Ross Distortion

distortion, volume

really an overdrive pedal, at least the black one. the tan one is a distortion plus copy. they made a few revisions to the circuit on the black one.

for something called a distortion pedal this has some of the most desirable overdrive tones you could want. clean overdrive? if you want a poor mans klon look no further. the circuit resists audible clipping until the drive is pushed pretty far. that means your notes can sustain and bloom in a really beautiful way without an obvious distortion effect.

once it does go into distortion it can go all the way to fuzz. brilliant.

it's already pushing 30. so pretty good so far.

ross is not in business anymore.

any decent collection of vintage dirt should include one of these. right up there with the rat, tubescreamer, ds-1 and 250 for classic stompbox tone. actually i prefer it to all of those except the rat.

to get the sound from this tool is very easy, two nobs, level and gain, the level part of it is very high so you probebly will lower it to half. the problams of it that its have a very uniq power supply to it, i didnt find it so i use batterys, and the problam with batteries that this tool dont have a power light on it, so i can easly forgget it turn on, wired to other effect and the batteries going kaput till next jam.

WOW!!!
THIS ONE IS TOTALLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. A REAL OLDSCHOOL DISTORTION, WORM AND BRUTAL,OLD AND CRUNCHY, IT IS FUCKING PERFECT!! reminds me the real grunge sound, it is perfect for banging your head rock style. rally not metal, brutal style.

well, yes, you can depent on it, they really didnt try to put in him somthing clever, simple distortion THAT CAN KILL AND ELEPHENT, not to much, just stuck him to the amp and start banging the audiance.
consider that this on is from earlly ninties and its still work perfect.
i using very simple rack, this distortion, whammy, and a delay (somtimes a phaser), so i dont need a distortion back up, but you can allways try.

i play hard rock, so this one is really special, i allways search for a vulgar distoration but i wanted somthing more uniqe then the boss ds2, somthing i can build really my sound on it, and since we mat, we are perfect.
i playing for 14 years, as i said i use a whammy 2(great), ibanez delay (i want somthing eles) and mxr phazer(he is nice).
if some motherfucker will steall it from me, i will probeblly cry and maybe i will smush hes face into the wall.
i love it whole, no perfects you know, the battery thing is hes achiles thing.
yes, i tried many distortion, they just didnt feet right, or to soft like ts9 and his friends, or to metal like all the black purples and their gangs, or to fazzy like the electro hamonics fuzz (that as a fuzz he really a killer, had few problms with him but he is ok). untill we mat.
i wish it had a power light, i can fix it if im really want to.
it is really help me to do great music, i never getting bord from him couse he really simple, he is real. and as i swich him on im getting hornny, somtimes i sleep with him .
i love you all, its been a pleasure, i really love him but i guess onlly the punkers or the rockers will really like him.
bye, love, peace and dopes, no, do meditation or somthing.

A no brainer to use. Two knobs; Distort and Level.

The sound from this pedal is exactly what I was seeking. I have the tan made in USA unit, pots date to 1980. Sounds best with humbuckers, and a tube amp. I've tried it with a Peavey studio pro 50, a Sunn SL160, and my '66 National twin (think Fender twin reverb). Very warm and crunchy through the National. The two solid state amps sound thin or muddy depending on the settings. Surprisingly, these two amps sound damn good on their own. As previous reviewers have stated, good for '70s rock, AC DC, MSG, Rush, Nugent. I can nail the intro to free for all with this pedal. Kind of a one trick pony, but quite a trick!

Just got it. Looks tough enough. Back panel says approximate battery life is One year! I'd say that counts for something.

Long Gone.

I play rock, blues, and some country. Great for classic rock. Been playing off and on going on thirty years. Had an Ibanez smash box, not nearly as good as this pedal. I guess I wish the battery was easier to change but no big deal.

It's extremely easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. Unlike some OD/Distortion pedals that have a limited sweet spot, this pedal sounds good just about anywhere you set the knob. Batter access is not so easy, you have to unscrew the 4 feet with a phillips screwdriver.

Sound quality is amazing, if you dig vintage late 70's or early 80's distortion this pedal gets the tone. In bypass mode it's very quiet. There's a little bit of hiss when engaged, but that's pretty much the norm for analog distortion pedals, and it's not noticeble when playing.

Considering that most of these pedals are pushing 30 years old and still going is a testament to their reliablility. Cast metal casing and a switch, can't really beat it. It's literally built like a tank!

They've been out of business for a while. however, the schematic is available online and any competent tech should be able to perform any maintenance or repairs you might need.

I'm a big fan of vintage pedals and own a good variety of them. I love this pedal! There's no boost, so for a lot of modern players that's a deal breaker. It doesn't get sweet, creamy, saturated overdrive tone on it's own (it might be able to push a tube amp there though, I don't have a big enough tube amp to test that out on) but it is warm analog sounding. It can be brutal and in your face when cranked.

Piece of cake. Only a complete numpty would find this a hard pedal to use.

Guys - you simply MUST say whether yours is the USA TAN coloured model or the black Taiwan model. I have both. They are both brilliant but they are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. The original USA model has loads of distortion, even at lower settings, and less volume, so the output will need to go higher. Fantastic for smooth singing leads, riffs etc. Led Zep to Satriani, you've got it. The black Taiwan model is much louder, so you don't need to push the output so far, but has less distortion at the lower settings, so it's perfect for gritty blues. Wind the distort control up and you're back into classic rock territory, but the sound is not as smooth as the USA box. But it works much better as a gain boost in front of a valve amp, making the amp do the work rather than the box. I use both for gigging - one before my wah pedal and one after. Do yourself a favour though - you'll never get the best out of these pedals through a tranny amp. If you ain't got tubes, go get some!

They just don't make 'em like this any more. These guys could withstand a nuclear attack I'm sure. My bass player said they look like something from the early days of the BBC. Yup. That's why I love em!

n/a

Ok so unscrewing four feet to change the battery is a pain, but so what?
You want good tone don't you? I have several different OD/distortion pedals, all good, but nothing comes near these in terms of transparency - in other words the signature tone of the guitar still comes through.

Tan-colored Made in USA Kansas Ross Distortion, pots dated 1979, supposedly an offshoot of the MXR Distortion + circuit and DOD overdrive 250 preamp but sounds WAY BETTER than those!

Easy as pie, two knobs, volume and gain

Sounds very "tubey", warm, fat and no noise! Has the blessed malaysian JRC4558 IC like in the tube screamer TS-808

One of my best OD boxes and definitely destined to be very collectable (if it isn't already) like some of the other Ross pedals

I use it wth an old JMI AC30 and old Marshall 4-input tops but it sounds good with ANY amp, like adding another tube stage to it!

So far so good, no problems after many years of studio and live use...doesn't seem to suck tone too much when in bypass mode...

sounds really good when paired with a good wah pedal, both before and after it

no need for a backup because I have 3 of them!

Ross was a 70's company so they're long gone but these things were made as good as the MXR or anything else from that time period

I play mostly blues and hard rock, some metal, good for all of those styles, 30 years playing and I own tons of different distortion and OD boxes, both new and vintage

Like I said, destined to be like some of the other collectable vintage OD boxes, when you hear this pedal you know you've heard it on so many LPs from the time...I have another one with 1977 pots in it do they've been around a long time, it has a little less gain than the grey DOD 250 but is tighter sounding and way less noisy, and less "transitory" in other words it blows it away

The only reason this box isn't as expensive as some of the others is because nobody "famous" used it (as far as WE know) thanks god for that I hope it stays that way

What a wonderful distortion effect. It's like the old mid seventies MXR Distortion Plus. Very smooth and round sounding. If you like Ace Freheley's guitar sound on KISS Alive 2, then you'll love this pedal. It is a perfect mate to a non master volume Marshall or Hiwatt head.

If you run the ROSS through an old squeaky clean 70's era Fender silver face Twin. You can get a fantastic Micheal Schenker/UFO album 'Strangers in the Night' tone! Talk about cool!

I've only had to replace the on/off switch a couple of times over the last 25 years. The 741 op amp is field replacable. Meaning that you don't have to use any solder to remove the 741 chip and replace it with a military spec or just buy a few extra 741s experiment with finding the one that is the most quiet or possibly the best midrange characteristics. Enjoy. If you want to have a true bypass switching, just go to any electronics store and purchase a DPDT switch for about $7.00. There's plenty of room in the pedal. The tone with the original foot switch sounds good. It's not nearly as bad as those old TS9s that pump your signal through 1/2 the pedal in it's bypass mode.

Easy to use. Not so easy to acclimate into guitar rig.
Close to a clean distortion boost at low distortion levels.
Fat Zepplinesq' with drive up about half way. I find drive levels unusable at any higher settings for my porposases.

Rig=
Ibanez SM73 Artcore with stock neck pickup with cover removed and Seymore Parallel Axis Trem in bridge->Willis Kingtone Fuzz(Germanium)->Vox Clyde reissuewah ->Q-Tron->TS9->TS9turbo->Ross Distortion->MXR EQ->MXR SuperComp->Ibanez AD-80->Ross Stereo Dealy->Korg 301d digital delay->Boss DD5(left and right to an ABY run in reverse backto mono)->Provibe#35 univibe clone->Music Man RD SixteyFive(4062 chips in preamp) with a 200W EV12L.
The Ross is pre true bypass so grab your Hoover and let the sucking begin. It is not as bad as some others. Significant when conbined with my other Ks. Ross and to many feet of shitty cable.
Although tone that is tough to rangle. there deffinantly are better distortion/OD pedals that are quiter or suck the tone dick a little less, but the newer stuff will never have the dark character or vibe that 30 year old Ross has. I rarely use this by itself. Almost always with cleanTS9 infront of Ross. I did some tinkerring to cuircuit board soonafter I aquired Ross to imrove lowend response. As well as replaced other caps with higher quality components. I have yet to get another Ks. Ross Distortion to compare my work to. I was pleased as this was pretty much my first mod project.

MUCH BETTER than when i first recieved the pedal> had a bad switch< bad jack< and thE battery connecter was pretty fruity.

Dream on Buddy. If the guy is even alive he doesn't want to be found.

Blues,Jam,freelance.
playing 20 years.
Stolen or lost...Could live without,maybe
love....vibe, hate....no tone control or true bypass, input and out put impeadance wrong for modern fx, mudduies up original signal.

Due to the wide range of music I play and variety of musicians I play with I need a fairly broad pallet of colars to choose from. The Ross Distortion gives me the Zep I can't get from a TS9 and creates a great blend with all my OD and even my fuzz.

Side note for Tone Nazi's: I am well aware of the signal loss created by my FX rig. I probably loose 30% GUITAR TONE DUE TO THE GRAVITATIONAL NATURE OF MY PEDALBOARD> THIS IS A RISK I AM WILLING TO TAKE>

Two knobs -- level and gain. Knobs are nice and sturdy and recessed into the box. Switch is very quiet.

Well, to start off, I had this distortion unit way back in 1979 and accidently left it in the back of an amp that I sold and then it was history. I missed it for a long time and went on to other distortion boxes over the years -- until I saw it "used" in a display case in a shop in NYC.

The distortion of this unit is very warm and transparent -- and has a nice clarity to it. The gain is much like an overdrive in the low to mid settings and gets very crunchy on the high settings with a nice sustain. On a strat with the neck pickup with low to mid settings it has a nice Hendrix vibe. With a Les Paul the sounds are very AC/DC. Now I know what I was missing all these years -- the other boxes I had just didn't cut it. Also, no hum, no hiss, no loud pops -- very quiet.

Built solid -- My unit is in excellent condition. Looks like it will last a long time.

Ross went out of business. No support here -- but circuits are straight forward -- any boutique co. can modify or fix if needed.

I mostly play blues and classic rock. This distortion box fits the bill nicely and the sound is superb. Similiar tone to an old MXR +, but much warmer and clear, but can aggressive when you want.

C'mon, there's two knobs.

My guitar is a Yamaha Pacifica strat copy with a DiMarzio Parker Fly Special humbucker in the bridge. I own a few different amps. I have a 1998 Laney GH50L, a 1972 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate, a 1967 Fender Bassman, a 1973 Univox U-1011 and, last and likely the least, a Pignose. Unfortunately, the Bassman and the Univox are out of commission, as both are shocking people. The Traynor was the primary amp i had bought this for, and maybe the Univox too. The Traynor is a beautiful amp but i was having a little trouble getting the kind of overdrive i wanted from it. I lean towards 70's rock so i needed an old-school grind, not insane amp-raping shred. i tried a few pedals at the store and i actually came close to buying an Ibanez TS-7, however, once i tried this, it just seemed a little nicer. basically, when you turn this on, for the first, i would say 2/3 of the gain knob's range you get a really nice old style overdrive. after that it becomes very harsh, thin and distinctly fake sounding. however, that might not be all bad if you're into Operation Ivy.

it looks pretty well constructed, so i'm going to arbitrarily give it a 9.

Ross got out of the game ages ago.

If i lost it or it was stolen, i probably would not go out and say "i MUST have another Ross distortion, and nothing else!". i'd be willing to try other pedals, but i certainly have no regrets buying this thing.