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Vox wasn't the only player in the treble booster game. In 1965, the UK-based Dallas Arbiter released the curiously titled Dallas Rangemaster treble booster which became a staple of the British blues-rock sound. Brian May, Eric Clapton, Roger McGuinn, Rory Gallagher and Marc Bolan, among others, included a treble booster in their effects arsenal. Germanium vs Silicon Transistors Both the original British Vox Treble Booster and the Dallas Rangemaster relied on a battery operated single stage audio amplifier circuit driven by a lone germanium transistor. Germaniums are legendary for their warm, non-linear response, but they were far from perfect—frequently falling victim to heat related failures, noisy response and erratic performance. Silicon transistors eventually arrived in the middle 60s to fix these technical flaws, in fact, the #149 JMI Vox Treble Booster switched to a silicon transistor in later production. Still, for tone purists, the original germanium circuits possess the mojo that modern silicon transistors can't quite replicate. Development of the Reissue VTB-1 Vox Treble Booster Vox could have easily cloned the original 1964 Treble Booster or the Dallas Rangemater, but the engineering team refused to compromise on modern reliability. Facing a global shortage of dependable germanium transistors, they set out to do the impossible: engineer a treble booster circuit that delivered the warm, non-linear vintage response of germanium transistors with the bulletproof performance of silicon. After conducting an in-depth study of numerous original treble boosters and spending months modeling their behavior, Vox engineers devised a new method that replicated the nuanced non-linear response of a germanium transistor using a single BC108 “silver can” silicon transistor. First introduced in 1966, the BC-108 was selected by Vox for its abillity, when properly biased, to sound like a germanium while maintaining the reliability of a silicon transistor. Unlike the original #149 Vox Treble Booster which was mounted directly to an input jack on the amplifier’s control panel, the VTB-1 Treble Booster was designed as a stompbox for convenient remote operation. It also featured a rotary level control for adjusting the amount of boost, a “Fat” switch that shifted the boosted frequencies down into the midrange and a red LED to indicate when the unit was powered on. |
Capitol Guitars is a full-service Independently Owned and Operated Guitar Shop Established in 2004.
We're located in St. Paul, MN. We offer Flexible down Payments, Financing, Layaway, Consignment, Trade-Ins,
Guitar / Amplifier Repairs and Lessons. Please contact us for more info on any of these Programs.
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