Rangemaster build on the spur of the moment.

[makaze808]

  Hi, I got bored of waiting for my laser printer / etching supplies to arrive so I decided to build a rangemaster on a home made turret board made from a 6*2cm piece of ply and 6 screw in metal hooks. Didn't get chance to play it before taking it to a jam night where it blew everyone away. It floored them all when I took the back off to show them what it looked like, I'm goona have the P*** taken out of me for a while.

As I have never heard a "mojo" rangemaster I have nothing to compare it to but whatever it's doing it is a box that just improved the playanbility of my clean sound to a point where it became fun.

If I can get some opinions on the folowing I be grateful.

I made it following Keen's Austin booster article but bypassed all the tuning stuff as I was making it with my very excited 5 year old. When I tested it today the Collector voltage was 6.78+, (npn version) In Keen's article it state 6.8 - 7.1 is the optimal range. Is 6.78 close enough to not have to worry about it?

The gain og the Russian gt404bb was 70ish, I don't have higher hfe trannies, is it worth getting higher gain ones to try out? I have been playing with the Culturejam layout where he states gain should be around 170 whereas in the Austin Treble Booster atricle Keen states 70-100.

From what I though I had read I expected the pedal to be useless with a tranny amp but it sound great when we tried it on a small amp,des[pite it being a whole different effect when played through tube amps.

I have a Tokai custom guitar which has factor fitted battery space on the rear of the body behind the tremolo cavity. The circuit it feeds doesn't do anything special from what I can tell, I'm not sure it hasn't been butchered / rewired etc. The circuit is covered in a polystyrene goop so I can't see what it is supposed to be.  I was just going to remove the circuit but the success (for me) of the sound of this build has got me thinking of putting a TB in there.

Am I right in thinking the current draw from a TB is not heavy on batteries so maybe a good candidate for installation.

Has anyone made a small factor version of the TB or know of links to a description of one, a small size tranny wouild be good, mines are like bulletts.

I read (but lost where) that the caps might need changing for a humbucker guitar to sound good through the TB, is there a good starting point for the input output cap for humbuckers, I still haven't sussed out breadboarding.

What (if anything) would you put into a guitar as an onboard effect or is this an 80's thing which is better left in the 80's. 

Thanks community, today I am a happy DIY'er for the first time.

Woz.

[petemoore]

  Breadboard is the common comment.
  But for an RM or AT&BBlaster circuit, suggest 'perfbread' board.
  Take your perf, or vero, or anything you like...
  Put socket for input cap. [Although adding a series cap into input wire is =]
  Socket transistor.
  The rest can remain as it is or you can diddle with every other component value on the board.
  The pot value can be made bigger, or have it's 'range bumped up' [stick a series resistor with it], or have it's 'range reduced' [put a resistor across it], this thing is the collector bias resistor.
  The emitter resistor can be made big, then smaller by putting a resistor across it.
  Same thing goes for every other resistor, but as I say, that can remain stock just fine...mostly...
  Especially if you have a low leakage transistor that biases up nicely.
  I know high gain transistor isn't what to look for unless there's something particular about that sound you like, 70hfe [and low leakage] is a fine #, IME.

[aziltz]

i think its really interesting how some love the top boost for cleans and some think its only usefully into overdrive.