Americans and tonebenders

[tele caster]

British Ball Breaker, I believe it's based on the Marshall Blues Breaker.

[ampdoc1]

Google geekmacdaddy pedals

[CapnCrunch]

How are you guys using your Rangemasters? I have one with a four way switch that switches different caps to select boost range. It's a Toneman rangemaster. I don't like it at all with any of my fender amps. It sounds very good with my 18 watt and AC15, but only if they are cranked. It sounds like ass when the amp volume is low. I thought it would be fantastic with my Rocket, but I ain't diggin it, probably because I never play that amp cranked.

I've pretty much given up on it, but I'm wondering if I just don't know how to use it. The OP referenced using it as a boost for the fuzz. I know that in the early days, Gilmour used a Colorsound booster to drive the front of his Muff (which is sort of a fuzz). If you are running the boost in front of a fuzz or a Muff, how do set up your amp and guitar? Amp cranked, guitar volume backed off?

[selloutrr]

I agree with you for the most part Fuzz pedals are difficult and seldom rewarding to use. As far as how to set up your amp and guitar. It's very subjective, but maybe this will help. Since ever thing has an effect on you signal, start with your guitar volume full.
before you plug in your pedals , dial in a great sound on the amp. It's all about having a starting point and being able to go back to that in the event you don't like something you have done. Most EQ's are actually flat at 12 o'clock. start with that and play a chord turn the knob down and back up until you can hear the point where it no long effects the signal or becomes muddy you prob want it to be clean and distinct. repeat for all the dials.. thier is always a sweet spot that just sings. now plug in the pedals. do the same with the muff dial it so you are happy. prob a little volume boost and sustain with a very slight top end resting on the drive. no turn on the boost and push the big muff. I'm assuming this just overdrives the input signal and adds to the internal drive. you may need to turn down the output volume of the muff. now you can roll back your guitar volume and enjoy a mellower tone or roll the volume knob up for fuzzy boost.

I've also had some experimental luck with using the Fuzz pedals in the FX loop.

[Buschman]

I have tried lots of other pedal but just can't seem to get the tube screamer off of my pedalboard for very long. I just like the way it plays.

[HeeBGB]

FWIW a Fuzz Face is an animal unto itself. You play it like a Trainwreck Express. I very seldom have my guitar volume all the way up when playing either. If you max out the guitar volume when playing a FF it's very muddy. Back the volume on the guitar down and play with it to find the sweet spots. I actually prefer it with the guitar volume below 5. I can get that hairy clean thing going. It gets very glassy and sweet but not in a harsh way.

[vibratoking]

I agree, you do kinda play the FF like an Express. Turning the guitar's volume down to get the clean thing is a major part of the FF. Of course, this only works on good FFs. Bad ones don't clean up well, if at all. I think this is what most of us evaluate to determine a good one.

I will crank the volume for raunchy, nasty single note solos, think Manic Depression.

[telentubes]

I have both versions of the Zen Drive and an Analogman King of Tone. I typically prefer the sound of a pedal-less amp but those pedals mentioned have their place.

[boldaslove6789]

CapnCrunch Posted

How are you guys using your Rangemasters?

I have a small army of pedals but only a few make it on my board because of how sesitive my guitars/amp can be (I use an 100w bluesmaster ODS/Blackface (modded) Bandmaster, and humbucker equipped guitars). I always start with a good bypassed clean sound as a bassline.

The Tonebender is a good pedal to start with as its really an amalgamation of all the best vintage fuzz circuits.Use a rotary pot (to switch different input caps), put the the boost part of the circuit on a switch (which will basically turn it into a fuzz face),a 20k bias trimmer, add a rangemaster (use a 3way to switch different frequency's because the Rangemaster is treble'y). Make sure to find some good sounding Ge transistors/1% tolerances(test everything IMO),and you'll have an all in one fuzz/clean boost to cover just about any era of tones from the last 50 years.

The biggest key to a fuzz is that you want it as mid range'y as possible with the ability to roll off muddy bass freq's, start with a darker sounding (but not too dark)amp, never put a buffered pedal in front of it.

[martin manning]

I've built and played with several classic fuzz pedals (Fuzz Face, Fuzz Tone, Fuzzrite), and they all have their own unique characteristics. Looking over the Tonebender, it is very much like a Fuzz Factory, which has a silicon driver stage in front of what is essentially a PNP Ge Fuzz Face. The Fuzz Factory is an extremely versatile fuzz, with pots instead of fixed resistors on the Q1 and Q2 collector loads, and Q2's emitter resistor. I can see doing some experimentation with a Tonebender in the near future...

[Bear]

TS is so "meh" to me. Rat walks all over it for boost and overdrive as long as you don't need that slimy mid-range bump sound. And I've spent most of my adult life in Texas at that.

But fuzz is total love. Need to DIY some more of those. I'd rather use a fuzz pedal than a distortion pedal at least four times in five. Psych and shoegazer stuff is very big for me. So give me fuzz and give me choppy trem (pedal or amp) and I'm as happy as a pig in . . .

[Phazor]

I built a tonebender on a breadboard. I had some old Germ trannys and found the good ones and played a good 8 hrs and wrote 3 songs that day. It is like an express. The guitar volume is your friend. That's also what makes it touch sensitive. The Frequency response is nice in the mix. It's not just about midrange, for me it's about getting rid of the hi frequency Gack on the top end that sounds like peaky attack when recorded digital. It sets in the mix and does not compete with the cymbals and other high freq sound.

The TS9 uses the + input of the opamp for input and the neg input for distortion and gain. When you look at it with light distortion it superimposes a clean signal with the distortion and sounds bad , constipated. When you overdrive the amp, then to me the TS9 works , but not for me when the amp is set clean. The OCD is like a Rat with more lowend. No superimposed clean/distortion. Just distortion. I prefer that.

I built both my OCD and Tonebender and they are my main pedals for every direction . Both are setup for my Guitar Volume to mange the overdrive/fuzz. Love it.

[SteveG]

Shame music ground were such a bunch of asses I really enjoyed making those pedals!

Yes, I really enjoyed making the 30/6 model amplifiers. The unbridled greed of the owners spoiled it though.

Steve