The Rat - Distortion kit

Musikding

The Rat - Distortion kit

Item number: 846

Category: Distortion

Enclosure: + 9,90 €+ 7,00 €

starting from 25,00 €

Final price incl. VAT, plus shipping (mitttel)

Available.

Shipping time: 3-7 Working days

Description

The Rat is based on one of the most popular distortion effects of the 80s. It features a good mixture of distortion, sustain and punch.

This kit contains all parts you need to build a fully functional effect pedal.

Not included in the kit, but also very good to have:

Aluminium enclosure: select one above.
9V battery or DC power supply
3 nice knobs for the pots, 6.3mm shafts, for 6.3mm shafts
Decal, transfer or transparent sheets for labeling

Instrument:	Guitar
Effect-Type:	Distortion

Sounds

That´s the Rat sound:

Build documents

Installation guide: Installation guide

Schematic and pcb: Schematic

Parts list (BOM): Parts list

Ratings (68)

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The most useful review

2 from 2 Customers found the following product review helpful

Great, rich sound, quick work

A great starter project for a rainy afternoon, with not much to fail. Almost solderable by numbers.
Great sound. Low noise. Surprising versatility.

Still there are some annoying things:
- is hard to bend the resistors to correct pitch (theyre bent so close to the body that the bending gauge is practically useless - with the next kit I am making myself a custom bending gauge) - But I understand this, as all the projects are very space saving
- I would be very happy to have a list of individual components with values somewhere - it is annoying and time consuming to search for each and every components value in the schematic. I know you dont support soldering by numbers, but I also dont see a point really in this. It wouldnt do any harm really if you sent a print of instructions with the kit.
- there are some resistor numbers omitted and it is not documented anywhere - It was not until I finished the soldering to PCB that I was sure, I didnt omit something.
- It would be great if you posted an idea /illustration for less experienced makers how to suit all the stuff in the (quite small) chassis
- on the PCB there is no indication of the transistor orientation (there is it on the wiring diagram, but not on the PCB - but you can figure it out from the schematic) - for the builders, its a D (not a C)

what I changed:
- used 1nF Mallory, 33pF and 100pF mica caps (probably a straight overkill)
- used ribbon cable (solid) for the pots (much less mess around the PCB)
- LED is amber (red is soo generic)
- for the output I used insulation washers so the only grounding contact with the chassis is at the input
- output is grounded straight to input, not to the pcb
- header pins for the DC in (+ and gnd)
- connected LED with color coded female jumper wires
Jernej K., 16.06.2015

Entries 31 – 40 of 45

Must have

Il pedale ha un bellissimo suono, versatile! Ho già assemblato 5 pedali, funzionano tutti perfettamente!
Antonino C., 17.04.2021

my favorite

my favorite disto.
the sound is incredible
really easy to build.

perfect
Pierre V., 08.10.2021

Quality Kit, perfert tone !

The kit is of very good quality. The two pcbs are well designed and the soldering is quite easy. I had only soldered guitars electronics (pickups, selector, pots,...) before that and had no problem here. It is important to do the things in the exact same order than on the instructions sheet.

The enclosure is also of very good quality and only needed a quick sanding to get a nice brushed aluminium look.
I never had a real RAT but compared to the simulation I have on my Fender Mustang, it sounds great.
Just one warning, the picture on the Musikding website is misleading. The two upper pots from left to right are distortion and volume and the filter pot is the central lower one (same order than on the real RAT).
It was my first DIY pedal and surely not the last one.
Many thanks to Gitte for the very good communication during my order.
---------
Le kit est de très bonne qualité. Les 2 PCB sont très bien désignées et les soudures étaient faciles à réaliser. Je navais jusquà présent souder que des micros, potentiomètres, sélecteur de guitare. Un conseil, suivez bien les instructions de montage dans lordre.
Laluminium du boîtier est de bonne qualité et après un ponçage léger (400) il a pris un beau look brossé.
Je nai jamais eu de vrai RAT mais la pédale sonne mieux que la simulation disponible sur fender mustang.
Attention, la photo sur le site de Musikding est trompeuse. Les potards du haut sont de gauche à droite distortion et volume et le potard filter est en bas au centre
Matthieu F., 27.10.2021

identico al rat senza led

lho confrontato con un vecchio rat senza led, confronto A/B è indistingubile dalloriginale, suono che va dal grosso allacido tramite il controllo del tono reverse
Daniele Boris G., 09.12.2021

the only distorsion pedal youll ever need

i got this kit and i must say that i am very satisfied with the final tone i can get out of it. The only reference for a real rat pedal that I have is the emulation from Guitar Rig that I use as a plugin in Ableton and this kit nails it perfectly. I can get a wide variety of distorted tones from warm crunch to pretty scooped metal tones and everything in between. Puting it together took more work than I imagined but went pretty smooth. The only odd thing was the position of the tone knob witch is reversed printed on the board so I followed it.. but as a result the (treble) knob is further away from the other two and interferes a bit with the switch (theres less room now for the foot to press the switch). Its no big deal but I would have prefered to have it 1 cm to the north, so beware when you solder the treble pot do not follow the printed position from the board but put it the other way around so all the pots will be grouped in the upper half (this might change the direction the knob works as well)
Giurgiu G., 27.12.2021

Great first kit

Great pedal, it was my first build ever and went really smoothly, working since the first time I turned it on; I learned a lot building this kit, it was a great project and it sounds amazing.
Daniele B., 23.04.2022

1 from 1 Customers found the following product review helpful

Great

Super easy and low in components, ideal for a first project
renaat l., 12.05.2022

Great RAT

I built the RAT from Musikding, added LM308 and tested the pedal side by side with original Proco RAT from 1990. It sounds almost the same, having the original still adding slightly more harmonics. But overall, very close to the original. Great job Musikding, as always!
Miroslav J., 20.10.2022

Cheap and good pedal

My first build from Das Musikding and it worked from the first time. It is a very good sounding pedal and I am thinking about buying another one and do some modding to make it a litter better for the use with a bass guitar.
Raf V., 19.11.2022