latest hairbrain idea #2

[pinkjimiphoton]

ok, what about changing a rangemaster circuit to a "rangeblaster" circuit?

i was thinking <that's an oxymoron> about rangemasters when the boss asked me to cobble one together for him, and what i could do to make it sicker than normal.

first thing i thought was use a pair of 6pdt rotary switches, and literally putting varitones in place of the input and output caps, so you could choose which range the master is boosting... obviously, the bigger the cap, the phatter the tone would be, and you could use it as a fuzz, overdrive, whatever by changing the input cap.

but changing the output cap i dunno if it would really be worth it, as with a guitar, 10n is gonna keep it a treble booster, but as ya decade down to bigger caps, it will lose any real perceptible difference fairly quickly.. i mean, face it, there ain't a lot of bottom end on guitars to begin with, and usually to my ear at least, they sound better with the bass attenuated... they cut more, less mud, and when your amp isn't struggling to reproduce bass that isn't really there, it seems to shift the power of the amp upwards an octave or two and make it really cut thru better. i have hi and lo pass filters on most of my guitars for that reason.. but...

then i was thinking.... hmmm... so leave the output cap intact, or maybe use a 3 way toggle to go say, 10n, 47n, 100n which should be fine for the output...

but what if we took a wah kinda circuit to replace the input cap with, so you could sweep the frequency the distortion happens at anywhere you want to continuously, and boost the hell out of it on the back end?

that was when i realized i think that quasi re-invents the systech harmonic energizer. no bueno.

so.... that got me thinking... fake variable cap for the input?

like, maybe 4.7n on one side, and 4.7u on the other, with say a 250k or 500k pot to "sweep" between them, and mount the whole mess in a crybaby shell or something?

wonder if it would be worth it?

hairbrained ideas.... lol

[Mark Hammer]

Well, I think Joe Gagan had that one figured out 20 years ago.

[pinkjimiphoton]

hahahah somehow that does not surprise me, joe's a brilliant dude and makes some toneful stuff. every once in a while somebody will pop by with one of his wahs, and they're pretty freekin' sublime.

but then i got to thinking... i wonder how it would sound to use an lfo to sweep a rangemaster like this, in parallel with a fuzzed guitar ... a fuzzphaser? fuzz wah? barely perceptible? maybe invert it?

should comb filter the original, non-swept signal i'd imagine, right? like some weird ass flangy fuzz? maybe like a mr multi, so you can sweep it manually like a wah, or use the treadle to control the speed?

pipe dreams...

dangit, mark, your post on distortions has me down a rabbit hole again i fear. lol

[Mark Hammer]

And here I was hoping it would plug the hole and leave the depth of the hole fixed as "deep enough".

[pinkjimiphoton]

hahahah there's never , well, enough, mark

[Steben]

             inverter buffer - fuzz face (silicon fe)-----
          /                                                               \
signal                                                                  summing
          \ fuzz face (germanium fe) -------------------/

[pinkjimiphoton]

i like the way you think

[Steben]

i like the way you think

In theory you'll have octave fuzz 

[pinkjimiphoton]

looks almost like the waveform my princeton put out once when i put in a wrong output transformer lol

[Steben]

looks almost like the waveform my princeton put out once when i put in a wrong output transformer lol

Fuzzton 

[pinkjimiphoton]

for real, lol... it sounded GREAT, but it was impossible to get any kinda clean sound out of it lol

[joegagan]

Ha thanks guys.
I've explained how the inverting crossfade (buffered to non buffered) dual gang input on the skyripper gives nice Eq possibilities,  even  at 2 or 3 percent off full cw or ccw as the phase begins to cancel.
I can't recall if I thought it up or someone suggested wiring a dualgang like trubypass dpdt. But that is the origin.
It takes safecracker skill level to tweak that knob effectively.
Thats why the upcoming 2021 version has pointer knobs for that and one other knob

[joegagan]

Skill a stillet

[Mark Hammer]

I have to laugh, Joe.  For the last 20 years, since the dawn of the NVN days, I can't pass through a frying-pan section in a hardware or kitchenware store, without ever once thinking to myself:  "Hmmm, I wonder if....", and pondering how much work it would take to convert this one or that to an enclosure.  You've ruined me! 

[pinkjimiphoton]

Skill a stillet

you sir, are one sick young man.

that's why i appreciate you so so much.

[pinkjimiphoton]

while i'm here, quick update...

so what i ended up doing was the fake variable resistor on the input of an otherwise very standard rangemaster circuit, made it npn with an ac176 with a gain of 72 with i think 85ma leakage if memory serves...
the fake variable cap on the input works nicely, went with a stock 4.7n on one side, and 4.7u on the other, so ya can kinda schmear it wherever it sounds best... full cw is the stock rm, turn it to the left it gets phatter and becomes more of a simple fuzz.
the output cap being variable made virtually no discernable difference,  used a three way center off switch wrong <it was easy that way, just using bits and pieces loose on my bench> i forget the values, but on the output it wasn't really worth messing with too much. very little tonal change, really. i think i used a 4.7n in the middle, and switched in caps on either side of it to make it large.
of course, being me, i built the mofo instead of breadboarding it, and being me, built the damn thing in a 1590b so i added the switch, even tho it turned out to be fairly useless. there is a VERY slight change tonally, but not enough to get tumescent over.
but anyways, i sent it to the guy for his bluesbreaker amp he just got, and he loves it. i called it the derangedmaster cuz its an over designed rangemaster and i likes most things kinda deranged <seen three from hell yet? my kinda peeps...lol>









i forget if there were any mistakes on the vero, i hardly ever end up following them exactly. pretty sure i just put the caps for the output directly on the switch... so caveat emptor. think of it more as a guideline than an absolute. not the best layout i ever did, i rarely do vero anymore, seems all i ever do is populate endless pcbs.

if ya build it, have fun. if ya find mistakes, don't say i didn't warn ya

[anotherjim]

If you could take the magnet off a speaker, it ought to octave double. Don't know how long it would last though.

[pinkjimiphoton]

without a magnet, isn't it just an inductor?

[iainpunk]

If you could take the magnet off a speaker, it ought to octave double. Don't know how long it would last though.

without a magnet, it won't octave double, it will burn while remaining stationary. the speaker impedance consists mostly out of the speaker movement in the magnetic field generating back EMF and upping the virtual resistance, if there is no magnetic field due to the magnet missing, the resistive part of the impedance drops to roughly 1/3rd. the movement also incentivises the air to move around the voice coil and cool it, if this stops, the coil overheats and burns. the big magnet also acts as a heat sink for radiated heat from the coil, when taking it away, it burns.

cheers, Iain

[PRR]

If the voice coil is not centered in an iron gap, but near some iron, it will double.

If you burn it, you are just careless.