The first pedal I built about 2 years ago was a Rat clone, from a kit with a guitarpcb board (only pcb I got from them, didn't quite like it). It worked but after building more, I forgot about it. I didn't know much at the time about the various possible mods.
So a week ago I decided to rehouse it, check all the components values (guitarpcb provided 2 sets of values, the classic one and their own, which didn't sound good in my opinion), mod it a bit and have a brand new awesome Rat clone!
I had a damaged white enclosure from Tayda that I didn't want to throw away (they were cool and sent me another one), so I decided to go for a "relic" look and damaged it even more.
There's a Sweep pot (replacing the 47r with a 47r and a B1k pot), and 2 clipping toggle switches :
- the 1st (s-l) is the classic one (2x 1N4148, diode lift, 2x red leds)
- the 2nd one (m-l) introduces diodes in the feedback loop (1x 2N7000, diode lift, 2x waterclear blue leds)
The variety of sounds is astonishing, it really is a do it all pedal, from a nice and warm overdrive to a piercing boost, to a wooly fuzz, to a full Rat sound!
I was too lazy to rewire the whole thing, especially after desoldering the 3pdt... :) (really dont like that the 3pdt is soldered on the board, the reason why I never bought from guitarpcb again)
Here's a couple pics:
(http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/864583RatPackfront.jpg) (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=864583RatPackfront.jpg)
(http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/159321RatPackpcb.jpg) (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=159321RatPackpcb.jpg)
And the old one just for fun (1st build ever)
(http://i62.tinypic.com/xoe0d0.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/vrczgl.jpg)