Range Master

[Kipper4]

My rangemasters (AC153) low gain low leak
are not reacting well to turning the guitar volume pot. Is this normal and if so what can be done about it.
when my pedals (insert dirt box) is placed earlier on in the chain before the rangemaster it makes a pop when i kick it in.
Solution and ideas please.
btw anyone used a diode from base to emmitter to try to stabalise the germanium trannys? Regular practice? Good? Bad idea?

[Kipper4]

to top it all its motor boating

[R.G.]

are not reacting well to turning the guitar volume pot. Is this normal and if so what can be done about it.

Can you define "not reacting well" a little better?

when my pedals (insert dirt box) is placed earlier on in the chain before the rangemaster it makes a pop when i kick it in.
Solution and ideas please.

Popping is almost always a sudden shift in DC level. It is likely that the distortion pedal or, since the rangemaster is always involved, the rangemaster has a DC level or leak on input or output. Have you measured?

btw anyone used a diode from base to emmitter to try to stabalise the germanium trannys? Regular practice? Good? Bad idea?

Yes, someone's done it. It's not a bad idea, but not the salvation of the world, either. Helps more with leaky parts.

to top it all its motor boating

Did you try to make it negative ground instead of positive ground?

[mac]

In the RM the output is taken from the wiper of the 10k pot unlike most pedals that have a volume pot to gnd that acts also as an anti pop resistor.
Many schematics I've seen do not include a pop resistor to gnd after the output cap. Check if this is the problem.

IMHO the RM is more like a mid booster than a treble booster. The coil inductance and resistance, and the small input cap act like a bandpass filter with a peak around 1khz-2khz depending on your mic.
As the guitar volume is decreased the peak is less noticeable.
Anyway, the guitar volume works fine with both SC and HB of my Ibanez, no treble losses, etc.

You can add a reverse diode but even with leaky diodes up to 500ua I did not notice a drift of more than a volt or so.
If you bias around 7v in the winter it may fall to 6v in the summer.
The emiter resistor makes bias pretty stable.

mac

[Kipper4]

are not reacting well to turning the guitar volume pot. Is this normal and if so what can be done about it.

Can you define "not reacting well" a little better?

when my pedals (insert dirt box) is placed earlier on in the chain before the rangemaster it makes a pop when i kick it in.
Solution and ideas please.

Popping is almost always a sudden shift in DC level. It is likely that the distortion pedal or, since the rangemaster is always involved, the rangemaster has a DC level or leak on input or output. Have you measured?

btw anyone used a diode from base to emmitter to try to stabalise the germanium trannys? Regular practice? Good? Bad idea?

Yes, someone's done it. It's not a bad idea, but not the salvation of the world, either. Helps more with leaky parts.

to top it all its motor boating

Did you try to make it negative ground instead of positive ground?

Defenition
when i turn the guitar volume pot I get a sound like a scratchy pot

i havent measured DC on output of any of the pedals used i will do later and report back

This is a std positive ground rangemaster.

thanks for the response i'll be back later guys

[R.G.]

Defenition
when i turn the guitar volume pot I get a sound like a scratchy pot

i havent measured DC on output of any of the pedals used i will do later and report back

Your rangemaster is leaking DC back out the input. This is about the only way a guitar without active pickup circuitry can have a scratchy volume pot.

[Kipper4]

yep thats the fella i' getting 4.6v at the input.
Good call RG
Now what do i do to fix it please.

[Kipper4]

Just so you know i hooked the Positive ground to the jack ground input and output.
I figured thats how it had to be afterall ground is ground no?

[mistahead]

For the RM, as someone mentioned they feel its a mid more than trebble booster, it ALL comes down to the input cap.

If you've got high tolerances on your caps and a bit of bad luck it would be possible (though unlikely) you've got too high a value in place there.

Mine is socketed, will one day switch into that socked, so I can go mid/treb/mid/treb/mid/treb/vertreb all days longs.

[R.G.]

Now what do i do to fix it please.

Good question. To answer, I need to know the exact setup of your circuit, including the schematic and how it's wired up; and how it's wired to any other pedals.

If it does this with a battery as power, not connected to other pedals through a group power supply, then it's got a problem where the input capacitor and/or input capacitor switching (if you did that) is letting DC through.

If it only does this when sharing a power supply with other pedals, it's a problem of how your grounds are wired.

Or it could be something I can only speculate about without more information.

[Kipper4]

I had a 1M resistor going down to earth on the input. I dont know why i did that force of habit i think as pop protection even though the pedal is not switched.....
As soon as i disconnected the resistor from the earth the problem went away.
For future referance its a std Rangemanster seen here
except the Transistor is an AC153.
Input cap is a 4N7
Thanks for the help guys and RG thanks too if i ever have this issue i will at least know where to start looking and what for.
Appreciated
Rich

[mistahead]

I had a 1M resistor going down to earth on the input. I dont know why i did that force of habit i think as pop protection even though the pedal is not switched.....
As soon as i disconnected the resistor from the earth the problem went away.
For future referance its a std Rangemanster seen here
except the Transistor is an AC153.
Input cap is a 4N7
Thanks for the help guys and RG thanks too if i ever have this issue i will at least know where to start looking and what for.
Appreciated
Rich

Put a toggle in there and switch the 0.05 (4n7 in yours) cap up to .1 for mid/general boost, and down to 0.025-ish for squealy scooped lead boosting (and turn the volume up to 11).

[Kipper4]

I'll do that next time thanks for the tip
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