Why do my Range Masters sound like poo 💩?

[teemuk]

Bottom line: You have a simple common emitter amp with emitter bypass and no global negative feedback; you will not get a very symmetric output from circuit like this!

Bias indeed has huge effect, but largely that of choosing between asymmetry of positive half wave clipping (hard) vs. negative half wave clipping (soft). I think there are several opinions what the "sweet spot" is. The circuit is also Hfe sensitive like fuzz faces so you have yet another variable.

The effect also was not devised to be a stand-alone distortion unit but a treble booster, in days when trend began to lean towards "brighter" guitar tones overall. (It just happened to have very low headroom). Most famously Rangemaster is indeed employed as treble booster to tighten tone of an overdriven amp (and to drive one with hotter signal). It's own distortion will layer with whatever succeeds it in signal path. 

[Electric Warrior]

Many so called "boosters" in the 60's didn't boost the signal at all because their designers were afraid of overloading the pre-amp and causing distortion. Today we like the Rangemaster Treble Booster circuit because it does just that.

[soggybag]

I think I just don't like the sound the way it works with my amp setup.

[Big Monk]

I think I just don't like the sound the way it works with my amp setup.

What is your current setup?

[willienillie]

I might get to try it soon through a cranked vintage Marshall, some friends of mine are recording a record in a couple weeks, we'll see.

The recording hasn't started yet, but the rehearsals have.  I had to haul a couple things over tonight, and I got to hear my Rangemaster in a "proper" setup for the first time.  An ES-335 through a 1969 Marshall Super Bass (both red!), also through a 50W Super Lead clone that I built years ago.  It sounded exactly like you might hope it would, the perfect overdrive for that kind of rig.  The Super Bass wasn't even turned up very loud, it was quite clean, but the RM crunched it up beautifully.  I definitely can't replicate that situation here at home, low volume with a Telecaster and Fender-clone amp, not even remotely close.  I left it over there, good chance it will wind up on the record somewhere.

[iainpunk]

how many watts is the fender clone amp?

i have had great success with rangemasters with small practice amps (my favourite is an 35W ALPHARD from poland), with the clean channel fully cranked everything on 10.
there is just something with small practice amp's clean channels that sound really really good when overdriven, in contrast with the commonly really bad sounding overdrive channels, haha

cheers, Iain

[Steben]

As far as I understand this correctly you have a fairly clean fender amp with a range master in front.
yes that should sound lo-fi at least. A range master sounds like a bassy telephone call through a clean channel.

It is ment to add an extra edge to an already or almost driven sound. If you prefer your amp set "as is",you should add a rather neutral drive pedal after the range master, thinking of a Boss BD-2 for example.

Look here starting at 2:56 (where you here an "at break-up" VOX ac30 without and then with rangemaster). Classic Rory sound. It is the amp that does most of the distortion of course. A Bassman is a great amp to push into saturation with a treble booster by the way, because it is not very bright on its own.

[soggybag]

I think I just don't like the sound the way it works with my amp setup.

What is your current setup?

I'm playing through a Fender Bassman 4x10. I usually play through the normal channel clean at moderate volume.

[willienillie]

how many watts is the fender clone amp?

i have had great success with rangemasters with small practice amps (my favourite is an 35W ALPHARD from poland), with the clean channel fully cranked everything on 10.
there is just something with small practice amp's clean channels that sound really really good when overdriven, in contrast with the commonly really bad sounding overdrive channels, haha

cheers, Iain

My amp is (nominally) 40W, basically a blackface Pro Reverb but with a beefier OT and a midrange knob.  I don't use amps with distortion channels or master volumes.  I like overdriven power tubes, not cascaded preamp tubes.  But here at home (apartment) I make do with pedals, even a Champ is way too loud cranked up.

[iainpunk]

you should invest in a loadbox/attenuator so you can crank the big amp and still have moderate volume. i don't think they are very expensive anyways. this one is quite good and cheap:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_pa_100_power_attenuator.htm

cheers, Iain

[willienillie]

I've never messed with an attenuator.  I don't know how low they can go with the volume, but I guess it varies by model.  I also don't know how much of that glorious power tube saturation is really the speakers overloading, but you won't get any of that at low volume.  Add in the shortened power tube life, and it just seems easier to me to fake it all with pedals.  Big Muff, Fuzz Face, and Rat are all pretty fun to play at apartment volume, Tube Screamer is crap for that.  Some kind of modeling amp would really be the best at-home option for me if I'm honest, but my religious beliefs forbid me from plugging my guitar into any digital device that isn't a muted tuner.  That's in the Bible, pretty sure, somewhere towards the back.