New Rangemaster

[alanp]

I have a working Rangemaster! I tested it out with a spare shonky battery, the MG15 (the speaker cab is at church atm) and my SSS strat, and it made noise 

Not a horrible lot, though.

Rather than start jumping to conclusions (this thing is supposed to be good for 20dB of gain!) I got out the multimeter, and started with the battery of unknown provenance. 30mV... ai corumba, I think I've found my problem.

But once I get a new battery...

Look out neighbours!



Honesty compells me to admit to a flub, though. I left a space under the switch for the battery so it could fit in neat and nice at the bottom of the pedal -- and forgot to allow for the flange on the lid. Gaaaah. I'm going to hacksaw or grind the flange off the bottom 20mm of lid at some point. Rather than mark up the outside of the box, I testfitted parts inside it to see how much room they took up, and marked edges and centrelines with a Vivid. Once done, I lined masking tape inside, copied the markings, and transferred the tape (carefully!) to the outside for a drilling template.

Okay, so this morning I found a 9V with some charge left at church. (I have a bag of 2.1mm sockets for power adaptors, but the Rangemaster is a MINUS 9V unit, meaning it doesn't play nice with plus 9V effects on the same pedal. I thought it best not to tempt fate.)

This sounds very glassy, and also very trebly. It's also very easy to boost it too far! I like the glassy effect it does! It's also very trebly -- I'm going to solder up the T/M switch at some point. This switches between just treble boost (as in the stock version), and a more treble to midrange boost. It sounds absolutely great through my JCM800 I normally keep at church (since it and the cab are a nuisance to carry around), not so hot through the MG15 solidstate practice amp.

[nzCdog]

Very nice Alanp... mine's an indispensable pedal on the ole board
And... welcome to the forum!!!

[DutchMF]

Hey alanp!

Nice build! The labeling you used give it a nice, industrial look. First succes works like an addiction, doesn't it?

It sounds absolutely great through my JCM800 I normally keep at church

I absolutely don't want to offend you, but I think it's really funny playing through a JCM800 in a church, seeing what an amp like that is normally used for......

Paul

[nzCdog]

I absolutely don't want to offend you, but I think it's really funny playing through a JCM800 in a church, seeing what an amp like that is normally used for......

lol!  Tho have you been to a church lately Paul?  They tend to be total 'gearfests' these days... all the nicest toys to play with

[alanp]

I'm not offended at all! I built that because I wanted something that could do clean (Low Input), low volume roar (Master Volume), and which could also bellow with the taps open. I only use it clean at church, with my phaser pedal and (now!) the Rangemaster

I got the Dymo labeller initially because I really, really like the way that Ken Fischer used them on the back of the legendary Trainwreck Express amps, and I wanted to get one of those labellers before they stopped making them. (I'm surprised they still do!) And you're right about this being addictive. The only part I really hate so far is drilling the enclosure.

I was doing a bit of testfitting earlier with the battery to mark out how much flange I'd have to grind off to get the lid to fit, and moved some of the wires that I had had just floating around under the switch. Floating around in the space where the battery goes, where I measured it at a tight fit initially.

Anyone see where this is going?

I moved the wires to go along the bottom of the switch, rather than along the side, and now the lid fits, with the battery in place. For want of one millimeter's width of wire...

I've marked up the Cupcake enclosure to be drilled, just have to measure out the other ones now then I'll drill them all at once. I'm torn between putting the Boost on the La Vache on a stomp or not. What does La Vache translate to, anyway? It sounds Italian...

[Bret608]

I thought la vache was French for cow, but then again I'm pretty bad at European languages! I'd bust out some Thai on y'all if I had the font on this computer!

I think this is a really cool look for a Rangemaster. Cool first build!

[DutchMF]

I thought la vache was French for cow, but then again I'm pretty bad at European languages! I'd bust out some Thai on y'all if I had the font on this computer!

You're completely right, Bret, it's "cow" in French. Every time I see that project's name, I'm thinking Monty Python: "Fetchez la vache!" (bring the cow) And then the cow flies over the castle wall!

Would be cool to label a pedal in Thai though!

Paul

[Bret608]

Yes! All those years of French paid off! I'm from Louisiana and they teach it in schools from early on...Southeast Asian languages are just easier in some ways...tense isn't shown with verb inflection, for starters!

I'm guessing the Monty Python movie is where Brian came up with the name. That's awesome; I think the more Monty Python references out there, the better!

You read my mind; I'm totally going to do a Thai or Lao font for a pedal decal. Just need to figure out if the Unicode ones out there will work in Illustrator.

Cheers,

Bret

[DutchMF]

tense isn't shown with verb inflection, for starters!

I'm sorry, I don't even know what that means, but you might wanna go see a doctor.......

I'm guessing the Monty Python movie is where Brian came up with the name. That's awesome; I think the more Monty Python references out there, the better!

You read my mind; I'm totally going to do a Thai or Lao font for a pedal decal. Just need to figure out if the Unicode ones out there will work in Illustrator.

Yeah, more Monty Python, MY BRAIN HURTS!!!!!

You'll probably be able to find a font that works on the interweb, there's so much out there for free. Should be hilarious to see a pedal labeled in an asian language, plus you'll have a HUGE market over there!

Nice to meet you Bret, cheers to you as well!

[alanp]

Took this round to a mate's place and we tried it out through his Gunn amp. We first tried it in conjunction with the Cupcake and Doubleflush.

Then, thinking that the other pedals might be choking it somehow, I said "Hey, let's try just that into the Gunn with boost full up."

So, up goes the dial, out come the cables, and we whack it straight into his channel 2 (the blackface-ish one.) Hit the first chord... dead amp. Nothing comes out. Not even hiss or noise.

Not sure why, but we then tried it in Ch 1 (presumably to see if lightning strikes twice.) Wow. Just... wow. The Rangemaster on it's own with the tap wide open pushed his amp into overdrive on it's own, with the amp volume down. The only other time he'd heard the amp's natural overdrive, he'd been in hearing loss territory. (The Gunn runs two KT88's, quite hot -- he burnt several sets before getting it cooled down a bit by a tech.)

It might be a simple little circuit, but this box can be deadly cool!