ProCo Rat Tail Distortion: A RAT pedal in your guitar cable Stomp on a RAT - or should that be its tail?

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ProCo Rat Tail distortion in a guitar cable · Source: ProCo Previous Next

ProCo has squeezed its world famous RAT distortion pedal into a guitar cable and called it the Rat Tail. Yes, the RAT is in the cable. We’re still baffled as to why someone thought this was a good idea.

Rat Tail Distortion

Available in three different lengths RAT TAIL-10, 18 and 25 foot, this is essentially a distortion pedal loaded into a guitar cable, using the same clipping Diodes using in Vintage RAT Distortion. ProCo has managed to condense down a whole pedal into the jack plug – no mean feat but it might be missing a few controls…

Flick the switch

The Rat Tail even has a clean true-bypass mode accessible via a selector switch on the jack plug. You can also choose between two distortion modes, so you can kick in the effect with a simple flick of the switch.

Of course, there are no extra controls for Volume, Tone and Distortion, so you will really have to like the tones that ProCo has chosen for you, but you can always use your guitar’s onboard controls to help you adjust your final tone.

Stomp on a RAT

It is an odd product to release. I am not sure I would buy one, but I do own a couple of old mid-80s RAT pedals and love their fuzz/distortion tone, so I’m already pretty much covered for rodent-themed dirt tones!

The company’s slogan used to be “Stomp on a RAT” and now it appears to be more about treading on its tail…

RRP – RAT TAIL-10 USD 57.99, RAT TAIL-18 USD 59.99 and RAT TAIL-25 USD 62.99

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