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Using the KWB distortion to approximate a Dallas Rangemaster!


Charvel2
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I've had good results messing with this, so I thought I'd share...

I got my Helix last week, and it took a few days to come around to it (largely thanks to the high cut EQ block and the Bias X parameter, but more on that another time). I'm disappointed at not having a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster in the mix, but I hope Line 6 will rectify that at some point. What I do like - a lot - is the KWB distortion. It's my favourite out of the lot. I'd never heard of this pedal before, so I was doing some googling and found a blog post by the designer where he mentioned removing clipping diodes to use it as a straight boost. That got me thinking, seeing as there's the option of germanium diodes, as used in early Rangemasters. A little tweaking later, and I've got something that has a similar gritty singing quality to a good Rangemaster when in front of a Marshall or Vox model. These are my settings:

 

Drive: 3

Push diode: Germanium

Pull diode: None

Bass: +1db

Treble: +7db

Level: 9.5 (or to taste)

Asymm: 4 (I'm not sure what this one does, I just adjusted by ear)

 

Some Rangemasters (and their modelled versions) can be very piercing, but some can be really warm. Bias FX has one of the best versions, and to my ear, this sounds pretty close. If you bypass the amp so you can hear the effect itself, you'll notice there's only a little bit of grit in the tone - most of the extra drive is coming from whatever amp you've selected being hit hard by the boost. Try it in front of the JTM-45.

I hope that's useful to someone!

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