# Rangemaster almost



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Hey y’all. Building a rangemaster.
Not sure what to do when it comes to the input jack. Not sure if I wired the 5k bias (replacement for the 3.something resistor).

No bypass, no sound.

This is a PNP T.I. That’s has never been opened. Yes. It could be a dud. But my main issue is that I whole heartedly don’t understand the translation between cliff and open jacks. I don’t understand how some builds I see use both with both NPN and PNP.

DONT USE THIS THIS DIAGRAM
Here is the diagram that I have used:









Also, don’t use a 5Uf input cap like I did in this photo:


----------



## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Call it the "Hazy Ranger".


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

player99 said:


> Call it the "Hazy Ranger".


Right now it’s the “silent ranger” lol.


----------



## tonewoody (Mar 29, 2017)

this


----------



## libtech (May 27, 2008)

Quick glance, looks like you got your 47uf caps backwards for PNP


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Mark the positive end of your electro-caps with a red permanent marker for quick-n-EZ identification...also try to follow the schematic...someday you may build a very complex thingy-a-ma-do and it will be easier to follow it schematically...I went down the same path as you while learning this electronic craft.

EDIT: This schematic has a power distribution error at the jacks...please only refer to signal flow.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Paul Running said:


> Mark the positive end of your electro-caps with a red permanent marker for quick-n-EZ identification...also try to follow the schematic...someday you may build a very complex thingy-a-ma-do and it will be easier to follow it schematically...I went down the same path as you while learning this electronic craft.
> 
> View attachment 448326


I definitely refer to the schematic, but the gap for me exists when it comes to making all of these lines terminate on a switch and then in terms of the type of input jacks needed to facilitate the N or P type transistors if there is infact a need.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Here I am, new schematic, complete rewire.

Bypass achieved. Absolutely no sound when switch is engaged.

Multiple known good batteries. Known good cables and amp.

All components aside from transistor measured prior to installation.

What pisses me off is not knowing on this diagram where the ground lug is for the strip. I referred to the original schematic and added a jumper from the 470k turret to the ground lug just incase. Also added an output jack and grounded it to the outer 68k lug.

Still not sure about the input jack wiring or the bias knob. Which are really two things not properly shown in this diagram or at all in the schematic.

Am I grounding signal out by using an open non isolated output jack? Is there a common knowledge ground lug preference for building in a turret? Only time will tell. Stay tuned for another episode of “building the simplest pedals possible and failing”


----------



## Latole (Aug 11, 2020)

Battery is always ON with no guitar plugged !


----------



## Latole (Aug 11, 2020)

Jack connections


----------



## epis (Feb 25, 2012)

Latole said:


> Battery is always ON with no guitar plugged !
> 
> View attachment 448369


That circuit diagram has a few errors,
R1 and RV joint goes to battery negative, filter capacitor C4 negative should go to battery negative, positive to ground.
Use stereo RST jack for output and connect battery positive to the sleeve.


----------



## Latole (Aug 11, 2020)

epis said:


> That circuit diagram has a few errors,



Oh yes


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Thanks for pointing out the errors...my fault and sorry for the that.
Really the safest make -n-break device for switching power is a toggle or push-button switch...there is a reduced chance of momentary shorting when using proper switches from transients that can cause damage to ESD sensitive devices.


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Always12AM said:


> I definitely refer to the schematic, but the gap for me exists when it comes to making all of these lines terminate on a switch and then in terms of the type of input jacks needed to facilitate the N or P type transistors if there is infact a need.


What I used to do was I would refer to a hard copy of the schematic and when I began to wire up the circuit, I would mark off each wire as I terminated it, with a coloured pencil on the schematic; after completing the wiring, I would verify the wiring by using a different coloured pencil, on the schematic.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Sorry, I can't help, but is this what you are trying to build?

I had to google Rangemaster, and most of what came up had nothing to do with guitars.









British Pedal Company - Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster


British Pedal Company - Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster




www.long-mcquade.com


----------



## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

Milkman said:


> Sorry, I can't help, but is this what you are trying to build?
> 
> I had to google Rangemaster, and most of what came up had nothing to do with guitars.
> 
> ...


I don't say this lightly. A treble booster will change your life. The ones I've had don't like being behind buffers though.


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

How many 2N404 devices do you have? You could replace the transistor with a socket and test each transistor for your taste...GE devices will provide quite a range of flavours.
When you have selected the device that you like, you can permanently solder it in circuit.


----------



## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

Dallas Rangemaster


----------



## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

Dallas Rangemaster

British origin: 5 parts










The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons - Ep. 50: "Another Hobby, Another Hobby, Another Hobby"


Support the Truth About Vintage Amps through our brand new Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/vintageamps It's the long-awaited, prize-filled 50th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps Podcast! And, once again, Skip Simmons is fielding guitar amp questions from around the world. Some of...




podcasts.google.com


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Paul Running said:


> How many 2N404 devices do you have? You could replace the transistor with a socket and test each transistor for your taste...GE devices will provide quite a range of flavours.
> When you have selected the device that you like, you can permanently solder it in circuit.
> View attachment 448378


I have a number of PNP Germanium transistors. As for the Texas Instruments 2N404, I bought a pair. They came unopened in their original paper packaging with date stamps etc. I’m hoping one or both work. I don’t mind if they are low gain, I really don’t like high gain anything.

I have been trying to take Alan’s advice and print things out and run through they exactly like how you mention. That is good practice and saves a lot of time!

In this case, I am not sure if I’m wiring the input jack correctly, and I am not sure if I am supposed to base on of the turrets as a main ground as any unit I have seen inside of uses a strip with less turrets and ground lug appears to reside somewhere not on the ends.

also, I have added the output jack and bias pot which are not common practice in the units I have observed. I am fairly confident with the circuit being wired correctly.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Milkman said:


> Sorry, I can't help, but is this what you are trying to build?
> 
> I had to google Rangemaster, and most of what came up had nothing to do with guitars.
> 
> ...


Yes. This is exactly what I’m looking to build. It is a unit that was made by Dallas Arbiter in the 1960’s. An original will cost a lung, but there are a number of people making exact replicas and many many companies who have made pedals based on the identical topology but put their own little spin on it.

I am interested in building pedals from this era that only run on battery and don’t have LED’s and that don’t actually work with other pedals and don’t usually fit / aren’t intended for pedal boards. I really like the idea of having one really useful circuit that works well with a simple guitar and a very simple amp. Forces me to really interact with each device to the best of its limitations.

I am looking to map out / learn how to wire Fuzz Face / Tone Bender 1.5 and Dallas Rangemasters using both PNP and NPN germanium transistors. And when possible I like the idea of using weird or old components in order to up cycle or utilize things that may otherwise end up in a dump. 

The Dallas Rangemaster is attractive for someone building pedals because it only requires one transistor. So if you were to pay $9-50 for a single transistor, you don’t need to worry as much about finding pairs or paying too much for a fake or a dud or having matching gain or how their leakage interacts with another or how they look ( if you are like me and enjoy the visual aspect of wiring things on top of making them work sometimes lol )

The downside is trying to find a suitable amp top style enclosure. It can easily be done in a pedal board sized enclosure with modern appointments that offer more gain, a charge pump a 9V adaptor and LED, but it’s not as Bitchin as a little box that looks like a NASA module used to activate launch.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Always12AM said:


> Yes. This is exactly what I’m looking to build. It is a unit that was made by Dallas Arbiter in the 1960’s. An original will cost a lung, but there are a number of people making exact replicas and many many companies who have made pedals based on the identical topology but put their own little spin on it.
> 
> I am interested in building pedals from this era that only run on battery and don’t have LED’s and that don’t actually work with other pedals and don’t usually fit / aren’t intended for pedal boards. I really like the idea of having one really useful circuit that works well with a simple guitar and a very simple amp. Forces me to really interact with each device to the best of its limitations.
> 
> ...


Thanks for taking the time to explain.

Interesting and practical.

Good luck.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Milkman said:


> Thanks for taking the time to explain.
> 
> Interesting and practical.
> 
> Good luck.


I gave no answer as to what it does or why you should care about this pedal lol. I’m sorry.

I just shared why I’m looking to build it because I know you make guitars and might appreciate the reason more than what it does.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Always12AM said:


> I gave no answer as to what it does or why you should care about this pedal lol. I’m sorry.
> 
> I just shared why I’m looking to build it because I know you make guitars and might appreciate the reason more than what it does.



What is does is easy enough to read on my part. I was thinking it was some sort of booster.

I noticed your soldering all looks great, solid.

You'll get it working.


----------



## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

bit of advice when doing wiring .... 
transistors use milliamps , drop the size of wire used to about 20-24 gauge .
grab a length of old CAT 5 wire and use strands from it ,
also use diff colours for input / output / ground / hot + / etc ........ easier to trace / follow later when trouble shooting.

the E of that transistor is closest the can tang ( viewed from top or bottom of transistor )

always clip an alligator clip to the trans leads when soldering .... 
prevents heat traveling up the lead and frying the unit internally ( very easy to overheat )

stick with it and you'll get it done .


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

oldjoat said:


> bit of advice when doing wiring ....
> transistors use milliamps , drop the size of wire used to about 20-24 gauge .
> grab a length of old CAT 5 wire and use strands from it ,
> also use diff colours for input / output / ground / hot + / etc ........ easier to trace / follow later when trouble shooting.
> ...


This is all I’ve added to the diagram so far:









I have bypass and some weird very quiet sound. Made minimal progress. Built and entire Princeton for the 4th time yesterday. Doesn’t work.










Not my week.


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Always12AM said:


> Doesn’t work.


Maybe try the conventional method for power switching...you can leave the plugs in all the time without the battery depleting.
Schematic for a negative ground configuration:


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

It is my pleasure to introduce..
Home on the Range™️

Had a bit of help figuring out the grounding of the terminal strip from R2R Electric, seems like someone who knows his way around this circuit.

Still haven’t added the grayhill rotary and still haven’t chosen a specific transistor. For now it’s a seimans AC162 with about 94hfe which is apparently a good hfe.

Thanks again for everyone who contributed to this thread and to the 1960’s for making the only 5 pedals I’ll ever really want.


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

It is so ridiculous and I love it!


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Mark Brown said:


> It is so ridiculous and I love it!


One of a kind!!
Sonically? No… literally millions of these made…
Design wise? Nope… Probably 10 companies right now making them using this exact same method except identicle to the original and with a better and more accurate transistor?

So what makes it one of a kind?
This one is built by a guy who understands math about as well as a candle and doesn’t see a problem with installing a handle that cost his almost as much as the rest for the parts and an enclosure that could definitely have been used as an amp head or at the very minimum returned upon realizing it’s size and then purchased a number of alternatively sized enclosures to built 3 or 4 of these and sold them and paid for the cost of the entire operation.

Jokes aside, from what I currently understand, PNP based pedals without a “charge pump”?? Or artificial polarity?? Cannot be used in a signal chain or at least beyond the beginning of the pedal chain?

Also, the original units were not built in pedal form so to get the most traditional use out of it, it’s just supposed to sit on top of a big fat amp and blasted.

I’m going to have to increase the value of the “bias” pot, because it’s a 10k in place of a 3.9k resistor, but still unable to achieve the correct 7-9V bias on the collector of the transistor. I also don’t think I have a use for a pedal that simply blasts the volume of only the high frequencies while eliminating the entire low end of the amp, so I am going to follow the footsteps of others and use a 5 way rotary in order to have access to a wide “range” of frequency boost options.

I also would like to see if there is a way that I can blend this effect into the signal itself in order to allow maybe 40-60% of this effect along with the dry signal or even play with the bias in order to starve or over power the transistor in a way that would cause a bit of break up simulation. Who knows..

But for now, I have an almost dead nuts replica (map) of how the original unit so that I can use to alter another one and play with the outcomes of altering or adding values.. (a wiser person used a bread board). Which was my main goal. This and the fuzz face are two circuits that I think are the champs of pedals. The only tactile method I can use to understand circuitry.


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Shouldn't be too hard to add a blend knob. Just add a pot and think of it as a variable voltage divider between a clean signal line and what ends up running through the pedal, then run the main signal direct to the out side of the pedal in line with what comes out of the circuit and voila.

At least that is what my completely uneducated brain thinks 
..... there is a distinct possibility I have no idea what I am talking about.

Either way man, I love the completely ridiculous over the top design and I hope it brings you a lot of fun! I know it already brought some misery!


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Mark Brown said:


> Shouldn't be too hard to add a blend knob. Just add a pot and think of it as a variable voltage divider between a clean signal line and what ends up running through the pedal, then run the main signal direct to the out side of the pedal in line with what comes out of the circuit and voila.
> 
> At least that is what my completely uneducated brain thinks
> ..... there is a distinct possibility I have no idea what I am talking about.
> ...


I have an unplugged freezer in my basement that I am thinking about turning into a champ lol.


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)




----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Paul Running said:


> View attachment 452031


An old freezer wouldn’t bad a bad enclosure for an iso-cab!? Lol


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Always12AM said:


> An old freezer wouldn’t bad a bad enclosure for an iso-cab!? Lol



Now you're talking.

Put a 5E3 or Champ inside, crank that sucker up and put a 57 on it.

You could even use the lid to louver it for variable level reduction.

Sometimes physical elements / interventions are much simpler and more effective than electronic ones.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Milkman said:


> Now you're talking.
> 
> Put a 5E3 or Champ inside, crank that sucker up and put a 57 on it.


I’d probably line it with some owens Corning 703, stick a panel in it with a 10 and 12 both 16 ohms and then stick really any mic on either on the far other end.

You could plug the two into any 8ohm combo or head and I’d wager that you’d have complete silence from the outside.

The problem with an amp inside of a box is the heat. And the problem with small iso cabs is that you have to put a mic really close to a closed back speaker which doesn’t offer a lot of recording options.

I actually think that I’m going to build a freezer cabinet as soon as there is a baby in my life.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Always12AM said:


> The problem with an amp inside of a box is the heat.


It's a freezer.

Plug it in.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Update, 
With a working map, decided to require a little cleaner and actually bias it properly with the Texas Instruments tranny. Also, installed some alternative tone cap values on an old rotary. 5nf, 14nf tropical fishes, a 30 and 47nf Sprague and a little Efcon 20nf.

I have to say, I don’t think I’d use this pedal with the stock 5nf input cap with single coils. For anyone who has built one of these or owns a treble booster true to the original, I’d suggest trying the .01 or .022 in that position.

Ive never owned or tried one of these before, so far it’s functioning like a fuzz face with the guitar volume rolled back, which is beautiful. A LOT OF DB on tap. I think even a colder bias for lower volume crunch would be welcomed. I’m also going to try to find some low gain SI trannies to see how they sound in this circuit. If they work, I might actually build a bunch of these.


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

That's really slick sir.

You know, when you said "tropical fishes" I thought it was just you being you. The pictures say otherwise.

And just think, if you ever lose your housing you can just move inside the chassis!


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)




----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Mark Brown said:


> That's really slick sir.
> 
> You know, when you said "tropical fishes" I thought it was just you being you. The pictures say otherwise.
> 
> And just think, if you ever lose your housing you can just move inside the chassis!


I literally stopped going to work for 2 weeks to solve this. So add that onto the other 2 months for the other stuff and that theory is not far fetched.

Knowing that I can always go back to being a cheeseburger prostitute sort of makes me feel invincible.


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Always12AM said:


> Knowing that I can always go back to being a cheeseburger prostitute sort of makes me feel invincible.


It is always nice to know there is a plan B.

At the rate we keep making babies around here, I have a healthy supply of organs to harvest


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Always12AM said:


> I literally stopped going to work for 2 weeks to solve this. So add that onto the other 2 months for the other stuff and that theory is not far fetched.
> 
> Knowing that I can always go back to being a cheeseburger prostitute sort of makes me feel invincible.


I find that this hobby or pastime can consume you without some discipline. Sometimes, I would be so obsessed that nothing else mattered...not a healthy route. Over the years, I have learned to take what I call tolerance breaks...similar to what I do with cannabis.
I try to break up my day so that I do not spend too much time on certain tasks, to prevent obsessions...it can be challenging for my character type.


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Paul Running said:


> I find that this hobby or pastime can consume you without some discipline.


This is truth!

I find i can sit down at the bench and all of a sudden 7 or 8 hours has passed. Normally I only get about 30 minutes of actual work done, but I get so into it. That's what I like the most actually. The total, unobscured focus.

That and cool stuff at the other end.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Paul Running said:


> I find that this hobby or pastime can consume you without some discipline. Sometimes, I would be so obsessed that nothing else mattered...not a healthy route. Over the years, I have learned to take what I call tolerance breaks...similar to what I do with cannabis.
> I try to break up my day so that I do not spend too much time on certain tasks, to prevent obsessions...it can be challenging for my character type.


Mainly it’s that I just finished 7 years of uni and worked like a dog last year and then discovered EI for the first time and that I would have been losing money with the entry wage and student loan for Sep-October. Where as by sitting it out, I paid less on my loan and pocketed more. Also I needed additional courses to move up the pay scale and I wouldn’t have been able to afford them if I was paying the full amount of my student loan. So in a way. It was a chess move. But I also have adhd and I am obsessed with completing tasks. I have a better rhythm now moving forward. I took on too many tasks at once. I am looking forward to wearing pants again and eating tim Hortons everyday this month lol.


----------



## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Update: little baby version complete.
Wanted to do one with brand spanking new circuit to see if it’s comparable. The 10nf output is still an oldy and the transistor is probably from a Russian tank.

I like making a big and little version of things. Using the rotary, I can say that the .01uf / 10nf input cap value is the real sweet spot on this circuit for me. Good chance I’ll take this rotary out and save it for something a lot more substantial than a 9V pedal.

Full disclosure, I did not anticipate battery space. Figured it would run on hope and powerchords.


----------



## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)




----------

