Man, I was pulling my hair out on the rangemaster, of course I was trying to do it without a meter.. I finally got one and today tweaked it enough where it finally works. I did the standard PNP version, but instead of the expense of using Germanium I just went with a 2n3906 which works. I may replace it with a germanium now that I have it fixed and rebias the deal, but maybe not, it sounds ok to my ear, course I'm in a apt and I can't really let it rip till I get it in a enclosure and take it to the club and turn it up. (That should be FUN :) )
I like the sound, I did the muff boost before this without the diodes for clean boost and its ok, but man the volume jump is incredulous, the rangemaster seems a bit mellower. Oh well, just was jazzed and wanted to give a short report, the rangemaster shouldn't have been my first attempt, I had given up on it till I did the muffboost and that worked. Learning alot from this board and just in general experimenting changing out components and seeing what does what (hey its the way I learn, I could read it, but probably not learn it that way for me).
I do have one question, perhaps simplistic, but lets say a simple one transistor circuit is biased by say four resistors. You don't have that resistor handy, so you substitute the next closest one. Is there some sort of ratio or way of knowing what the other resistors new values would be, or would that even work if you changed all of them equally? Maybe a silly question, but I'm trying to absorb this stuff here and you guys know alot. :D
Regards,
Lone
Ps: I'm thinking of putting a label on my enclosure for the rangemaster as the 'LoneRanger' haha couldn't resist the word play.
What about "Lone RanGerm" when you put a Ge in it? :wink:
"Lone Ranger"...kind of obvious! :lol:
How's about putting it in an egg-shaped enclosure (don't know where you'd get one from though) and call it the "Free Ranger" More subtle, and works on so many levels ;) :lol:
Walker Texas Ranger?
You guys are all in big, big trouble.
how bout the de-ranger
ALRIGHT THAT'S IT. THIS THREAD IS OVER! Everybody out. C'mon, move it...that means you.
Hi Lone,
Glad you got your booster running. :)
On the resistors.... The values used depend on the internal construction of the transistor used so there is no magic formula to shift the values. You just need to make measurements and adjust accordingly.
Good luck with it and takce care,
-Peter
Thanks Peter, appreciate it, I'm still learning this stuff, so I'll play with the voltages on the transistor as suggested. Thanks. :D
Regards,
Lone
Make sure to try a Ge tranny and use a trimpot(s) to dial in the collector voltage. Until you have tried a Ge tranny into a slightly dark and dirty tube amp, you haven't tried a Rangemaster. Also note that the input cap has a huge influence on the tone of this circuit, so try several types and values.
Kerry M
Lone:
Put it in a bright, shiny enclosure and call it...
SILVER!