905
by VaticanShotglass
EQD Life Pedal V2
I did not need this though I do love a good Rat, and this is a good Rat. I also like a good Green Ringer, and this is sort of a good Green Ringer. I also got it at a non-collector price.
Short version: Not Crap. Waffles for availability, frequently high price, the fact there are other good Rats out there, collector vibe, etc.
The Rat part: It sounds good. No bad setting on the distortion dial and the first third of the filter dial. It's got all those lower dial great sounds people love in a rat plus, what I care about, is when you crank the distortion it gets that saggy complex falling apart sound that I crave. It didn't seem to cut the bass in a bad way either. In all of these regards it sounds better than most rats I've played except my one modded Dirty Rat (fancy pants IC, clipping switch for GE, SI, and LED clipping diodes), which somehow pleases me more than any rat I've played or built as it gets filthy and keeps nice bass.
The Green Ringer part: Awesome that it has a blend control! There's some good intermediate settings on it. That function is superior to having a GR that has no such control. If you dial in the rat to a very low gain setting and blend in the octave, it is an ok GR. Probably just the EQD Tentacles, which should have a blend knob on it. It does not sound as good as my diy GR, which should also have a blend knob on it. The Life Pedal just doesn't get that odd ring moddish robot skronk that I like so much and you can't really dial in the sound of a GR alone processing a clean signal. Or maybe it is supposed to sound that way. I did have to really dial in the diy version with germanium diodes to get it sounding awesome. The octave up on my FoxRox octaver is slight more tamed than the diy GR but still sounds livelier than the Life Pedal and sounds amazing going into a rat. In the end I just rather my GR had a blend knob or that the FoxRox were tiny.
The Boost part: The boost is nice. It's got its own volume dial, so that is good. It comes after the rat so it depends on if that is what you want or not. I've used boosts in front of rats to add sustain and feedback, but this setup is pretty useful even when not cranking the amp. Doesn't seem to change the character of anything, and you can use it independently of the rest of the pedal. I pops when you switch it on though.
Bells and Whistles: The soft switches are nice, though you have to remember that holding it down works like a momentary on. Feel good too. Pedal looks cool and is compact. You might like the Octave on its own switch, but there is an expression control for it and EQD's V1 and V3 have it on a switch, I think. I don't have an expression pedal handy to try it out. The three clipping options are cool, but theres no germanium option (my favorite) and I'm not sure the biggest difference between the symmetrical option and the asymmetrical option is due to the configuration or the use of different diode types. I was kind of surprised it sounded on the no diode option. Still got pretty dirty, but you cut out all that compression. Not my favorite, but definitely useful.
It's nice to have another nice rat, but it doesn't do much my current set up doesn't do better already except for how compact it is. For that alone, it might be worth keeping around for my two or three pedal setup. It's too fancy and nice to mod it however.