Okay, so here it is, I am THAT guy. Christmas has come and gone and I have money burning in my pocket. Ive decided that I want a compressor and then an affect, probably distortion of some kind. So far I have in my cart on eBay, A DOD Milk Box for $55 and a Little Bear Rat Attack 2 for around $35-$40. I have checked the shrine of Onvilab and the Milk Box seems to be the big top pick for cheap. I kinda just want to get some opinions. Also, the Rat is coming from China (of course) and I am no electrician but 9v is 9v right? Getting a pedal from there will work just fine here in the states and in the UK ?
Which is why I was gravitating toward the Little bear, I've heard it holds quite a bit of low end for it's price. But say I wanted to keep some low end with a distortion. Should I look at something like the DOD meatbox to add some sub and low end? Or should I go for something that cuts the single so I can keep some dry and some wet?
Well, I should say I have no experience with the Little Bear, and it may very well keep low end, but if it's a straight clone of the ProCo it probably won't. The Meatbox is probably overkill. That's for room-filling, subsonic throb, like what you hear at a club that's playing EDM or hip-hop. It's great if that's what you're going for, but as a solution to a pedal that cuts lows, it's the wrong tool for the job. The third option you're talking about, keeping some dry and some wet, is called "blending", and I think that's what you're going to want. You could buy a separate blender pedal and use it with the Little Bear. Or you could look for a deal on something like the MXR Bass Distortion, a Rat-based distortion with separate dry and wet level controls. Do yourself a favor, though, and wait for a few more responses to this thread. I'm a reasonably well-informed guy, but there are some true pedal-heads here that need to chime in.
OK, question is how much do you have to spend and which pedal is your priority compression or dirt? If dirt, how dirty do you want it and what kind of music is it for? What do you want your compressor to do? I would say if you have a limited budget get 1 decent pedal instead of 2 OK ones and save and then get another.
It definitely is a great Rat-based box. It was designed by the head of Fuzzrocious and is basically a simplified Cat Tail, which rewrote the book for Rats on bass. And while it does have wet and dry level controls, you don't need to blend wet and dry to get solid bass response out of it.
Thanks for that JimmyM, I'm a Rat nut but haven't owned one in nearly a year(!) I stupidly sold my Martin Owen bass modded Rat to raise the cash for a SLR camera for my Mrs (aaaaaaaarfg!!!!!) I'll keep my eyes peeled on the second hand market for the MXR or a Cat Tail so I can check 'em. If you don't mind me asking a silly question JimmyM? If you were forced to make a choice between a MXR Bass Distortion and a Fuzzrocious Cat Tail (trends and names NOT to be taken into consideration) which one would you sooner have on your board??
The Cat Tail has some features that are very cool and aren't in the MXR, but I think the MXR keeps the meat of what's cool about the Cat Tail and puts it in a small pedal, and I like small pedals better. So if I had to do it over again, I'd still do the MXR, I think, although I do really like the "no diodes" setting in the Cat Tail.
Thanks for that JimmyM, as I said, I shall keep my eyes well and truly peeled. I'm sure it was on here recently that someone said the MXR Grande Fuzz was like a bunch of Rats stacked, that's another one I'm dyin to try out!!
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