beeflin's Reviews
25 reviews Back to beeflin's Equipboard
351
Beautiful tone and looks but NO setup for the price!
When I bought this guitar its action was far too low and the truss rod adjustment was completely wrong, so it buzzed and choked everywhere. I had it professionally set up, but the luthier had to do quite heavy levelling on the frets. After setup it's a joy to play, sensitive at low volumes but really loud when hit hard. Still a bargain, but it's not really a £200 guitar - it's actually £300+ if you want it playable.
351
Gives that extra edge
Analog Man's Beano Boost pedal is a hand-made Rangemaster with three modes - treble boost, mid boost and bass boost. But it doesn't just make the guitar louder - it gives a special, edgy and roughened sound that cuts through like a refined cheese grater. The Rangemaster is part of the classic sound of Marc Bolan, Tony Iommi, Rory Gallagher and Brian May and is rumoured to be the secret behind Eric Clapton's revolutionary tone on the Bluesbreakers' "Beano" album (hence this pedal's name).
By the way, my particular Beano uses the 2N527 transistor.
Preferred Settings + Usage:
I almost always use the mid option, since it's the best for pouring strong upper mid into my speakers and that's what cuts through.
41028
I think May only used the rangemaster on the 1st 2 or 3 queen albums before having Cornish design him a silicon based booster to do something similar. That's the sound most of us are most familiar with. I've had a couple good rangemaster clones (still have one SOMEWHERE) and I have a brian may booster now that I was incidentally just rocking all day through one of my ac30s. The May circuit has a bit more internal headroom before the single transistor starts to clip and it has a lot more output. Its got more actual treble as opposed to raw upper midrange in a stock rangemaster, but there's some sonic secret sauce in the upper mids too that give them ideal bite and phenomenal harmonic content that really outstrips what the rangemaster does. Not to say that the rangemaster isn't an aweome sounding circuit with a proper mallard oc44 in it, but its not the brian may sound we all think of. It doesn't quite deliver the refined queen tone of the classic era through an ac30. Its a good sound, but I always used my rangemasters with a plexi for tony iommi sounds (though I think he used some other brand of treble booster). The may circuit is a much more refined circuit than the dallas rangemaster and it has a more refined sound. Its really voiced to work with an ac30 and that's pretty much it though. The rangemaster is a better fit for every other amp out there.
351
Thanks for the Queen info, Jim - interesting stuff :-)
351
A beautiful and classy hand-made electric guitar
Chris Eccleshall was a violin maker before becoming a luthier and has made many fine acoustic guitars and mandolins. So it's unsurprising that his solid-bodied instruments tend to have a fine tone too, strong on mids. The 24.75" scale Scimitar, along with the 24.5" scale Barracuda and Excalibur bass, are his only original designs since he normally sticks to classic designs, especially Gibson patterns.