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Treb Boost: based on Dallas Rangemaster
The ’65 Dallas Rangemaster device was designed as an accessory for amplifiers from the same manufacturer. It brightens the amp's sound, similar to the Top Boost feature for early Vox amps. It’s not a pedal, it sat on top of the amplifier.
Guitar players soon started using it for another reason: to push an amp into distortion. Its emphasis on certain frequencies makes the germanium-equipped Rangemaster a non-clean boost, which still stays close to the amp's raw tone (unlike a fuzz). It’s a very simple circuit and many clones exist, but because it’s so rare people pay thousands of dollars for an original. A popular clone is made by Analog Man: Beano Boost.
Famous Rangemaster users include Rory Gallagher, Ritchie Blackmore, Brian May, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath's Paranoid!) and Billy Gibbons.
If you want to read more about vintage effects, I recommend Analog Man’s Guide to Vintage Effects, written by Tom Hughes (For Musicians Only), a joy to read.
Articles about the Dallas Rangemaster:
The Rangemaster has an On/Off switch and a Set knob which controls the amount of boost and is often set at maximum.
Fractal Audio’s Treb Boost model is based on the Rangemaster circuit. Clip Type is Silicon, but the original was Germanium-based, so you can try that as well. The Set knob is represented by the Drive control.
Link to the list of published threads
Treb Boost: based on Dallas Rangemaster
The ’65 Dallas Rangemaster device was designed as an accessory for amplifiers from the same manufacturer. It brightens the amp's sound, similar to the Top Boost feature for early Vox amps. It’s not a pedal, it sat on top of the amplifier.
Guitar players soon started using it for another reason: to push an amp into distortion. Its emphasis on certain frequencies makes the germanium-equipped Rangemaster a non-clean boost, which still stays close to the amp's raw tone (unlike a fuzz). It’s a very simple circuit and many clones exist, but because it’s so rare people pay thousands of dollars for an original. A popular clone is made by Analog Man: Beano Boost.
Famous Rangemaster users include Rory Gallagher, Ritchie Blackmore, Brian May, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath's Paranoid!) and Billy Gibbons.
Wikipedia:
“The Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster was an effects unit made for guitarists in the 1960s. Its function was two-fold: to increase the signal strength of the guitar going into the amplifier, and to increase tones at the high end of the spectrum (a treble booster).
The need for a treble booster arose in the mid-1960s as british amplifiers such as the Vox AC30 or Marshall JTM45, tended to produce a slightly dark, muddy sound when overdriven, particularly when used with humbucking pickups. Apre-amplifier that also boosted treble proved a solution.
The Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster was first made in the 1960's by Dallas Musical Ltd., incorporated in 1959. It made guitars and amplifiers under different brand names, including Dallas, Shaftesbury, and Rangemaster.
The unit is simple, and consists of a grey metal box with an on/off switch, a potentiometer for the booster setting, and an in- and output. It is made to stand on top of an amplifier rather than on the floor. Its circuitry is simple, and contains (besides the potentiometer--usually 10K, sometimes 20K--and the on/off switch) only a germanium transistor, four capacitors, three resistors, and a battery. The transistor was a Mullard or unbranded OC44 or Mullard OC71.
By the 1980s Treble Boosters had gone out of fashion. How many Rangemaster Treble Boosters were built is unknown. Due to limited supply on the second hand market they are collectible, even if the going rate is only a fraction of what it used to be in the mid-2000s. In Premier Guitar, Kenny Rardin describes his quest for one of the effects, which started with puzzlement over how Eric Clapton and Ritchie Blackmore achieved their tone; he spent years looking for a Rangemaster.
“The Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster was an effects unit made for guitarists in the 1960s. Its function was two-fold: to increase the signal strength of the guitar going into the amplifier, and to increase tones at the high end of the spectrum (a treble booster).
The need for a treble booster arose in the mid-1960s as british amplifiers such as the Vox AC30 or Marshall JTM45, tended to produce a slightly dark, muddy sound when overdriven, particularly when used with humbucking pickups. Apre-amplifier that also boosted treble proved a solution.
The Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster was first made in the 1960's by Dallas Musical Ltd., incorporated in 1959. It made guitars and amplifiers under different brand names, including Dallas, Shaftesbury, and Rangemaster.
The unit is simple, and consists of a grey metal box with an on/off switch, a potentiometer for the booster setting, and an in- and output. It is made to stand on top of an amplifier rather than on the floor. Its circuitry is simple, and contains (besides the potentiometer--usually 10K, sometimes 20K--and the on/off switch) only a germanium transistor, four capacitors, three resistors, and a battery. The transistor was a Mullard or unbranded OC44 or Mullard OC71.
By the 1980s Treble Boosters had gone out of fashion. How many Rangemaster Treble Boosters were built is unknown. Due to limited supply on the second hand market they are collectible, even if the going rate is only a fraction of what it used to be in the mid-2000s. In Premier Guitar, Kenny Rardin describes his quest for one of the effects, which started with puzzlement over how Eric Clapton and Ritchie Blackmore achieved their tone; he spent years looking for a Rangemaster.
Rumours of Eric Clapton having used a Rangemaster Treble Booster during his stint with John Mayall's Blues Breakers have never been confirmed. Photos of the recording sessions of the "Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton" exist, but a Rangemaster Treble Booster is not visible in any of them. It is assumed the rumours started in the late 90's when clones of the Rangemaster Treble Booster.”
If you want to read more about vintage effects, I recommend Analog Man’s Guide to Vintage Effects, written by Tom Hughes (For Musicians Only), a joy to read.
Articles about the Dallas Rangemaster:
The Rangemaster has an On/Off switch and a Set knob which controls the amount of boost and is often set at maximum.
Fractal Audio’s Treb Boost model is based on the Rangemaster circuit. Clip Type is Silicon, but the original was Germanium-based, so you can try that as well. The Set knob is represented by the Drive control.
Cliff:
"Boost was a switch and engaged the effect. Set was the amount of boost and is equivalent to Drive."
About CPU:"Boost was a switch and engaged the effect. Set was the amount of boost and is equivalent to Drive."
- Fractal Audio's Drive models take up varying amounts of CPU. The Treb Boost is a moderate CPU user.
- When a Drive block is engaged, CPU percentage will rise during playing, because CPU usage is "amplitude dependent".
Link to the list of published threads
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