Overall, this pedal offers exceptional value and it sounds great too. It delivers a warm, rich tone with plenty of headroom that combines perfectly with most amplifiers.

The center knob is a low pass filter and adjusting the knob sets the cutoff for the filter. The controls are similar to the RAT 2 and the sound is nearly identical. But this EHX pedal does have a character of its own and certainly holds up better on low-distortion settings than other counterparts. I was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of the pedal, considering how much it costed. It serves me well for what I use it for and I'm planning on keeping it on the board. Oh and The Interrupters who are still flying the ska punk flag in a very nice manner, nothing about pedals in this they just look like they'd be a fun band to be in...Mooer pedals are small and wonderful things. As a company, they’ve pretty much perfected cramming the juiciest effects into nice, compact cases. That being said, can they really deliver on the pure intensity of the ProCo RAT? Oh really - thats really interesting - thank you @monquixote - I appreciate the share.... I was leaning toward the Katana.... it seems like a solid base for a gigging amp - in that you can easily go in different directions as. required..... if you dont mind sharing why do you prefer the blues cube? I've used a Katana 100 and a Tonemaster in rehearsal rooms, both can be fine for what you're after. The JC and Bandit too, though they weigh a bit. Those next 5 are pretty decent but have some serious competition, while the remaining 5 need some further tweaking / re-aligment as far as I'm concerned to make them work properly for me. So in short - 5 stellar, 5 pretty decent, and 5 mostly OK! If you’re searching for a great distortion pedal that will give you a lot of gain with tons of character, look no further. The Walrus Audio Iron Horse offers just that, and more.

It sounds amazing, works flawlessly, and it’s straightforward to dial in the right tone. This is because of its all-analog, military-spec glass-epoxy circuit board and the simplicity of its controls. I use a Peavey Transtube (red stripe) Studio Pro 112 fitted with an Eminence Li’l Texas. Sounds great clean, overdriven and with pedals, and it’s an easy one-hand carry. I thought that there were more of these, but the total complement of Mooer ’drive’ pedals is as follows - with their original inspirations in parenthesis: Like the legendary Tube Screamer, Klon, and Plexi, RAT pedals started with one build that became such a hit that everyone wanted one. And that’s why dozens of manufacturers tried to copy it (some successfully too). So no doubt, there’s some marvelous engineering going into this little box.I have to confess to my biased and snobby view of those third wave American bands - I wrote them off without even listening to them - I thought they were too far toward American punky pop and not close enough to the heavy drum and bass I love.... I made that decision without really listening to the records - which is an unforgivable sin in music isnt it I generally feel that there isn't a dud amongst these - they are all pretty decent sounding pedals, but there are some real star performers here - I think I can best convey that by doing my favourite 5 and then the next 5 in line - listed alphabetically. While for some of these there are newer and better alternative equivalents out there, a large number of these still holds their relevant place in their respective category - I will briefly review each, give my verdict as it pertains to me, and state notable alternatives! We found the Magus Pro’s build quality to be excellent. It felt solid and the metal pots were easy to adjust. The compact design means that it can easily fit most pedalboards. The true bypass circuit was effective and really preserved our tone when the pedal was switched off.

Most of you will be familiar with most of these as they can pretty much be found everywhere, and are most players favourite second choice when space is tight on the pedalboard and they have to fit in that one more flavour. Others see this as a cost effective way of getting to grips with the best of what the original inspiration pedals offer at a fraction of the price. There are two obvious Boss clones here - the Blues Mood (BD-2) and Ultra Drive MKII (DS-1) that have been cloned / copied in their Keely modded iterations - so you get access to actually pretty rarified tones as such. There's just going to be a lot of 'it depends' but as everyone says essentially most SS amps are going to respond differently to overdrives although it might just be about tuning them in differently.There is also the really high quality Japanese OneControl brand with its excellent Bjørn Juhl -designed minis, and LA-based Italian-made F-Pedals which both could do with more advertising really and more exposure. Yet within all of that Mooer still has a place for providing quality pedals at the right price - the sort of M&S of mini pedals I guess. There are lots of pedal snobs out there, but I personally have a healthy mix of pedals from all corners of the world and I rate them not on where they come from but how they play and how they sound. Admittedly there are only a couple of mins currently in my pedal-chain - largely because I get more options and versatility with compact sized enclosures.

The Magus Pro pedals are based on the LM308, a high-gain distortion circuit with some upgrades. It features 3 analog knobs and 3 straightforward modes for tweaking your sound. The all-metal pots offer durability in an extremely compact design. This pedal is so tiny that it doesn’t even have a battery compartment in it! We had to plug it into a 9V DC power supply to run this pedal. When purchasing a RAT distortion guitar pedal, knowing what kind of tone you want to achieve is essential. Some guitarists prefer bright, edgy tones that give them a jolt. Others prefer mellow, warm overtones that make the instrument more accessible. I know that the Blues Cube is rated very highly by a number of people especially for its clean sound and it's a step up in quality from the Katana. I really wanted the Wampler Ratsbane to have its time in the spotlight - as it’s truly a great example of the genre - albeit delivered with a TL071 ompamp in place of the more typical LM308 or OP07 variant.

Somehow, they’ve managed to recreate this iconic circuit in miniature form. To all but the most pedantic pedal-heads, the sound is almost identical. Furthermore, it comes with two modes, offering the sound of both the Vintage and the Turbo RAT. Make sure you try a Katana in person before actually buying one - you’ll either find it perfectly acceptable, or want to kill it with fire when you hear its hideous grating fatiguing nastiness... hard to say . I can't tell you about the Blues Cube specifically because I haven't owned one, but I have played lots of amps and didn't love the clean channel on the Katana for that bright clean sound.