Myths, Legends and the Mojo of the Dallas Rangemaster

Discussion regarding early stompbox technology: 1960-1975 Please keep discussion focused and contribute what info you have...
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theyear2042
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Post by theyear2042 »

hey guys

was thinking about making a rangemaster clone. was thinking of an npn version with an oc144.

im trying to track down original versions of the schem as there seem to be a few floating around.

i saw this one on ebay https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V ... 0370497532 - but its unknown if original or drawn by the dude who owned it - seems to have a 5k resistor at the input instead of a 5nf cap and a 10k resistor at the output instead of a .01uf cap.

does anyone know of a page detailing changes to the rangemaster over the years?

can anyone comment on the d*a*m red booster - i saw a layout on this forum which uses a (100kb pot and a 2.2uf in series) in parallel with the 5nf input cap with a 1m pull down resistor off the 100kb pot. is this a standard mod or did the dude from d*a*m come up with this?

does anyone know of a web page detailing various mods for the rangemaster?

thanks guys
2042

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Electric Warrior
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Post by Electric Warrior »

It's quite obvious that it's not a factory schematic. Whoever drew it misidentified the caps for resistors - guess why :mrgreen:
There's basically two versions: The early ones have an OC71, 0.0082 Siemens styroflex cap at the output, a brown Hunts cap at the input and two 50µF Electrolytics. The later OC44 version has 25µF Electrolytics (though some come with mixed 50/25 values - 50µF is always at the bottom of the terminal strip afaik) and tubular ceramic caps of the usual values.
The emitter resistor varies a bit, as it was used to set the bias. Most have 3k9. I have photos of some with 4k7 and 3k7.
The pot was usually audio taper, though there are some with linear taper. A few might have come with a 20k pot, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

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Post by RnFR »

merged with our already extensive rangemaster thread.
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theyear2042
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Post by theyear2042 »

yeah i didnt bother trying to reverse engineer the pics on that ebay auction. i was hoping someone had already done all the hard work and documented the history of the rangemaster versions with proper schematics.

obviously that is not a factory schematic, but it could have been an accurate drawing of an early/prototype model - looking at those caps its easy so see why he presumed they were 5 / 10k resistors - in a momentary lapse of rushed judgement i thought the extortionate price tag might mean it was a rare early model.. lol

it appears not..

can anyone help me out with the following?:
verified 65 amps colour booster schematic
verified d*a*m red rooster schematic
verified analog man beano boost schematic

cheers
2042

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Post by soulsonic »

As far as I'm concerned, R.G. Keen's excellent article on the Rangemaster pretty much gives all the info needed:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/R ... tboost.pdf
The article is based on actual units he traced. You can see them here:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/R ... er/drm.htm

The Analogman Beano Boost appears to be just a standard Rangemaster with switchable input caps, and it uses an "NKT275" instead of an OC44/OC71. The terminal strip layout certainly follows the layout in R.G.'s article very closely, though you could argue that it's just following the terminal strip layout from the original unit.

I don't know anything about the 65 Amps Color Boost other than that my Rangemaster trounced it in a Treble Booster Shootout done by Brett Kingman.
My Rangemaster is the stock circuit except it's being powered by a charge pump voltage inverter.
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Post by DougH »

I suspect most of the boutiquer's got their info from R.G.'s article. You really didn't see many RM boutique clones until R.G. posted his article.
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Post by SPeter »

1+! :)

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Post by graemey »

DougH wrote:I suspect most of the boutiquer's got their info from R.G.'s article. You really didn't see many RM boutique clones until R.G. posted his article.
I just built one at the weekend using the RG info.
I thought I would try a good old AC128 which I selected using my component analyzer, about hef100, low leakage.
I biased it with a couple of trimmers (100k and 10k) as per the RG write-up and... WOW, what a sound! :shock:

This thing sounds GREAT. No need for hard to find Mullard transistors etc, just a decent PNP germanium and it cooks!
Sounds fantastic through my Marshall Vintage Modern, Im chuffed!

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Post by soulsonic »

graemey wrote: This thing sounds GREAT. No need for hard to find Mullard transistors etc, just a decent PNP germanium and it cooks!
Sounds fantastic through my Marshall Vintage Modern, Im chuffed!
YES! I've made Rangemasters with all kinds of germaniums and as long as it's not too hissy it will sound great. I made my first one with an AC128 as well. I think they're a good choice, especially if you want a hot one.
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Post by station »

+1 on the AC128. I had a few lying around, so I made up a terminal strip layout based on the rangeblaster at fuzzcentral. The thing sounds great!

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Post by DougH »

First one I built with an AC188 which sounded a little better than the AC128's I had. Last one I did was with an NPN Mullard and different bias point, so it sounds different. Different Ge transistors will produce different sounds but they are not dramatic differences. This is a favorite pedal of mine and I'd build it with whatever I had on hand or could easily obtain. It's pretty hard to screw it up.
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Post by royal jelly »

Recently built a rangemaster from a supposed re rangemaster,I cant recall were I found the article but it was on a turret strip and was hand drawn. if interested I can find the source.I used a mullard oc45 out of a set I purchased from ebay a couple years ago. Wow sounded great right into my marshall dsl 2000.Only through the classic or green channel,Had that cocked wha-wha sound but it creamed the tone up alot. before if I ran my strat into that channel it had some ice pick in your ear lead tones.But with the rangemaster clone I built these were gone.If I turn my volume down on my guitar it cleans up nice and all I have to do is turn up for alot more saturated leads.It may sound strange but really nailed the Hendrix tone for a live recording I have of Red house with him and johnny Winters.I feel alot of the tone has too do with the mullard transistors.I tried some other pnp transistors because I have heard Oc45s dont have the same gain as oc44s,and that was what I was looking for but I kept going back to the 45 it just seemed to have more complex musical quality.

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Post by R.G. »

DougH wrote:I suspect most of the boutiquer's got their info from R.G.'s article. You really didn't see many RM boutique clones until R.G. posted his article.
Tee hee. There was exactly one.

And when he caught me searching for a unit to reverse engineer, he threatened me, in a public forum, with having his cousin in the CIA make my life hell. Seems he wanted to be the only one who made a rangemaster clone. It's one of those moments that sticks with you. :lol:

I have copies of that exchange somewhere on the backup disks.

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Post by RnFR »

R.G. wrote: ...with having his cousin in the CIA make my life hell.

holy shit, talk about freaky conspiracy theories, that's one for the books! not to mention the misappropriation of gov't resources! what a crazy story. next we are going to hear about the how JFK was killed by the bootweek mafia because he was going to leak the Fuzz Face schematic! :lol:
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Post by theehman »

R.G. wrote:
DougH wrote:I suspect most of the boutiquer's got their info from R.G.'s article. You really didn't see many RM boutique clones until R.G. posted his article.
Tee hee. There was exactly one.

And when he caught me searching for a unit to reverse engineer, he threatened me, in a public forum, with having his cousin in the CIA make my life hell. Seems he wanted to be the only one who made a rangemaster clone. It's one of those moments that sticks with you. :lol:

I have copies of that exchange somewhere on the backup disks.
I seem to recall his initials being D.B. I was the one that sent you the schematic I drew from one of his units.
The whole thing started when a friend of mine bought one of his units and sent it to me to RE. After I did so I built 10 units for him to give as gifts and started selling them through RonSound.
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Post by Greg »

Wow, that's unbelievable..

Come on guys.. who's D.B. and is he still in the industry ?
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Post by DaveKerr »

... multiple LFO waveforms (saw up, saw down, triangle, square); a more flexible envelope with attack/release controls as well as inverted envelope. I am afraid it will have more knobs than the TGP annual convention - frequencycentral

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Post by Volume11 »

good one.. haha I actually tried the link.. couldn't resist. :hmmm:

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Post by DougH »

R.G. wrote:
DougH wrote:I suspect most of the boutiquer's got their info from R.G.'s article. You really didn't see many RM boutique clones until R.G. posted his article.
Tee hee. There was exactly one.

And when he caught me searching for a unit to reverse engineer, he threatened me, in a public forum, with having his cousin in the CIA make my life hell. Seems he wanted to be the only one who made a rangemaster clone. It's one of those moments that sticks with you. :lol:

I have copies of that exchange somewhere on the backup disks.

Yeah R.G., I remember hearing you tell the story years ago. As funny now as it was back then. :mrgreen:

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Post by dai h. »

hints:

1) Soul Train MC

2)"The (********) did it!"

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