Line 6’s latest firmware upgrade for the Helix was released yesterday and included a treble booster for the first time. The modelled booster was the old Rangemaster but like many of their interpretations the modelled booster includes additional controls.
Whereas the original Rangemaster had only a level control, Line 6’s “Deranged Master” has additional bass, treble and drive controls which means that some tweaking can produce a lot more variety than the original.
At recent rehearsals I replaced my TB83 with the new modelled Rangemaster and after some small tweaks it became quite usable.
In time I hope to include some refinements to make it sound more like classic Brian May treble boosters but for now I’ve folded it into a version my main gigging patch on the Helix with a some programmed snapshots.
There are two paths In all representing a wet/dry/wet amp set up where two amps are for FX (chorus and delay) and a third is dry to ensure clairty of tone. In the digital realm where post fader FX are more easily managed I took a pragmatic solution to building the virtual rig.
There are just two amps with one amp running two speakers which are panned left and right. The bottom amp has no FX but is used for the harmoniser and Brighton Rock guitar centre.
The snapshots cover a range of Queen songs and I’ll go through them here:
Snaphsot 1 – Clean
I find it to bring out Brian May’s clean tone so this is an attempt to emulate the rig with the guitar’s volume pot lowered. This snaphsot means that cleaner sounds can be activated by simply calling the patch
Snapshot 2 – Dirty
This is the main sound that is based on Brian May’s 1980s live sound. Ideally you should try get your clean tones by using this patch with the guitar’s volume turned down.
Snaphot 3
This sound is simply a louder and wetter version of the main Dirty patch on snapshot 2
Snapshot 4
This activates the delay for the Brian May solo spot aka Brighton Rock. The delays are panned hard left and right at 800ms and 1600ms single repeats.
Snapshots 5 & 6
These include a harmoniser for songs such as Killer Queen and I Want It All.
Snapshot 7
This a recereation of the 1970s sound when Brian May used a Foxx phaser instead of chorus.
Snapshot 8
This the phaser settings for Queen’s first single “Keep yoursel Alive”
Download the tone here