Treble booster + high gain amp to cut?

[tjnx]

Here's a couple 1 or 2 knob options I was looking at.

JHS Haunting Mids - Single channel parametric, more expensive than the pteq but I kinda like how it limits options. Used for mid control


Revv Tilt Boost - Tilt Eq meant to quickly brighten or darken your overall tone


I think the Orange Two Stroke sounds good in that it lets more of the amps voice through vs a ti boost. Comparison here:

 

[skoora]

If the Randall has a loop you might want to just use a graphic EQ in the loop. Small changes on the sliders will have a big impact on the sound vs. in front of the gain stages. Some people use two EQ’s. One in front to shave off lows and then in the loop for final shaping.
Also something to consider is the Randall is not the right amp for what you’re trying to achieve.

 

[tjnx]

If the Randall has a loop you might want to just use a graphic EQ in the loop. Small changes on the sliders will have a big impact on the sound vs. in front of the gain stages. Some people use two EQ’s. One in front to shave off lows and then in the loop for final shaping.
Also something to consider is the Randall is not the right amp for what you’re trying to achieve.

Yeah I may just go for a graphic. What do you mean its not the right amp? For the most part it does a lot well, just want it a bit brighter. Not going for a classic Marshall sound if thats what you mean

 

[skoora]

Yeah I may just go for a graphic. What do you mean its not the right amp? For the most part it does a lot well, just want it a bit brighter. Not going for a classic Marshall sound if thats what you mean

No, I just meant that sometimes people tie themselves in knots trying to get an amp to work with external devices, spear swaps and guitar/pickup changes and it’s really that they need to find an amp that’s already 95% there to what they need.
If the low end is right, as is, a graphic in the loop with some little bumps in the upper bands could make a serious difference. My Tremoverb sounds like a completely different amp with some bumps around 1-2K on an EQ.

 

[tjnx]

No, I just meant that sometimes people tie themselves in knots trying to get an amp to work with external devices, spear swaps and guitar/pickup changes and it’s really that they need to find an amp that’s already 95% there to what they need.
If the low end is right as is a graphic in the loop with some little bumps in the upper bands could make a serious difference. My Tremoverb sounds like a completely different amp with some bumps around 1-2K on an EQ.

Got ya, 100% agree.

 

[GuitarVacation]

Hopefully answered your other questions above, but I'm referring to the nasal like tone that's often left over after a big boost so you can cut through the mix. The beginning of the tone in this video I'd describe as approaching a cocked wah sound.


@JakeusUrungus, @Devin, @GuitarVacation @D-Rock, @EyesOfTheSouth! - Regarding an OD being just as good if not better, that's what I was thinking might be a possibility... hmm something to think about. I don't want another pedal that winds up just sitting around because it does essentially the same thing as something else.

Thanks for commenting though, glad to hear from people who have had both as that was a concern.


These are pretty cool! Never heard of them


Thanks this is good input. If I go with the Viper I'm banking on the new controls providing a remedy for some of these issues. But yeah if I'm not going specifically for its tonal changes would something simple be better?

IMO a Naga Viper or old school treble booster will definitely change some tone feel, but I hesitate to tell you to avoid trying either because you might love what is added haha.

This might be a good time to buy some of the super cheap Chinese clones (pretty sure you can find a really cheap rangemaster and tube screamer, not sure about the Naga Viper, my hit used guitar center for that one).

With a relatively small investment, you can try each and know for sure. Then if you find the type of pedal/circuit that give you the “hell yeah, that’s it!” reaction, you can always step up to a higher quality brand/version. I don’t think any of those options are gonna be super expensive even taking a step up from a Chinese clones.

That’s actually how I got into the Rat years ago. I thought the Rat sounded bad in clips I watched (it is a pedal that is easy to make sound bad haha). I ended up with a cheap MIC rat clone, and realized if the filter knob is way up on the bass side, it totally fit what I go for.

That Guptech Naga Viper clone looks like it costs $100 US. Guptech is good quality, made in Canada. Probably small tariff addition right now. But if the Guptech clone is available used on reverb or used guitar center, now we’re getting in the cheap zone haha.

 

[anomaly]

What cab and speakers are you using?

 

[bubbastain]

I have been using a PLX Bion Boost for several years now. It’s supposedly based on the Rangemaster TB, but I have no idea how much or if it has silicone or germanium thingys. It is my favorite boost though and has a lot of range and tones. Here is a clip I did going through all the knobs.

 

[tjnx]

IMO a Naga Viper or old school treble booster will definitely change some tone feel, but I hesitate to tell you to avoid trying either because you might love what is added haha.

This might be a good time to buy some of the super cheap Chinese clones (pretty sure you can find a really cheap rangemaster and tube screamer, not sure about the Naga Viper, my hit used guitar center for that one).

With a relatively small investment, you can try each and know for sure. Then if you find the type of pedal/circuit that give you the “hell yeah, that’s it!” reaction, you can always step up to a higher quality brand/version. I don’t think any of those options are gonna be super expensive even taking a step up from a Chinese clones.

That’s actually how I got into the Rat years ago. I thought the Rat sounded bad in clips I watched (it is a pedal that is easy to make sound bad haha). I ended up with a cheap MIC rat clone, and realized if the filter knob is way up on the bass side, it totally fit what I go for.

That Guptech Naga Viper clone looks like it costs $100 US. Guptech is good quality, made in Canada. Probably small tariff addition right now. But if the Guptech clone is available used on reverb or used guitar center, now we’re getting in the cheap zone haha.

Yes that is a good idea too, I'll keep an eye out for the Guptech. Does the feel bother you?

I was thinking of getting some cheaper used eq pedals to try but then I thought maybe grab a 31 band eq to bring so I could quickly pick which frequencies work. I assume I could find one that takes instrument level signals.. like a cheap art or behringer or something

Even better though, I just realized I can go guitar > interface > reaper > reamp box > head and try a bunch of these eq moves in the software. I think its portable enough I could bring it to our next jam but I'll try it out at home for now vs some backing tracks.

What cab and speakers are you using?

Uberkab - v30s & t75s in an x pattern. The amp is really close with the sd1 tone all the way up, maybe another sd1? Just needs a little more push

I have been using a PLX Bion Boost for several years now. It’s supposedly based on the Rangemaster TB, but I have no idea how much or if it has silicone or germanium thingys. It is my favorite boost though and has a lot of range and tones. Here is a clip I did going through all the knobs.

Yes! This is the kind of demo I was looking for, sounds great man thanks for posting it up. That is a good option and it did what I was expecting a rangemaster-ish clone to do.

 

[tjnx]

Found this blog visualizing the waveform effects of different pedals, here's the sd1. Looks like tone at max increases 1.5k with a wide q. I messed around a bit with a 12 band on some recordings and 1.5, 2.5 and 3k ish added the most poke.
https://guitarpedalsvisualized.wordpress.com/2022/03/18/boss-sd-1/

The frequencies in this chart seem to be helping the most

 

[JLR]

I really like my Viper but I got a noisy one. The noise floor prevents me from gigging with it. Some of the rooms I play I question the wall voltage.

 

[GuitarVacation]

Yes that is a good idea too, I'll keep an eye out for the Guptech. Does the feel bother you?

I was thinking of getting some cheaper used eq pedals to try but then I thought maybe grab a 31 band eq to bring so I could quickly pick which frequencies work. I assume I could find one that takes instrument level signals.. like a cheap art or behringer or something

Even better though, I just realized I can go guitar > interface > reaper > reamp box > head and try a bunch of these eq moves in the software. I think its portable enough I could bring it to our next jam but I'll try it out at home for now vs some backing tracks.


Uberkab - v30s & t75s in an x pattern. The amp is really close with the sd1 tone all the way up, maybe another sd1? Just needs a little more push


Yes! This is the kind of demo I was looking for, sounds great man thanks for posting it up. That is a good option and it did what I was expecting a rangemaster-ish clone to do.

You have the right idea, you can definitely use reamping etc to your advantage.

I love the feel of the right into fuzz into a dirty amp. I don't play the chug stuff much anymore, but I was super into it when I was a younger fella. Back then, I was going for tightness and attack, so a lot of fuzzes probably wouldn't have been ideal. But, back then my tone sucked LOL so what you're doing by trying different options puts you way ahead of me as a young metalhead.

 

[tjnx]

You have the right idea, you can definitely use reamping etc to your advantage.

I love the feel of the right into fuzz into a dirty amp. I don't play the chug stuff much anymore, but I was super into it when I was a younger fella. Back then, I was going for tightness and attack, so a lot of fuzzes probably wouldn't have been ideal. But, back then my tone sucked LOL so what you're doing by trying different options puts you way ahead of me as a young metalhead.

For what is worth, the reamping fixed it. I recreated all the pedals using plugins. Adding 1.5k using the sd1 and dropping 3db of 500hz with a graphic was the ticket. The amp has a lot of 500, once that's gone the highs are there.

I also simulated the Naga using a high pass filter at ~2.6k and tried both adjusting the filter down and blending the unaffected signal in. I'm not quite sure if that's a 100% match of the circuit but it sounded the same. Its a cool sound and I think a Naga or clone like the PLX will work great.

+1.5k, -500hz using a graphic sounded best with the 'Naga' in a close 2nd, 3rd was a high shelf, and 4th was +1.5k, +8k on a 31 band. Haven't tested in the loop yet but I'm happy with it for now going in front of the od.

The tilt eq is sensitive to the center frequency. It does easily add brightness and is quite convenient but if the center is too high the range on the knob of acceptable frequencies gets really tiny so you can easily over / under shoot it when turning. This is the same problem with a parametric, if it has a wide range range of frequency coverage it could be hard to replicate your goldilocks zone on the pots. There is a difference between 500hz and 630hz tonewise so I think that's part of the reason I struggled to find the right combo with the ParaEq. The Tilt Boost could be really nice and easy for clean and overdriven tones or a leaner mix.

Gonna bring the laptop and reamp live next time but I think its the way to go to figure this out.

 

[lol]

Had a naga viper. Sounded ok but jeez the noise was intolerable. Fulltone Ranger is a hell of a treble booster and one I would recommend.

Treble booster is my all time favorite guitar effect. But I play bass now so...

 

[stratjacket]

I recently picked up the Airis Mid Screamer off the classifieds here and really loving it.
It’s basically a boost with a Mid adjustment knob that sweeps from 1400hz to 2700hz and then another knob for + or -
So you chose the mid freq you want and then either cut it or boost it.

I have 11 amps and with a quick adjustment of my toe turning the Freq knob, I can find the sweet spot in different amps easily.

Skip to 4:25 for isolated guitar and knob turning

 

[tjnx]

Had a naga viper. Sounded ok but jeez the noise was intolerable. Fulltone Ranger is a hell of a treble booster and one I would recommend.

Treble booster is my all time favorite guitar effect. But I play bass now so...

Yeah thats kind of an issue. The new one has the attenuation pot so that solves the pedal order / buffer issues but I don't want it noisy. I found a site that has breadboard schematics for it and I thought about doing different tone stacks on a knob, that looks like what the Ranger is doing which is pretty cool.

Some people seem to have noise issues and others don't so idk whats up

I recently picked up the Airis Mid Screamer off the classifieds here and really loving it.
It’s basically a boost with a Mid adjustment knob that sweeps from 1400hz to 2700hz and then another knob for + or -
So you chose the mid freq you want and then either cut it or boost it.

I have 11 amps and with a quick adjustment of my toe turning the Freq knob, I can find the sweet spot in different amps easily.

Skip to 4:25 for isolated guitar and knob turning

That looks like a good option to have on an od. I almost picked up a savage drive a while ago. I'll probably grab a 31 band to help diagnose when we get together to play but ideally land on something simple like this.

 

[lol]

Yeah thats kind of an issue. The new one has the attenuation pot so that solves the pedal order / buffer issues but I don't want it noisy. I found a site that has breadboard schematics for it and I thought about doing different tone stacks on a knob, that looks like what the Ranger is doing which is pretty cool.

Some people seem to have noise issues and others don't so idk whats up

I noticed that too. Some people didn't seem to deal with a noise issue but others have. Mine was very noisy. It sounded good, but I could not get past the noise. The fulltone ranger was significantly quieter, and the 5 way tone stack was super useful. It also sounded much better than the viper in my opinion. The first and last position though I didn't find all that useful. But I am sure someone else would.

I also tend to prefer germanium transistors over silicon in treble boosters. The only silicon transistor treble booster I enjoyed quite a bit was a Pigeon FX hornby Skewes treble booster. Catalinbread actually made a clone of it for a bit too.

 

[GuitarVacation]

For what is worth, the reamping fixed it. I recreated all the pedals using plugins. Adding 1.5k using the sd1 and dropping 3db of 500hz with a graphic was the ticket. The amp has a lot of 500, once that's gone the highs are there.

I also simulated the Naga using a high pass filter at ~2.6k and tried both adjusting the filter down and blending the unaffected signal in. I'm not quite sure if that's a 100% match of the circuit but it sounded the same. Its a cool sound and I think a Naga or clone like the PLX will work great.

+1.5k, -500hz using a graphic sounded best with the 'Naga' in a close 2nd, 3rd was a high shelf, and 4th was +1.5k, +8k on a 31 band. Haven't tested in the loop yet but I'm happy with it for now going in front of the od.

The tilt eq is sensitive to the center frequency. It does easily add brightness and is quite convenient but if the center is too high the range on the knob of acceptable frequencies gets really tiny so you can easily over / under shoot it when turning. This is the same problem with a parametric, if it has a wide range range of frequency coverage it could be hard to replicate your goldilocks zone on the pots. There is a difference between 500hz and 630hz tonewise so I think that's part of the reason I struggled to find the right combo with the ParaEq. The Tilt Boost could be really nice and easy for clean and overdriven tones or a leaner mix.

Gonna bring the laptop and reamp live next time but I think its the way to go to figure this out.

Really cool way of testing different approaches. Sounds like you the info you need to get what you’re after.