PROCO USA RAT-2 TROUBLESHOOTING ADVICE NEEDED?

[Woman Tone Man]

I am seeking advice from any fellow forum members for my early 90's Proco Rat-2 pedal with an LED light. I get a clean signal with my guitar. When I engage the switch the LED turns on but I do not get any sound with a fresh battery? Might this be a cold solder joint to the board or switch, an issue with the jack, or something else? I am a novice with a multimeter but if pointed in the right direction I can troubleshoot with it.

Thank you in advance

 

[ErictheRed]

There's a lot of things that could be and unfortunately on my end those pictures are pretty blurry. Can you check voltages at the op amp to make sure it's turning on? Maybe Google what voltages should be on what terminals.

 

[Woman Tone Man]

Can you check voltages at the op amp to make sure it's turning on? Maybe Google what voltages should be on what terminals.

What setting would I put my multimeter on? Is the op amp the LM308 chip and how would I probe the voltages?

 

[Rogueaverage616]

I am seeking advice from any fellow forum members for my early 90's Proco Rat-2 pedal with an LED light. I get a clean signal with my guitar. When I engage the switch the LED turns on but I do not get any sound with a fresh battery? Might this be a cold solder joint to the board or switch, an issue with the jack, or something else? I am a novice with a multimeter but if pointed in the right direction I can troubleshoot with it.

Thank you in advance

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It could very well be the actual switch that turns the pedal on and off.I just built a “Klon” Clone and the build came out very good ,however i found that the pedal will always power on, and the LED indicator will turn on, but the audio signal will not come out of the pedal, every time, and a simple tap of the actual body of the switch will cause the audio of the pedal to engage, ...then you knock on the pedal again, and it shuts off, but the light stays on...it was the inner contacts of the switch.

does your switch have 6 lugs on top? Try smacking at the switch while the pedal is turned on and see of the sound engages

 

[redking]

If you get stuck on trying to troubleshoot it yourself, I would recommend Johnny Balmer in MInnesota to repair it - he goes by Alchemy Audio on Reverb and his own website. He serviced my RAT 2 from a similar era as yours and he is quite the RAT aficionado.

ALCHEMY AUDIO

Guitar effects pedal mods and repairs!

alchemy-audio.com

 

[Woman Tone Man]

If you get stuck on trying to troubleshoot it yourself, I would recommend Johnny Balmer in MInnesota to repair it - he goes by Alchemy Audio on Reverb and his own website. He serviced my RAT 2 from a similar era as yours and he is quite the RAT aficionado.

ALCHEMY AUDIO

Guitar effects pedal mods and repairs!

alchemy-audio.com

Thanks for the recommendation. I sprayed some tuner cleaner into the switch with no results. The switch does not physically click like the switches on my other Rat pedals. It has the feel of a momentary switch. Maybe my switch is bad? I haven't used this pedal in at least 10 years.

 

[DADDEO]

Could be the latching mechanism in the switch has siezed in position due to lack of use. If it was working when you last used it and it hasn't been thrown around in the intervening years it might just need to soak a little while.
If it is boogered, it will be an easy fix for a tech, and reasonably priced as well I'd expect.

Best of luck

 

[Woman Tone Man]

Could be the latching mechanism in the switch has siezed in position due to lack of use. If it was working when you last used it and it hasn't been thrown around in the intervening years it might just need to soak a little while.
If it is boogered, it will be an easy fix for a tech, and reasonably priced as well I'd expect.

Best of luck

UPDATE,

When I tested this pedal out when I posted this thread I wanted to test it against my Proco Rat Deucetone which has channel input A of the left side of the pedal and channel B on the right. For some reason when I disconnected the Deucetone I forgot the Rat-2 is like any other pedal and I plugged it in like the Deucetone with channel input A of the left side and channel B on the right (DUHHHHHHH).

So when it didn't work when I tried it again last night I picked up the pedal and noticed my error. All's well that ends well! It sounds amazing and I'd like to thank everyone for their replies.

 

[DADDEO]

UPDATE,

When I tested this pedal out when I posted this thread I wanted to test it against my Proco Rat Deucetone which has channel input A of the left side of the pedal and channel B on the right. For some reason when I disconnected the Deucetone I forgot the Rat-2 is like any other pedal and I plugged it in like the Deucetone with channel input A of the left side and channel B on the right (DUHHHHHHH).

So when it didn't work when I tried it again last night I picked up the pedal and noticed my error. All's well that ends well! It sounds amazing and I'd like to thank everyone for their replies.

Ahhh, the famous "blond" moment. We all have one occasionally