You Dirty Rat

Introduced in 1979, the ProCo Rat Distortion Pedal is the OG overdrive.

- DAVE HUNTER

CONSIDERING HOW UBIQUITOUS overdrive pedals are today, it's difficult to think of a time when they were still in their infancy. Remarkably, the late-'60s to mid-'70s classic rock era achieved its template-setting guitar tones without the aid of any overdrive or distortion pedals as we know them today. Fuzz boxes and treble boosters were present and accounted for, but the magic of amp-like clipping in a compact stompbox didn't become a reality until the mid to late '70s, and the ProCo Rat was there at the center of it all.

Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the former home of the Gibson Guitar Corporation, ProCo Sound Inc. evolved in 1974 from the remnants of another local studio-sound company and quickly made a name for itself manufacturing professional-quality microphone and speaker cables and snakes.

But the product for which the company would be best known was the Rat. ProCo engineer Scott Burnham was an avid guitarist who was fond of modding fuzz and distortion pedals but was unhappy with what he found under the hoods. He decided he could build a better mousetrap and set about designing a new and original pedal. He unveiled the first few custom-made renditions of the Rat in 1977 and 1978, and named them in honor of the rodents that were infesting ProCo's basement workshop.