OK...need some ideas...

Gainfreak · Post by **Gainfreak** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:32 pm

donbarzini wrote:
Gainfreak wrote:just as I suspected. Jon's MIA.........again.
Typical for white trash.

WORD!!!

ohmygodtheykilledkenny · Post by **ohmygodtheykilledkenny** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:46 pm

Gainfreak wrote:
ohmygodtheykilledkenny wrote:I was actually thinking of building one off the Geo Fex spec with a terminal strip and custom tuning it to my liking. For BYOC your talking about the Tribooster right?

Travis
Yeah thats it! They changed it a bit though. I have the old kit when it was just a trble booster using teh oc44 tranny.

Alright, I'm waiting to hear back from small bear electronics, but I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna buy a few Mullard Transistors from them and start collecting parts for my own take on a rangemaster! Thats if I can somehow kill my jonesing for a Roger Mayer Octavia.

Travis

GUITARmole · Post by **GUITARmole** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:26 am

ohmygodtheykilledkenny wrote:
Gainfreak wrote:
ohmygodtheykilledkenny wrote:I was actually thinking of building one off the Geo Fex spec with a terminal strip and custom tuning it to my liking. For BYOC your talking about the Tribooster right?

Travis
Yeah thats it! They changed it a bit though. I have the old kit when it was just a trble booster using teh oc44 tranny.
Alright, I'm waiting to hear back from small bear electronics, but I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna buy a few Mullard Transistors from them and start collecting parts for my own take on a rangemaster! Thats if I can somehow kill my jonesing for a Roger Mayer Octavia.

Travis

Do yourself a favor and build the RM Octavia too unless you just want to pay $225 for the ultra-cool enclosure (which I did and which I regret after seeing the small parts count)!!

If you feel lazy and don't want to bother wiring the Rangemaster PTP, I think I might have a couple of PCBoards that I etched that are floating around unused.

FWIW, even the generic Japanese Ge transistors that Smallbear offers for the Rangemaster sound great. Still...if you're spending a total of $20 in parts why not go the extra $5 for the Mullard!!

ohmygodtheykilledkenny · Post by **ohmygodtheykilledkenny** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:53 am

Exactly! I killed the jonesing for an Octavia by realising that university is a year away and I have $400 in the bank. I'm still thinking gonna build the rangemaster though, soon as I have to spare time (I hate grade 12 chemistry and pre calculus!

) I'm gonna pick up three trannys (oc44, oc71, oc77) and dick around with the circuit till I get what I'm after.

As for enclosures, my uncle works in a machine shop and he's gonna cook me up a few sweet enclosures.

Take care bro,
Travis

GUITARmole · Post by **GUITARmole** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:16 pm

ohmygodtheykilledkenny wrote:Exactly! I killed the jonesing for an Octavia by realising that university is a year away and I have $400 in the bank. I'm still thinking gonna build the rangemaster though, soon as I have to spare time (I hate grade 12 chemistry and pre calculus! ) I'm gonna pick up three trannys (oc44, oc71, oc77) and dick around with the circuit till I get what I'm after.

As for enclosures, my uncle works in a machine shop and he's gonna cook me up a few sweet enclosures.

Take care bro,
Travis

Well, you might want to save a copy of the schematic so you'll have it ready when you have time to work on building one:

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics.php

For what it's worth, the Octavia really isn't that fantastic of an effect. It's cool if you want to nail the sound for Purple Haze, or if you want to get some of the groovy lead effects used on Band of Gypsys. It's a subtle but fun kind of fuzz/octave/ring modulator effect.

For more drama the MXR Blue Box is a better tracking and more 'out there' fuzz/octave (like on Zep Fool in the Rain, Sabbath Paranoid solo, or White Stripes type stuff).

Also, the RM Axis Fuzz is a really nice pedal for a Si type Fuzz Face sort of sound.

ohmygodtheykilledkenny · Post by **ohmygodtheykilledkenny** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:27 pm

Cool, now I have 2 schematics to study, thanks mate! I'll see how they compare.

Also thanks for the tip on the Octave, but first I have a Uni Vibe jones to cure. And its gonna take a while.

Travis

GUITARmole · Post by **GUITARmole** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:06 am

ohmygodtheykilledkenny wrote:Cool, now I have 2 schematics to study, thanks mate! I'll see how they compare.

Also thanks for the tip on the Octave, but first I have a Uni Vibe jones to cure. And its gonna take a while.

Travis

Then build this:
http://www.geofex.com/PCB_layouts/Layouts/easyvibe.pdf

or this:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/u ... update.pdf

I'm in the middle of the EasyVibe myself...it's ALMOST completed. If I had it to do all over again I'd recommend just building the NeoVibe instead. Besides the fact that it's an exact clone of the UniVibe, I honestly believe it would be just as "easy" to build as the "easy" vibe!!! The "easy" vibe has been one of my least "easy" builds due to the PCB layout making it difficult to etch and solder (tight traces).

If you don't want to go to the trouble of building one, the Dunlop (I'm not a big Dunlop fan but really, it's good) UniVibe (not the small one but the large one w/ the incandescent bulb) is actually a really accurate remake in my opinion...warts and all!

Anyway, I've probably hijacked this thread enough so if you have any more questions PM me or post it on the effect forum.

I don't know much about ampbuilding...yet (but am learning with help from the gurus on this forum) but I've built a TON of effects and can guide you along if you have any questions.

Lastly, if you're building the Rangemaster you should add a 3 position rotary switch to change input capacitor values for more variation in tone. It really makes the pedal MUCH more useful with different guitars and amps.