The Blue Angel Overdrive is an overdrive pedal from Ratin Pedals. Pedal of the Day, which featured it in September 2016, describes it as "an original design, three-gain stage drive designed to produce rich and harmonic sustain with ease"1. Rather than a single clipping stage, it runs three stages of saturation and clipping, which the reviewer compares to what happens inside a tube amp, to produce what the review calls "a fat and harmonicly rich sound"1.
What it does to your sound
Pedal of the Day sums up the pedal's range as going "from a nice crispy boost to a warm and inviting overdrive to a full-on powerhouse of sound, at times both gentle and aggressive"1. In practice that means the Drive control covers boost-to-full-overdrive territory, with the three gain stages adding sustain and harmonic content as it is turned up. Players comparing it with other drives in the category may also find our Boss SD-1 vs Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer comparison useful context.
Controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tone | Functions as it does on most overdrive pedals, with a wide range1 |
| Level | Functions as it does on most overdrive pedals, with a wide range1 |
| Drive | Functions as it does on most overdrive pedals, with a wide range1 |
| Dynamic switch | Three positions for different tastes of overdrive and varieties of color tones1 |
| Fat switch | Fattens up the sound before the guitar signal hits the overdrive circuit1 |
The Dynamic switch
The three-position Dynamic switch is the pedal's main character control. Each position changes how the overdrive responds1:
- Up: compressed, gritty and more sustain1
- Middle: wide and open, more presence in the low and top-end, more touch sensitive1
- Down: limits the dynamic range compared to the middle position, but with more sustain and edge and yet a bit softer overall1
Pedal of the Day's reviewer found that the two tone-shaping switches each "presents a different type of character and sound, and interacts accordingly with the three main control knobs"1, so the Dynamic and Fat settings are worth exploring in combination with the knobs rather than on their own.
The Fat switch
The Fat switch works before the drive stages: it fattens up the sound before the guitar signal hits the overdrive circuit, which the reviewer singles out as especially useful when using thin-sounding pickups1. For players with single-coils or otherwise lean-sounding pickups, it adds body to what the overdrive stages receive.
Size and bypass
The Blue Angel is larger than a typical compact overdrive. Pedal of the Day describes it as bigger than most stompboxes in this category, somewhere between a Boss-sized pedal and a Butler Tube Overdrive1. Leave extra room for it on a crowded board.
The pedal is true bypass, which the review notes is there to maintain the clearest signal possible when it is off1.
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Questions
Is the Ratin Blue Angel true bypass?
Yes. Pedal of the Day's review describes the Blue Angel as true bypass, which the reviewer notes is there to maintain the clearest signal possible when the pedal is switched off. That means your guitar's signal passes through the pedal unaltered while it is disengaged, so it will not load down or color your clean tone on a pedalboard.
What does the Fat switch do on the Blue Angel?
According to Pedal of the Day, the Fat switch fattens up the sound before the guitar signal hits the overdrive circuit. The reviewer highlights it as especially useful when using thin-sounding pickups, since it adds body to the signal going into the drive stages rather than shaping the tone afterward.
How big is the Ratin Blue Angel Overdrive?
Pedal of the Day's reviewer found the pedal bigger than most stompboxes in the overdrive category, describing it as somewhere between a Boss-sized pedal and a Butler Tube Overdrive. Players planning a tight pedalboard should allow a little more room for it than they would for a standard compact enclosure.
Is the Blue Angel based on a Tube Screamer?
No. Pedal of the Day describes the Blue Angel as an original design rather than a copy of an existing circuit. It uses three gain stages of saturation and clipping, which the reviewer compares to how a tube amp produces a fat and harmonically rich sound, instead of following a single familiar overdrive template.
Sources (2)
- Ratin Pedals Blue Angel Overdrive, Pedal of the Day, 2016-09-06
- Ratin Pedals Blue Angel Overdrive, Pedal of the Day, 2016-09-05