs become increasingly present; move it to the right, and they slowly fade away into a wash of low end". That behavior suits a bass-first design, where rolling off top end without losing definition matters more than a conventional treble cut.1
"The Gain has incredible presence and range, really making this a versatile overdrive, with tons of sustain and warm tones for days."
Bass-first design
The Custom Rat Clone sits in the overlap between distortion pedals and bass pedals: a RAT-style circuit voiced so a bass keeps its low end, with the reversed Filter and the diode toggle as the builder's departures from the stock design. Players who know the RAT's usual tone control will find the Filter's direction inverted here1.
Availability
The pedal's production run is uncertain. Writing in December 2014, the Pedal of the Day reviewer said, "I'm not sure how many of these were made by Pedal Projects, this might be the only one, who knows?"1 It should be treated as a rare build rather than a current catalog pedal.
The reviewer also noted the look: "The crisp bright blue enclosure with a mean-looking mountain goat staring at you?"1
Sources (1)
- Pedal Projects Custom Rat Clone, Pedal of the Day (www.pedal-of-the-day.com), 2014-12-03