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The Affordaboard Filthy Rat Pedal Review – The BETTER Rodent Pedal!
Introduction
I have another fantastic review for you all today! The Affordaboard Filthy Rat! Affordaboard’s take on the classic RAT pedalcircuit, but with some extra touches and improvements! So, as always, let us go over what the pedal is and what it does, then we can hear some sound samples and tones. Finally, we will give our thoughts and let you know what I think. I reviewed the amazing 800 Drive pedal (Review Here). Which I loved, and was so excited to give this one a go!
If you are interested in purchasing one, all links will be at the bottom of the article! Affordaboard sent these pedals over for me to check out; however, they don’t have any say in the review! They wanted my honest opinion and asked if there were any ways they could improve them. So, let us dive into it and find out what the Affordaboard Filthy Rat pedal is all about – the design, the features, and, most importantly, the sound!
The Affordaboard Filthy Rat
The ProCo RAT is an iconic distortion pedal that we have all heard on our favourite songs! Bands like Blur, Foo Fighters, Metallica, and even Nirvana have used the ProCo RAT in some way, shape, or form to create their signature sounds! It is a great and very versatile circuit. The Affordaboard Filthy Rat is a take on the classic RAT pedal circuit but with a unique twist! They have corrected the tone knob so it behaves the way you would expect, and they’ve also added some extra goodness to the circuit to make it more modern, unique, and a source of endless tone! The fully white pedal with the printed graphic makes its inspiration clear!
Before we move onto the sounds and tones, Let us first talk about the simple yet effective controls the Affordaboard Filthy Rat:
- Level: This will control the output of the pedal
- Tone: Turn to the left to roll of the high ends and turn to the right to open up the sound.
- Drive: Controls the Gain and sustain of the pedal
The Volume and Drive controls work hand in hand to allow you to dial in the perfect overdrive or distortion sound that you want, while also allowing you to carve and sculpt your tones with the Tone control, which now rotates and responds exactly how you would expect a tone knob to behave.
More on the Affordaboard Filthy Rat
You can expect to find the input, output, and power jacks mounted on the top of the pedal (where they should be). The Filthy Rat can be powered using a standard 9V power supply. The Affordaboard Filthy Rat is designed and built in the UK, as well as sold and shipped directly from there. You can purchase one from the Affordaboard website for £79 plus delivery!
The Sounds
For the sounds, all I did was run the Filthy Rat into the front end of the Neural DSP Quad Cortex! I think on some parts I added a bit of delay and reverb from within the Cortex; however, most of the heavy lifting is coming from the Affordaboard Filthy Rat pedal. On one of the demo songs, I tuned down to D Standard, which really shows how well the pedal copes with detuning!
For the sound samples, it was the same setup – the Affordaboard Filthy Rat running into the front end of the Cortex. You’ll hear both clean and crunch settings so you can see how the RAT-style pedal responds with different amp setups.
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What are my thoughts?
The Design
Design? Such a killer design for a pedal! The white enclosure colour with that RAT graphic on it is just a brilliant design choice! It looks very clean yet incredibly effective. I’m a huge fan of the look — nice, simple, and clean, yet striking and unique! Affordaboard have absolutely smashed it with the design of the Affordaboard Filthy Rat!
You’ll be pleased to know that it’s top-loaded for everything — input, output, and power! This is a huge win for me. I love top-mounted pedals; they make everything easier and tidier, so that’s another big win for this RAT-style pedal!
"Ignoring the Drive knob, you can punch the front end of your amp and adjust the tone to get exactly the sound you want."
The Sounds
If you want super-thick and girthy gain, then look no further! The Affordaboard Filthy Rat has it all! I have to say, my favourite gain sound was with the gain control all the way up on a guitar with single coils — it sounds amazing, with huge sustain and loads of character! It’s just so much fun to play. Speaking of sustain, this pedal has all of it! Cranking the Drive knob gives you even more. Will you ever need that much while playing? Probably not! Is it incredibly fun to play? 1000% yes!
Cleanup is very similar to a Fuzz Face — not quite as clean, but still very responsive. Don’t think it’s all or nothing with this pedal; there are levels to the gain! You do have some nice dynamics within reach using your guitar’s volume controls.
More on the Sounds
The Affordaboard Filthy Rat also packs a lot of volume inside! What does this mean? It means you can use the pedal as a very nice boost and tone-shaping tool. Ignoring the Drive knob, you can punch the front end of your amp and adjust the tone to get exactly the sound you want.
Speaking of tone, the Tone control is where this pedal really shines! You have a huge range of sounds just from that single knob, allowing you to shape and control your sound easily. It’s simple, effective, and stays musical at every setting — it never gets too extreme!
The Drawbacks
There isn’t really anything negative to say about this pedal! However, this is still a RAT-type pedal, so if you really dislike the RAT circuit, don’t expect anything completely different from this pedal. Although, thanks to the updates and refinements, it might be worth giving the circuit another go! The improvements truly take the RAT pedal design up another level.
The Affordaboard Filthy Rat can handle some crunch, but that’s not what this pedal is built for! It isn’t a gentle amp pusher — this is an overdrive and distortion circuit through and through. It has plenty of gain and loads of volume on tap whenever you need it!
"For the price, I don’t think you’ll find anything better. Great value, great design, and outstanding tones!"
Final Thoughts
You can use this pedal for almost anything! If you have an amp that is far too clean and need something to push it into drive, the Affordaboard Filthy Rat is the perfect option. If you want an all-out gain pedal that gives you thick, saturated tones, then this is also the one for you! It has a huge amount of gain on tap for you to use.
If you want to try a RAT-style pedal or already love the RAT circuit, I would highly recommend the Affordaboard Filthy Rat! For the price, I don’t think you’ll find anything better. Great value, great design, and outstanding tones! In fact, when you look at it, this pedal is cheaper than the actual ProCo RAT pedal — and it’s managed to fix all the issues the original had!
Conclusion
So that is my review of the Affordaboard Filthy Rat — a killer pedal at a wild price! I’m so glad to see Affordaboardexpanding and creating their own range of guitar pedals. Always happy to help them out with reviews and sound samples! In fact, we might have a few more pedals on the way from their lineup to try out — but that’s for the future!
Thanks to Affordaboard for sending this pedal over! I was only loaned the Affordaboard Filthy Rat, and it does have to go back sadly. However, being loaned the pedal doesn’t affect my opinion or judgement in any way.
If you want to grab one (or any other pedal they have in stock), you can pick one up using the links below! They have a huge array of brands and guitar pedals in stock. Give them a follow on Instagram as well to keep up to date with their future releases — I’m sure you’ll see many of them featured here on Gigs & Guitars.
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Affordaboard Filthy Rat Links:
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