Pro Co has a miniature Rat distortion pedal in the pipeline

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The Lil' Rat is very much the same animal, only smaller, much smaller

GEAR 2021: Pro Co is putting a new spin on its classic Rat series, taking the gnarly circuit of the Rat 2 and cramming it into a micro pedal format that is most respectful of your pedalboard real estate.

The 'Lil Rat features the same control setup as the Rat 2, with Distortion, Filter and Volume mini-knobs arranged in a space-saving triangle and on-hand for dialling in anything from some fresh overdriven heat to full-on face-ripping fuzzstortion.

As anyone who has used one in anger will tell you, there really is nothing quite like the Rat – well, clones aside – with a huge amount of gain under that distortion control, and the Filter knob making it play nice with all kinds of guitars. 

The FX Files: Pro Co Rat

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(Image credit: Proco)

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A veritable pedalboard perennial, there is a magic in that Rat circuit that somehow makes it similarly suitable for indie, blues, alt-rock, punk, heavy metal, death metal doom...

There are no details as to prices or release dates just yet, but the Lil' Rat is sure to be one of 2021's most popular distortion pedals. And as you can hear in the demo video above, it's a long way from being housetrained.

  • • NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.
Jonathan Horsley
Jonathan Horsley

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.