Any way to make a rangemaster louder?

[mac]

If you have a 5w amp and you want more clean volume you have two choices, you run it at a higher voltage (if not at the tube max rating), or you buy a 100w beast.

This is *almost* the same.
*Almost* because if you run a stock RM with two 9v batteries, it possible that it won't distort when you play hard as you have more available voltage before clipping.
The collector with no mods will sit near 13v, that's 5v before clipping (it's 2v with 9v)
If you want to preserve that tiny distortion, you need to tweak bias resistors to account for that extra volts, and change caps to have the same corner frequencies. Maybe just a higher gain germ.
Breadboard is your friend

If you don't care about that characteristic distortion, but want a clean and louder booster that have a peak at 1.5khz or so, you can try a silicon transistor of about hfe=100 (mpsa42, 2n2369, 2sc1213, 2n2218), a 22k at the collector, 2M2 from collector to base, emitter grounded, 10n output cap, 6n8 input cap running at 18v.

Two cascaded RM will make a bright new distortion pedal

mac

[MrStab]

then it goes into a couple of tube screamer style circuits

pedals like those could negate any boost and increase distortion, as you get nearer their clipping thresholds with a hotter input. if it's just 20-30% you might get away with it, but a detail to consider. i think Idy touched upon this in a slightly different context.

[DougH]

Sounds like you might be stacking too many distortion pedals, which over-compresses everything and gives you mush. I did a festival-style show a couple months ago where all the gear was provided. Before one song, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting enough volume. Turns out, there was more than one distortion pedal in a row turned on. When the second was turned off and I just had the Rat, I got an instant boost in volume and ability to cut through the mix. The Rangemaster is intended for a pretty simple setup: guitar->rangemaster->amp. Amp should be set to break up fairly easily when driven. Back the guitar down to clean it up. Turn it up to get lush harmonics and sustain/bloom for days. Works like a charm with a simple setup.

Edit: I'll add that I had issues when I tried running a buffered pedal between the rangemaster and amp. Not sure why, but I do remember that.