I am a big believer in wonderful sound possibilities of a bright guitar into a dark amp. And I am definitely not alone. There is something magical when opposites are melted together sometimes. This little pedal falls into that category. In is a clone of dallas Rangemaster that I call the Upside Down Cowboy Boost. I forgot to tell my Wife which way was up but I like it the way it came out. Ah, serendipity! The range master is famous ya know and for good reason. It is a great sounding top boost. It drives other pedals and amps well and adds a edge to the sound. If you want a transparency booster look else where but the color it adds is great. It has had very famous users in Clapton and May but in my humble opinion it should be famous for how it mixes with a dark amp. More important than my tone opinions is the fact that it not hard to get the sound for yourself. You don't have to drop a fortune on Ebay or buy an expensive boutique pedal and it not the hard to track down a germanium transistor that gives it its sound. There are boards layout and schematic at GGG and Tonepad plus loads of other information if you see my trailfire page with the Diy pedal links. And the germanium transistors perfect for rangemaster are available at Small Bear even the OCC44 that supposed to have special mojo and they are all under $10. It a pretty easy build for and anyone that has tinkered with electronics before. I mostly build pedals for fun but here is a case of a pedal that I can have that would be out of my finical comfort zone if I had to buy the original or a boutique version. There is no special magic to the original box. You can build one yourself and own a little of the magic.
A note:
This build is the PNP negative grounds so it can be used with a noraml power supply. It came out fine even though it the original is postive ground.