Sabbath fuzz

[8mileshigh]

 
This is a great topic  !  I was wondering on the way to work the other day if there were any 1 transistor dirty boosters out there, I'd love to build one because I've never been overly thrilled with my Rangemaster.  So how would I modify my  clone to Iommi Specs ?  Maybe somebody could come up with some ideas for mods or layout and call it the Sabbath boost. 

Any ideas ?
8

[Moonface]

That's a great idea. Sabbath boost... I like it! 

[Moonface]

Maybe Ammscray could give us some hints about the cap values etc... 

[Elektrojänis]

Using bigger input and output caps should convert a treble booster to a full range boost.

Check out GEO (again ) http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/Rangemaster/drm.htm

[jmusser]

Wow Burstbucker! We must be close to the same age, because that was about the exact year and sequence that I bought my first Black Sabbath albums. Could have been 73, I'm not for sure what grade I was in, either Sophmore or Junior. Somewhere around there, Clapton's "After Midnight" came out, and I believe I bought Deep Purple's "Machine Head", and Uriah Heep's "Demons and Wizards". Good old memory lane!

[$uperpuma]

As many of the worlds classic rock albums came out around the time I was born, I came into Sabbath later i life when I started to do the history lessons on where my favorite modern bands (Helmet, Clutch, etc...) came from... War Pigs remains in my "top 10 songs of all time" list...

[Moonface]

OHH... NICE..! Now this has turned into f'king lounge... After all, I (and perhaps others too) am/(are) seeking the Rangemaster with Ultra-Hyper-Super fullrange and gain mods...

[mountainking]

Tony Iommi used a modded Rangemaster through crank Laney stacks on the first two albums(s/t and Paranoid). He used a Tychobrahe Octavia for the solo on paranoid. Keep in mind that just like a Fuzz Face isn't "Hendrix in a box" , a modded Rangemaster isn't "Iommi in a box", actually it really won't get you close at all, since all he really used it for was to push his amp into heavy overdrive. Also, his detuned SG played a big part in giving those early Sabbath albums that monstrous, doom-laden sound . By the time the 3rd album(Master Of Reality) came he was pretty much just using cranked full stacks, but that album is much more "produced"( where as the first two were bassically just them playing live in the studio with some overdubs here and there), so Iommi's guitar sound on Children of the Grave probably would have sounded much different if you standing in front of his amp.

[Seljer]

I think he didn't start downtuning until the 3rd album or something like that? I only know how to play a couple of Sabbath songs....

and he's got a lot of doubletracking going on as well, or possibly just a stereo setup. I noticed on Electric Funeral he's got the full out wah'd guitar on the right channel and a regular guitar sound on the left. The same thing for the solo in Paranoid.
I'm not sure if everything was double tracked but it kind of sounds like he had some stereo mic setup going if it wasnt?

[$uperpuma]

they were overdubbed and panned... like the war pigs solo and others where the solos start together in stereo then trail off in their own directions... such a cool trick that no-one these days tries for fear that people will just think it bad over dubbing...

[Herr Masel]

I love his stereo solos. On the paranoid solo one channel uses a ringmod (maestro I think), the other is clean, I don't think there's a wah there. Also I've never understood the whole downtuned thing. When I play along  with any black sabbath album (mainly the first five or six) I never hear a note that is tuned lower than my guitars that are tuned in standard. He could be playing all his stuff higher on the neck but I doubt it, also I don't play along with every song of theirs as well but still.

[Seljer]

I love his stereo solos. On the paranoid solo one channel uses a ringmod (maestro I think), the other is clean, I don't think there's a wah there. Also I've never understood the whole downtuned thing. When I play along  with any black sabbath album (mainly the first five or six) I never hear a note that is tuned lower than my guitars that are tuned in standard. He could be playing all his stuff higher on the neck but I doubt it, also I don't play along with every song of theirs as well but still.

I think it was from Master Of Reality onward, he started tuning down to C#. And its pretty apparent on tracks like Into The Void that it wasn't higher on the neck.

[mountainking]

I was just stating some things that i had read in interviews with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. I am well aware of the overdubbed, stereo solos, as well as some other overdubs on the those early albums. They had said that with the first two albums they just ran through the tunes once or twice and then throw in some overdubs, and after Paranoid they were given more money to record so they were able to spend more time in the studio and as a result the recordings became more elaborate. As far as the detuning, Tony Iommi said that he detuned his guitar because it made it easier to bend strings with his missing fingertips. Him and Geezer both used Tychobrahe wahs from what I remember reading, but I'm not sure. Sabbath's chemical consumption got heavier and heavier over the years, so their memories of those early years probably aren't very accurate. In the end it really doesn't matter, all that matters is that they were one of the heaviest bands ever!

[MetalGod]

I own two 50w Supergroup heads - with a Rangmaster into the bass channel they can do the Sabbath thing all day long.  Don't forget that Iommi was doubling the guitar on those records for a heavier tone.