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Hello everyone.

I just wanted to follow up that I got the Rangemaster working! Afterall the troubleshooting, it turned out it was the caps and the larger pot that was causing my issues. While I am stoke the pedal is working, I have noticed a few of its quirks...

When on the treble booster side, when I turn the pot down, I lose all of my signal. Is this normal? I am guessing so since this pedal blocks a good amount of frequencies anyways...

Also, is this effect sensitive to what position it is in on the pedal chain? I have it 3rd after my Wah and Boss TU-2 tuner.

Once again, thank you all for your help. I have learned a lot in the process of building this pedal.

Thanks!

Hey guys! Well, I used the resistor method to bring the pot down to approximately 10K and wouldn't you know, the collector voltage came up to spec (wahoo!)

Unfortunately, the output is still way lower than the bypassed signal (but it got rid of the sputtering sound). So I decided to go back and check over my components and you know what? I got my math wrong (stupid me) on converting from n to uf. So I ended up installing a 0.001 for the output cap instead of a .01. With such a small cap, I figured that must be what is killing my signal. What do you guys think?

One quick question, looking at the schematic I see that the voltage will go across the pot which is hooked up to the collector on terminal 3. I ended up using a 50K pot as it was the only thing I had. Could this possibly be causing the low voltage problem?

Hey Matt,

According to the pinout I posted from Bevisaudio and using my 1spot at 9.36V, I am getting:

C=.813 (red dot)
B=.867
E=.785

I got the OC140 from Smallbear and used the supplied 68K resistor for R1 and 4.7K for R2.

So that should be it right? These are supposed to bias in the 6-7V range correct?

Thank you so much. You are a life saver!

Okay cool. Here are some pics with the latest board I built.






Thank you for looking it over!

Without much luck, I decided to build another board just to make sure I didn't screw something up with the first one. I just got done and found that I am getting some output, but it requires me to crank up the gain and volume on my little practice amp to be able to hear anything.

If anything, the tone sounds like it is struggling to pass signal, but gets stronger the harder I hit the strings. It almost sounds like when you turn a tube amp off and continue playing (the sound of the electrolytic caps discharging).

I have the caps and diode switched around to compensate for the negative ground OC140, so I am really scratching my head. Should they have maintained the same orientation as the schematic calls for after all?

Does anyone want to make a little money getting this thing working? lol I am just about out of ideas....

Okay I just got a shipment of parts from Smallbear and decided to go with a red-dot NPN OC140 so I can daisy chain this pedal.

Since I am still trying to learn, could you guys look over these Madbean schematics and see if I have the pin out oriented correctly?







I have already switched the polarity of the wiring, but want to make sure I know how to install the transistor correctly.

Thank you so much for all of your help!

-Austin

Doh! Thank you jkokura! That solved the mystery of the missing bypass signal...I got everything re-soldered, but I am not having any luck with the wet signal. I am using an OC44 I bought from pedalpartsplus. It says "NJS1236" on the side of it and I can't seem to find a pin layout online...

I checked the voltages at the pins and they all measure in the same ballpark of -7 volts. Does this mean the tranny has opened up and is now dead?

Thank you for all of your help!

Thank you everyone for your warm welcome. I apologize for my delayed reply, I have been battling the flu since Monday (yuck!)

I have tried to go back and make sure I don't have any cold solder joints and tried taking the switch out of circuit to no avail. I have attached some photos.

I am also working off of the madbean layout with a OC44 sourced from pedalpartsplus:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/Rangemaster/Rangemaster.pdf







I really appreciate you all taking the time to help a newb out.

Hello,

I just finished putting this pedal together and was met with the unfortunate realization that it's not working.

When bypassed, my guitar signal comes through very faintly and when the effect is engaged it's just a boosted level of hiss (no guitar at all). Thankfully the LED is working.

I followed the schematic closely and used an OC44 from pedalparts plus. It wasn't marked, so I kept switching the legs around until I think the voltages were correct. I checked my wiring at the switch and the jacks and they look exactly like the project pdf. Am I missing something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I've been on here with my last project (Slambox version 2.5) and have gotten the pedal building bug again...

This time I am looking at doing a Rangemaster, but was wondering if it's worth the effort to convert it over to a negative ground effect? I have been searching all over the internet, but haven't come across any definitive answers to my questions...

I am looking at a number of Germanium transistors at Pedal Parts Plus, but was unsure which NPN would work? Would you recommend using a AC127, AC187 or 2n388 with Brian's board?

Furthermore, is it even worth it from a tonal standpoint trying to switch over to an NPN? I know the circuit lasts a while with a battery, so I guess I am willing to sacrifice the ability to hook it up to my 1spot chain if the tone is better.

Also, I am thinking about revisiting the Slambox, but this time incorporate a Master Volume so I can use it as an overdrive. Does the version 2.5 sound much different than the last version 4.0? The only differences I see are two resistors for the step-down and LED. If the later version was an improvement, I will probably pick up a new board from Haberdasher.

What value pot would you use for a master volume? 50K or 100k? I suppose it would be wired up in lieu of the 47K resistor with the output wire going to lug 3, lug 1 going to ground and lug 2 being the new output?

Thanks for your input!

-Austin

Thank you so much! haha

Yeah, I am trying to decide which should be my next project. I would like to find a nice overdrive distortion with a nice, old school tube feel to take my '68 Super Reverb over the edge. 

One thing to be careful (I learned this from my own experiences) is that some bezels will not do a great job of keeping the leads on the LED from touching, so I did some searching and found that the Radioshack bezel does a great job.

However, it all depends on how you are hooking everything up in your pedal.

Goodluck!

Austin

Hey guys! I just wanted to report back saying that the pedals work like a charm! No more blown BS170s and with the correct pot installed, these pedals woke up to become some nasty beasts!

Thank you so much for your time and consideration in helping me with this matter!

I am really excited to be able to have such a valuable resource in this forum!

All the best!

Austin

Haha...You have no idea how frustrated I have been with trying to get these pedals working. I have one that somewhat works that I made for a friend, but it doesn't sound as good as his genuine SHO. I just read that the Reverse Log Pot makes a major difference in the sound, and since I used a 25K with the wires swapped...I may be able to save it! 

At least I am learning...lol. I am getting excited about these pedals again instead of looking at them with disgust! 

If I can dig myself out of this hole, I may have to build a fuzz pedal for some Page/Neil Young sounds...

I will definitely check out your project! Thank you again for everything!

I will report back when I get to sit down with these parts.

Austin