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.