Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I bought a box of stuff from Michael Ballard a while back. This is highly recommended, because Mike always throws in some extra goodies. In this case, I'm not even sure what I was buying—I think it was some unused kits—but one of the extra goodies was a baggie with 20 (!) OC44 germanium transistors.

So I needed something to put them in. A Rangemaster boost seemed the obvious choice, so I reached out to Frag Magnet to see if he could do up a PCB for me. Turns out he already had a board designed for a negative ground PNP booster, under his open source 99ZuluFX brand. So I ordered a few boards from OSH Park. I finally had time to build and box one up. I'm very pleased. It doesn't do much for me with my Gretsch, but the Telecaster into a hot amp with the mids range selected? WOWZA. The treble boost setting is not great for my rig, but a friend confirms that it kills in front of the old BYOC ESV Fuzz I made him years back.

Botched the decal below the footswitch trying to remove a hair that landed on it right after I applied the clear coat, but that's okay, because I am going to keep this one for sure.

Thanks to Mike and Frag for their contributions to this build! Was super fun.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Nice! I likes me some clean builds!

Just curious about a couple of things--have the trannies been rated for leakage-corrected gain? Did you "audition" multiple trannies to find one that you particularly liked?

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Sharp! And I like the big ol' honkin' knob plus the cover on the toggle!

Really happy to see this come together and I'm those boards worked out for you!

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Bikers have more fun that people do.

Free "open source" EagleCAD files: 99ZuluFX

Mike tagged all of the transistors with a gain measurement, though I’m not sure if his figure accounts for leakage. I started out with a low gain one, 53 I think. They range up to the mid-90s. I’ll pop some others in there and see how they fare.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Yeah, I figured Mike would probably have done that. That range would be perfect for Rangemaster clones, and the high end ones should be suitable for the first stage in Fuzz Face or Tone Bender circuits.

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I think the knobs might actually have come from Mike too. The toggle switch cap came from Mammoth, something I stumbled on while browsing. Comes in different colors. Seems like a nifty way to add some character to a build for 30 cents.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow