 | Analog Man Beano Boost
The John Mayall Bluesbreakers album featuring Eric Clapton has gone down in history as having one of the greatest recorded guitar tones ever put to vinyl. This record is dubbed 'Beano' as Eric is reading a copy of it on the front cover.
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| On it Eric used a Les Paul, Marshall 2x12, and the now infamous Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster to push his amp over the top on certain tracks. The same Rangemaster as used by Brian May with Queen, Ritchie Blackmore, Marc Bolan and countless others. It has spawned a thousand imitations from all over the world; in fact it's one of the first pedals that most enthusiasts learn to build due to its simple but very effective design.
Top End Turmoil
The term' Treble Booster' is actually a bit misleading as it conjures up an image of some sort of E.Q. pedal with all the top end frequencies boosted. It's not like that at all. It is designed to work with a valve amp that's already working hard (which means LOUD) and is breaking up. Many OD pedals will sound compressed in this situation, which is a cool sound, but the Treble Booster is different. It retains and excites the top end frequencies while pushing your amp into a natural saturated distortion. If you try and use it with a clean amp, it will sound pants! It's not a distortion pedal, but used in the right situation it can deliver a sound that redefined great guitar tone for an entire generation.
Clone Theory
The Analog Man 'Beano' Boost is a faithful recreation of the original Dallas Rangemaster treble booster using a lovely NOS germanium NKT transistor with a couple of really nice features such as the MID/LOW switch that enables you to shape the tone to boost mid or low frequencies with the middle position as the original RM circuit. This makes it a much more flexible animal than the original as you can get it sounding great with nearly any hard working valve amp. Add to this the true bypass switch and the smaller enclosure and it's an absolute gem on any pedal board.
Does it sound just like an original? Well this is impossible to say as the originals all sounded different. It all depends on what sort of transistor is used in the circuit and the Dallas Rangemaster did use a bunch of different ones all with different characteristics. However, when it comes to finding great transistors for old pedals, Analog Man is in a league of his own. He meticulously trawls through his old stock of these tiny electronic cans of joy to ensure that every single pedal sounds fantastic.
How much should I pay?
You can buy these new from Analog Man and by the time they reach you in the U.K, you'll be looking at around £150 but due to supply and demand they don't go for much less than this second hand, around £130. When you consider that an original Rangemaster goes for 5 times that, it's a no brainer!
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