Ross distortion

[LaceSensor]

I have one of these
I will take a look at it.
Its painted black but im sure the construction is identical

[LaceSensor]

   
Ross Distortion.
« on: July 08, 2013, 05:40:50 PM »

Hey, I found this pedal at a yard sale. The guy i bought it from said he's had it since the late 70's. He sold it to me for $5 and said it was broken. I've attached some pics of it including a pic of the loose black wire I found. Also, there is a hole for an external power supply? Anybody know where that black wire goes (it's the 3 wire of 4 on the bottom of the board. are there any mods? I thought it would be a great experiment while I wait for all my parts to come in on my Bumblebee.

nick    




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In your pedal, from Left to Right at the board wire connections should be:

Purple - Output
Red - Tip of Power supply (9v DC +ve) [assuming 3.5mm jack type used)
Black - Sleeve of Input jack (ground, -ve)
Yellow - Input

If you want battery power too, you want +9v battery to go to the Ring of the DC jack, negative of battery goes to ring of the Input jack.


to get it running just off battery, connect that loose black wire to the ring of your Input (or output) jack

This is a negative ground effect, so you can drill it out and replace with a standard boss style 2.1mm DC jack and wire it up. You could go the whole hog and true bypass it.

These do sound like a Dist+, quite nice really.
Mine has silicon clipping diodes. Yours look like 1n34a to me.

The pain to see if this is modded or not is getting the pots undone so you can look at the solder side of the PCB... - youll need a deep well socket wrench

hit me up for any more info

[funky see]

thanks so much.

nick

[funky see]

I'm starting to think about gutting it and retrofitting another two knob jammy in there. Any suggestions on a simple two knob project for a newbie?


Nick

[jkokura]

I don't know what they're worth, but my vote is rebuild, not gut. Ross pedals are cool.

Jacob

[hammerheadmusicman]

I don't know what they're worth, but my vote is rebuild, not gut. Ross pedals are cool.

Jacob

I second that motion!

[pickdropper]

I don't know what they're worth, but my vote is rebuild, not gut. Ross pedals are cool.

Jacob

I second that motion!

Thirded.  Keep the vintage stuff intact, if possible.

[funky see]

Gotcha, I'm betting I could find better quality components and beef that bad boy up a little.

Nick

[LaceSensor]

Why?
They work and sound fine, you have the information to fix it. I personally dont see the need to change it, other than adding true bypass and LED if you want it....

IF you arent up to the task, move it on and use the cash to buy another enclosure and build something from stratch. Ross pedals are vintage cool, it would be a shame to do that.

[RobA]

Why?
They work and sound fine, you have the information to fix it. I personally dont see the need to change it, other than adding true bypass and LED if you want it....

IF you arent up to the task, move it on and use the cash to buy another enclosure and build something from stratch. Ross pedals are vintage cool, it would be a shame to do that.

I agree completely. Actually, I'd go a bit further. I've got an old MXR Distortion+ that has no LED and is battery only, one of the knobs is cracked, etc. I considered "fixing" the thing for a while and then finally concluded that if I want a modernized Distortion+, I can build one in a couple of hours. I've already got all the parts I'd need. The original needs to be left just like it was when I bought in the 70's or rather just like it is after I've beaten on it for several decades. Somethings old just need to stay that way. It's what they are.

[ian_guga]

bit of thread necro, but here]s mine
true bypassed and led-ed, also switched the power jack

It's a nice sounding pedal I would never scrap it 80;s metal may come back with a vengeance