The Steel Guitar Forum

I've found a few on the web, mainly the Reutz mod and a couple of companies who make mods for a price or sell modded Rats.

I've tried the Reutz mod and like it in some ways and dislike it in others. First I clipped the resistor and then replaced it with a 1.5K trimmer, and still not sure if I like it or not.

Anyone out there know of other mods or have any favorite mods for the Rat?

Thanks. pb

I have an old Rat II modded by Robert Keeley, and I love it for guitar. Haven't tried it (or any other distortion) for pedal steel yet, and don't use it much with lap steel. But certainly, it sounds really good for what I use it for - I bought that Rat new in 1986, and it's been on my board ever since. The Keeley mod was in the context of a repair, when it broke down a few years back.

Pat, here's the site that details the Reutz mod.

http://www.diyguitaramp.com/rat.html

One of the session guys I use carries 3 of them--one stock, one Keeley and one by indyguitarist.com (the guy that does Brent's stuff). Have to say I like the Keeley the best...

Jim,
I'm interested in the Ruetz mod. I never heard of it. Does it really lower the gain so that it operates more like an overdrive? What do you like and not like about yours compared to unmodded?

Mitch Druckman wrote:Jim,
I'm interested in the Ruetz mod. I never heard of it. Does it really lower the gain so that it operates more like an overdrive? What do you like and not like about yours compared to unmodded?

The Keeley three-way mod also lowers the gain on one of the three settings. I wouldn't call it "overdrive", but it's significantly less dirty than the other two settings, or a stock Rat. I REALLY like that setting, and tend to use it a lot.

An accidental discovery which I'll now call "the Phelps Mod" (haha, if Reutz and Keeley can do it, so can I ) has given my Rat the sound I was looking for. Don't know if it's the sound <i>you're</i> looking for, but I sure like it. I don't have time now but I'll be back with the details. Meanwhile, for more about the Keeley Rats, here's their site: http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=7

I did a Ruetz mod on mine about 3 months ago.
Before that it was very thin sounding, and had that bee-in-a-tin-can effect, but this has added alot of beef to the bottom end. Slightly less distortion all around, but that's o.k. for what I'm using it for.
Not being an electronics guru, I find it's hard to set it up at home for a pleasing effect on stage... I have to be there with the other musicians to find it's notch in the overall sound.
-John

I didn't like the Ruetz mod. It took away the "ratness" of the Rat. It lowers the amount of treble boost in the first(?) gain stage which gives the effect of less distortion and extended low frequency response.

You might like my version and addition to it... only thing is now before I tell all about it I'm thinking about how can I explain what else I did, when there are so many different circuit boards they used... I'm only familiar with the one I've got... which incidentally is the same as the top photo in the Reutz mod webpage I posted the link to.

True it'll change the tone, and since tone is such a subjective thing, some prefer the original tone, the "ratness"... and some others like myself want a more natural distortion tone and will probably prefer the Reutz or my mod. I was looking for a more natural tone, the original Rat sound lacks warmth and any low freqs (to my ears)... doing the Ruetz mod gave it more lows but made it sound buzzy like a baritone kazoo, and it had an odd pinched-sounding midrange when turning the Filter knob anywhere else other than the max treble (mostly counter-clockwise) setting, and was too muddy at clockwise settings. In-between it had that odd nasal sound and was buzzy. Now I love it, with the changes I've made, but I don't know if it would do the same on anyone else's, or where the parts are on other boards.

I feel foolish thinking about trying to explain about the parts to mod when I don't even know where they are except on this one pc layout. The Reutz mod page shows the location of the resistor for all boards, but doesn't mention the cap (my mod, very simple but made ALL the difference, at least on this one)... let me find a schematic somewhere and maybe it's the only one of its value and can be found easily on other boards, at this point I don't know.

Let me figure it out a little more, then if anyone's interested I'll post the whole thing in its own thread.