Build Your Own Clone Mighty Mouse

Submitted on June 4, 2007

Throughout the entire history of vintage guitar FX pedals and their reissues, the Rat reissue is probably the only one to do the original justice. So why would you want to build a clone if the reissue sounds good? Well....aside from the fact that the reissue is relatively expensive for a mass produced pedal, it comes in a big funky enclosure, and the obvious joy and bragging rights you get from building your own pedal, the Rat is the most amazing circuit to modify. And the BYOC Mighty Mouse Kit just happens to come with a few of the coolest mods for the Rat circuit.

The 3-way toggle switch gives you "vintage", "big boost", and "overdrive" modes. "Vintage" of course gives you original specs. "Big boost" lifts the clipping diodes for a clean boost with an insane about of volume. The "overdrive" mode isn't part of the typical 3-way switch mod that some pedal modifying companies will do to the Rat. The "overdrive" mode involves a little more circuit bending than just changing the clipping diodes from 1N914's to LED's. The "overdrive" mode gives the circuit a completely different flavor from the regular Rat with LEDs in the clipping section. The kit also comes with the parts to build to "turbo" specs instead of "vintage" and a few other parts to tweak to taste.

If you need to free up some real estate on your pedal board, this kit is like having 3 pedals in one. And if you are not a fan of the tubescreamer or you are just tire of all the TS type clone overdrives out there, you should really try this kit out.

Build Your Own Clone (2009)

Rat clones are quickly becoming the new "it" distortion pedal of the boutique world. The circuit is easy to modify, has a huge range of distortion tones, and just sounds really good. The BYOC mouse kit has a 6-way clipping rotary switch that makes it one of the most versatile overdrive/distortion pedals around.

Position 1: "Vintage" Symmetrical Distortion
Position 2: "Turbo" Distortion
Position 3: Asymmetrical Distortion
Position 4: Symmetrical O.D.
Position 5: Asymmetrical O.D.
Position 6: MOSFET O.D.

And the BYOC Mouse kit comes with a real LM308 chip just like the original big box RATs, not some "work-a-like" chip, so it has the vintage tone you'd expect. If you want one pedal that covers everything from vintage distortion to boutique overdrive....the BYOC mouse has got it covered.