Ross Phaser/Distortion

Four big, dumb knobs. Just take an old Ross Distortion and a Ross Phaser, and glue 'em together--pretty simple. If you're still confused, there's operating instructions written on the bottom of the box--I great idea, In my humble opinion. I also like that you just plug the thing in--no adapters, no batteries--nice!

The distortion here is quite nice; it doesn't get uber-loud or sustainy, but the general effect is a nice middle of the road kinda' sound that's great for riffing on 70's rock, or using as your rhythm distortion before you step on something more potent for them crazy leads. The phaser is pleasant up to about halfway; further up the spectrum on the rate knob it gets more "bleeping" and unmusical, more like a "flying saucer" effect; it might be cool for a cover band doing "Frankenstein"! An MXR or Small Stone is much more fun at the higher speeds. Now having that, I will admit the higher speeds on the ol' phaser DO sound better when used on a keyboard (I used it a bunch on an old Farfisa organ), but guitar? Refer to my previous ramblings.

But combine these two rascals--mmmm, boy! Like chocolate and peanut butter! Great swirly psycho-delic riffs a plenty to be had here, and you can cop sounds ranging from Ernie Isley to Jimi Hendrix, provided you can play as good as either of 'em (don't look at me...).

Although I haven't used this booger in recent times, I did used to use it quite regularly in one of my bands. It never complained or conked out, which is more than I can say about the EH Electric Mistress pedal I used at the same gigs--IT was the proverbial Pandora's Box.

Just to make sure the Ross was still happy, I recently pulled it out for some studio work for some baritone guitar overdubs. Still sounds as good as it ever did, and works flawlessly.

Bought it used, long after Ross went kaput

I bought this guy at a vintage guitar show eons ago, where I had planned to get myself a fuzz-wah of some sort. The Ross was at the same booth as a bunch of said wahs, and I liked it better than any of them., so it went home with me, and the fuzz-wahs stayed. It's one of the first effects pedals I ever bought, and I'm happy I did.

Easy to use
4 knobs, dist., level, sweep, rate (I think)

Back in 1979, my guitar jammin' buddies use to switch boxes and try each other's gear.
This box was the one everyone wanted to play through.
Even though I've grown out of the "Boxed Distortion" sound, I still have fond memories of the sounds that box made. It was great!

I never saw one after that. I guess they worked OK.
But I've not seen much Ross stuff around...so, maybe not.

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I'd love to have one of these, it was a great pedal.

Very easy to get a good sound

Both effects are really nice. The distortion, (though raspy) is sweet. I really like it. Some have described Ross distotions as a cross between an MXR D+ and a tube screamer. I opened up the box and found 5 Malaysian Texas Instruments 4558P chips inside. I believe many use these to mod reissue tube screamers.

The phaser is very cool, too. It can be Leslie-ish. It can do the nice deep phase.

Though I never gig, I'm just a hobby guy, I would count on it. Its as sturdy as any.

I play rocky stuff, experimental-I am self tought so I can't put my finger on it. I love Jimi (who doesn't?)I like Nirvana,Pearl Jam, Jeff Buckly, Stevie Ray, pretty broad range. Can I play like them? No, but I try. The distortion helps me express myself though, it is a voice I was looking for. The phaser for me was just a added beauty, that with the distortion helps me make my music, whatever that may be. I buoght it off ebay, it looked interesting and Ross had good products

Very easy to use. I'm an original owner, purchased this unit in 1978/1979.

Use in chain with cry-baby, ult-octave, looper, RP7 - works great, good crisp sound

Never a problem, built like a tank

The last reviewer liked this one! Me too! Simple to use...phaser has recyle (intensifies the effect) and rate.Distortion has distortion level and vol level.Nice attatched power supply.Give it a 9 becuase of it's ease of use.

I run my effects though a sound city 50+ (and a few other amps)...and a 69 stock strat.I vary the effects I use...so my setup changes with the weather...staple items though are...Ts808,analog delay and ADA flanger.
Sounds:
Phaser...very cool deep phasing...warm and watery. I have never been a phaser user ...always favored flange, univibe and chorus, now I am hooked on this thing!
Distortion...I use the Ross and a ts808...both are set with vol up and distortion levels down...that way I have two units that work as mild overdrive and boost...but two different sounds!When I want to get more...I hit them both...great combo!The ts808 is my smooth fat sound and the Ross does a throaty drive with a tad bit of rasp.I don't care for its sound with cranking the distortion level up past half...but totally dig it when I keep it tame.

The Ross stuff seems to hold up...I have had other ross pedals and never had one crap out!

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Been playing over 30 years all styles...owned tons of vintage stuff.I plat a lot of different stuff...rock,blues and jazz but my heart never drifts too far from Trower, hendrix and SRV.Ross stuff is very cool and still priced well...get um now or pay more later...they will go up!

"Oh My God" Let me tell you about the souns on this pedal. For all of you who have a Marshall 100 Watt Stack, you think you have good distortion, crank this pedal up with your Marshall set to high distortion and add a little analog and digital reverb and you are ready to rock. This is a very clean distortion. Let me tell you about my Boss distortion pedal... well never mind it is in a box somewhere, wait I think I gave that away to a newbie. Well I am wanting to get a Digital GNX3 for the recording but I bet I will still have my Ross Distortion/Phase connected. As for this site asking me questions like what I think about the manual? To be honest I never needed it with this easy to use equipment. I have had this for over 15 years now and it has never missed a beat. Oh yeah and no batteries or cheesy power adapters. My Guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Custom edition black buety with a Marshall 100 watt stack add this with the Ross Phaser /Distortion and an Ibanez analog delay witt a Digital Reverb RV-2 and who needs anything else. As for the Boss Distortion pedal dave your $$$ and go straight to Ross! My complaint is I wish they made an effects/8 track/ workstation like Digital's GNX3. I would feel better about buying from someone who I can trust to make a great product. Rock on

Never have had a problem with this product.

this is just an update to a prior review. easy enough to get a good sound of, just mess with the knobs (rate and recycle for the phaser, distort and level for distortion) and that's all there is to it. this is the purple, kansas-made one - not the taiwanese version.

my only gripe here is i've noticed the distortion doesn't get enough of a boost by turning up the level knob - at least not enough for my taste. good, bluesy grind with the distort knob at 9 o'clock, and gradually more rock-sounding at and past 12 o'clock. never sounds shrill but packs a nice upper-midrange bite that cuts through the mix. can get a little too bright if you crank your amp's treble for cleans, then switch this on. on the plus side, it helps preserve clarity on power chords and helps hard rockin' rhythms (think ac/dc, who, zeppelin, etc.) get heard as much as solos.

the phaser is where this pedal really earns its stripes. not as deep a sweep as a roland jet, but it's close enough for me. nice sweep length (long enough for me to play the four chords on hawkwind's "silver machine" - that song doesn't use a phaser, but if our band chooses to cover it i think i'll use it anyway just cuz it sounds so damn trippy haha). nice leslie sounds too on the faster settings - no hammond-organ-type vibrato, but cool just the same. good for funk and pyschedelic stuff. sounds excellent with the distortion it comes with (and most other boxes too). a little background too, but that doesn't bother me. it also gets a cool hollowness in the mids that emphasizes bass and treble (with a little more treble for extra slice, like the mxr phase 90), and so it doesn't really sound too distinct with heavily mid-boosted distortion tones. haven't tried scooped-mid metal sounds with it, though i'd guess the phase would come through a lot clearer.

again, if you favor a brighter amp sound (as i do - i use a fender princeton chorus with a tele plus), you might want to pay closer attention to your amp settings when you use either of these. not that it ever gets unbearable if you don't, but if you're more particular about your sound than others it's something to consider.

yeah it's pretty solid. haven't gigged yet, but i probably would gig without a backup. i'd just never turn my back on it - it's a pretty essential part of my rig as of this review. the a/c cord is a bitch (especially if you don't have a surge protector), but it's nice to know it won't run out of juice.

never dealt with them - i think they're out of business.

i gotta admit the price was steep, and though i may even resell at some point down the line right now it's solid, dependable, and gives up some awesome sounds. bottom line - if you want quality phasing AND 70's-hard-rock-style distortion and don't mind throwing down some extra bucks for a vintage piece, this convenient package deal is tough to beat. but ross effects are slowly gaining a loyal following among collectors of vintage gear, so if you want one you might want to move fast before the prices really get out of control.

4 knobs: rate, recycle, distort and level: very straightforward.

When I bought this unit the AC chord had been ripped loose (explains the US$7 price, yes?) so i replaced it.

The distortion on my Phaser/Distortion is very raspy and thin like it is going thru a high pass filter. Kind of a novelty sound as it is now. This is the ONLY reason I'm not giving a 10 for this box! If the other reviews are correct about the Distortion sound on an unabused unit then I MUST get mine repaired!

As for the Phaser section. WOW! I've had an original EH Small Stone (very nice but noisy as Hell) and a Dunlop reissue of the MXR Phase 100 (currently in my rack in a loop switcher, good sounding but short on character) and this Ross unit BEATS THEM HOLLOW! There is *some* hiss, but it only serves to accentuate the good qualities of this effect. The rate knob can go from glacially slow to spastic and the recycle knob can make the sound VERY liquid. Easily the most versatile and lush sounding phaser I have ever owned. Only improvement I could wish for would be some kind of envelope following function (as in the EH PolyPhase).

this pedal is not a part of my regular setup ONLY because there is no room left in my rack!

Hard to say how reliable this is 'cos I never gigged with it. I CAN say that all repairs I have made are still solid after 8 years of occasional use in a studio environment. It hasn't re-broken on me yet.

None available.

I haven't seen a new Ross guitar product since the mid-80s, shortly after Akai bought them, and their production facilities were moved to Fort Worth, Texas, and lay-offs began.

There may be an archive of schematics/specs/original parts sources held by Akai, but I'm not holding my breath.

Easily the most versatile and lush sounding phaser I have ever owned. Only improvement I could wish for would be some kind of envelope following function (as in the EH PolyPhase). I would buy this box again in a heartbeat! ...though, I wouldn't pay over US$120 for a MINT one.

Again, this pedal is not a part of my regular setup ONLY because there is no room left in my rack!

Pretty darn simple to use. 2 Knobs for the Phaser portion, and 2 knobs for the Distortion section. It has 2 footswitches to activate each section (which the other reviewer noted you can step on both at the same time). The intensity knob for the Phaser section doesn't seem as sensitive as others, but the rate is very nice, covering a broad range. It has it's own built-in, 3-prong, A/C cord as well.

I always wanted one of these. The Ross Phasers (for those that don't know Ross gear) are fantastic. And the distortion is pretty decent. The distortion is not a big metal cruncher or a smooth overdrive. It's what it says, 'Distortion.' Hence, it adds a bit of grit to your signal without totally turning it into a DS-1 mess.
Anyhow, back to the Phaser potion, which is where this pedal shines. You can do the typical long, sweeping phase shounds, to a choppy Phase-90, to a real jazzy, fast Leslie sound. (Yes, I have actually played through a Leslie, and this thing comes the closest out of any I have tried.)
The distorition is nice to have on the pedal, but the Phaser is amazing.

The pedal is built like a tank. This is one of the purple, Made in Kansas ones. I am getting some intermittent things going when I disengage the distortion, but I have yet to fix it, which no doubt will be simple. (Lots of room to work in there.)
I really dig the recessed knobs on these guys. A neat design.

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Ok, as I knew I was going to write this today, so I did a 'shootout' of sorts with this pedal's phaser portion last night. I compared it with an Ibanez Phase Tone PT-909, an Ibanez CS-505 Chorus (with the speed just about all the way up), and a Sweetsound Ultra Vibe.
Well the 505 couldn't cut the mustard, but it was worth a shot. It's not really a phaser, but a lot of folks will try to emulate the Leslie with a chorus speed turned up.
The PT-909 is a great unit. I could almost get it to sound just like the Ross, but not quite. It was kind of in betweeen it and the Ultra, but not as clear. It's much more versitle than the Ross though (with 3 knobs and a more effective intensity knob).
Which leaves a comparision between the Ultra Vibe and the Ross. The Ultra is very warm, and has more of a vintage sound - closer to the Univibe (as it should be). There is much more to the Ultra, and a great deal more useful sounds. However, the Ross is the closest I have found to the sound of a Leslie. The Leslie's have a 'brightness' and biting 'choppiness' to them, which the Ross seems to nail at the higher speed settings. (If you listen to some Charlie Hunter, he, up until sometime last year, was a user of the Ross Phaser.) It's a very jazzy pedal (when used with the speed up).
Well, it will never take the place of my warm, washy, Ultra Vibe, but it definitely has it's own sound, and a useful one at that. It's a bit of an oddball, and a rareity - if you find one, snap it up. I was very lucky to find one in this shape, and at this price.
At the price I found it, the quality of the Phaser, and the neat addition of Ross' distortion, I give it a 10. If I had paid some of the vintage prices I have seen this listed at, I would grade it much lower.

This is the combination Phaser and Distortion pedal which combines those effects (Ross' best two - IMHO) in one case. "Rate" and "Recycle" knobs for the Phaser, "Distortion" and "Level" knobs for the Distortion. Has one in/out footswitch for each effect and they are close enough together that you can step on both at the same time. AC-Powered, made in USA.

Sounds great on every setting. Sounds somewhat like a Roland Jet Phaser (yes I've actually played through one)... but with a character all its own. I use a wide variety of gear and this is one of my favorites! Very quiet in bypass mode. Screams like a banshee when fully engaged. This pedal adds one great feature to the normal Phaser effect... an internal switch that selects between a 1.6 or 4 OCTAVE SWEEP!!!

Sturdy, as are all Ross pedals (probably because they copied MXR designs (and MXR copied existing pedal designs and made them sturdier)) I keep this tucked away in my rack and use a switcher to engage it because I want to keep it for a very, very long time.

Yeah, right!

I've been hoarding Ross pedals since I got the orange Phaser three years ago. Passed this pedal up for $100 back then and have been kicking myself since. It's not my "Holy Grail", though. That would be the Foxx fuzz/wah/vol/octive, but this is THE Ross pedal to have. I was ready to buy one sight/unseen for $130 off the 'net when I stumbled across this one yesterday for $50. It was truly my lucky day! I've seen this USA made model sell for as high as $200 before and it's worth every penny!