Throbak StrangeMaster Treble Boost

What a stupid name. Really. Like Range Master, with a 'St', see? Which, of course, is a good thing. You know, when it comes to gear, and when the gear's good - especially when the gear's that good, bad names have a reverse effect to that expected of things stupid. They actually sound cool. Very few displays of moronity out there get away with it in style.

The Strange Master is a clone of the Germanium Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster, made famous by Eric Clapton, Brian May and Tony Iommi. What this means is this bad boy sounds like the Rangemaster if the Rangemaster was actually a good pedal. In fact, it kicks so much ass, it's hands down the best stomp box I've ever played. Sadly, I don't own one any more cos I went and lost mine, which makes me a Strange Master, the moron bit, without the cool, cos I'm stupid without being a killer piece of gear.

One of my favorite bits about the Strange Master is its minimalist approach when it comes to knobs and switches. It's got a Boost output knob, an eleven position Bias knob and a treble/full range switch. True bypass switch and green power LED, check.

The first is self explanatory. I used to set it between 10 to 3 o'clock on mine, depending on the mood. I tried most settings and they all kicked ass in one way or the other.

Setting the Bias control to it's anti-clockwisest position seemed to completely kill the sound with my setup. Turning it clockwise increased the bass response, making the whole thing sound tighter - and louder. I kept this knob on eleven the whole time. I'd be happy if that was the default setting and could do without the knob, but I can see how it could be useful if you're into recreating certain people's sound.

Same goes for the treble/full range switch. I could have set mine to full range and rip the thing off and never look back. Going with the treble option on that switch, you probably get tone closer to the original Treblemaster, if that's what you're after.

When used with an AC adapter, the Strange Master hummed. It's probably down to me using a crappy generic adapter, but either way, I gave up on that and bought myself a whole load of 9V batteries. I still have them.

If you only play in your bedroom, don't get a Strange Master. Save yourself some money and buy a Pod or a Friends DVD box set, or whatever. The Strange Master only sounds good in bedroom unfriendly volumes. It's a boost so it boosts and it will only sound real if you play it through an amp that's already on stun. And that's gotta be a real amp, mind you.

The Strange Master didn't alter the tone of any of my guitars or amps, only made it richer, louder and screaming for vengeance. It sounded a bit thin through my Roost, which is to be expected, cos the Roost is kinda cheap on the bass, but was a beast through my Minimat. When I went crazy and played it together with the boost that comes with the Minimat, it made me wanna beat the crap out of someone. Cos it sounded so darn huge and awesome.

Best guitar volume knob clean up I've ever witnessed on a pedal. And even in full blast, you can still hear every single string in a chord, despite all the blood in your ears.

My ultimate goal is for a rig consisting of one guitar, one overdrive pedal and one amp with one channel. Using my SG through the Strange Master plugged into my Minimat is the closest I ever got that.

I gotta go buy another one soon real bad.

Rating: One THOUsand out of ten.