Hello there, and welcome back to yet another guitar pedal review! If you are a regular reader, you are probably aware that I keep testing a lot of guitar pedals, mainly overdrive and distortion pedals in a bid to find the best sounding ones with my rigs.
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This has led me to invest in this topic lately and gain a lot of experience. To continue with the series, I wanted to feature one of the best wisely designed guitar pedals ever, Carl Martin PlexiRanger!
Like I always do, I will do my best to provide as many details as possible about the Carl Martin company and their smart combo pedal, Carl Martin PlexiRanger that combines a Plexi in a box circuit with a Range Master circuit in the same compact format, as well as a no-talking style demo video in this Carl Martin PlexiRanger review as well as original photos of the product.
TL;DR
There are not many guitar gear combinations that have influenced the generations of guitars than a good old Plexi and a Treble Booster (Range Master).
Carl Martin PlexiRanger combines these legendary flavours, a Plexi in a box circuit with a Range Master circuit in the same compact format!
Carl Martin was always known for their legendary amp in a box, Plexi-style pedals back in the day! This time, they have managed to combine that experience with the legendary Treble Booster circuit. PlexiRanger features 2 pedals in one that you can use individually or combine them for the ultimate punchy guitar sounds. So, basically you are getting 3 pedals in 1!
Overall build quality is top notch, and it works right out of the box with any kind of setup whether it’s used on a clean, crunchy or already heavily distorted sounds.
In my tests, I used my Brunetti Mille CR preamp as it features a great clean channel as a pedal platform. I also used the crunch and Plexi channels on my preamp to test how effective the PlexiRanger could be for boosting already distorted sounds.
Even though I don’t think Plexi side sounds and feels exactly like a typical Plexi amp, I think the company totally nailed it and has achieved great Marshall Plexi-type of DNA in a very compact and effective pedal format! Treble Booster or Range Master side on the other hand is an excellent circuit on its own already and I would immediately buy this as if they sold it separately!
PlexiRanger has been one of the best pedals I have every tried recently. It’s fairly priced, built with perfection and really easy to use, not to mention it’s impossible to get a bad sound with this pedal!
cigilovic.com totally recommends Carl Martin PlexiRanger to anyone who is seeking a Plexi-type sounds as well as a very convincing Treble Booster or Range Master in the most compact form ever! Well done, Carl Martin!
Let’s start with a quick introduction to this legendary brand, Carl Martin, for those who have never heard of it!
About Carl Martin
East Sound Research was founded in 1990 by sound innovator and technology enthusiast Søren Jongberg, who became widely respected among musicians worldwide as the creative force behind the legendary Carl Martin product line.
The company began as a PA rental business, but Søren’s passion for electronics and sound quickly expanded its focus. By 1993, East Sound Research introduced its first effects pedal, the Hot Drive’n Boost, marking the beginning of what would become an iconic range.
Over the years, the Carl Martin brand has grown to include nearly 50 pedals, along with a selection of handcrafted, point-to-point tube amplifiers and cabinets. Best Tools For Guitars at Stewmac.com
In 2023, the music world lost Søren far too soon. He left behind a company admired for its innovation and trusted by countless musicians—both household names and passionate players around the globe.
Søren’s long-standing partnership with DanGuitar.dk, based just a short distance from East Sound Research in Grenaa, Denmark, paved the way for the next chapter. In 2024, ownership of Carl Martin was entrusted to Thomas Svenstrup, founder of DanGuitar.dk.
Today, Thomas and his team—joined by several of the original Carl Martin technicians who worked closely with Søren for decades—carry forward the brand’s legacy. Their mission is not only to preserve the spirit and craftsmanship of Carl Martin but also to push the boundaries with new innovations for the future. Here’s a brief product line of Carl Martin company in a chronological order.
1993 – Hot Drive’n Boost (first Carl Martin pedal)
1994 – Compressor/Limiter
Early 2000s – Delayla XL, PlexiTone
Mid-2000s – Vintage Series: Crush Zone, Surf Trem, Red Repeat
2008 – Vintage DC Drive, Vintage Flanger, Rock Bug
2012 – AC-Tone, Bass Drive, TOD, updated PlexiTone
2016 – Red Repeat 2016 Edition (with Tap Tempo & modulation)
2017–2018 – Compact lineup: DC Drive V2, Atlantic Chorus, Axis Flanger, Purple Moon, Panama, TOD Turbo
2020 – PlexiRanger: a versatile Plexi overdrive + dual boost with stackable sections
2022 – Honey Comp: next-gen parallel compressor with dry blend, internal ±12V headroom, compact footprint
Present – Signature and pro-grade models like Andy Timmons Compressor/Limiter, Ampster, Acoustic GiG, and utility tools including Octa-Switch, Pro Power v2, and DC Factory.
Carl Martin PlexiRanger
Back in the day, guitar players often had to rely on British amps such as Marshall and Vox combined with multi-speaker cabinets. As guitar players had to also deal with the over-powering bottom end, they started using Treble Booster pedals along with the amps.
Treble Boosters, as the name suggests, would add top end or high frequencies to the guitar tone as well as would tame the bottom-end. This combination actually created one of the most well-known and much-loved electric guitar tones in the history.
As many guitar players and gear addicts know, there are so many amp-in-a-box style guitar pedals on the market. Carl Martin was also one of the best, pioneering guitar gear companies that came up with Marshall Plexi-type tones in a compact guitar pedal format. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
This time, Carl Martin decided to combine these legendary circuits in the same pedal to give us the best combination with the Carl Martin PlexiRanger!
As you can see, the left side of the pedal features the infamous Plexi circuit by Carl Martin while the right side of the pedal features the Treble Booster circuit.
The Plexi side offers a basic, 3-knob controls labelled as Gain, Tone and Level. When engaged, the red LED is lit to indicate the Plexi side is on.
On the Treble Booster (or Rangemaster) side, we have slightly different controls. These are labelled as Boost, Freq and Range. When engaged, the green LED is lit to indicate the Treble Booster is on.
Obviously, the Boost control allows you to control the amount of boost. On the other hand, Frequency determines what frequencies are Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
being boosted and the Range control which controls how much boost is being applied.
There’s also a master Lo-Cut switch that will you the option to alter low end response. According to the manual (although there’s a slight error in there), 0 indicates no low cut while 1 indicates slight low cut and 2 indicates heavy low cut.
Manual says, it’s a 4-way switch and these low-cut presets are numbered from 1 to 3.
Cool thing about PlexiRanger is that you can actually use both sides together or separately, therefore you can take this as 3 pedals in 1!
The top side of the pedal contains the same set of I/O with most modern Carl Martin pedals. There is a single Input and Output jacks as well as a single Remote jack that you can use for controlling the boost side remotely via a switching system.
Before we dive into the PlexiRanger sound demo and the detailed review of the pedal, let’s first have a quick look at the tech specs table.
Carl Martin PlexiRanger Tech Specs
| Carl Martin PlexiRanger | Tech Specs |
|---|---|
| Input | 1M Ohm |
| Output | 200 Ohm |
| S/N Ratio | 54 dB |
| Tone | High Cut |
| Boost | +15dB |
| Range | +15dB |
| Freq | 250Hz-5kHz |
| Dimensions | 120 (W) x 95 (D) x 56 (H) mm |
| Weight | 420g / 0.95lbs |
| Power Requirements | 9V DC, 159mA minimum, negative centre |
| Battery | No battery operation |
| Made In | China |
As you can see, it’s pretty much a standard layout for Carl Martin pedals with their unique Remote input for controlling the Boost section remotely via a switching system.
Note that the PlexiRanger can only be powered up by a 9V DC power supply. Battery operation is not possible!
Just before the review section, I’d like to share the sound demo video that I prepared for you!
Carl Martin PlexiRanger Review & Sound Demo (no talking)
For the demo, I used the loops that I had already recorded in my Boss RC-5 looper pedal, as I just wanted to do a quick demo.
In these loops, I used my FGN Boundary Odyssey, Cort M600, Fender American Standard Strat, Ibanez AR300 and Epiphone SG Custom Ebony guitars.
Apart from the guitars, I used my usual setup around a tube preamp this time, featuring my Brunetti Mille CR Preamp, Two Notes Opus, RME Babyface PRO FS and Genelec DP8020 DPM. Music Plugin Deals at Pluginboutique.com
For the effects, I only used Wave Alchemy Magic7 as my reverb plugin. I also experimented with different channels on my Brunetti Mille CR Preamp to show you what this sounds like on a clean channel, as well as crunch and overdrive channels as a boost.
I wanted to test the pedal with my Brunetti Mille preamp as the preamp offers a great clean channel as well as multiple Plexi-type of circuits on the Crunch and Lead channels.
So, you will hear these channels along with the Plexi side as well as the Treble Booster (or Rangemaster) side of PlexiRanger.
Carl Martin PlexiRanger Review
Just like any other Carl Martin pedals, PlexiRanger also comes with a pretty good, sturdy and durable packaging.
As stated in the introduction, Carl Martin is now owned & managed by Dan Music Partner and the importer within the EU is clearly stated on the bottom of the box.
On the right side of the box, there’s the serial number for your PlexiRanger. As there’s no serial look-up page on Carl Martin’s website, it’s not possible to verify anything here online.
However, it looks like the one I got was made in 2024.
Here, I’d also to like to share the barcode of the unit which can be found on the box. I do this for future reference as some people online may be searching for this information.
*The label on the right-side is placed by Thomann.
Here is what you will see when you unbox the PlexiRanger. There’s a huge foam pad (not installed under the pedal).
There’s also durable foam used for holding the unit on-float in the box.
Carl Martin PlexiRanger comes only with this pad. Mine did not have any other box content.
The pedal is wrapped in nylon packaging as usual. Overall build quality is excellent! There were no cosmetic or functional issues at all. So, well done, Carl Martin! 🙂
As explained, PlexiRanger is actually 2 pedals in one, but you can also combine these circuits and stack them to have another sound option!
All the switches, knobs, potentiometers are flawless and offer a smooth operation!
On the bottom chassis, there’s only the serial number information, nothing else. As mentioned, battery operation is not possible with Carl Martin PlexiRanger, so unless you need to fix something inside of the pedal, you shouldn’t be bothered with these screws shown here.
As mentioned, on top side, there is a standard input and output as well as a unique, remote jack to control the boost section of the pedal remotely via a switching system. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
There’s also a standard 9V DC power in to power up the PlexiRanger.
Verdict
Recently, I got myself a Marshall SV20H which is a mini Plexi amp and paired it with the best reactive load on the market, Suhr Reactive Load! On top of that, I have implemented an IR loader by Two Notes, Opus in this signal chain.
Of course, I also use a bunch of overdrives, EQ, gate, delay, Wah and volume pedals to have a full-blown rig in my living room. In my experience, this has become the best setup ever! IK Multimedia Tonex - Cutting Edge Guitar Tones!
It’s a joy to play through a Plexi amp with some pedals and I think there’s nothing I will ever need! However, I can’t stop trying new overdrive, distortion and booster to achieve different textures and distortions along with my Plexi’s base tone. This setup has made me decide that Plexi should be my reference tone as it really appeals to me!
Since I have the original Plexi sound by Marshall, I thought I’d give it a go and see how much of a Plexi tone I could get with the PlexiRanger. In order to test this, I picked up my Brunetti Mille CR preamp that features an awesome clean tone as a pedal platform.
In my opinion, Plexi side doesn’t sound and feel exactly like my Marshall SV20H, but it gives you the ballpark Plexi-like tones without any problem. It was so much fun to play and test the Plexi side on a clean channel.
There’s also the Treble Booster or Range Master side of the pedal which is super sweet! I was actually a lot more interested in this side as I’m big fan of mixing amp/preamp crunch and distortion sounds with boosters and overdrives.
As you can hear from the demo, Treble Booster side is awesome for already crunchy sounds and really opens up a lot of tonal options!
As demonstrated, the Plexi side can be also used as a booster (minimum drive, maximum level, tone to taste) and really works great as simple booster circuit on top of both clean, crunch and already distorted, hi-gain sounds!
Combining both Plexi and Range Master side also yields great results, but you should be careful with the overall levels and the amount of boost and gain combined!
Overall, I’m so impressed by both side of PlexiRanger and can really recommend anyone who’s seeking for a proper Plexi-type sound with Treble Booster option without having to pay for another pedal.
In my opinion, this might be probably the best pedal by Carl Martin in the recent years!
Where to Buy Carl Martin PlexiRanger?
Luckily, the Carl Martin Plexi Ranger is actively manufactured and can be purchased from any official dealer of Carl Martin across the globe. I got mine from Thomann as always and I believe no one can beat Thomann when it comes to the most competitive prices for any given item. So, I suggest you do the same if you are considering one!
Check out Carl Martin PlexiRanger on Thomann here
There are also used ones listed on Reverb. But don’t expect to see many used ones listed there as PlexiRanger is a keeper!
Check out my Carl Martin PlexiRanger on Reverb here
Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
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