Rangemaster idea... has anyone done this?

[mills]

So, I'm thinking I should put together a rangemaster. 

But, With all the versions with an input cap selector got me thinking...  Rather than a bunch of different treble boosts, could I wide a DPDT in parallel with the input cap, and have one side a full range boost, the off position the treble boost, and the other position a bass boost (ie big input cap with a decently large cap to ground after?

I think this should work, but if it won't let me know?  Has anyone done this, and is there a more elegant way to do it?  Any comments, thoughts or experiences?

This is what I mean with the switch wiring...  Cap values are kinda arbitrary for now until I breadboard it... just planning it out rght now.

[petemoore]

  DPDT center off switch, it looks like it'd work !
  Pretty good idea too !

[Nitefly182]

I would go with maybe a stock input cap on one side and a .047uf on the other side. That should give you treble and something like a full range boost.

[Anchorman]

I built my Rangemaster with an on-on switch, one position 0.005uF (stock), one position 0.15uF (full boost, as mentioned in R.G.'s AT Boost pdf). Works very well, with Strat>RM>Hiwatt, I prefer the full boost actually.

[newfish]

The stock (0.0047u) makes my ears hurt.

I have a DPDT wired to give 0.01uF in one position and a whacking great 2.2uF in the other.

Output is a 2.2uF.

Circuit is hard-wired at maximum gain with a single volume pot on the output, as I found myself never turning the 'gain' down.

[StephenGiles]

I'm just wondering though why anyone would want to use a treble booster, a pre top boost AC30 obviously warrants one, but the way amps are built these days, who wants screaming treble blasting in the ears??

Discuss!

[superferrite]

My RM is wired like Anchorman's setup, and the full boost is always what I use--sounds just like old '70s Judas Priest through my setup.

The only time the treble comes on is when I am recording and want some old sixties garage tones.  I can't get there with my setups into Cakewalk and the RM is a good tweezer to those tones.
It also tempts me to play some Clapton riffs from the Beano album.  Hideaway...

[DougH]

I'm just wondering though why anyone would want to use a treble booster, a pre top boost AC30 obviously warrants one, but the way amps are built these days, who wants screaming treble blasting in the ears??

Discuss!

Because the RM isn't really a treble booster. The way it loads your pickups, it's more of an "upper midrange at the most" booster. So it's the old trick of cutting lows before distortion yada, yada....

Now, back in 1974 when I was in high school I built a real treble booster. It used an off the shelf Radio Shack NPN bjt and it could get piercing- yeoww!!! But it actually sounded good in front of my Craig Anderton Optimum Fuzz Adapter plugged into my muddy Silvertone Amp-in-a-Case with a 1x10 closed back.

[drewl]

I had my clone set up that way at first with a switch, but found for my use I always used the "full range" setting so I removed the switch and added a volume pot.
YMMV.

[MikeH]

The Red Ranger by Dan Armstrong does this:

http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=91

Maybe another way to the same result would be to work up a germanium version of this?  The build is a bit noisy from what I remember though...

[Caferacernoc]

I'm just wondering though why anyone would want to use a treble booster, a pre top boost AC30 obviously warrants one, but the way amps are built these days, who wants screaming treble blasting in the ears??

Discuss!

Because the RM isn't really a treble booster. The way it loads your pickups, it's more of an "upper midrange at the most" booster. So it's the old trick of cutting lows before distortion yada, yada....

Now, back in 1974 when I was in high school I built a real treble booster. It used an off the shelf Radio Shack NPN bjt and it could get piercing- yeoww!!! But it actually sounded good in front of my Craig Anderton Optimum Fuzz Adapter plugged into my muddy Silvertone Amp-in-a-Case with a 1x10 closed back.

Exactly. Keep in mind that a treble booster into an already clipping amp or dirt pedal can't actually make the treble much louder. The amp is already at max volume output if it's clipping. It just makes the upper mids more compressed and harmonically rich. And the bass tighter.

Omega clip three is the perfect example of this:

http://www.runoffgroove.com/salvo.html#omega

[DougH]

My favorite Rangemaster clip of all time: http://www.tonefrenzy.com/sound_files/rangemaster-sustain-sample1.mp3

[Jim Jones]

Hey Doug,

Yep that clip is fantastic!  I love that sound! 

For a guy with hearing that's pretty much destroyed I find I'm pretty finicky with input caps on my Rangemaster builds.  I can hear a difference in treble between .01 and .015 believe it or not.  (Likely not after playing for awhile and suffering the usual ear fatigue but initially anyhow...)  I've built a couple with switches for different cap values and I find I always use the .015 setting.

"Decade values" typically work well for me in situations where you want to switch between different sounds but the jump between .01 and .022 or .047 in a Rangemaster-type booster is pretty extreme to my ears.

Whatever works for you is good! 

Jim

[John Lyons]

As stated above, Into a very clean amp the RN sound like crap because it will boost mids/treble.
Into a slighlty distorted amp will sound great since it drives the amp and does not cloud up the lower mids making it muddy.
The higher end boost will drive the harmonic content into distortion while retaining clarity.
Using the RM to drive other dirt pedals is also cool.

I would recommend using the stock cap as one option but a bigger cap is nice as well for variation.
Really depends on the amp though as the RM will sound bad by itself into a clean amp.

john

[MikeH]

Also, I am the only one who thinks an RM sounds great with single coils, but awful humbuckers?  Maybe it's just the one I built...

[DougH]

Opposite way around for me. Not a big fan of it with singles but love it with humbuckers.

[mills]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

Breadboarded it out with PNP and NPN germaniums, and tried a bunch of input caps.  I'm pretty torn between a stock  (.0047) and slightly bigger (.01) for the treble boost.  Got way more distortion than I expected when I went with a full range or bass boost, but so far I'm not minding that too much.  Ideally a switchable resistor to drop the input signal down a notch would be good, but I don't really want to complicate things too much.  (yeah... I've read the "clean boost" thing... I just don't know how to describe the distortion any other way)

Really liking this circuit though. Its definately getting boxed up this weekend.

[StephenGiles]

Around 1963, I had a Burns Sonic guitar, Watkins Copycat echo and a Watkins Westminster 10watt valve amp. Above a certain volume, the amp distorted on the lower strings. A friend of mine had a Dad who knew about electronics - he put bass & treble controls on my friend's record player, and he modified my amp to increase the treble and lower the bass responses. The result was a much louder amp with undistorted screaming treble, which cut through the rest of my band - even an over loud rhythm guitar!!