[Vero] ProCo RAT

[owlexifry]

i had this one on my list for so long, but it just kept getting bumped for other things i wanted to do more..

but a few weeks ago the other guitarist of a band im in asked about me building a rat for him.

so i finally got it done.
here it is







i want to like it.
but it’s not for me.
tried it in front of a clean channel.
it certainly does the doom thing.
i think it’s cool how it can be both fuzz and distortion depending on how you set it.
the filter control is pretty nifty. i can see the potential and versatility it offers.
tried it as a boost/drive in front of high gain channel. pretty fat and aggressive. but it’s a bit loose.. perhaps a bit mid scoopy.

the fuzz-like gated-ness when turning up the distortion, idk, it’s hard for me to enjoy.
maybe it’s because i’m not really a fuzz person. it’s a whole world i haven’t yet really understood.
i’ll try again when i eventually do a life pedal build.

but to end on a positive note; holy crap, how good is that matte sand texture finish in black! the orange was ok, but black is just excellent.

 

[owlexifry]

aaand i just found an error in the gutshot

 

[owlexifry]

4.7uF cap - one that forms part of the high pass filter, was backwards. (fixed it now)

so the high pass filter was all wrong (and probably passing too much low end)

how embarrassing.
can’t delete the thread now

so now i gotta try it all out again properly and will report back - maybe i’ll like it this time..
(gotta wait til tomorrow, it’s too late at night over here)

 

[gonzo]

I always like to check what new pedals sound like online and compare them to my new builds. I've done similar things in the past and had pedals not working the way they should be. Can make a big difference.

 

[Elijah-Baley]

When I built the Rat using this layout I got oscillation problem at higher gain setting using the bridge pick of my guitar, during the first test of the board before put it into the box. A lot of people got it. And you?

 

[HamishR]

I never liked that layout. I think it's asking for trouble the way the pot connections are all over the board. So I designed this - which is bigger - and it fits fine in a 1590 and causes no oscillations. If it helps anyone you're welcome to use it. I actually prefer the board to be around 19 rows wide because it makes it easier to hide the off-board wiring.

 

[owlexifry]

tested out the pedal again after correcting the error.
pretty much the same impression, didn’t seem to change all that much, but it does sound better now. i guess before there wasn’t as much of a low end cut.

When I built the Rat using this layout I got oscillation problem at higher gain setting using the bridge pick of my guitar, during the first test of the board before put it into the box. A lot of people got it. And you?

actually no, haven’t had any issues with that at all.
cranked the distortion and volume all the way up on the rat through a 40W tube head, both lo and hi gain channels, no oscillation.

maybe it’s a wiring issue? i usually try to keep the jumpers as short as possible and use star ground schemes.

I never liked that layout. I think it's asking for trouble the way the pot connections are all over the board. So I designed this - which is bigger - and it fits fine in a 1590 and causes no oscillations. If it helps anyone you're welcome to use it. I actually prefer the board to be around 19 rows wide because it makes it easier to hide the off-board wiring.

View attachment 57266

looks good
the pot connection points are certainly improved on this, and i like how the 9v/ground, pot leads and input connections are all well away from each other.

 

[HamishR]

Cheers! I am a bit anal about layouts. I like to keep things apart from each other which should be. It amazes me how much you can get away with in pedal layout design though!

 

[owlexifry]

Cheers! I am a bit anal about layouts. I like to keep things apart from each other which should be. It amazes me how much you can get away with in pedal layout design though!

nah i get what you mean.
seem some undesirable things in vero layouts that somehow just get by in these sort of circuits, like inputs immediately adjacent to 9v rails.

 

[Elijah-Baley]

Thank you Hamish. If I have to build a Rat I'll give a chance to your layout.

About the other layout, the one owlexifry used (by TagBoard blog) I always keep my wires short, but like someone else I got that issue. Somebody else not. I don't know why.

 

[HamishR]

I don't know why but I rather like doing these Vero layouts. I guess they're a kind of puzzle and they're very satisfying to do. I'm not always delighted with my layouts but sometimes they just seem to be easy and flow nicely.

 

[owlexifry]

I don't know why but I rather like doing these Vero layouts. I guess they're a kind of puzzle and they're very satisfying to do. I'm not always delighted with my layouts but sometimes they just seem to be easy and flow nicely.

same here. i find tagboard layouts to be fun too. excessively large and impractical but i dunno, there’s a charm to it, especially because it reminds me of amp building