*NEW* JSA Effects - Ratbert - Vintage Spec Pedal

This is a new pedal, built by our incredibly talented local friend - Just Some Audio Effects. Known for hits such as the Hot Toddy, Porta IV and Hippohotamus pedals, JSA creates insanely good effects at very realistic prices, with an unparalleled attention to detail! We're proud to be offering some of his creations in-store & online. 

Here's what JSA has to say about the Ratbert - Vintage Spec:

Ratbert (vintage spec) - an extra high voltage rat style drive, built around a delightful selection of vintage & NOS components.

A few years back, a pedal came along that looked so great on instragram pedalboards that is took over the world. This pedal was essentially a modernised rat running at 18v. This led me to ask "Why stop at 18v? Also, why not fix the tone control so it goes the 'right' way? Also also, why so big an enclosure?" These questions were answered when I developed the "Ratbert".

The "Ratbert" starts with the basic Rat topology, and then adds a 27v charge pump (+18v to -9v) offering 3x the normal headroom from a standard 9v centre negative 'boss style' power supply (i.e the normal power supply you run 99% of your pedals with).

The legendary rat was prized for using the LM308N single op amp. However, this has been out of production for many years, and the vast majority of the ones out there are now fake. To avoid this minefield, the "Ratbert" has been reworked to use a dual op amp, with the second half replacing the original JFET output buffer.

Finally, the original rat had the tone control work the wrong way around, i.e turning it clockwise made the tone darker. This was a production decision so that the company building them only had to buy one type of potentiometer to use for all the controls. Thankfully, all types and values of potentiometers are now much more widely available, so i've replaced the tone control with the 'correct' pot so that turning it clockwise makes it brighter.

These changes alone produce a much more open tone, which an improved dynamic response, and wider range of lower gain tones. However this extra special version of the Ratbert is built it using a range of vintage and NOS components, resulting in for maximum mojo toanz. These parts include vintage WIMA and Mullard 'tropical fish' capacitors, a range of vintage carbon comp resistors, a NOS Signetics 5532 dual op amp, and NOS soviet 1N914 diodes.