The Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster was Ritchies favorite box for live and studio recordings like the famous 1971 "Machine Head" or the later 1974 "Burn" session. The HS-S Master in front of a Vox AC30 gives you the unique sound of the well-known rock hymn "Smoke on the water". Compared to its forerunner, the HS-S sounds a tad more aggressive with more mid-range with the guitar’s volume pot fully opened, a little bit similar to a WahWah sound. But the higher the pre-amp volume of the amp is dialed in, the more this midrangy tone will be forced into the background because now the saturation of the amp will generate the necessary harmonics. So it´s up to you to chase the sweet spot of the HS-S unit. You will have to raise the pre-amp volume of a Marshall Major noticeably because this amp is a very clean sounding one. To have some good reserves when dialing in the pre-amp volume Blackmore had his Major amps modded early with a cascaded pre-amp design right from the factory.

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Demo by Leon van der Meer

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HS-S Treble Booster 

Around 1960 the British Gary Hurst developed the first known distortion unit for electric guitar, which was available only as a custom order. So only a few were built and sold. Later, in 1965, Gary Hurst joined the team of Sola Sound, which was based in London. As an OEM-product, Sola Sound built Hurst's circuit, slightly modified and in a large production number, now called Tone Bender (Mk1.5) for the fellow British company Vox. Once developed and done, Sola Sound offered a minor number of the Tone Bender circuit under their own flag and brand. In fall 1966 Arbiter, the giant in the British music business, introduced a Fuzz unit under the name Fuzz Face, which looked unique, but was actually just a modification of the Vox/Sola Sound (Mk1.5). The Arbiter Fuzz Face generated a similar distortion sound like the Tone Bender (Mk1.5), but with more bass.

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The BSM RM model is based on the British Range Master unit produced between 1965 and 1969, as used by Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Eric also used the booster when playing in the legendary group Cream. Its biting, powerful sound is clearly in evidence on the Bluesbreakers "Beano" album. Blues rocker Rory Gallagher, Heavy Rock pioneer Tony Iommi and Brian May from Queen were also heavy users of the orginal Range Master unit. The Range Master unit was also used by G. Tipton & K.K. Downing of the British heavy metal band Judas Priest in the late 1970s years to push its amps in full-tilt heaven. The long yearned for new edition, now issued under the name RM from BSM, includes the same OC44 germanium transistors as the the original 1965 version.

Demo by Benedikt Schlereth

Demo by  Fretboard Playground

Review by guitartest.de

RM Treble Booster 

The DM-T is based on a germanium fitted special Booster from the late 60‘s. Here is a copy of this circuit but with the nice addition of a very versatile frankenstein tone-control system: for the treble and mid tone-control the circuit of the almost forgotten Apollo booster is used while for the bass tone-control the circuit of a modified VOX booster will comfort your ears. In comparison to the technical similar but more gently sounding Ambassador Treble & Midrange Booster, the DM-T produces a harder sound without getting shrill. It fits perfectly the classic beat and rock sound but is also a good mate for funky or country rock music. The DM-T is loaded with original west European NOS 60s germanium transistors.

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