What’s better than one vintage late 80s-era Rat? Well, two of course! - running parallel in a standard rack enclosure. Run either of them individually or together in series – the choice is yours depending upon your sonic circumstances. These R2DU’s are without a doubt the best sounding Rats out there, especially when both channels are rocking together in series. I’m not sure why, but there’s some kind of secret mojo in this box that you cannot re-create with two individual rat pedals of the same era. If you’re reading this, I suspect you’ve done your research and have knowledge of the sound and fury that this unit is capable of unleashing. If not, there is always YouTube.
I am the second owner of this unit, it’s been in my possession since 1992. It’s all original, and has never been on tour or spent much time outside of my home studio. It’s my favorite overdrive/distortion/fuzz preamp, bar none. I hate to part with it, but over the past 10 years or so my tinnitus has nudged me in a decidedly more acoustic direction, and the R2DU has therefore gotten very little use. It deserves to be in service - give it a good home!
Cosmetically speaking, it’s in very good shape. The foot switch serial number and the rackmount unit serial number match (labels are intact/clean). The unit is very clean. The left distortion knob has an indentation, and the actual R2DU lettering is a little scuffed. You can see both in the attached photos. Foot switch and unit functions as it should. Including the power supply that I received with it 20 years ago, which may or may not be the original - but it works fine. Also includes the 5 prong cord I received with it, which connects the foot pedal to the rack unit. Check out the photos and let me know if you have any questions.
In the '80s, everybody in the MI biz got into the rack game, and Pro Co was no different. Unlike a lot of the antiquated remnants of the rack boom, though, Pro Co's R2DU rack unit was (and still is) a really great and useful piece of guitar gear. Far from being some flashy technological marvel, the R2DU is just two classic LM308 RAT circuits in a single rack box, with a simple two-button remote footswitch for switching between them. They could also be cascaded together for a ferocious, dual-rodent onslaught. The R2DU was only produced for four years, from 1984-1988, but there must have been a fair number of them made, as they come up on the secondhand market with some regularity—often for very fair prices.
