Rat Vs. ModKitsDIY Persuader

[Bill Mountain]

I was comparing two dirt boxes yesterday:

1. a Rat with the Ruetz Mod (lifted the 47R)
2. a MOD Kits DIY Persuader which is a Starved Plate Tube Overdrive that someone else built (Schematic: https://www.modkitsdiy.com/sites/modkitsdiy.com/files/product_files/the_persuader_schematic.pdf)

I was actually quite surprised that at mid to high gain the sound was quite similar and I could get away with either.

What bummed me out was that at low gain the Rat was farty and the Persuader was smooth.  Basically the Persuader has a better transition from clean to break up.

Sometimes I believe the toob hype and other times I feel it's just parlor tricks.

I was wondering if maybe the chip plays a part is the choppy breakup of the Rat.  Or maybe the smooth breakup is related to the discrete nature of the Persuader?  Maybe there is subtle filtering differences I haven't noticed.

Any ideas on what could be done to the Rat to improve the clipping at low gain?  Any ideas on how to achieve similar breakup to the Persuader without using Tubes?

Thanks!