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27-756: The pedal has changed in appearance over the years, but its tone has remained largely the same. Pro Co has also introduced variations of the RAT, including the Turbo RAT and the You Dirty RAT, among others. The origins of the Pro Co "The RAT" can be traced back to the mid-1970s, when Pro Co engineers, Scott Burnham and Steve Kiraly repaired and hot-rodded existing distortion pedals, such as the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face . Burnham decided he could build

54-496: A germanium Fuzz Face may change as the equipment heats up or cools down. Also, the battery is part of the circuit. Variances in voltage and internal resistance can make an audible difference. According to Jimi Hendrix ’s guitar tech Roger Mayer , Jimi would buy half a dozen Fuzz Faces and mark the one he liked best only to find out that he didn't like it in a different environment. Despite popular belief that Arbiter used randomly selected pairs of transistors, Dennis Cornell, one of

81-649: A low input impedance and thus is very sensitive to the guitar pickup. By rolling the volume knob, the guitar player can decrease the gain of the pedal and get a clean or crunch sound, while still having all the gain when the volume knob is on maximum. For the same reason, Fuzz Face pedals react differently when placed directly after the guitar than when after other pedals or after a buffer amplifier . While some claim Wah-wah pedals are known to be troublesome with Fuzz Faces, artists such as Hendrix were known to use them together to spectacular effect. His signal flow for live performance involved first plugging his guitar into

108-518: A new sound; it was beautiful, haunting, ugly, and full of soul. He immediately recognized this as a major discovery, and he built that sound into a distortion pedal he named the Rat. Attached to a guitar, the Rat turned every note into a blast of outrage". In 1978, "The RAT", named because of the rat infested basement in which it was designed, was being built as a custom-order product. Only twelve of these pedals (including one prototype), commonly referred to as

135-443: A superior product from the ground up, and designed what would become "The RAT" pedal. Burnham began work on his circuit as early as 1974, right around the same time hard clipping distortion circuits were starting to enter the market. While experimenting with his circuit however, he accidentally used the wrong value resistor to bias the operational amplifier , driving it into heavy distortion. "Opamp distortion" as it has come to be known

162-410: A twice as high forward voltage as the original silicon diodes), while the 'You Dirty RAT' pedal uses 1N34A germanium diodes (clipping at a much lower forward voltage). The distortion stage is followed by a passive "reverse" tone filter and volume control. This circuit has remained almost entirely untouched throughout the manufacture of the RAT and RAT2. Other versions of the RAT are near identical to

189-451: A wah-wah pedal, then connecting the wah-wah pedal to a Fuzz Face, which was then linked to a Uni-Vibe , before connecting to a Marshall amplifier. 1N914 The 1N4148 is a standard silicon switching signal diode . It is one of the most popular and long-lived switching diodes because of its dependable specifications and low cost. Its name follows the JEDEC nomenclature. The 1N4148

216-478: Is believed that the change was made through user feedback in an attempt to make the users perceive the effect as less harsh. In 1983, Pro Co switched to a smaller, U-shaped enclosure.Finally, in 1988, the RAT2 was introduced, which included an on/off LED that utilized a new "millenium bypass circuit", which has become the industry standard for pedal switching circuits. The screen printed labels were replaced with glow in

243-515: Is designed to produce a distorted sound referred to as "fuzz", originally achieved through accident such as broken electrical components or damaged speakers. Arbiter Electronics Ltd. first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966. Later units bear the "Dallas Arbiter", "Dallas Music Industries Ltd.", "CBS/Arbiter Ltd." or "Dunlop Manufacturing Inc." name. The earliest units used germanium transistors . Silicon transistors were used in later editions of

270-439: Is useful in switching applications up to about 100 MHz with a reverse-recovery time of no more than 4 ns. Texas Instruments announced the 1N914 diode in 1960. It was registered at JEDEC by Texas Instruments no later than 1961, and was second-sourced by 11 manufacturers that same year. The 1N4148 was registered at JEDEC in 1968 as a silicon switching signal diode for military and industrial applications. It

297-489: The "Bud Box" RAT, were produced. Each pedal was built in a standard project box, hand painted, and hand drilled. In 1979, Pro Co began mass-producing them. This iteration was built in a custom designed, rectangular sheet-metal enclosure, with an L-shaped removable top/back section giving access to the internals. The top panel was labeled with Pro Co Sound "The RAT" and the three control knobs as Distortion, Tone and Volume. Between 1979 and 1980 there were several cosmetic changes to

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324-469: The "Mk1.5" Tone Bender. The main difference is that the Fuzz Face is biased slightly colder, making it more usable in warm environments. The original instructions even described the Fuzz Face as a "Tone-Bending" unit. Dallas Music Industries made a final batch of Fuzz Face units in 1976 or 1977, shortly after moving to the United States. The company bought Crest Audio in the 1980s and although it

351-404: The RAT2 except for changes to the clipping diodes, different enclosures, or the addition of new controls. The RAT is a popular pedal for modifying. Some of the possible modifications include: Because of the RAT's popularity, numerous large and small pedal designers and manufacturers have attempted to replicate its sound as 'clones' or in new designs. Often the goal of these 'clones' is to capture

378-471: The amount of distortion the pedal produces. The arrangement of controls and logo on the box suggests a face. The circuit is based on the shunt-series-feedback amplifier topology - a standard in engineering textbooks. Sola Sound and Vox had been using the same circuit topology for their Tone Bender pedals earlier in 1966. The Fuzz Face is particularly similar to the Sola Sound unit known today as

405-409: The dark mylar. Various RAT2 circuit board layouts and wiring configurations have surfaced in the last few years, including the noted "RAT3 version A and B" all under the RAT2 moniker. The RAT2 model is still available today, but in 2008 production moved to China and is now manufactured by Neutrik for Pro Co Sound. In 2019 Pro Co switched to an industry standard PSA adapter from their 1/8" adapter. Despite

432-413: The engineers who worked for Arbiter in the 1960s, described in a 2016 Guitarist magazine article how he auditioned them for their sonic properties. Early units used AC128 or NKT275 germanium transistors. Later on, BC183L, BC183KA, BC130C, BC108C, BC209C and BC239C silicon transistors were used. The American made versions used BC109C transistors. Arbiter reissues used AC128s. Hendrix also switched to

459-465: The guitar signal. The signal enters into the pedal, travels through a bandpass filter that filters out high and low frequency content from the signal. It then moves on to the gain stage, which is based around a single opamp , originally the Motorola LM308 (switched to Texas Instruments OP07DP around 2002–2003). The distortion is produced using a variable gain circuit with diodes shorting

486-399: The high number of Rats released throughout the years, the circuit has remained very similar to the original schematic. Other models of RAT products include: The Pro Co "The RAT" is a distortion pedal with a quite simple circuit, which can be broken down into four simpler blocks: distortion stage, tone control, output stage, and power supply. All except the power supply directly interact with

513-402: The late 1990s, Arbiter reissued the pedal. The circuit uses only a small number of components, plus a battery. Its sound is mostly dependent on the selection of transistors (type, h fe and leakage in case of germanium transistors). As germanium transistors are sensitive to temperature, the amount of leakage is variable. Thus the bias voltages will shift up and down, so the sound produced by

540-403: The output to ground at a certain voltage level to produce hard clipping of the input waveform. At lower gain levels the distortion is produced entirely through the diodes, but at higher gain levels the opamp begins to distort as well. Originally, 1N914 diodes were used, which were later replaced with 1N4148 since RAT2. The 'Turbo RAT' pedal uses red LEDs for this purpose (red LEDs have about

567-430: The pedal as Pro Co worked to source knobs and print the labels on the pedal, but the circuit remained largely unchanged. In 1981 the Rat saw its first circuit change. The tone control, which allowed the user to lower the volume of the treble frequencies as they turned it counterclockwise, was reversed to turn the treble down as the knob is turned clockwise. From an electrical standpoint, this change made no difference, but it

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594-433: The pedal. Silicon transistors provided for a more stable operation, but have a different, harsher sound. The electronics are contained in a circular-shaped metal housing. Ivor Arbiter "got the idea for the round shape when he one day saw a microphone stand with a cast iron base". The design was originally intended to be used as a microphone base for guitarists who sang. The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for

621-562: The silicon transistors, but they created additional difficulties on stage, since they are much more susceptible to receiving AM radio signals, which were then audible through the guitar amplifier. The Fuzz Face's continuing popularity and status as a classic may be explained by its many famous users, which include Jimi Hendrix , David Gilmour , Duane Allman , Stevie Ray Vaughan Pete Townshend , Eric Johnson , George Harrison . and Kevin Parker The Fuzz Face has

648-483: The sound of vintage RATS at a more affordable price point. Many RAT clones allow users to switch between the different RAT circuits (Turbo, standard, etc.) or between eras (Whiteface, LM308 Chip, Big box...). The simplicity of the circuit has also made it popular among pedal-kit manufacturers for first-time builders. Some examples of RAT 'clones' are: Fuzz Face The Fuzz Face is an effects pedal for electric guitar , used also by some electric bass players. It

675-438: Was a completely novel idea at the time and, combined with the diode clipping section, allowed for much more aggressive distortion than was available at the time. Author Pagan Kennedy describes Burnham's invention as follows: "One day, as he was soldering parts, he picked up a resistor of the wrong size -this was his lucky mistake- and attached it to a circuit board. The machine began shrieking and moaning. And that's how he heard

702-467: Was operating under that name when it reissued the Fuzz Face in 1986, the units still bore the Dallas-Arbiter name. They made about 2000 Fuzz Faces until 1990. In 1993 Dunlop Manufacturing took over production, making a variety of Fuzz Face units until this day. Several germanium and silicon models are available. In 2013, smaller versions with status LEDs and AC power jacks were introduced. In

729-541: Was second-sourced by many manufacturers; Texas Instruments listed their version of the device in an October 1966 data sheet. These 1N914 and 1N4148 have an enduring popularity in low-current applications. As the most common mass-produced switching diode, the 1N4148 replaced the older 1N914. They can be used interchangeably, and are cross-reference replacements for each other. They differed mainly in their leakage current specification, however, today most manufacturers list common specifications. For example, Vishay lists

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