Dallas Rangemaster Treble Boost

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CJ

Well-known member
GDIY Supporter
Joined
Jun 3, 2004
Messages
15,664
Location
California
Aion FX board, 12 bucks,

Dallas Musical Ltd 1965

sounds good, Mullard transistor is OC44 from 1957, PNP germ,

going for Iommi, gettin close, just got done with the polyurethane on the fret board trick to lower the frets by raising the fingerboard,

has a voltage polarity reverse chip so you can avoid power hassle with other efffects

a few others used the Rangemaster, Mark Bolan for one,

has a switch for 3 different tone caps, simple stuff sounds good,

this would be a good one to stuff in the guitar cavity.

trimmer is to set collector voltage, 3.3 volts sounds compressed, 7 v is about the best,
r1.jpg
 
Epiphone les paul got reworked because it was not that great stock,

rewound pickup, plugged the neck pickup hole, straight wired out to the jack, added 2 spot inlay to the B fret and gave it the poly tretament on the board, body is nitro,looks like crap, tuned to D for monster music,

needs a P 90 with 18 K ohms of #44,

comes with 1964 strap,

g1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Brian May is another user of the RangeMaster. Is the RAH a clone of the Catalinbread pedal? I built a clone of their Dirty Little Secret (Marshall in a box) some years ago. Very nice.
 
Cool - I'm building a rangemaster on the Aion board right now too.
Biased a AC128k on the breadboard and it sounds great.
Experimented with C1, C2, and C3 also to find the best filter - I am using 220 nF for full range and only go down to 10 nF for treble. If I can find a stepped switch in my parts pile I'd like more options.
 
Hi there folks. I want to build a Rangemaster, PNP, shaped loosely after the Brian May.

Question: Can I run it at 18 v ( carbon battery ) as is, no mods necessary?

Thanks!
 
I don't remember the cathode voltage but I ended up with a jumper for the bias pot so just 1k from emitter
Soon to get the enclosure drilled and it fired up
 

Attachments

  • rangemaster.jpg
    rangemaster.jpg
    1.9 MB · Views: 1
holy cow, look at that transistor,

the aion fx redshift is pretty cool, kind of a deluxe small stone,

6 obsolete ca3904 replaced with 3 lm3700 chipsstone1.jpg

stone2.jpg
 

Attachments

  • redshift_documentation.pdf
    427.3 KB · Views: 0
and the sabbra cadabra is rockin, have to use surfae mount fets for mpf4393>

cornish st-2 on the bench right now, (gilmour)

sabbath.jpg
 

Attachments

  • sabbath.pdf
    376.6 KB · Views: 0
Treble Boosters seem to be overlooked these days, but add them to a “simmering” guitar signal and they can be extraordinary. Great builds all around, CJ.
 
I didn't know about Aion FX. Ooo boy. That's a lot of top-notch crud to build. I was just looking at the Laney Tony Iommi Signature Boost pedal earlier in the week. Aion's seems like a much cooler option for me.
 
Built a fuzz face and tone bender on the aion boards. Sound great.
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20221105_000120873.jpg
    PXL_20221105_000120873.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 1
The tone bender has a switch to change it into a fuzz face. Nice. I added a treble switch ( low cut)
The treble pot doesn't work like a switched cap
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20221104_235830402.jpg
    PXL_20221104_235830402.jpg
    3.1 MB · Views: 1
Try a med power Si like a TIP29 NPN(+9)or TIP30 PNP(-9) in a rangemaster like circuit.
I like TB like circuits better than circuits like a tube screamer
 
Imo opinion after years of building Ge projects:

One transistor Ge "Treble Booster" circuits work best before anything else: wah/fuzz and or opamp drive, pre;
True bypass, for solos and such, and it's not only another tone "flavor", but I would have many units or at least input/output capacitor selector, it is the best use of a Ge transistor and it can make the upper-mids and highs shine.

The Fuzz Face circuit is much less forgiving in choice of transistor, and it can destroy and "frizzle" the sound, imho. Input/output Caps become primordial and a selector advisable. I would also try a blend output pot.

Keeping the lows while hearing the FF highs primordial, imho. I use it after the Wah and before opamp drive ( in my case Boss Blues Driver Ge mod, sometimes after also, depends on the tone I'm looking for, with op-amp going in I use almost no fuzz ).

Si can sound more modern, and hi-gain Si/Ge ( or vice-versa ) FF are favored by some.

A Ge Transistor can really make a pre valve ring for me. But there is no universal circuit, and final tone will depend a lot
on the rest of the gear.

Attached the schematic for the Brian May booster.

Would like to discuss mod ideas, the power led circuit, can I connect to a 9-pin footswitch without audio degradation if the other poles are carrying audio-only? Meaning three sets of three poles, two carry audio, the third led-power?

Also I could see R5 and or R6 as pots
( input pot the guitar's ) to make it sit better
with whatever gear ( inevitably it is the first of
a long line of gain stages ) and a small electrolyctic
cap in R7, not for fuzz but for "enhancement".

I could also go for input/output cap selector and
blend output pot, and maybe even some diode-clipping
switch for flavor, maybe.

Thanks! 🎸🎸🎸


IMG_5159.JPG
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top