Ross Compressor

Two knobs, level and sustain. Very simple.

This is the best compressor I ever heard. I have read that Trey uses this compressor and after you plug into it you can see why. I play through a basic strat with customized pickups and neck. I run through a TS-9dx, ross compressor, Ibanez analong delay, crybaby 535, MXR phase 100, MXR Flanger, Dunlop Tremolo, electroharmonix small clone, and an ernie ball volume pedal into a roland JC-77. The tone I get from the compressor is amazing. I have tied it with other distortion pedals, but tube screamers seem to be the only thing that work right. This is a TRUE BIPASS and when it is off there is no noise that comes from it. I recommed this pedal if you can find it.

When I bought the pedal, it needed work. The last guy who owned it tried to custom wire it. The work done to it cost $35, but it is as good as new. I haven't had it long enough to see how reliable it is.

Ross is out of buisness even though they made some of the greatest, underated pedals out there.

Get one of these. I found mine in the House of Guitars in Rochester. The staff there (by the way, they are all assholes there) did not know how much it was worth and laughed in my face when I said I wanted to buy it. Now who is laughing.

This is a follow up to the last review. I cannot make any comment about how his pedal sounds when it is turned on but I know for a fact that when the pedal is turned off it has NO effect on the tone whatsoever. This is because the bypass switch is hard wired which means your signal is not going through the circuit. The difference in tone is the same as going through an a/b box...none. You can actually take the battery out of the pedal with it bypassed play with no loss in tone. Try that with a tubescreamer or most any other pedal and you will get no sound. Maybe his or her pedal is broken in some way, I don't know. I personally feel this is a person who wants one but is angry for some reason so they posted a negative ad. Honestly, if the pedal sucks so bad why keep it??? Why not make some money off of it, there are plenty of people looking for one!

I tried submitting this review before but it never appeared...here it is again: This thing sounds awful in every setting. Two knobs, sustain and level, should be easy enough to operate, but...it sounds awful and therefore isn't easy to use at all.

Every amp or guitar you try this with yeilds the same results: Total tone loss, a "wind" effect (like playing in the eye of a hurricane!), and worst of all, when you bypass the effect (turn it off) the crappy noise still comes through! And to top it off, the bypassed sound is also suffering from the compressor's treble-removing qualities! Yuck.

Yeah, I depend on it...to sound like DUNG! You wouldn't need a backup for this (unlike you like throwing something in the garbage TWICE).

Ross used to be American (this pedal is made in the USA) but I think they moved to the Mysterious Orient after...I guess it's easier to pay people a bowl of rice a day there. Even slave labourers shouldn't be building this kind of crap, especially not over-paid American unionized factory fat-asses!!!!!

No matter what kind of music you play, don't buy this piece of trash. It sucks so intensely, I'll actually keep it to show other guitar players that "Made in the USA" doesn't always mean it's any good. I don't think I've ever owned anything as crappy as this box. Thumbs DOWN!

This is a two knob wonder, sustain and output. That just about sums it up. It's about as straight forward as possible.

I love the sound of this pedal. I's pretty quiet for it's age, although it does add some hiss to the signal if the output is set high. The compression this pedal creates is very smooth and warm. I use this pedal with two different setups and it sounds great with either one. My main guitars are a 70's les paul std. and a 57ri. strat. For amps I use a Mesa/Boogie Dc-5 and a Fender Blues DeVille 4x10. What this pedal does to the Boogie is amazing, it really makes my guitar sing by smoothing out the lead channel and fattening the clean. When I use the DeVille, I put the Ross after two Ts-9's (one vintage, one ri) and it sounds beautiful. I can use any combination of the Ts-9's and I don't have to worry about my levels jumping around. Over the years I've fooled around with some other compressors but they couldn't come close to the Ross. It's just too simple and sounds sooo good.

When I had the pedal shipped to me a wire was shaken loose in transit (thanks ups) so it would short out intermittently when I turned it on. It was no big deal to fix, a small repair with a soldering iron and she was back to new. Other than that I have no complaints. One cool feature on this pedal is the knobs are partially recessed into the housing. I guess this would help to keep the knobs from being broken off or accidentally adjusted while playing. Also, I thought it was interseting that on the base plate where it has all the specs. the estimated battery life is 1 year.

Ross no longer exists.

This is a great sounding pedal, hopefully I'll never have to find another, they're pretty hard to come by. If it were stolen I would certanly have to buy another one.

Super easy to use. Just two knobs, no more than you need.

The best compressor i have heard. Has a wonderful feel without a huge pop! I have played many other compressors and this is the first one that i have played where i said "yea that is what it is supposed to do!"

Excellent. I dont own this my roomate does but i am going to try to find one out there. I give it my full endorsement. Through my tube amp it sounded like a dream.

This thing is a snap, two nobs, each partly set into the body of the pedal as to prevent accidental movement. knobs are sustain and level.

I play both a fender heartfield custom with humbuckers and a old korean strat with Lindy Fralin pickups, through MXR phase 90, The Ross compressor, two TS-9s(vintage followed by a mod ri), Boss flanger, Ibanez rack DM500; all into a '71 fender deluxe reverb with jensen speakers. This pedal is definately the best compressor in foot pedal stlye I have gotten a hold of and let me tell ya, I have tried most. It is not noisy and the compression is phat. The feedback this thing can create in front of the two tude screamers is amazing, very musical.

Yes, but the power adapter in is and odd shape and I haven't been able to find anything that fits it, but its not a battery eater and seems sterdy,
*I never gig without backups for all my gear

Ross is long gone, used to be based in Kansas.

This is the pedal Trey Anastasio plays from phish. I am not a crazy phish head but his pedal choice is excellent. Good compression is a hard thing to find in pedal format. I would buy another one just to have 2.

Only two nobs, a lot easier than most other compressors. The nobs are really neat, too. They are recessed a bit back into the pedal, so they don't shift when they are accidentially bumped. Only contols are for level and sustain, so you also don't have to deal with an attack time nob.

The sound out of this thing is pretty good. I use customized strat- style guitars (one in normal tuning, the other in my alternate one), into this compressor - MXR Blue Box - Sovtek re-issue Small Stone - Sovtek re-issue Big Muff - DOD FX 90 delay, into my Fender Bandmaster Reverb amp. I play more straight forward music like Frank Black, ramones, Pixies, Mudhoney, but I also like to experiment like Sonic Youth does. The pedal is graet because it lets my effects be pushed, but they can still be subtile. I don't know how to rate compressors, but I know that I liked this one the best out of all the ones I tried out (BOSS CS-2, CS-3; DOD...). Sometimes when switching on the effect, though, your sound will be cut for a second, so some people might really hate this thing because of that (but really, who turns off and on their compressor mid song?) That also doesn't bother me because I use this thing a bit differently than most other people I know of who have compressors. With this thing, I now crank my amp up LOUD, and use the compressor to get the sound down to a usable level. That way, whenever I want to be experimental in a song, I have more than enough unbridaled power to push my effects. I am not sure how long this will sound on stage, but so far in practice it sounds good.

It's really old I guess. If it has lasted this long, it will last with me. Plus, I probably wouldn't be able to find another one (especially at this price), so lets hope so.

I think they are out of business, but I am not sure, maybe they sell toilet bowls or toothbrushed now.

For my strange use of it, it really works well. I got it because it looked cool and it was a great deal. Now, I am really glad I got it because it is a rarity and it sounds a lot better than most compressors I have tried. I like the simple design and control of this pedal, a lot better than more complicated compressors (BOSS CS-3) because you are always second guesssing your sound with more options. I am really glad I got this pedal, and I may even use it to record bass and vocals on home recordings.

It's a 2-knobber. You can only adjust how much compression, and the output.

I was looking for a replacement to my Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer with which I have never really been that thrilled. I have a soft spot for the oddball effectmaker, and I heard they were used by Trey of Phish. So I found one on an on-line classifieds ad and bought it sight-unseen (more like unheard).
It definitely has its own sound, and oddly enough I like the fact it has 2 less knobs. (It is kind of like the Boss DC-2 Dimension C with the 4 buttons compared to the later version DC-3 with 4 knobs which wasn't an improvement. -- Less tweaking ability is better sometimes.) It does its job well, and has a good spank to it. I like where the attack it set and the very minor coloration of the tone. It can get noisy on some higher settings if you are driving older distortion pedals with it. You will have to experiment with it to find a suitable range. The sound will surprise you, actually the sound of all the Ross pedals will surprise you. (I am a Fender tweed amp, fender guitar person for reference.)
*An interesting note on the question of using it with other things... I have an old Ibanez AF-201 Auto Filter which was having a bit of trouble with some more passive old Fenders of mine. I thought the effect was on the fritz until I used the Ross in front of it, which helped a bit until I turned the level to about 3:00. Wham! Night and day. It just seems to kick the effect right in the frequency range it needs.

It is an extremely rugged little guy. This is one of the grey ones of the 'colored' series that were made in Kansas and had some connection with the Kustom Amp folks. Later, they were all black with the manufacturing being done in Taiwan. I stick with the US-made Ross'pedals, but I hear the black ones are not too shabby either.
They have a very solid case and the big knobs are almost all the way recessed into the body of the effect, so you won't knock them out of setting, or lose them when dragging them around from practice to gigs, etc. A neat design that I wish was more common. It's as old as a college grad now and still running.

N/A

Ross' are sleepers right now. They are great little guys that I'm surprised haven't gathered fans like the old EH and MXR products have. The Compressor is a great one, as is their Phaser (which many consider their best effect), and their distortion is pretty solid like an MXR, but with a bit more range. They also made an A/C-only Phase/Distortion with individually selectable/dialable functionality in one pedal (kind of a poor man's Jet Phaser or ADA Final Phase). There certainly wasn't many of these dual-function pedals out there back then, and to get 2 of their best effects in one is pretty fun.
Oddly enough, with the zillions of Overdrives and Distortion/Fuzzes out there, we don't have too much choice in compressors. I would like to try the Way Huge Saffron Squeeze, but until then, this is my main comp. (For reference I am using it in conjunction with a Dallas-Arbiter Wah-Face, Klon, Fulldrive2, Ibanez Fl-305, and a SweetSound Ultra-Vibe. Sometimes I throw in the ZVex Fuzz which the Ross seems to mellow and stretch out nicely.)
Apparently Trey uses them, and I somehow think he could afford any effect on the market...

Two knobs, sustain and level. It couldn't be simpler! YAY!

Ok. This pedal was hard to find, but if you can find it, BUY IT. It has a sound all its own. My friend hipped me to it after finding out that it was a key ingredient in Trey Anastasio's(Phish) tone. And IT IS! It's not too noisy, and very smooth sounding. Crank your amp, put the sustain up and use the volume knob on the pedal to control the volume. Perfect!

It looks kind of flimsy. I'm not too sure about this one. I would buy a backup if I thought I could find one...

I doubt there is any customer support for Ross effects

I need a compressor in order to smooth out overdrive tones and such. This box makes an excellent tonal enhancer, and it has true bypass so that it won't mess with your tone when you turn it off. It's cheap, and it just sounds great. A pawnshop prize!