The Year of the Rat (1985)

OVERDRIVE

DISTORTION

Year of The Rat is a faithful reproduction of the absolute classic released by ProCo in 1985. It is a version of the Rat known as Whiteface. It is the most desired version of the pedal among guitarists, and features the legendary LM308 chip, manufactured (and now discontinued) by Motorola. In the signal path, some Whiteface units feature tantalum capacitors in place of electrolytic capacitors, which offers longer-lasting operation and a more balanced treble response. Just like its original counterpart, the Year of the Rat offers a wide range of tones: its gain control goes from a light crunch, through classic overdrive tones, distortion to a fuzz in the vein of Big Muffs, with the difference of a voicing with midrange to appear in the mix. The Filter control works in the opposite direction to the traditional tone control, cutting highs, and the more gain you add, the more necessary it is to close the control to restore the clarity and definition of the notes.