Catalinbread Naga Viper MKII

Catalinbread Naga Viper MKII...

Brian May, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, and others pioneered the use of the
Treble Booster, more specifically the Dallas Rangemaster. One thing that
made this circuit such an anomaly in effects canon was its lack of foot
control; the Rangemaster was an amp-top device with a teeny-tiny toggle
switch that was an absolute pain to disengage mid-riff. Of course, back in
1966 when it was invented, "pedals" as we know them today didn't exist
yet. For those players, their rig consisted of amp, Rangemaster and guitar.
All of these players found that the Rangemaster really came to life when it
fed an already cranked amp, and indeed, the sound of Rangemaster-into-
redlined-amp is instantly recognizable to its devotees.

In today's modern landscape though, things aren't always nearly that
simple. Some players run any combination of effects into their amp, with
some players having multiple "always-on" pedals careening into the treble
booster. Now equipped with a foot-operated bypass switch, the humble
treble booster may still hit a cranked amp but oftentimes it does so with the
backing of multiple gain devices feeding it. For some players, this works.
For many, this arrangement loses sight of what a treble booster actually
does and what it adds to a rig.

The newest version of our Naga Viper fixes this problem by adding an
attenuator knob. This control acts like a level control for everything in
front of the Naga Viper, letting you shave some heat from the
incoming signal before it runs through the proverbial gears of the
booster. This leads to less saturation and undesirable effects and
more treble-boosting goodness going into your amp.

The transistor in the Naga Viper has also been replaced and the circuit
tastefully reworked to accommodate players of all stripes. Some players
will leave the Attenuate control all the way up, and this design choice is for
them. By swapping out the transistor, the Naga Viper is even hotter than
before, with extended ranges for both Heat and Boost controls. Diming both
controls now gives a slight edge compared to V1, opening up the range of
the attenuator as well.

None of the legendary Rangemaster players had many controls to work
with, so we've reconfigured the circuit with that ethos in mind. The knobs
on the Naga Viper aren't there for constant twiddling, just set it up how it
works for you once, then leave it alone and play that thang!