Let’s talk about another one of Will’s suggestions from the email I mentioned last week. He also asked if I could take a look at Mike Stroud of Ratatat. Well yes, Will, I can. So let’s talk about “Seventeen Years”
I love when I can find a picture to back up my theories. In that photo (in order) Mike is seen using an Ernie Ball Volume pedal (with a BOSS TU-2 in the tuner out), Proco The Rat, Colorsound (maybe Solasound) Tonebender Fuzz, Roger Mayer Octavia, and (what looks to be) a Dunlop Crybaby wah.
To my ears, it sounds like he just uses the Tonebender for the entire song. So, as is a common problem with my tone labs, how do we create the sound of a pedal that is no longer in production? If you’re feeling adventurous, see if you can track down a Monsterpiece MKII. It is a beautiful pedal, but they’re a bit hard to come by and will take some patience to acquire. There is a guy who lurks around guitar forums who makes them. A little easier is the MJM Brit Bender or the Throbak Stone Bender. I’d stay away from the Stone Bender because a lot of the Tonebender’s soul comes from being able to tweak the tone of the pedal. Therefore I’d suggest staying with a clone that has the tone knob as an option.
Of course, if all of that seems wrong to you (or out of your means), you could try doing it with The Rat. The Rats are hard to come by these days — so you may want to pick up the Rat2. It won’t be the same, but you can certainly try to get the same sound by tweaking.
The Pedal Lab 