Fulltone Ranger

The Fulltone Ranger is a treble booster pedal from Fulltone's Custom Shop, built as a recreation of the Dallas Rangemaster, the classic 1960s germanium treble booster. Where the original had a single knob, the Ranger adds a six-position rotary switch that selects which range of frequencies gets boosted, from full range up to the bright treble cut of the original circuit¹. Like the Rangemaster it is based on, it is fueled by a germanium transistor¹.

Fulltone announced the Ranger on 18 September 2019, describing it as a Custom Shop take on the Rangemaster. At announcement there was no word on price or availability beyond "coming soon"¹.

What a Rangemaster-style treble booster does

A treble booster sits in front of the amp and does two jobs: it increases the signal strength of the guitar going into the amplifier, and it emphasizes the upper mid and treble frequencies⁴. In the 1960s players used boxes like the Dallas Rangemaster to push dark, non-master-volume amps harder, so the amp broke up earlier and the top end cut through. The Rangemaster came in a funky little folded steel desktop-style enclosure⁵, and technically it is a highly colored boost rather than a clean boost: it changes the guitar's tone as well as its level⁶.

The original circuit is a single-transistor design. DIY Fever's technical analysis notes the transistor should be a PNP germanium, or even silicon⁷, which is why vintage units vary in character and why builders today hunt for low-noise old-stock germanium parts.

The six-position rotary switch

The Ranger's main departure from the one-knob original is a six-position rotary switch offering a range of boostable frequencies¹:

The two Rangemaster positions reproduce the original's treble-boost voicing with two different capacitor values, so a player can choose between the classic setting and a slightly different treble curve, while the other four positions extend the pedal into ranges the one-knob original never offered¹.

Germanium transistor and the limited run

Like the original, the Ranger is fueled by a germanium transistor¹. Beyond the standard version, Fulltone's Mike Fuller promised a limited run of 60 units fitted with low-noise N.O.S. 1965 Mullard OC75 transistors¹, the kind of new-old-stock germanium part that vintage-circuit builders seek out for its low noise.

Powering it

Fuller got the pedal to run from a regular 9V negative-ground power supply, as well as a battery¹. That matters because the original Rangemaster circuit, built around a PNP germanium transistor, is often associated with positive-ground arrangements that cannot share a supply with modern pedals. A negative-ground Ranger can sit on the same daisy chain or isolated supply as the rest of a pedalboard.

Where it sits among boost pedals

RockBoard's listing calls it "The Fulltone Custom Shop CS-Ranger. The greatest Rangemaster treble booster clone ever?" and lists its circuit type as analog². It is one of several takes on the Rangemaster idea: EarthQuaker Devices has described the Rangemaster as "the classic and much imitated one knob Rangemaster Treble Booster"⁸, and the circuit has been copied and reissued widely, including a 2012 JMI re-issue built in England⁹. Within Fulltone's own line, the Ranger is the company's Rangemaster-style entry, distinct from its other boost pedals such as the Fulltone 2B and the Fulltone 2B JFET Booster, which take different approaches to raising a guitar's level.

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