Horizoneer

I've used a few different rats over the years, stock and modded, and they do tend to need to have the volume quite high to get unity gain - I usually set my real ones (using the same 0-10 scale line 6 use for reference) Gain 3.5, tone 7.5-8, volume 8. That's with relatively low output humbuckers played hard. They were all slightly different in sound and feel. Some are a bit warmer, others more dynamic, some are brighter. The line 6 Helix model seems to have a bit of a focus in the upper mids, which is no bad thing, maybe slightly less low mids than I'd expect. I might play around tonight with an EQ block and see what's what. Funnily enough the old, golden-yellow DM4 stomp box modeller had a fantastic Rat tone, with added low and high shelves. I gigged that for a while into one of the latest Vietnam-made Handwired AC30s, got some compliments for that sound. I actually thought it sounded better than the subsequent M-series Rat, I don't know if it was the same algorithm or not, and whether the difference was just down to the hardware.