Rangemaster - Fuzzbug

fuzzbug · Post by **fuzzbug** » 23 Apr 2010, 09:36

Hello
Here is an old pedal that I found a few years ago. Can not find any info about it and just wondered
if anyone is familiar with it. Transistors are 3X Mullard OC75, cast aluminum box and it sounds great!
Any information will be appriciated
Thanks
Fuzzbug

: fuzz bug 001.jpg (93.35 KiB) Viewed 4448 times

: fuzz bug 003.jpg (93.57 KiB) Viewed 4448 times

: fuzz bug 005.jpg (107.37 KiB) Viewed 4448 times

analogguru · Post by **analogguru** » 23 Apr 2010, 10:21

The pcb looks very much like in a Marshall Supa Fuzz (or Vox Tonebender Pro Mk II).

analogguru

Electric Warrior · Post by **Electric Warrior** » 23 Apr 2010, 11:06

Not only "very much", it's spot on. Everything about it looks right. I'm surprised to see a mustard cap in there, but I have pictures of a very early Supa Fuzz from the same period that has an unusual cap in the same position.

fuzzbug · Post by **fuzzbug** » 23 Apr 2010, 12:05

Thanks ,
do you know of this company (Rangemaster).
It doesn't seem like a DIY job so I wonder who made it and when.
cheers
FB

Electric Warrior · Post by **Electric Warrior** » 23 Apr 2010, 12:19

Sola Sound must have made it. Never heard of a Rangemaster company.. There's a treble booster by Dallas that was called Rangemaster, though, but it's probably unrelated.

tatter · Post by **tatter** » 23 Apr 2010, 12:25

And did Dallas possibly nick the Fuzz Face from the Sola Sound MK1.5? Maybe this is another leaked design to Dallas?

Edit: And further to this, the MKII is basically just a Fuzz Face/MK1.5 with a Rangemaster stuck on the input.

So maybe it has got something to do with Dallas?

Electric Warrior · Post by **Electric Warrior** » 23 Apr 2010, 12:59

Arbiter (not Dallas Arbiter I believe. they must have merged at a later point) sure copied the MK1.5. What do you mean by "leaked"? Espionage? That wouldn't have been necessary, as they simply could have bought one to copy the circuit. Or they had the same text books. It's a common text book circuit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_f ... f_feedback

It certainly is possible that Dallas intended to use the Rangemaster name for a whole line of effect units, but why would they outsource the production to Sola Sound if they were capable of building pedals in house?

The buffer stage (correct?) of an MKII is not quite a Rangemaster imho..

tatter · Post by **tatter** » 23 Apr 2010, 13:18

Electric Warrior wrote:Arbiter (not Dallas Arbiter I believe. they must have merged at a later point) sure copied the MK1.5. What do you mean by "leaked"? Espionage? That wouldn't have been necessary, as they simply could have bought one to copy the circuit. Or they had the same text books. It's a common text book circuit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_f ... f_feedback

It certainly is possible that Dallas intended to use the Rangemaster name for a whole line of effect units, but why would they outsource the production to Sola Sound if they were capable of building pedals in house?

The buffer stage (correct?) of an MKII is not quite a Rangemaster imho..

Yes this is very possible, but you would have had to have been pretty quick off the mark, not only to buy a MK1.5 as they weren't around for long, and also to bring out the Fuzz Face so quickly. I'm not sure what year the MK1.5 was first in production but the Fuzz Face was 1966 according to the all knowing wikipedia

I'm suggesting that one person was building for Sola Sound and trying to get more companies to manufacture their designs and get a cut of the profits. The Fuzzbug could possibly be a prototype tendered to Dallas Arbiter that never saw production.

Or Sola Sound could just have been offering a sideline to Dallas Arbiter like they did with the Marshall Supa Fuzz or the Vox MKII Professional. I don't see why Sola Sound would build something with the 'Rangemaster' name on it otherwise. But who knows

Electric Warrior · Post by **Electric Warrior** » 23 Apr 2010, 13:35

I rewrote large portions of that wikipedia article. It's still not perfect, as it's not easy. There's hardly any proper (i.e. quoteable) sources around and the ones that exist are full of mistakes.. I think I should have quoted David Morin's article for the date. According to him it "first appeared on the market in the autumn 1966." http://www.custom-sounds.com/epages/Gag ... icles/fuzz
I don't know if it's true. I have pictures of a very early one with 12-6 pot codes.

We know that the MK1.5 was availble by February 1966. http://stompboxes.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... n&start=30 (see dazed & confused's unit).
Arbiter had plenty of time to make it happen.

tatter · Post by **tatter** » 23 Apr 2010, 14:07

Electric Warrior wrote:I rewrote large portions of that wikipedia article. It's still not perfect, as it's not easy. There's hardly any proper (i.e. quoteable) sources around and the ones that exist are full of mistakes.. I think I should have quoted David Morin's article for the date. According to him it "first appeared on the market in the autumn 1966." http://www.custom-sounds.com/epages/Gag ... icles/fuzz
I don't know if it's true. I have pictures of a very early one with 12-6 pot codes.

We know that the MK1.5 was availble by February 1966. http://stompboxes.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... n&start=30 (see dazed & confused's unit).
Arbiter had plenty of time to make it happen.

That Fuzz Face article is really good.

I think you're probably right about the timeline. This fuzz probably sits in the same category as the Marshall Supa Fuzz, Vox Tone Bender MKII and Rotosound MKII pedals. All built by Sola Sound but for other companies. A very interesting pedal nonetheless, i wonder how many more obscure variants there are out there.

fuzzbug · Post by **fuzzbug** » 23 Apr 2010, 14:44

Great links! thanks .
I would love to here from anyone with a similar pedal.

Electric Warrior · Post by **Electric Warrior** » 23 Apr 2010, 14:47

tatter wrote:
Electric Warrior wrote:I rewrote large portions of that wikipedia article. It's still not perfect, as it's not easy. There's hardly any proper (i.e. quoteable) sources around and the ones that exist are full of mistakes.. I think I should have quoted David Morin's article for the date. According to him it "first appeared on the market in the autumn 1966." http://www.custom-sounds.com/epages/Gag ... icles/fuzz
I don't know if it's true. I have pictures of a very early one with 12-6 pot codes.

We know that the MK1.5 was availble by February 1966. http://stompboxes.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... n&start=30 (see dazed & confused's unit).
Arbiter had plenty of time to make it happen.
That Fuzz Face article is really good.

I think you're probably right about the timeline. This fuzz probably sits in the same category as the Marshall Supa Fuzz, Vox Tone Bender MKII and Rotosound MKII pedals. All built by Sola Sound but for other companies. A very interesting pedal nonetheless, i wonder how many more obscure variants there are out there.

Thank you

I'll keep working on it. I also messed with the treble booster article.. If anybody here has a clean Fuzz Face, Rangemaster, Hornby Skewes Treble Booster, Vox Treble Booster or Orange Power Boost and some photographing skills, please donate some pictures

fuzzbug wrote:Great links! thanks .
I would love to here from anyone with a similar pedal.

It's obviouslay one of the rarest Tone Benders. Maybe the first of its kind being documented on the internet. I haven't even heard of anybody ever mentioning this one. You're a lucky man!
You might want to visit the D*A*M forum to hear more from Tone Bender and Supa Fuzz owners. We're already discussing your pedal there

http://stompboxes.co.uk/forum/index.php

jlee · Post by **jlee** » 23 Apr 2010, 15:20

tatter wrote:And did Dallas possibly nick the Fuzz Face from the Sola Sound MK1.5? Maybe this is another leaked design to Dallas?

Edit: And further to this, the MKII is basically just a Fuzz Face/MK1.5 with a Rangemaster stuck on the input.

So maybe it has got something to do with Dallas?

It's been rumored that Hurst had a informal working relationship with Arbiter resulting in the Fuzz Face.

Sickle · Post by **Sickle** » 23 Apr 2010, 15:27

Mr Fuzzbug, that's one rare bird you have there. If I could give you some sound advice, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you soon get a small flood of offers for the pedal from certain collectors. Rest assured, whatever you are offered, the true value of this pedal is likely double or more, so keep a cool head when guys start waving cash at you.

fuzzbug · Post by **fuzzbug** » 26 Apr 2010, 10:38

Thanks.
This is turning to be a very intersting story, I really appriciate all your input and enthusiasm.
As I understand there is a way of dating using pot codes. Sustain pot says 216 1k LIN, so maybe thats a clue.
Cheers
FB

Electric Warrior · Post by **Electric Warrior** » 26 Apr 2010, 12:13

That would be the 21st week of 1966. Same code as in a Super Fuzz David Main used to have. His Vox MKII has 216 and 266 pot codes. That particular Vox seems to be a rather late one, so I guess they bought many pots at once or they didn't empty their dealer's stock for a while

Dan N · Post by **Dan N** » 26 Apr 2010, 18:49

Hey fuzzbug, thanks for showing us your cool pedal! I dig the enclosure! Kind of more economical than the Marshall and Vox door stops.

fuzzbug · Post by **fuzzbug** » 27 Apr 2010, 09:34

Economical door stop indeed and a very expensive one ...

chrisalis · Post by **chrisalis** » 20 Dec 2010, 17:04

: early 2trans.

: The other c.h. knob must be around somewhere!

> Hi, I stumbled upon your posting by chance and remembered that I had one of
> these old pedals kicking around in a box in the garage!
> I bought this pedal brand new in perhaps 1966 (it's a long way back!) from
> Macari's in Denmark Street. I remember buying it and travelling on the
> train from my home in Essex with a friend especially for this new wonder
> box!
> In Macari's window were a line of perhaps three or four Fuzzbugs along with
> three or four Tonebenders that had just come out.The Tonebender as I
> remember, was slightly more expensive.

jrod · Post by **jrod** » 20 Dec 2010, 17:48

Wow, cool!

Neat to see another one of these floating around.

Welcome and thanks for the pics!