DALLAS
Rangemaster
instead, it’s an inconvenient box
that’s designed to sit atop the amp,
and the switch is a slide switch.
If you’re planning on turning it
on for solos, forget about it—it’s
always on or it’s never on. On top
of that, the Rangemaster has a
hardwired instrument cable, which
is rarely a good thing. As far as
the actual internals, you’re paying
for four capacitors (two film, two
electrolytic), three resistors, one
potentiometer and one transistor.
There’s something to be
said about a $4,000 effect
with nine parts inside, for a
total of about 400 bucks per part. However,
that’s precisely what the Rangemaster is,
and this is a pedal whose value has been
entirely built on the backs of the players
who used it. Players like Claption, May,
Iommi, Blackmore and others credit the
Rangemaster for their tones back before
pedals were really “a thing.”
So, what exactly are you paying for
when you fork over four grand for a
Rangemaster? Let’s start about talking
about the pedal’s practicality. It’s not
actually a pedal in the traditional sense,
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TONE TALK //
To those in the know, the transistor
is largely known as the most
expensive part—mostly because
the transistors in these old birds are hard
to come by in this day and age. But the fact
remains: the originals are still out there.
While they’re relatively expensive, the fact
is that the originals—OC44, OC71 and to a
lesser extent, NKT275—are still available
to purchase on eBay in limited quantities
for the DIY enthusiast. And that may be the
best route for an authentic Rangemaster,
as any amount of oddball resistors and
capacitors are still available on eBay as
well. I even wrote a dead-simple guide
on how to build your own Rangemaster
in issue 101. If DIY isn’t your style,
several companies offer Rangemasteralikes such as Keeley and Analogman.
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