Aria Lil' RAT Distortion vs Benson Amps Portable Distortion 424 MKII
The Aria Lil' RAT Distortion and the Benson Amps Portable Distortion 424 MKII are both pedals sharing compressed, bright. The Aria Lil' RAT Distortion leans crunchy. The Benson Amps Portable Distortion 424 MKII leans saturated and edge of breakup.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.44% — somewhat different
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- compressed
- bright
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$199via Reverb
The Aria Lil RAT Distortion is the ProCo Lil RAT mini distortion pedal distributed through Aria in the UK. The ProCo Lil RAT packs the full 100-percent analog circuit of the classic ProCo RAT2 into a mini enclosure just over 2 inches wide. Controls include Distortion (gain), Filter (high-frequency rolloff), and Volume, mirroring the full-size RAT circuit and LM308-based clipping character. True bypass, rear-mounted jacks. 9V battery or standard center-negative power. The RAT circuit covers heavy crunch and saturated distortion used across rock, metal, and alternative guitar for decades.
The Benson Amps 424 MKII is a preamp and distortion pedal designed to recreate the saturation and harmonic character of the input stage of the Tascam Portastudio 424 MkII cassette four-track recorder. The circuit captures the non-linear behavior of cassette-era input electronics, spanning from subtle coloration and clean boost through compressed broadband distortion and unstable breakup. A switchable front-end buffer fundamentally alters the gain structure: engaged, it presents a high-impedance guitar input with tighter low end and increased headroom; bypassed, the circuit returns to a darker, fuzzier low-impedance cassette response. Four controls -- gain, trim, bass, treble -- cover a wide EQ range. Internal 18V operation provides increased headroom. Made by Benson Amps in Portland, Oregon.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Alternative Rock
- Rock
- Metal
- Electronic
- Experimental
- Indie
- Indie Rock
- crunchy
- saturated
- edge of breakup
- fuzzy
- transparent
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Occasions this gear suits — judged per model, or derived from its wattage, connectivity and category.- Busking
- Live