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ProCo Rat Distortion Pedals


Soda Jerk

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How the piss do you power them? I've got one, and the 9v input is nothing like a regular input. I wanted to daisy chain it from my TU-2 with the rest of my pedals, but I was denied by some fandangled socket. I don't want to have to buy square batteries every week.

Arse.

an electro harmonix power supply. Ross said you can also buy a power supply with all the withs at the end a selection of diufferent voltages from Brucie's. In which case, alkaline is yr man.

why did you get a RAT? they are pretty good fun.

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I wanted something harsh and noisy without being metal in the slightest. Seems to do just that! A nice balance of fuzz and grunt, although anything past about 2 or 3 o'clock on the filter, and it's ear piercing!

I'll look into this adapter. It does mean I'll need to use two power supplies. I'm going to have to put together a pedal board at some point, even though its just distortions, delay and a tuner.

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i don't think this has anything to do with "amp"ratings...

a rat proabaly consumes around 10 - 20 odd milliamps at 9 volts. more likely somebody got the polarity wrong (at a guess) - that wouldn't do it any favours....

Incorrect polarity might cause a flash of heat but a sustained melting is more likely down to incorrect regulation of the current by the power supply, at least that's what i would've thought. 9 times out of 10 someone getting the polarity wrong would result in the thing not powering on rather than melting it.

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doubt it. a 9volt battery is good for about 300 mA/hours (or there abouts) hence a rat would only last for about an hour and half.... it lasts way more than that.

Well, the dedicated power supply for it is 9v/200ma so it must peak at that rating at some point in operation. I would've thought that current draw would've been variable in these things?

EDIT: Actually, looking into it it's 50ma draw. So my guess would be a faulty power supply rather than polarity or current draw.

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Well, the dedicated power supply for it is 9v/200ma so it must peak at that rating at some point in operation. I would've thought that current draw would've been variable in these things?

i really doubt it. most f the current will be quiescent. the output impedance is limited to about 1k, hence 1mA for every volt it drives in output signal.

let me get this straight, the guy used a supply (possibly regulated) with a bunch of different plugs on the end, and i'm guessing a polarity selector of some description. a rat is pretty much an opamp amplifier circuit (if my memory serves me) over volt it and it would draw more current than it would normally (on a linear basis), but would probably be ok, reverse polarity could damage something to go low impedance or simply draw a shit load of current for a fairly sustainable time (eg some electrolytic caps) thus drawing a shit load current and burning out the transformer windings in the power supply resulting in the "melting".

ah hell, i'll go take a look at the rat circuit, btw, original spies, which model rat was/ is it?

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i really doubt it. most f the current will be quiescent. the output impedance is limited to about 1k, hence 1mA for every volt it drives in output signal.

let me get this straight, the guy used a supply (possibly regulated) with a bunch of different plugs on the end, and i'm guessing a polarity selector of some description. a rat is pretty much an opamp amplifier circuit (if my memory serves me) over volt it and it would draw more current than it would normally (on a linear basis), but would probably be ok, reverse polarity could damage something to go low impedance or simply draw a shit load of current for a fairly sustainable time (eg some electrolytic caps) thus drawing a shit load current and burning out the transformer windings in the power supply resulting in the "melting".

ah hell, i'll go take a look at the rat circuit, btw, original spies, which model rat was/ is it?

Yeah, reading that i get what you're saying. If it was drawing a lot more current for a long period it could most certainly have that sort of effect on the unit.

Refresh my memory on this one, is the Rat centre-core positive polarity-wise?

I actually had a look at the circuit diagram earlier, there was at least one totally wrong version of it that i found.

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Incorrect polarity might cause a flash of heat but a sustained melting is more likely down to incorrect regulation of the current by the power supply, at least that's what i would've thought. 9 times out of 10 someone getting the polarity wrong would result in the thing not powering on rather than melting it.

yep, there are a couple of electrolytics, in particular the 100uF over the supply, depending on the manufacturer/ construction could draw a heap of current if a reverse polarity volatage was put accross it... just a guess but original spies mentioned it never sounded the same since. if it is a lot noisier and has poor bottom end gain that cap could be knackered...

i take it all back... there is a 1n4001 reverse voltage protection diode with a 47 ohm limiter resistor accross the power supply.... max current draw for reversed volatge would be about 200mA. if the power supply unit is rated o 200mA reverse voltage would proably do fuck all.... unless it was reverse and over voltage

anyway, this is all friday night, fuck all to do/ no friends, pointless pontification.... original spies, you need a 9v supply (preferably regulated), capable of providing around 100mA (to be safe - although most decent supplies will provide a heap more than that) with a 3.5 mm jack on the end. just make sure you get the polarity right...

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Refresh my memory on this one, is the Rat centre-core positive polarity-wise?

according to the diagram i am looking at, you are right...

I actually had a look at the circuit diagram earlier, there was at least one totally wrong version of it that i found.

i'm simply refering to the first schematic i found (on the basis that everything on the internet is true!)

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I heard that if you changed the polarity on the power supply when using a delay pedal, you end up getting a reverse delay..............only joking now;0

Seriously, you can buy small adapter leads which have the small EM connection. I use a small stone between my J&H and GE7 with no problems.

cheers

BTG

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I had this problem with a big muff recently. The best option is a converter cable that you just plug your normal 9v power supply into one end and the 3.5" jack into the other. They're made by diago and I got mine from stringsdirect. They do lots of different converters for various connections:

Stringsdirect - Online Guitar Strings and Accessories

Unfortunately no-one local sells them or seems to know what the hell you're talking about if you go in and ask.

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I had this problem with a big muff recently. The best option is a converter cable that you just plug your normal 9v power supply into one end and the 3.5" jack into the other. They're made by diago and I got mine from stringsdirect. They do lots of different converters for various connections:

Stringsdirect - Online Guitar Strings and Accessories

Unfortunately no-one local sells them or seems to know what the hell you're talking about if you go in and ask.

Errr, we do. Like i told you when you came in, we were out of stock...

That last bit is bullshit too as i use one for my Big Muff. :up:

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Errr, we do. Like i told you when you came in, we were out of stock...

That last bit is bullshit too as i use one for my Big Muff. :up:

I got the impression you were talking about something more general rather than just the cable. Anyway the music dept didn't have a clue what I was talking about and neither did R&B.

What last bit? My whole post was saying use them for a big muff...

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I got the impression you were talking about something more general rather than just the cable. Anyway the music dept didn't have a clue what I was talking about and neither did R&B.

What last bit? My whole post was saying use them for a big muff...

Ahh, i remember what it was you were after now.

Yeah, we used to have them downstairs at least. Hmmm, maybe they've stopped doing them. I'll find out. We used to have them and the octopus chains through the back in the store room downstairs.

The power supply we sell has a 3.5mm jack with it as an option but i remember you wanted to use your current supply.

The last bit was because you implied that no-one knew what you were talking about, i did. We're not all incompetent you know ;) You could always make one yourself...

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Ahh, i remember what it was you were after now.

Yeah, we used to have them downstairs at least. Hmmm, maybe they've stopped doing them. I'll find out. We used to have them and the octopus chains through the back in the store room downstairs.

The power supply we sell has a 3.5mm jack with it as an option but i remember you wanted to use your current supply.

The last bit was because you implied that no-one knew what you were talking about, i did. We're not all incompetent you know ;) You could always make one yourself...

Yeah that's right, I've already got a power brick to power my pedals I just wanted a single cable to connect it to my big muff. Exactly like the original poster.

The Diago cables on that strings direct link are perfect. You can buy individual ones depending on the connection you need.

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