Ross Flanger

This is my favourite pedal ever. I have owned 2. I bought one in 1989 from my local music shop in the UK for ??75. I played in band that played stuff like Cure and Banshees and it was awesome. I played bass and I got amazing sounds. I found one setting which had a fast delay and rate but short depth and it gave a great edge to the bass sound. Sadly I sold it in a moment of poverty and then bought one recently on Ebay for $75US. Unfortunately I live in New Zealand and the voltage is higher here so I need to find a way to change this or buy one of those converter things. A lot of hassle but worth it I think.
No manual - second hand.

First time round I used a Fender precision bass with EMG pickups through some kinda Carlsbro bass combo.
Now I use a fender US strat and Marshall Valvestate 2000 but haven't had a chance to try it out with this set up.
I remember it sounding really analogue!! Like I say, was great for the Cure and Banshees early 80s sounds. I'm giving it a 10 - its not 'pristine' but its not meant to be!

Very durable and reliable.

N/A - 5 as I can't comment

see above comments.

This is a black made it taiwan one. I bought it new old stock in a store in KS. It was brand new. I bought it to replace my old MXR microflanger which I thought was the best flanger I ever heard. It sounded like all the classic 70s recordings I loved. I briefly replaced it with a Boss unit that was horrible, expensive and worthless. It was made in japan but a bad circuit design is a bad circut design. Sounded metallic and not "van hanlenesque." Well, I thought that was it as the original MXR was out of business at the time (87) and I didn't think I'd ever find that "sound" again. I was killing time in a music store one day. I noticed cosmetically the Ross pedals reminded me alot of MXRs and were from the same time period so I gave it a try. Man, was right there. Nailed the MXR sound. Instantly had "van halen" and intro to "Barracuda" by Heart. Even though it was one of the later ones made in Taiwan and not by Bud Ross in KS the reason all the Ross, DOD and MXR flangers from the 70s sounded so good was because they used reticon memory chips. These were very low fi/low grade noisey memory chips that later around 1983 were replaced by the Panasonic BBD memory chips which have same good sound but better fidelity and a little more quiet. This Ross flanger came with the box, manual I think and "ross" sticker.

Perfect flanger sound. Best I ever heard except for vintage MXR. Van Halen, Heart, etc. Didn't matter what amp I used it with or other effects (often used with echoplex)sounded great and like 70s. Reasonably noisey. Was okay for tape recordings don't know how it would fair with pro tools and digital recording today. Used vintage vox, fender and marshall amps

I had mine for close to 20 years not a single problem and I did not take the greatest care of it. Knobs fell off. I really loved that old flanger sound but the reticon chips make me nervous. Even though the panasonic chips are out of productions there are oodles out there if you need to get an effect fixed. Reticons are hard to find. Also when effects get old start getting noisey and caps go out. Modelers suck but some of the reissues sound real close to the old ones (I've owned) but are new, have warranties and about a third of the cost of vintage ones which are junked by now. Most vintage effects were built out of radio shack grade components for under $10. It's absurd to pay $300 for some of them. You can thank the vintage dealers trying to buffalo the baby boomers into buying back there youth buying these obsolete old pedals.

Ross wasn't out of business when I bought this. I think they were making four tracks and mixing boards though that this point. The schmatic was on the back of the unit. All effects should do this

I play originals and classic rock. I honestly found very little use for this great flanger. Effects like flangers and phasers are really great-just one problem. There great for one song-have them on a couple songs in a row people get annoyed. It's not an effect if you use it all the time and less is more. If I found a good deal I would buy another I would not pay over $50 for a mint one. It's almost 30 years old that is taking a big chance when you buy one of these and they are really noisey to record with. I think I would consider a current issue guyatone flanger (panasonic memory chips) or mxr reissue. The ibanez reissue would be great but there is just two big differences between the current reissues and the original. The new one has the jacks on the circuit board (no big deal all the ibanez 10 series had jacks connected to the circuit board and there are a lot of these 20 year old pedals out there) the real negative is that the ibanez reissues use made in china low grade memory chips instead of the panasonics. The ones the ibanez reissues use are so bad Maxon refused to use them for there FL-9 reissue so that should tell you something. I don't know what kind of memory chips the Dunlop MXR reissue flanger uses (also jacks on the circuit board vs. older ones didn't have) But not using the reciton chips maybe a good thing. Best bet would be the guyatone with the panasonic memory chips and is also very quiet always a plus in a flanger. The bottom line is that you may use your flanger a few times a year. You should spend according given that.

Real easy to use. If you don't know what the names on the knobs are, tweak them one by one to see what sound they make

other than that, its very simple to use

sounds greeaat. i got mine second hand from a good friend of mine who is in a band, one perfect minute. here this EXACT flanger on their website with the songs they have on it to download. that way, you can hear for yourself how good it sounds
www.oneperfectminute.com

well, i've only had it for a day, its pretty big and bulky, it should last a while, the previous owner has been using it for some time now

I play basically alternative, heavy, punk, and any other type of rock. this is a good pedal not only for flange, but for other effects if u tweak it right. ive been playing for about a year and a half, so im not great, but i know my stuff. if it was stolen, i'd probably get another one, if i can get it at this price again ( i saw it on ebay with the starting price at 100!) if your looking for a nice pedal with a great flange to it, get this. you wont be disappointed.

Well, I started this review page I might as well try to cap it off...

I hope the last reviewer took the time to see if the Flanger had been tweaked inside. The trimpots were usually marked at the recommended settings by Ross... someone may have changed them to suit their tastes, much to the chagrin of the last reviewer I guess.

It's a good pedal... I'd say he got a bargain and just didn't know it.

Not too tough to figure out, you'll spend alot of time tweeking it though.

Don't be fooled by all of the good reviews. This thing is way subtle. If you're looking for that big swooping jet plane flanger sound, go elsewhere. I wouldn't recomend this pedal to anyone. If you want to buy a vintage flanger try and buy the A/DA it is way better. I just got the Ross and borrowed my friend's A/DA to compare the two, I almost threw out the Ross and stole his A/DA. Seriously. Vintage equipment can sometimes provide more bragging rights than good tone. This is one of those cases.

Don't bother. What good is reliability if it sounds like dog sh*t?

Customer Who?

Thankfully I didn't pay too much for this hunk of crap. I am seriously looking for a good A/DA or something else. Make sure if you're buying vintage gear to have the opportunity to TEST IT FIRST! And for god sakes DON'T BUY ANYTHING OFF OF EBAY. As you can see with all of these reviews, what constitutes great sound and quality to some may not fly with the rest of us. I'm not trying to slam Ross hear, I know at some point they must have made good equipment. This is not one of those times. The flanger is week at best unless you put a good Fuzz Face in front of it or something. Anyway hope you all find this usefull and maybe a bit more realistic than some other people blowing smoke about "Vintage Ross Flangers" blah!

Had a bit of trouble figuing out how to use it at first as it came off some moron's pedalboard at the dipshit had removed the bottom plate! (along with chopping the power cable off) If anyone can scan the bottom plate of their Ross Flanger and sent it to laservampire@yahoo.com.au, it would be very helpful. Apart from that, once you know how it works, it's pretty easy

I am using this pedal with a Marshall AVT275 (Which i'm getting really sick of) and various Gibsons and Fenders. It is only very noisy on really high gain settings. You can get some seriously fudged up sounds out of this pedal. Pretty close to an Electro Harmonix Polychorus. It can get most of the weird-ass sounds off Nirvana's In Utero (with enough tweaking) plus many other phaser, chorus, flanger and slapback sounds. Can even get it to sound like a sitar (at least as good as that awful Danelectro Sitar Swami peice of SHITE)

Well, it was on a well gigged pedalboard for god knows how many years and then sitting in a friends garage for another ten, and it still works fine. I have not gigged with it yet but will as soon as i make a baseplate for it. Looks pretty damn sturdy nonetheless.

No Fudging Idea. ROSS pissed off long ago. Could repair it myself

I play anything from 1960's Rock (Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Beatles) to Punk (Not that new punk shit with running around naked in video clips) to Nirvana. Been playing 3 years. If it were stolen I would not find another one! Bought from a guy (Jazz Player!!?!!) along with three Original 1970's First Issue Metal Thumbscrew Black Label Japanese Boss Pedals (DS-1, OD-1 and CE-2) for 70 bucks Asutraian Each (that's about $40 US!) Wouldn't sell any of them for the world

manual, manual/auto, WTF? Rate and Recycle I DO understand....

Weird, but easy to get a good sound, it's difficulty leads to experimentation, which IS why we get these toys, right?

Neat. Delay, Chorus, Flange (many colors) ALL IN ONE PEDAL!

It's big, it's red, it's indestructable!

Ross? Where are they now? That'll teach them to build something so reliable nobody will ever buy another!

Who on Earth would need anything fixed on one of these. 25-30 years old and still going strong...

Big, Weird, Tough, Great Sounding. I agree with the guy who said he'd throw the Earth into the Sun if anything happened to this pedal.

plug it in, tweak the four nobs. easy as that!

everything from chorusy sounds at one end to full on crazy jet explosions on the other....almost leslieish phasor sounding when the rate is turned up all the way. usually very little noise coming through it, even when combined with fuzz and distortion.

ive had it for two weeks and its been great so far. seems pretty strong and its old as heck so having lasted this long....id have to say pretty damn reliable.

dont know if they are still in business

as far as flangers go....i only use it on a couple of songs but it works perfectly.....next i think ill try a wah-phase though so i can tweak it with my feet while i play. this is the BEST flanger i have played through up to now though.

Yeah, if you have any questions, just flip the old Ross right over and get your read on. Better yet, just sit down with this pedal and tweak away. 4 knobs, an AC plug, and a real solid metal stomping switch. You could probably get a great sound out of this pedal in about 5 minutes of noodling.

BOOWIP BOOWIP BOOWIP VWOOOOOOOOOOOSH YANGAH YANGAH YANGAH SHOOOOOSH!!!

This can be the most mellow, subtle, gently accenting flange or you could go into full frontal cerebral meltdown with this flanger. Really, you can use this to turn your amps reverb into a lush, clean ringing reverb like no other; you could get the "hey, I am playing in a tin can" sound; you could get the majestic, Hendrixian "jet planes through your DNA sound"; or you could communicate with the Robots of Planet Zelta Mu. It is such a sick pedal. That Mr. Ross guy knew what he was doing.

I have tried my fair share of flangers, this one is in a class by itself. I kid you not! Modern Flangers don't drift this far out into space. This really can be so subtle or just plain, old FAR OUT! It does play well with other pedals too. Sure, there is a bit of noise, a bit; but what pedal from the Age of Yore is quiet?

SHUWHIP SHUWHIP SHUWHIP VAHRRRRRRRR KANG KANG KANG KANG KANG BWOOOO!!!

C'mon, this pedal is a tank, a true heavt weight champ. I have had this pedal for 9 years and it still won't quit. Gigs and parties, hoo haw fun!!! Never had a single problem. I used to use this old DOD AC powered orange flange, which in it's own right was a great, dubbed the "Boat Anchor" by my local music store; and the pots broke and the red, light-up rocker shattered one day when I turned it on. The Ross found me a couple of days after, and you know, it can't be stopped. I believe it was reverse engineered from UFO parts. The jacks haven't loosened, the switch is still good, the knobs turn, it warps the sound of anything with just this good old buddy reliability. TOUGH!!! HYPE RUFF!!!

Never had to call the people at ROSS. Anyone know how? Not like I need to, but hey you never know...

ROSS's stuff always seemed pretty beefy though, real tough stuff, it wouldn't surprise me if that is what did them in, their stuff was too good and dependable.

I still play a variety of music for over 15 years and running, why not, you know? I mean, this is music, right?

9 times out of 10, this pedal is on. Like I said, it can be real subtle or full on madness. MADNESS!!! It is great with about any effect you throw at it. It sits at the head of my effect chain usually. You really almost want to eat the sounds this pedal makes, it is so delicious.

Your blues will whine better, you hardcore jackhammerings will pummell, your space rock will venture beyond the nebulous darkness and shining stars, your surf rock will ebb and flow and rip and curl, you can crisp up a chord or just about mutate any note you can play.

I had my friend try his sax through it once, and I have never heard such a sound.

BUHWANK BUHWANK OONT BURDT OONT GOONT!!!

...AMAZING, yo yo yo magic!!!

It can be so organic and warm or just plain extraterrestrial.

Try it with a really thick tremolo on a 4X10 amp so each speaker gets a full on turn...whoa!

If it were lost or stolen, I would hurl the Earth into the Sun and take everything with me, everything. NO WAY ARE YOU PRYING THIS ONE FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!

I did compare it with others, and there was no comparison. It is all by itself orbitting a gaseous cloud of stars. This is a little crimson dynamo. Nicholai Tesla probably hoped someone would use his gift of AC power for something great, and this is it.

Very easy to get good flanging sounds from this. It was never meant to be a chorus (they sold those, as well), but you could even come close to that. Sweep, depth, everything is excellent. I agree that the control explanation on the bottom was genius, and should have gotten a design award.
I liked the fact that it has a built-in power supply with a hefty cord and three prong plug.

It is just a *tad* noisy, but most early flangers had some noise, and the Ross was better than anything else in its price range. It's still really nice (and I'm picky about noise).
The sound is great. With the manual/auto knob, you can move from a pure flange sound to a range, but mixing the two can give anything from a slightly edgy flange to a harsh sound, to a truly soft, lush sound.

Other than needing a good stomp on the in/out switch, I never had any real complaints. One time it got rained on, and I thought it was hosed; it made truly weird sounds. Taking it apart and drying it out thoroughly solved the problem. It recently succumbed to a direct lightniong strike on my house, but I plan to get it fixed.

They were excellent. No idea whether they are still around. I called for a schematic, and it arrived three days later. They asked how I liked the pedal, if there was anything else I could do, etc.

I've used this on everything from country (subtly) to rock ballads to heavy metal. No problem getting good sounds. It works nicely with other effects, too (fuzz, phase, etc). It just works, and it works great.