A duo of Rangemasters!  I’ve written about Rangemasters before so i’ll keep this one light.

These were requested by two buds of mine that are doing a one-off Black Sabbath tribute night.  They were searching out that Tony Iommi sound and I told them there’s only one pedal needed: a Rangemaster.  A germanium booster running up into a classic British tube amp like a Marshall or Laney is really all you need to get that thick, goopy overdrive that is all over the first couple of Sabbath records.  Tony’s original rangemaster was supposedly modded, and it sounds like it, but no one knows what the specific modification was.  The most common way to mod this circuit is a switchable input cap to go from treble boost to other ranges of boost. That’s what I did on these 2 units, and by my own tests I think the full-range setting is the most Iommi of them all.

Controls are boost level and a range switch which selects the original treble boost, full range boost, or bass boost. The original delivered units were plain polished aluminum but the new owners made some graphical adjustments to be more in-line with the looks of a vintage unit.  A nice touch for sure….look for a run of these with graphics from me in the future.

This is an older build for my tight bro Adam Wentworth (Bloodhorse, All Pigs Must Die).  I dont remember specifically what he was looking for or how our conversation went then, only that we decided on building him a Rangemaster. 

What is a Rangemaster, you might ask?  Oh man….have you heard any recordings from any 1960’s or 70’s British rock bands?  There’s probably one of them on all of the guitar tracks.  At the time players were looking for ways to brighten up their dark British valve amps, and Dallas Arbiter developed the Rangemaster.  Its a booster, which helps overdrive your amp, but its also a TREBLE booster.  That means that it boosts your high notes more than your notes, which as you can imagine is great for ripping sustain-rich solos.  The originals weren’t even pedals, they were little boxes that sat on your amp and pretty much stayed on all the time.   The Rangemaster and a Vox AC30 is theee Brian May sound, if that tells you anything.

This Rangemaster was built with an AC187 germanium transistor and also features a tone knob which blends between two input caps to color the sound to your liking.  The knobs are tone and boost.

Also be sure to check out Bloodhorse’s awesome pink floyd spae-metal record HORIZONER.