The Rat Pedal Circuit Reimagined

Here's a short video for those who like Rat pedals and pedal circuitry nerdy stuff. I like to take great circuits and do alternate versions of them occasionally, and this video is an example of what happens if you take the Rat Pedal circuitry and get rid of the op amps, using Mosfets as gain stages. It's an interesting take on a classic circuit.
#wampler #guitarpedals #ratpedal
Question: Would you be interested in having a chance in owning these breadboarded circuits? Any ideas on how to keep everything intact and functional after shipping? A breadboard is a "temporary" circuit building device - nothing is soldered, which complicates things! I would love to read your comments regarding this.
Lastly: Make sure you're subscribed if you like this content - more coming!

[@wampler_pedals]

Question: Would you be interested in having a chance in owning these breadboarded circuits? Any ideas on how to keep everything intact and functional after shipping? A breadboard is a "temporary" circuit building device - nothing is soldered, which complicates things! I would love to read your comments regarding this. Lastly: Make sure you're subscribed if you like this content - more coming!

[@Ottophil]

Just provide schematics.Or a parts kit, We can breadboard it ourselves

[@quintessenceSL]

Spray epoxy.

[@kevinmckinzie]

Set it inside a project box and pour clear epoxy over it.

[@simonfreer9076]

I certainly wouldn't turndown one of these breadboard circuits. I'll even drive to Indiana to pick it up

[@Bob-Whiting]

Hell Yes I would. Take a bunch of pics, throw all the parts in a ziplock, ya have the scheeematic, I will use an old case or buy one if it's not included. I would be honored to be your Guinea-Rat! Maybe we'd call it the sWAMP-rat! (thanks to Logan Fillmore) I can assemble it on my unused breadboard (like 10 years lol, long story, but I have 45+ years w/electronics so... Please may I have the honor? PS, long time subscriber, recently changed my YT name.

[@LoganFillmore]

I like the sound of the MOSFET Wamprat! It's a little more chewy with a little less bite to my ears. MOSFET circuits are very interesting and great sounding! I'd volunteer to take that off your hands if possible please!

[@bigpiper2103]

Nice one. Both sound great, the Wamprat sounds a tad more fuzzy perhaps (which is great in my books).

[@OrthodoxReview]

Wamprat. Brilliant.

[@nathanguy981]

@Neon Thunderbird But Wamprat is a Star Wars reference...

[@kosmicwizard]

Love the vids Brian. So glad you get to do what you love for fun! Circuit sounds great!

[@richclayton5785]

As a longtime fan an and subscribed I gotta say your getting pretty darn good with the vids! The info and play remains top notch too. Cool man!

[@chuckthaalchemyst3539]

Sounds amazing, you and Josh have inspired me to use a breadboard to clone and mod some pedals. Thank you for the amazing informative content that you continue to produce. I hope you have a blessed day.

[@paulbobaggins554]

These videos are fascinating. Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge ….. And YES to getting one of those bread boards. That would be insanely awesome ! Cool idea.

[@SlowToe]

I love your channel. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and being a great Brian.

[@underground_fuzz]

Wow! That modification made it sound like it grabbed the notes better, tighter and more defined! Really cool if this is becoming a serie!

[@chillidogkev]

Goodness me, there are some people here that have an almost bionic hearing ability.

[@muurimc]

Now this was a fun video. Cool to sea someone actually building a pedal and then actually playing through it.

[@KoaCharvel]

Love these kind of videos, keep them coming.

[@Dthraco]

This video was really cool. Touched on a concept that was very interesting to watch. The music and the build of the circuit, loved it! I’m a bit of an electronics geek, so there is that. Would love the mosfet Rat you made. A couple good resolution pictures of it together would make for a fun puzzle if it came with just the components. Great job on the video!

[@jeremeydonovan8286]

You rock! Thanks to your inspiration I have started fixing pedals and understanding basic circuit design. Just a noob but my soldering is on point! Would have never even looked inside if I wasn’t for your channel! Thank you sir!

[@richardsaffle]

I’m def into all of this! I’m not @ the pedal building level necessary for this yet, but even as a thought exercise, totally rad idea!

[@soundscrazy]

I've been wanting to do something similar but with one of my tube amps. I appreciate the thought you put in and it's funny because I used to believe that effects and electronics were all magic and mojo and after learning more, it's so much more accessible to modify my own gear than I ever imagined.

[@oceanbreak387]

Brian, I love your content as well as the sounds you come up with your wizardry. You've inspired me to play better, sound better, and even get a breadboard to try some for myself. Yes please. I (and I'm sure most here) would LOVE to get that circuit. And if that's not possible, maybe the schematic so we can try to recreate it. Thank you for all the work and knowledge you share with us.

[@nohandle_nochannel]

I'd love to start seeing some pedal kits come out from Wampler, JHS, ETC. Josh keeps talking about how tough it is in the current market for pedal builders. Maybe building a new circuit and sending it out as an affordable kit will add more positive cash flow and provide the capital needed for building pedals. Great video as always!

[@FloridaManMatty]

Catalinbread did this several years back. They had some really solid circuits and good quality kits out in the wilderness. It’s a great idea!

[@CC-fi3pp]

Josh is a grifter.

[@robcerasuolo9207]

I replied to your "Question" thread pinned at the top, but I also want to say, thanks for showing us this stuff. Even if we don't build something, we can make better buying decisions thanks to what we learn here.

[@juansalazar9543]

Love the Rat! This was a noticeable difference and it sounded awesome!

[@GemmatheCat]

Absolutely would be into that! I’m in the early-ish stages of circuit building, so any examples are great examples.

[@reacherstudio]

Spongey, chewy, rat cake ❤ great tone man I love it!! I would love to have that on my board. You’re a mad scientist!

[@imacmadman22]

Brian - this is a cool take on a legendary pedal. I owned a Rat many years ago, it was a white face model, from 1986 or 1987. I loved the sound of it, but like many guitarists, I let it go somewhere along the way and I no longer have it. I quite liked the sound of this project, it was tighter and clearer without the fizziness that I don't care for in some pedals. I like the more overdrive/distortion side rather than fuzz, which is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. Great job!

[@gonzoduke6805]

Yes please! I’m a novice breadboarder and I’d love to have this circuit or any of your others to use as an example. And if not the physical breadboard, then a detailed schematic explaining the circuit with good reference pics would be awesome as well. The physical board with all the components would be the best for study though imo. Perhaps building a little wooden wall around the board and pouring epoxy over it just enough to seal the components in place on the breadboard and allowing them to stick up out of the thin epoxy bed? Just an idea. BTW love Chasing Tone and Blake’s Tone Mob podcasts. I never miss them. Thanks for all you do. Your vids are the reason I started trying to breadboard and learn circuits. Learning Eagle as I type this. Thanks!

[@Sizzorfite]

That's a great idea. Would love to see more in the future.. 👍👍

[@edwardi.haeffer-associater5506]

Love the RAT, your circuit sounds good, I think a plexiglass enclosure would be cool with that! I’ll take it 😁

[@flaconsius]

I love this kind of Videos (the Nerdierst one). By what I can see in the breadboard, it looks like some circuits from your Book. Those cascade gain FETs with some Clipping Diodes in between..

[@TheDilligan]

I love the idea of doing giveaways of your one-off experiments. That'd be super cool.

[@petebrown8145]

Love the Wamprat! I always thought the Rat was too harsh, almost sterile. I love the warmth you brought to the pedal while keeping all the great tonal qualities.

[@buffdaddy2032]

😂

[@toneseeker87]

bought a brand new RAT the other day and fell inlove with it instantly!

[@guitarcrazyholman325]

Yes!! Experiment giveaway would be super rad!

[@davideliswitzer]

It'd be fun to have. Perhaps a photo of it first, then light foam over it, then taped down? Originally was going to suggest just painters tape, but that'd pull up the parts when removed... so was trying to think of some way to apply pressure that was easy to remove. Regardless, neat experiment. It'd be fun to see more of these, with a bit more nerdery / going over the circuit. Thanks for your awesome videos!!

[@rockmovieswithtyler1989]

Well neat! I would definitely dig that as something to put on my pedalboard for sure!

[@bmag4368]

Love the circuit info videos

[@flatbaroque4049]

I'd be honored to have a homemade breadboard effect made by you man!

[@onevoiceinc]

Don't know how to tell you this, but I could totally hear your inner dialogue in the beginning. I'm assuming I have finally developed telepathy. It's a very proud moment for me. I may open a school for mutants, I dunno. Pedal sounds good. I'll say, though, your Ethereal pedal quickly became an always on pedal for me. Love that pedal!!

[@yach1d]

Sign me up for that. It’s always great to play with existing circuits and come up with something new. The one I played with the most is not a pedal but a LM386 amp circuit, and made a tiny little practice amp.

[@shadowcat4372]

I loved the sound you were getting there, love my Rat, Ive always wished more pedals were inspired by them rather than simply cloning the most popular iterations

[@303pearson]

DUDE.. I would be honored to accept a breadboard circuit. Currently using the Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, thing WAMPS man!

[@JohanHollosyIngman]

Nice! How about sending it in parts with instructions on how to put it back together? In the spirit of learning 👍🏻

[@stuartchapman5171]

Great idea, Wampler kits. I'd buy into that.

[@JimmyKay1976]

@@stuartchapman5171 I'd love that too

[@michaelcottle6270]

That's probably the best way. You'd still need to design a "proper" PCB to ship with the kit unless it was a "Let's learn all about gain and distortion with Uncle Brian" type kit where you supplied a breadboard (with the In/Out & 9v lines hard-wired) some diodes, mosfets, resistors etc. and a few sample circuits to get you started. Problem with that is you'd be training the next generation of competition...

[@PostColorGear]

1. Yes I would love the chance to win one of those. :) 2. I say don't bother with the securing part. it may be fun for any recipients to try to reconstruct it with all the parts already included (a kit, of sorts) - great content, as always, btw!

[@lance134679]

Off topic, but I must say, my Plexi-Drive Deluxe is by far my favourite OD pedal, and I'm sure I'd be happy with any of your other overdrives as I expand my collection. Thanks.

[@billwest3366]

Heck ya . Love to have that as a breadboard project. Love to see how you made it similiar but I assume using different integrated circuits.

[@takeawaybenji]

FET and MOSFET circuitry has always interested me because of the smooth saturation and tube-like topology. One of my favorite pedals is the Tech21 SansAmp, for this reason.

[@slo_carry]

That would be really cool! Glueing stuff together could be fun. Just to have around the house.

[@brook543]

I like the slight clean signal passing through and still retains the rat character, good taste, Sir. I would be very much interested in owning a Wampler breadboard, i don´t own any of your pedals and this would be a really fun opportunity, for sure! I had this idea for shipping, ba aware, it might be stupid! - Packaging for shipping, bend all the legs of the components to the same side, to flatten it, put with with the legs facing down and stick the breadboard onto a low tack ahesive sheet, then, to secure the components, lay a low density piece of styrofoam and gently pressed it down until all the components are inserted in the styrofoam. Wrap it all in tough brown paper, tape it all tight and it´s ready to go on a cardbox. The air bubble envelope might be a bit skechy, i reckon. - 2 basic steps ro remove; ONE: Gently remove the srtyrofoam and keep it intact. It has a inprint of the components place just to get a visual guide. TWO: Gently and slowly remove the adhesive tape in the OPPOSITE direction of the legs. This is helpfull so one can assemble it piece by piece and never loose track. That´s it, hope it can help. Thank you for this opportunity!

[@stevekannes89]

Nice build man!

[@Yupppi]

The first Rat in the video had green indicators in the knobs. I'm sold. I'm not gonna lie, I had to do back and forth in the demo parts quite a lot to be able to distinguish anything different. I think the mosfet-version has a bit more bass and is a bit softer. Really hard to describe, very nuanced if anything. I guess you pedal makers are right when you say that individual parts of the circuit don't make that big of a difference alone.

[@jmanzemail]

The RATFACE?! This circuit LITERALLY sounds like a 50/50 blend of a FUZZFACE and the RAT! Are you releasing this? I'll buy it!

[@DavidFerreira72]

I liked the new circuit a lot. It reminded me of Mesa Boogie's Throttle Box, with it's extra grit and the way the notes growl. This is my favorite kind of nuance in the distortion sounds.

[@metalprophetPerkins]

Even though they are simular i really love the changes you made. Its .... for lack of better words.... stankier. Id love a pedal like this

[@FilipeDGuedes]

That sounds amazing. I would love to have that pedal

[@gph2193]

Sounds great. Dig what Lichtlaerm did with the 🐀. Owning a couple of your gain pedals already, I know it's gonna have serious balls.

[@jjarabejo305]

I’d love to have that bread board be a killer edition to my collection of guitar oddities or fictional wall art!

[@BricksAndSparrows]

Oh man. My first pedal was a Rat. I’d love one of these!

[@chrischwaz7788]

I really enjoy you building these circuits on a bread board if you sold a dvd showing in detail start to finish putting together a bread board like this or the other one you did showing the different clippings circuits and how one thing effectively changed the sound and character . As far as shipping this bread board I would love to have it. As far as packing it up try vacuuming sealing it I process meat in a butcher shop as a living and we wrap up the meat in vacuum bag they come in all kinds of sizes and you can vary the amount of vacuum so it can be lightly touching the components and holding the in place and then you can cut the vacuum pouch and air gets in the pouch is loose and you slide it out and there it is . Thank you again for sharing your knowledge

[@Tech_NO_Tech]

I would definitely want to one of your breadboard circuits.

[@markhammer643]

I'd certainly be honoured to be a recipient. But what I'd *REALLY* like is the schematic! (nudge nudge, wink wink). For me, the key elements to the Rat are the use of dual ground legs, to give reasonable gain to the low end, and silly high-gain to the upper mids and highs, and the use of a variable lowpass filter for a tone control. Th dual ground-leg scheme is what allows it to have the "heft" missing from so many other pedals. I've used it n some pedals, and like it very much. The use of an LM308 op-amp, to exploit its gain-bandwidth limitations is also important, but really only at the higher gain settings. If it were mine to play with, I'd be curious about inserting the sort of mids emphasis one sees on the Ibanez Supertube, and.or a midscoop filter like one sees on the Superfuzz and similar pedals. I've tinkered with pre-clip resonant boosts and post-clipping midscoop filters, and there are some interesting tones, especially if you can tune each of them. Think of it as the "baby" version of the Akai G-Drive.

[@StevenNelson69]

I agree with Johan Ingman and Stuart Chapman, send the components and schematics in the spirit of learning and hands-on practice for those interested in pedal customizing/building/modding. Maybe even a whole line of "Wampler University DIY pedal kits" of some basic pedals.

[@sons7429]

Sounds great! Like it has added mids

[@BCEpedals]

Man O man, sounds thick! Maybe a bread board in a box of peanuts and that box in another padded box. An alternative may also be to talk us through the circuit for DIY building!

[@removemental2873]

You are figuring out how to make cooler videos. Keep em coming!

[@TL-angzarr]

Love this, super cool vibe in the new circuit. Could you like silicone things in place to get it to someone? Or maybe even just make a schematic and we could bread board it ourselves.

[@ronhouseofbain487]

That would be pretty cool to have a one off circuit like this.

[@kmaximo4]

Such a cool mod, would love to try to build a RAT!! Greetings from São Paulo..

[@mikearmitage4147]

Nice idea, I like it. Maybe hold the circuits together with black goop. I can’t quite remember what inspired me to suggest this. I thought I had it for a minute but my memory’s klon.

[@bobmartocchio6203]

I love the Rat pedal as I have a Proco Rat 2 that gets a lot of use. I’m curious as to the difference between the Rat and Rat 2 pedals. Maybe it would make for an interesting video. As far as your experiment I loved the sound and found it very complimentary to the Rat pedal. If you ever decided to make it as a “true” pedal I’m sure it would do well. If you do give your test pedals away someone would be fortunate to have the proto types and I’d certainly throw my hate in the ring for this one. Enjoyed the video and keep at it. 😃👍🏼👍🏼

[@jbonillaguitar]

I'd love to hear your take on a bluesbreaker or Timmy overdrive. I'm not a circuits kinda guy but the idea of a "reinvented" classic is very appealing.

[@wampler_pedals]

coming up shortly!

[@Guitarmankw]

That's an awesome idea!

[@GuitarGearGyan]

About to do a Rat shootout, the last shootout I did was a TS one and you guys released the Moxie during that video's edits and I was bummed out. Now will wait to see if you are going to release a rodent soon!

[@Mor-Gain]

I would personally LOVE to own a Wampler one-off MOSRat 👍🏻👍🏻 sound pretty awesome too! I'd have to add it to the board as-is just for fun for at least one go hahah.

[@WillDeutsch]

That would be really cool!

[@backlom]

I don’t know what the point of this video was for, I’m just glad to see Brian!

[@toothace3]

Wampler Kits. I'm in!

[@jimilee459]

Oh yeah, that’s great fun. I took a rat circuit and put a different clipping options on a rotary, and then for fun put in soft clippers like the roadkill rat. It’s good fun, I just make PCBs cause I’m too lazy to bread board it. I also did a KoT PCB but I used tube screamers. Why? Because I can. Great video. I’d be interested in a Wampler bread board, maybe hot glue?

[@3l84r70]

Sounds great, I would greatly have it on my rack

[@RobertNolan]

This is awesome, and I'd love to mess with it. I think the best way to ship something like this is to wrap it before boxing it; literally wrap it in some sort of plastic wrap. That said, if something got loose or fell out, that's the opportunity someone needs to learn how bread boarding works!

[@raulroger9441]

Awesome Mrs Wampler

[@timhall7771]

Very cool! One-off experimental circuits.... why not?!

[@DeefPirmasens]

Good stuff! ❤

[@jonathanjackson3706]

You boosted the "boutique" world with your book yeah? Maybe you could sell a PDF of these non-official inventions. Kinda like guitar channels sell books or video courses? Don't know if it would be worth your while as I don't know the work involved drawing up the schematic and setting up the website etc. Anyway, keep up the good work.

[@cayteo]

The rat has been on my wishlist forever, one day I will treat myself

[@OgamiItto70]

Well, that was interesting. On my computer, through my headphones, they sounded very close. The breadboard circuit sounded a hair more spitty and loose in the low end than the Rat; almost like a fuzz. The Rat sounded just a teensy bit brighter in the top and tighter in the low end. I preferred the Rat slightly. It sounded a bit more tubey and "natural" (whatever that means) than the breadboard circuit.

[@manoel123123]

Hello Brian. My wish on this project would be remove some of the bass response (mud) when the pedal has a higher gain setting. Maybe changing the 2.2uf and 4.7uf on the clipping stage for lower values, which probably would lower the gain as well, but we always can put a blues break before to boost. Or if you have another way to remove the mud and keep the gain. Feel free to do it 😊

[@PacificNatureTV]

A gooped breadboard (for shipping purposes of course) would be the ultimate Boutique Pedal lmao! If you could just post the schematic, I’d be happy to recreate it though 😉

[@violinmiata]

This is actually really hilarious, gooping a breadboard.

[@WarriorofChaos20]

It'd be awesome to get a fun little pedal like this from you!

[@nobodynoone2500]

Some short runs of these ideas seem great. Just conformal coat the whole thing and hope for the best, I might still tweak on it however. Either way, release the schems once you register the device!

[@CircuitCreator]

GREAT JOB

[@dancrowe7860]

Would be cool to have a breadboard kit with like four starter packs of components to make a TS, Rat, boost, and a fuzz. With the schematics and directions for each type, and the parts in four bags, or maybe just labeled. Could be a cool cross-over with StewMac, or someone similar, who could do the compiling, packaging and shipping.

[@kristoffervictory5976]

Fun vid!

[@jurassicbadger8304]

Please, make a pedal out of it or provide us the schematics, this thing rocks !

[@robertprice5039]

The MOS-RAT sounded cool, but I think I have found the perfect pedal for my needs. The Paisley Deluxe is suiting my needs clipping circuit wise. A TS type OD that I actually like, for low gain, and the Underdog does the medium gain stuff. Whack either one with a boost or fuzz, if I need more.

[@nicholasstorer3580]

I loved your video when you turned a metal zone into a rat. A rat with some eq controls would be an interesting product to produce.

[@mrshatters]

Brian I’d love to play with this. I recognize the breadboard transport would be impossible but could you share a schematic or something that we could use to build our own? This one was right up my alley.

[@revmcvey51]

Yes, send it my way😎

[@darwinsaye]

I liked that a lot.

[@deastman2]

I’d really rather have the schematic so I can try to breadboard it myself!

[@tubularbill]

I like this alot. I would buy this from Wampler.

[@jimhart1959]

Yeah…that rocks!

[@paulthegeek]

The RAT is one of my favorite pedals of all time. I will NEVER sell my original, but I'd love to see a Wampler-ized version.

[@wampler_pedals]

Well, we do have a different Rat-based pedal you may like, but it's different from this. www.wamplerpedals.com/products/distortion-overdrive/ratsbane/

[@paulthegeek]

@@wampler_pedals derp I feel stupid. I should have remembered the Ratsbane! LOL

[@wampler_pedals]

@@paulthegeek :D no worries

[@robdemarais105]

Would love that for bass!!!

[@JONNIE_ROCKER]

👍👍 for the breadboard