Dragons Breath aka Rangemistress

[psb962]

I have a batch of pcbs to work through this winter and decided to start with the easiest one, the Rangemaster / Naga Viper clone 'Dragons Breath' by pedalpcb. The build was very easy as there are few components in this design. It's basically a Dallas Rangemaster with a silicon transistor and 3 pots instead of one. I decided to call mine the 'Rangemistress'. I already have an AionFX Radian I built last year and wanted to see if Si rather than Ge made a difference.

Unfortunately, when done, I found that this design has same issues as the Ge rangemaster clones - it's noisy (a magnet for EMI) and has to be run from a cable direct to the guitar (don't use wireless or buffered pedals) as it needs the pickup load to roll off the higher harmonics.

I don't think this one is going to get a lot of play time unless anyone has any ideas on good ways to use it.

Challenge: in the image of the wiring there is a significant mistake. Can anyone see it? I was rather embarrassed to realize what I'd done, but it was a an easy fix....

 

[drgonzo1969]

Nice build! I love those yellow enclosures. Looks like the input is wired to ground in the photo? Cool build tho!

 

[psb962]

Nice build! I love those yellow enclosures. Looks like the input is wired to ground in the photo? Cool build tho!

Correct! On both jacks I wired hot to ground and ground to hot.

 

[GizzWizzKing]

Correct! On both jacks I wired hot to ground and ground to hot.

This does generally make for a very quiet pedal when engaged.

I love the Rangemistress name. Pity its not your cup of tea, but at least its a low parts and cheap build. Easy to give as a gift to someone and it will make their day.

 

[Harry Klippton]

Correct! On both jacks I wired hot to ground and ground to hot.

Why tho

 

[spi]

Hmm, I didn't hear about swapping the hot and ground on jacks. Wouldn't that connect the hot signal to the enclosure as well?

 

[PedalBuilder]

I found that this design has same issues as the Ge rangemaster clones - it's noisy (a magnet for EMI) . . .

I'm kind of surprised to hear that. Are you sure that the enclosure is grounded? While it's not quite the same circuit, my germanium Rangefinder is dead quiet in terms of noise and is easily the least noisy drive pedal out of the ~20 that I have built.

 

[Feral Feline]

I, too, dig the Range Mistress moniker.

...

I don't think this one is going to get a lot of play time unless anyone has any ideas on good ways to use it.

Challenge: in the image of the wiring there is a significant mistake. Can anyone see it? I was rather embarrassed to realize what I'd done, but it was a an easy fix....

View attachment 66338View attachment 66339

Grounds.

As for ideas on how to use it. I'd stick a Buffer Buster in front of it (ie a transformer) to decouple it from the guitar/other pedals.
EM-Noise could be reduced by running shielded wires within, double-check all your grounding including making sure the enclosure is properly grounded, as PedalBuilder alluded to already.

Also...

Maybe you could stick this Range Mistress in with an Electric Mistress build, and an Aclam Woman Tone clone — rename it the "Ménage À Trois"

Perhaps some racier graphics with a dominatrix and whips & chains and... Oh. Sorry, wrong forum.

 

[hamerfan]

My DB is not noisy. Try to relocate the signal input wire to the enclosure wall and try to shorten the +9v connection to the board. Hope that helps.
I use the DB as helper to demud the soloing on the Les Paul neck humbucker. That works nicely.

 

[psb962]

Why tho

That was an error I made in the build. I took the photos, then tested it, then fixed it.

Thanks for comments on noise. I will do some continuity tests to make sure enclosure is grounded. I do, however, have a noisy environment - spot lighting, internet over power cables, wifi router in same room, etc.

 

[Harry Klippton]

That was an error I made in the build. I took the photos, then tested it, then fixed it.

Thanks for comments on noise. I will do some continuity tests to make sure enclosure is grounded. I do, however, have a noisy environment - spot lighting, internet over power cables, wifi router in same room, etc.

Sorry I missed that you said there was a wiring mistake. I thought you were saying you did that intentionally and then were saying it sounded bad

 

[spi]

Make sure your jacks are making contact with the enclosure. If there is some powder coating preventing contact, you can sand it.

 

[psb962]

Good news!

I guess I am too impatient with new builds. I checked the pedal over and couldn't find any problems, so I found a slot for it right in the middle of my pedal board and plugged it in to the isolated power supply. I then spent some time with each of the controls dialing it in, and found the Heat control was key (about 3pm worked best for me). That, with Boost and Range close to 12 seemed to hit the spot nicely, and now I'm getting some real old-school tones out of the Mini-Plex with this. I side by sided it with my Ge rangemaster clone (AIonFX Radian) and that was very similar but had a little more mojo. Both were acceptably quiet when on board, boost at 12, and guitar strings muted.

I declare success.

 

[hamerfan]

My settings are little bit lower. Heat on 1 o‘clock, Boost and Range on 11.

 

[psb962]

My settings are little bit lower. Heat on 1 o‘clock, Boost and Range on 11.

I'm going to test it some more today, this time (as the wife is out) with the amp cranked up to 'greater than bedroom' levels.

 

[psb962]

Revisiting this pedal as I've made a lot of others since and it got bumped off my pedalboard pretty fast because a) it doesn't sound as good as my Ge rangemaster clone and b) it always sounds too bright no matter what I do with the Range control. Because it's a treble booster I guess...

So this is now a candidate for a mod project. I'm going to insert a high pass filter somewhere so that the treble is rolled off, and the pedal becomes a Si boost. I find the Range and Boost controls useful but the Heat less so, so I might try to repurpose that as a High Cut. Must get my design hat on.....