Built a GGG Rat, but.....

[swinginguitar]

It doesn't really sound like the one I had back in the mid-late 90's (which I think was a Rat 2). I remember it being capable of a fairly high gain liquid singing type lead sound, and with the filter turned down (up?) was very round an not harsh. This one I built doesn't get really saturated like that...at the higher gain settings it just sort of sounds a bit like a fuzz. It's fairly gainy but not what I would have thought.

Recently I've been using the Rat model in Guitar Rig 5 and it sounds more like what I remember the "real" Rat being.

So 1) are there any suggested mods for more saturated gain without getting harsh/fuzzy, and 2) what are the good available Rat clones and which ones are closer to what I'm describing? I read that the Yellow Drive at GC is a 2 sided Rat circuit, but based on demo clips it doesn't sound very gainy to me.

[seedlings]

Did you substitute any components - especially the C4 30pF?  I built one from scratch a while back off of basically the same schematic and it sounded nice.  Maybe try a different 308 chip, or a different 30pF cap because of tolerances.

CHAD

[swinginguitar]

No subs. I didn't use anything particularly "booteek" etc ...just plain old stock on hand

What function does C4 serve in this circuit?

[seedlings]

No subs. I didn't use anything particularly "booteek" etc ...just plain old stock on hand

What function does C4 serve in this circuit?

As I understand it sets the Gain-Bandwidth for the opamp.  Smaller value is higher gain-bandwidth, or the more higher frequencies are amplified.  You might try a 22pF.

CHAD

*edit: look here, 2/3 of the way down the page, right before "3.4 Diode Clipping" section:
http://www.electrosmash.com/proco-rat

[Tall Steve]

Try removing the pull down resistor. It thickened things up on my Rat build. You could also try swapping the 1N4148s for 1N4001s or back-to-back 1N34s. I used the 1N34s as a switchable option. They don't fuzz up as much.