Eric Clapton. Ritchie Blackmore. Brian May. Tony Iommi. What do these fine gentleman have in common, besides being incredible guitar players? They achieved tones that are still being sought out today, by way of using a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster. These pedals were made to push an amplifier into a gorgeous overdriven tone, and were featured on some real breakthrough albums back in the day. Our friends at Tribute Audio Designs have come up with an awesome treble booster of their own, a tribute to the Rangemasters of old: the Dirty Bastard Treble Booster.

When you hear the words “treble” and “booster” together, you might immediately think of a clean boost, but that’s not the case here. Oh, you can get some clean boost if you want, but where this pedal really sparkles is when it gets gritty. Right off the bat when you engage the effect, your tone sounds better, warmer, clearer and more punchy. It really acts as a harmonic enhancer of sorts, really bringing your guitar’s tone to life. It really made my old Peavey Classic 30 come alive, in a way I hadn’t heard it before, and that immediately impressed me, and made me want to delve in further.

There are only 2 control knobs on the Dirty Bastard (great name, too!): the left is a Boost control, and the right is called Fat, which is a Treble/Mid contour control. While it is a tribute to the Rangemaster, the Dirty Bastard has been altered in a few ways to make it quite unique. First, it will get gritty and distorted if you crank it up, which adds a whole new level to your setup. Plus, it features a mid-range bite that the originals did not have, and the input impedence has been upped in order to reduce the overall sensitivity.

The Dirty Bastard is a really incredible tone shaper, with great range, and will do everything from boosting your guitar’s signal a bit to driving your favorite tube amp to crunch town when cranked. If you’re looking for that special piece of the pedalboard puzzle to real find your tone, look no further. Thanks to Jeremy and all at Tribute Audio Designs for sending this little bronze beauty our way – if you haven’t yet, go see what else they’ve got in store for you on their website now!

Specs:
Handmade in Canada – one at a time
Die Cast Aluminum Enclosure
Rugged Powder coat Finish
Panel Mounted Neutrik Jacks
Panel Mounted 2.1mm (Boss Style) DC power jack – Negative ground for easy daisy-chaining
Filtered Power Supply for quiet operation
Polarity Circuit Protection
True Mechanical Bypass Switching
NOS Russian Germanium Transistor
Unbelievably amazing tone

Submitted by Mike B, Website