16 of the Best Compact Treble Booster Pedals

Beyond the CTC Constellation - which is really more of a Tone Bender and Fuzz Face Fuzz, the TI-Boost was the first of this genre that ever made it onto one of my wishlists. It's fitting that one of the great purveyors of the Treble Booster effect should have his own signature pedal - and albeit not based on Germanium Transistors as far as I can tell, this is an excellent expanded scope effect emanating from the core of the Dallas RangeMaster. The feature set here is significantly extended with 4 dials and a toggle switch - or namely - Drive | Volume | Low Frequencies | Hi Frequencies, and a 2-way Mids toggle switch. This has been a really well received pedal - it's well made, and looks and sounds great - definitely one for the tone library.

The British Pedal Company makes a variety of Germanium Treble Boosters - with both new or vintage NOS Mullard OC44 Transistors - £100 difference in price! This is your standard basic Treble Booster with just a single boost/gain dial. It's obviously built with the finest components. There are no demo videos of the Compact Series online, so I've selected the amp-top version video here instead which uses the exact same period correct OC44 Germanium Transistor.

German pedal builder BSM is something of a Treble Booster specialist with more than 20 models across Low-Gain, Medium-Gain and High-Gain applications. I have selected their classic RangeMaster clone here - the 'RM' - obviously with OC44 Transistors intact from the original. BSM have their knobs down the sides of the pedal which is fairly unusual, otherwise this is a pretty much an exact RangeMaster circuit replication.

Catalinbread's take on the RangeMaster utilises Silicon Transistors in place of the classic OC44 Germanium type - but they extend the feature set and range of the pedal with 2 additional dials - to give you 3 control knobs - Range | Boost | Heat. They report that rather than having to have their pedal dimed as is the case with many RangeMaster types - that there are lots of in-between settings available with the interplay of the 3 dials - the Range dial takes you from classic Treble Booster up to Full Frequency Range boost, while the Heat control allows you to adjust the level of gain saturation. This is another excellent variation of the classic and well worth consideration.

I was somewhat bemused to see Pete Thorn use this as one of his Treble Boosters in his recent video - as this is principally a Tone Bender style fuzz variant with 6 modes - including Rangemaster and Rangemaster into Fuzz Face options. As Pete says - there's not as much gain boost on tap here as with many of these others, but you do still get that great tonality. Of course you get a really great Tone Bender, Fuzz Face and Rangemaster all in the same box - which may be a touch overkill for some! CTC has hand-selected 3 zero leakage New Old Stock Valvo OC45 Black Glass Germanium transistors for each pedal to ensure ideal performance and consistency.

EHX's take on the RangeMaster is by a significant degree the lowest cost option in this particular grouping. The basic circuit is of course really very simple, and Silicon transistors can be obtained very cost-effectively. This is a very good price though and should give anyone wanting to dip their toes into the genre a solid foundation for what Treble Boosters can do.

A pretty reasonably priced high quality extended range Treble Booster with a choice of Transistors - Mullard OC141 or OC42 and other options you can select. The right-hand rotary dial gives you 7 different voicings - each achieved by using 7 separate high quality NOS capacitors and not via the typically simpler style of tone stack. So here the Treble Booster is just one of the flavours on offer - definitely a quality contender!

Greer Amps' take on the RangeMaster is billed more as a Class A Germanium Treble and Mid PreAmp. It runs on an AC128 Germanium Transistor and has a Treble/Mid frequency dial to accompany the Master Vol / Boost Level. This is another really handy Treble Booster - Greer are always pretty solid for these types of effects. It's not an exact RangeMaster clone, but gets you into pretty much identical territory. It should suffice for most applications though.

This is another proper RangeMaster clone - with CV7003 military spec core Germanium OC44 transistor. Such transistors are obviously in very rarefied supply and the standard model appears to be discontinued, while it's still seemingly widely in stock. The current catalogue version is a red leather enclosed limited edition. The pedal features a 3-way toggle switch for treble, mid or bass boost focus. The leather version is probably overkill - you should really try and track down a standard version before they all run out!

KMA's take on the RangeMaster relies on an AC125 Germanium Transistor. I believe this pedal type used to be called 'Sweet Sinner', but is now more appropriately named after the current most active Icelandic geyser 'Strokkur'. This is another extended range style Treble Booster with 4 dials at your disposal - Treble | Bass | Range | Boost. 'Range' is essentially the frequency focus - going from Treble Booster to Full Frequency Range for all-round boost - with the Treble and Bass dials to further fine-tune the tone. Yet another great example of the genre.

This is the pedal that sparked this entire article - from possibly the most famous proponent of Treble Boosters of all time. Over his career, Brian has relied on various Treble Boosters - the original Germanium OC44 RangeMaster, and then Silicon versions made by both Greg Fryer and Nigel Knight - mostly utilising BC148 and later BC183 Silicon Transistors as far as I'm aware. This new Nigel Knight production aims to cover all of Brian's career with 3 era-specific modes - 70s, 80s and 90s - with the last mentioned also the current shape of Brian's Tone. You have a 3-way mode selector - and then symbols around the main Boost / Level dial showing Brian's preferred setting for each mode. The description of the creation process talks about modelling each of the specific Treble Booster types (via analogue circuitry as far as I understand) - and achieving the right tones by appropriate component selection - highest quality capacitors, resistors etc. It nowhere states what is at the core of the tone-shaping, but I feel it's most likely some sort of Silicon transistor - possibly a BC183 type or similar - they seem to be keeping a tight lid about the exact component choices. The main thing here though is that this has been properly trialled, tested and signed off by Brian himself - and is the most versatile part of his tone-shaping besides his Red Special and AC-30 amp of course! I will almost definitely get one of these as I'm a huge fan of the Legendary Brian May!

Another Björn Juhl classic - this time based on a combination of 2 BJFe pedals - the Little Red Trebler and Red Booster Rooster (not to be confused with the D*A*M Red Rooster). You get 3 dials - Master | Boost | Treble to extend the range somewhat beyond a standard RangeMaster. I have loved all my Björn Juhl pedals - whether from Bearfoot FX, Mad Professor or OneControl - and have several from each. These exact boosters are somewhat slipping out of distribution - but there seem to still a few stragglers around at pretty reasonable prices.

These seem to be very few and far between nowadays - possibly discontinued - although examples do crop up on Reverb.com every now and then. In the official catalogue you only have a sold out version of the amp-top box listed (for £189), with no sign of the compact pedal equivalent. This is a pretty faithful original OC44 Transistor RangeMaster, it does though come with a 3-way toggle switch - Mid | Treb | Full - to take you somewhat beyond the range of a mere standard Treble Booster. If you find one in decent condition on Reverb.com it should be worth the gamble!

This is the second pedal I feature from this Brazilian pedal builder - after the Octopus Octave Fuzz. The 'Amp' is a classic one knob treble booster with a supposedly rare but unspecified Ukranian Germanium Transistor - possibly an AC128 style or equivalent type. These pedals appear fairly regularly on Reverb.com or you can order direct - albeit the postage from Brazil might sting a little!

ThroBak - the celebrated boutique pickup maker also has a nicely rounded but compact range of essentially fuzz-style pedals - including the Fuzz Haze (Fuzz Face), Overdrive Boost (Power Boost), Stone Bender (MKII TB), and this Strange Master - obviously an extended range RangeMaster+ Boost. The pedal description mentions unspecified Germanium and Silicon Tranistors, and you have an onboard toggle switch - to alternate between those. You further get a Hi/Lo Gain mode dial, mini Transistor Bias dial, and of course the main Boost / Level knob. This is a great extended-range Treble Booster that most should find to their liking.

This is another slightly different extended range Germanium Treble Booster with additional JFET circuit and Buffer. Again there is no record of which Germanium Transistor is utilised here but you get extra Bias and Phatness (low-end saturation) dials do go with the Volume. It's certainly another pretty reasonable contender.