ProCo Lil Rat

The ProCo Lil Rat is a compact distortion pedal that packs the classic Rat 2 circuit into a scaled-down enclosure. Pro Co gives you the exact same circuit and the same components as the Rat 2, promising "identical results in tone, attack and sustain"¹. Delicious Audio describes it as roughly half the size of the most recent RAT while delivering "exactly the same goodness"².

It is a hard clipping distortion, the circuit topology Sweetwater's Don Carr calls "a classic hardclip circuit that's been around for a long time"³. MusicRadar found it "can take you from hot, gritty drive through saturated, harmonically rich distortion, and through into a pseudo-fuzz sound," which puts it in the same versatile territory as the full-size Rat⁴.

A RAT 2 circuit in a mini enclosure

The Lil Rat is a micro version of Pro Co's flagship Rat 2 model⁶. The company kept the circuit and components identical and squeezed them into a chassis measuring 50mm wide by 80mm long by 50mm high⁴. On Premier Guitar's demo, Pro Co's team noted that "the geometry the shape of it looks just like the other pedal," so it reads as a RAT on a pedalboard, just smaller⁶. To fit the smaller box, Pro Co took out the battery compartment⁶.

The enclosure keeps the metal construction the RAT line is known for. Gearnews expected "the same bombproof metal construction" when the pedal was announced in January 2021⁷.

The pedal was announced in early 2021 with no pricing or release date at the time¹. Pro Co says it launched the pedal in 2022, and by April 2023 the company was shipping it at full capacity⁶.

The controls: Distortion, Filter, Volume

The control set matches the Rat 2: three knobs, Distortion, Filter and Volume⁴.

The Filter control is the one that surprises players new to the RAT design. Instead of adding treble as you turn it up, it works backwards: start fully counterclockwise for all the frequencies, then roll off the high end clockwise to tame the harshness at high gain⁴.

Because Volume sets the output level, the pedal can also work as a gain boost. On the Rat 2 circuit it comes from, Delicious Audio notes that "the volume knob provides gain boosts appropriate for solos or lead parts"⁸. With Distortion low and Volume up, it fills a boost slot on a small board.

Power and connections

The Lil Rat runs from a regular 9V DC power supply, which is not included⁴. There is no room for a battery in the enclosure⁴, something Gearnews predicted at announcement: "at under 2″ wide, I doubt you'd get a battery in there anyway!"⁷.

One practical improvement over older RATs: Guitar World's review notes "the Lil' Rat has thankfully had a power jack upgrade to a standard diameter barrel size," so it fits standard power plugs without an adapter⁵.

The jacks are top-mounted, which MusicRadar notes "can make your setup a little tidier"⁴. Premier Guitar's demo describes them as rear-exiting jacks for input, output and power, relative to the pedal's orientation⁶. Either way, the connections sit on one side of the enclosure rather than on the sides, saving width on a pedalboard.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's review lists the pedal's strengths as classic Rat sounds, versatility, value for money, and the top-mounted jacks and small form⁴. The same points appear in MusicRadar's mini pedal buying guide, which adds one criticism: the controls could be bigger⁹.

Guitar World's review lists the price as $69 USD⁵, which against the full-size Rat 2 makes the small format a value proposition for players who want the circuit without the footprint.

For players comparing mini RAT options, the Lil Rat is not the only small-format version of the circuit. Gearnews also notes the recently announced ProCo Lil Rat as a mini-pedal take on the RAT distortion¹⁰.

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