Is the Rangemaster worth it?

[blooze_man]

I really love using a treble booster before my fuzz but the NPN Germanium for it is like $10. Is it worth it? I would like to know that It's better then a regular silicon boost before I spend the money.

[LucifersTrip]

I really love using a treble booster before my fuzz but the NPN Germanium for it is like $10. Is it worth it? I would like to know that It's better then a regular silicon boost before I spend the money.

I would have to guess that there's some lower price Germanium that would also work....but it's such a small circuit, it'd probably be best to just throw it together
and try a bunch of silicon and less expensive GE's till it sounds good to your ears...'cause that's all that counts.

[Venusblue]

I would imagine most people would be a bit more partial to silicon treble boosts. Germanium sounds real iffy a lot of the time and not as clean.

I like germanium a lot more, myself, however...

[Top Top]

I just built one using a 2SB54 GE PNP (which is pretty close to an OC44 from what I can tell, in terms of specs) that I pulled out of an old intercom. I built it pretty much because I had the GE transistors and wanted to build something with them. Out of the GE PNP options, I'm not a huge fuzz face or tonebender fan, so I went for the rangemaster.

It is fun and sounds pretty close to the clips I have heard of the "real thing" to my ears. Nice upper midrangey sound that does some nice things with the harmonics without being totally distorted. I tried some 2SB56 that came out of the same intercom, and the differences between two different 2SB56 was bigger than the 56 and the 54 were to eachother.

Personally I wouldn't spend a ton of money to get the "correct" transistors, but then again, I won't spend a ton of money on pretty much anything

I liked it enough to box it up and will probably use it here and there on some recordings. I don't really use boost playing live.  

[makaze808]

I use the cheepo russian 404's from ebay. They are NPN so need to make sure your circuit is the right one. I honestly can say that apart from the normal use of overdriving an already maxed out amp I can get some outstanding low volume sounds late at night. really beautiful full bottley tones dispersing from the strings.

I have had many guys play (and buy) the 404 treble blaster and they all still use them.

I's say def worth the build, but cheepo tranny's do it for me.

[user]

Im also building the rangemaster with an ac128. I just received 3 of them last week. I will use the other 2 to build a fuzz-face or a tonebender. I hope I dont have to throw these away because from what i have read, these germanium transistors can sometimes be very leaky and thus useless.

[Scruffie]

Im also building the rangemaster with an ac128. I just received 3 of them last week. I will use the other 2 to build a fuzz-face or a tonebender. I hope I dont have to throw these away because from what i have read, these germanium transistors can sometimes be very leaky and thus useless.

Very leaky is good for Tone Benders... infact, mine wouldn't work with non leaky transistors, so don't dismiss them straight off!

[R.G.]

I really love using a treble booster before my fuzz but the NPN Germanium for it is like $10. Is it worth it? I would like to know that It's better then a regular silicon boost before I spend the money.

I have an opinion. If the NPN germanium were free,  you'd spend much more than $10 on an enclosure, pots, jacks, battery clip, battery, power jack, knob, wire, solder, etc.

In the DIY effects world, every new effect build is a bet. You're betting your money and time that you'll turn out something you like better than the money and time. There is no way to make that not a bet. Even asking other people if it's a good bet.

[trjones1]

I've built Rangemasters with a few different transistors and the best one I've used, by far, is this one:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=461

I'd say it's definitely worth it, and the included resistors bias it up perfectly.

[smallbearelec]

Many customers agree that the OC140s that someone mentioned sound consistently very good, and since they are NPN you save the expense and inconvenience of a separate power source. Those points, and the fact that once they are gone I will not get any more, account for the high price.

Other choices:

--You can have U.S.-made NPN germanium, audited and tested for the RM, for $ 7.00 a device. If I were to name "best value," that might be it. The Hfe is a minimum of 70 (see below) and, while I don't offer choice of brands, you could hit the lottery and get a TI 2N388A or 2N1306.

--Devices that pass our test for leakage but have gains under 70 are remaindered on the Stock List. For $13.50, you can have a bag of five devices that fall between 60 and 69. Most will work fine in an RM. Make a couple of pedals, sell them to friends, and you have your own for the cost of your time.

Next FAQ: "Will the inexpensive devices definitely sound like the expensive ones?"

I'm paraphrasing one of my own stock answers:

"It's impossible to say. The differences in price are driven entirely by the relative scarcity, differing costs and yield of useable parts from the raw stock that I start with. That said, devices that came from different manufacturing environments Will, often, sound different from each other. They are as individual as snowflakes, and customer tastes vary enormously. Doing the testing and finding out what greases your crank is what breadboards were invented for."

Regards, and Happy Construction!
SD

[phector2004]

I absolutely love my OC140 Rangemaster

gets just a bit hissy when you throw an OD in the chain, but I MIGHT have made a ground loop  

I'd really recommend it, though!

Also note, the OC140 works both ways for different gains... you could also experiment with that

[newfish]

Yes.

Have built and loaned (and therefore lost) a couple of OC44-based pedals.

Current incarnation of the RM is an NPN Silicon  job - so it plays nice with power supplies etc.
This is a Silicon job - BC 184 I think.  Silicon ones are not *as good* (subjective opinion I know...) as the Ge ones - more 'splatty', but with the right Transistor in, they really do the job.

There's only one Transistor in the RM, it's worth spending time auditioning this one active device.

...or you could try a high-gain Tranny (NPN), such as the BC108C / 109C put in backwards.

It does work, and it puts an end to the splatty-ness associated with Si.

[user]

Im also building the rangemaster with an ac128. I just received 3 of them last week. I will use the other 2 to build a fuzz-face or a tonebender. I hope I dont have to throw these away because from what i have read, these germanium transistors can sometimes be very leaky and thus useless.

Very leaky is good for Tone Benders... infact, mine wouldn't work with non leaky transistors, so don't dismiss them straight off!

Thanks for the advice. I hope it turns out well. Now i just need some spare time and beer and im starting the build.

[mac]

I paid less than a dollar for the Matsushita 2sa102 pnp ge in my RM. I used it because it is brighter than others I tried before building it, 2sb54-56-77-172-175-176, 2sa49-52-53-101-415, 2n388, 2n1114, acxxx, 2sd352-72k, etc.
And no need for a PS since it draws only 0.2ma from the battery.

I built and tried another treble boosters but as RG describes in his article it has a lovely distortion when you hit the strings hard.

mac

[Mark Hammer]

A good Rangemaster, coupled with a decent amp, produces a lovely tone.  When you're used to 6 cent silicon NPNs, $7-10 can seem horribly inflated.  But let's take the long view.

How much will people spend for a preamp, or better yet, pair of power amp tubes?  A great deal more than $7-10.  Will those tubes last them forever?  Not likely.  Depending on how hard and how often you push them, power tubes can be like "consumables".  Smoe effects really need alkaline 9v batteries, and don't really last a long time with them.  There goes a couple of bucks every few weeks too.  A transistor will not "wear out".

Or another view.  What portion of the total cost of making a pedal are the semiconductors?  Generally, much less than half, unless you've scoured the globe for some obscure BBDs.

I've made a couple of Rangemasters.  One that I foolishly sold used a Mitsubishi 2SB172 from a transistor radio I worked the entire summer of 1965 to buy.  Sounded fabulous.  "Instant Beano", as I liked to say.  The guy I sold it to owned a music store that sold vintage gear.  He had a lot of great stuff coming through the store, but my pedal remained a part of his pedalboard, and may still be on it for all I know.  Despite having gone through a lot of germanium transistors, I have not been able to make one since that sounded half as good.

If Steve can sell transistors for $10 that have strong assurances of consistently sounding good, that's a price worth paying.  Think of it as "heartbreak insurance".

[joegagan]

in 8 years of heavy gigging with homemade effects and amps, the most consistent compliments on my tone were when a rangemaster was in use. GE rangemaster.

[Top Top]

I just found another broken old transistor radio and tried some more of the germanium transistors in it. Out of the ones in there, I liked a Sanyo 2SB270.

It has stronger gain/wider gain range than the 2SB54 and 2SB56 I have tried. I have no idea what the specs are on it though, only that it's PNP. I wasn't able to find much info on the web about a lot of the transistors in this radio.

I mainly post this so that people who search transistor part numbers on the forum will find reference to it.

[DougH]

I wonder where the originator of this thread went? Haha!!! 

[phector2004]

gonna correct my previous post

It doesn't sound good with a buffered pedal in front...

anybody care to confirm this? I gotta put my chorus behind it otherwise it goes psycho

[Philippe]

This is one of the easiest fxs to build so what have you got to lose? Terminal strip+some hardware. Focussing on a low Hfe transistor is more critical than Ge or Si. Brian May uses Si & no one seems to complain about his tone...the same could be said of EJ & his Si Fuzz Face.

As far as the worth (as in time, energy & expense) is concerned, if you've got a dark-sounding amplifier & wish to brighten the neck pickup by adding some upper end, go for it. Pretty much unecessary on a BF Fender style amplifier.