Attn: Ratfans! JHS Packrat – New multi-RAT clone pedal "accidentally leaked" in UK

[Dominic]

As I know there are a few RAT fans on here, a heads-up: A chap on a UK forum has spotted a RAT clone by JHS along the lines of their Bonsai or Muffuletta, i.e. switchable between various well-known variants.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discu...on-anywhere/p1




As you can see from the thread, one of the members is a YouTuber (who can actually play), and has scooped it up to, err, scoop the story!

Dave Friedman talks all the time on Tone-Talk about shops doing this, looks like someone wasn't paying attention and it was put out on display anyway...

Anyway, it looks cool, but I've just got the Sunset to experiment with so I'll wait for the deluge of YT promotion and hope there are some cool RAT sounds like Mattayus gets amongst all those that will remind me a bit of Nuno.


EDIT: Ah yes, for the rest of us Limeys:

[playstopause]

Ratt you say?

[Ghost.]

I love my Dad's RAT pedal through SLO for leads. Gives bite and saturation all at the same time.

Didn't care for JHS's Tubescreamer Variation pedal but I'm curious to see what this pedal does.
Because I use RAT completely different than when using a Tubescreamer.

[Adam]

As I know there are a few RAT fans on here, a heads-up: A chap on a UK forum has spotted a RAT clone by JHS along the lines of their Bonsai or Muffuletta, i.e. switchable between various well-known variants.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discu...on-anywhere/p1




As you can see from the thread, one of the members is a YouTuber (who can actually play), and has scooped it up to, err, scoop the story!

Dave Friedman talks all the time on Tone-Talk about shops doing this, looks like someone wasn't paying attention and it was put out on display anyway...

Anyway, it looks cool, but I've just got the Sunset to experiment with so I'll wait for the deluge of YT promotion and hope there are some cool RAT sounds like Mattayus gets amongst all those that will remind me a bit of Nuno.


EDIT: Ah yes, for the rest of us Limeys:

I have that ford with that steering wheel! How have I not seen that before 😅

[Dominic]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVixZdbt0pL/ It's looking like it'll come out on Friday.

In the meantime:

http://www.ratfans.com/

[Jeff]

Looks like a cool pedal, if you’re into Rats. I’m all out of fucks to give though, personally.

[desertdweller]

Looks like a cool pedal, if you’re into Rats. I’m all out of fucks to give though, personally.

These are by far my least favorite overdrive circuit.

[Dominic]

I DGAF, really, I just wanna hear cool music. I chiefly associate this thing with Nuno boosting a Marshall and making some sexy noise. The daft name that reminds me of my childhood idol is just a bonus.

[Randy]

Let's not forget

[Josh]

I dig Rats. Super aggressive. Fun on bass too.

[Chris]

Let's not forget

I'm just here to shit on this dude's crappy vibrato.

[Mattayus]

Oh boy howdy how I do bloody love the RAT!

Not just for boosting Marshalls, but as a boost in general. I'm currently experiencing my best tone ever by cramming my 1987 RAT into the front end of my Rivera. I love it so much in fact that I'm selling off all my TS-type circuit pedals (keeping one just in case, for reamping etc) because they just sound/feel gross to me now whenever I've been using the RAT. The RAT still cuts some bass, but not as much as the TS, and that filter knob is just delicious. It's basically a "bite" knob. It can be smooth and middy, or aggressive and bitey. It also detracts from your amp's core tone far far less than other boosts.

Then of course, on a clean channel you can dial in the most jangly, bitey bluesy tones. Or balls out distortion, and then even Fuzz if you roll the Distortion all the way up.

They're just one of those accidental beauties of guitar gear. It was meant as a distortion pedal to go into a clean amp, but they're so well made (probably the most hard-wearing pedal ever? Military-grade chassis, unbreakable!) and so versatile that they can be an overdrive, a distortion, or a fuzz. I've even heard of guys putting them straight into a power amp for their core sound.

I must say though, that a lot of the reissues and copies don't quite capture the mojo. I say this as a vehement anti-cork-sniffer who recoils at the notion of something "vintage" being objectively better. But there's just something that they often get wrong (usually the pot tapers) on copies and reissues which take away some of the versatility.

Looks like a cool pedal, if you’re into Rats. I’m all out of fucks to give though, personally.

These are by far my least favorite overdrive circuit.

I know what you guys should do! Sign up to forums for things that don't interest you, like, I dunno, skiing, skydiving, golf perhaps, and post in every thread, just going "psst... guys... Just popping by to say this isn't really my thing Thanks y'all, have a good day"

[Ryan]

The RAT is like the core of my tone, so I might have to get one of these. I've not really tried any of the variations so it could be a cheap way to try them.

[Phil]

Well this is awesome - I'm going to wait till some good videos are out, but chances are I'll be getting one of these. Rats are by far my favourite OD/distortion pedals.

[Jeff]

Oh boy howdy how I do bloody love the RAT!

Not just for boosting Marshalls, but as a boost in general. I'm currently experiencing my best tone ever by cramming my 1987 RAT into the front end of my Rivera. I love it so much in fact that I'm selling off all my TS-type circuit pedals (keeping one just in case, for reamping etc) because they just sound/feel gross to me now whenever I've been using the RAT. The RAT still cuts some bass, but not as much as the TS, and that filter knob is just delicious. It's basically a "bite" knob. It can be smooth and middy, or aggressive and bitey. It also detracts from your amp's core tone far far less than other boosts.

Then of course, on a clean channel you can dial in the most jangly, bitey bluesy tones. Or balls out distortion, and then even Fuzz if you roll the Distortion all the way up.

They're just one of those accidental beauties of guitar gear. It was meant as a distortion pedal to go into a clean amp, but they're so well made (probably the most hard-wearing pedal ever? Military-grade chassis, unbreakable!) and so versatile that they can be an overdrive, a distortion, or a fuzz. I've even heard of guys putting them straight into a power amp for their core sound.

I must say though, that a lot of the reissues and copies don't quite capture the mojo. I say this as a vehement anti-cork-sniffer who recoils at the notion of something "vintage" being objectively better. But there's just something that they often get wrong (usually the pot tapers) on copies and reissues which take away some of the versatility.





I know what you guys should do! Sign up to forums for things that don't interest you, like, I dunno, skiing, skydiving, golf perhaps, and post in every thread, just going "psst... guys... Just popping by to say this isn't really my thing Thanks y'all, have a good day"

It’s a discussion forum, so I am discussing how I don’t like Rats at all. Subscribe now and click the bell to see me say I don’t like a lot of things.

[Dominic]

I'm just here to shit on this dude's crappy vibrato.

Holy shit, you weren't joking! I'm not at all familiar with Gilmour beyond the obvious, but he doesn't sound like that!

[Dominic]

I must say though, that a lot of the reissues and copies don't quite capture the mojo. I say this as a vehement anti-cork-sniffer who recoils at the notion of something "vintage" being objectively better. But there's just something that they often get wrong (usually the pot tapers) on copies and reissues which take away some of the versatility.

Yes, I've been paying attention to this ^^ (and also the price of the originals ) and hoping for a line on something without the "vintage" markup and uncertainty to try, which is why I was interested in the new JHS thing. In the meantime, the Sunset is supposed to RAT, so I guess I'll try RATting with that.

[Josh]

So far my favorite Rat variation is the Idiotbox Blower Box which is Rat derived but instead of a filter it has a pretty powerful bass/treble EQ. Amazing on bass with as much or as little clear low end as you'd want (even with the gain way up) and you can even ride the volume knob like you do with an amp on mid gain settings. Great on guitar too.

https://youtu.be/jxtF6aodWQE

[lespauled]

[Dominic]

O-fish-ul vidja!

That was a thoroughly enjoyable nerd-out! There was zero metal, but I don't think I was expecting any.

[RevDrucifer]

I'm just here to shit on this dude's crappy vibrato.

What’s interesting is that he gets the whammy bar work perfect, but when it comes to the fingers he gets into Hammett territory. I’ve watched a ton of that dude’s videos when dialing in Gilmour tones, the dude has it all down except for the finger vibrato.

[RevDrucifer]

Holy shit, you weren't joking! I'm not at all familiar with Gilmour beyond the obvious

Let me assist you with some nuggets of gold (all Gilmour is gold), mostly from the ‘94 tour because his tones were fucking ridiculous on that tour-

2:50 is the regular solo, but at 4:29 he comes in with a talk box and try as I might, I cannot replicate either tone from this song.

5:25 he sits down behind a lapsteel. The note choice and phrasing in this solo….

The biggest sounding Strat in the world. For the album version of this song, he used one of those tiny ass GK amps, but then they sent the tapes to the LA Sports Coliseum, mic’d up the arena and blared the guitar track through a huge PA to capture the reverb. I prefer this live version over the version that cost as much as his rig to record- one of my favorite Floyd songs and it’s littered with leads throughout. I know he’s using a Rat in this, but I believe he’s boosting a Big Muff with it.

The best version of the “Comfortably Numb” solo, IMO. In the 80’s he added ‘the wave’ section, as the Gilmour guitar nuts have titled it, where he kicks on more delay and does those double stops while manipulating the whammy bar, totally brings the solo to a climax. I believe he’s using a Rat to boost a Big Muff here as well.

Not a hugely popular Floyd tune, but one of my favorites. Not much guitar work until the solo at the end, but killer fucking tone. I could be wrong, but I really don’t think he uses any of the same tones throughout the set, every song has a different signal chain, his ‘94 rig was fucking huge.

Another lapsteel one, but a bit different than “High Hopes”, it sounds like the strings are going to just melt off the damn thing. My favorite part about his live playing is how he stays right on the brink of the rig just losing control and feeding back like a motherfucker, but always keeps it together. Also, giant inflatable, evil looking pigs are cool as fuck.

This song really should have been on a Gilmour solo record than a Floyd record because it’s really not a ‘Floyd song’ at all, but the tones are just ridiculous. There’s just barely some OD in the intro, not enough to really distort, but he can still get the thing to feedback. Gives me a guitar woody.

If I keep going, I’ll have every live video posted here. I’ll leave off with this one, when he was using a Rat quite a bit, as well as an HM-2, cuz ya know Gilmour does the chainsaw thing.

As much of a Vai/Petrucci fanboy as I became in my teens, Gilmour has always been my all time favorite. His phrasing and note choice is just fucking perfect. While he sticks to familiar ground during leads live, they’re still largely improvised and he’s never really played the same solo twice, aside from the 1st solo in “Comfortably Numb”. I’ve got almost every bootleg from that ‘94 tour and while there were definitely some nights he was less-than inspired, when he’s on, he’s on.

[Astrocreep]

I chiefly associate this thing with Nuno boosting a Marshall and making some sexy noise. The daft name that reminds me of my childhood idol is just a bonus.

Most of my playing is through a long borrowed cheap rat clone into the Marshally channel of my Kraken because of the Nuno thing and I love it. I’ve always considered buying “a good rat” and this might be the way to go,

[Jeff]

Most of my playing is through a long borrowed cheap rat clone into the Marshally channel of my Kraken because of the Nuno thing and I love it. I’ve always considered buying “a good rat” and this might be the way to go,

That’s exactly why I wanted to love the Rat, because of Nuno using it. But I like how it sounds better when someone else is playing it, than when I do. Same thing with fuzz for me; love how it sounds in other’s hands, just not mine.

[Astrocreep]

That’s exactly why I wanted to love the Rat, because of Nuno using it. But I like how it sounds better when someone else is playing it, than when I do. Same thing with fuzz for me; love how it sounds in other’s hands, just not mine.

I feel like that about fuzz… I can’t use them, don’t have the confidence in the sound I make, whereas I love others when they are committed to it.