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
top.jpg (22.25 KB, 533x640 - viewed 9 times.)
innards.jpg (29.73 KB, 468x640 - viewed 18 times.)
power?.jpg (16.62 KB, 640x427 - viewed 10 times.)
You'll want to suss out the power, some of those Ross pedals used positive ground setups (at least the phaser did IIRC).
Hi, I'm not getting a lot of replies on my question. Have I committed some sort of forum faux pas?
nick
Is it the earth wire for the jack on the right, there only seems to be one wire going to it.. maybe :/
Where does the ground wire for the battery go? It does look like the earth wire from the pcb.
Yeah, I'd say ground wire for the PCB. It should go to the ground lug (sleeve connection) on the input jack -- the jack on the left in your picture.
Looking at pictures on the web, there used to be a 1/8" DC jack in that empty hole. Previous owner must have modified it to only work on battery power. There's no power protection diode, so it may have been blown up once already and removing the jack prevented that happening again.
Thanks so much. Is it an easy fix, or should I just leave it as battery powered? I'm not even getting a hum out of it now so maybe I should address getting sound out of it first?
Nick
Have you seen the tech help thread? There are lots of good tips there, and they apply to that pedal as much as any DIY pedal.
Also, what tools can you work with? Do you have an Audio Probe? A Multi Meter?
Jacob
That BLACK wire that you are referring to is most likely the GROUND wire for the PCB. It will connect to the Ring or Sleeve of the INPUT jack (on battery power).
Look at your Input jack. It SHOULD have 3 contacts on it. One is for the TIP of the jack which is where your guitar signal comes in. Another is the RING and this is where the BATTER SNAP BLACK WIRE goes to. The third is the SLEEVE and this is where the PCB BLACK WIRE (your broken wire) goes to.
Hope this helps ;D
You guys rock! I'm gonna work on it soon. I'm in the north east and my basement/studio/work area is currently under water so I'm guessing over the weekend.
Thanks again,
Nick
Is the power jack even there? If you look at the bottom picture it says power and there is a hole. If you look at the middle picture there is the hole under his finger but nothing is there.
Here's a pic of one with the DC jack. Looks like a 1/8" mini to me.
(http://www.centaurguitar.com/v/vspfiles/photos/10169-2.jpg)
I have one of these. My dad bought it new, and then I took it from him when I was a teen. I have the box and sticker that camewith it. I would crack mine open and let you know, but it is stashed in a box in my closet somewhere (My wife thought it would be a good idea to have a nursery instead of a music room. Who knew?). From memory, I would have to agree with the previous posters that it is a ground wire to the input jack.
The Ross distortion is an interesting pedal. Wooly for a distortion, not wooly enough for a monstrous fuzz tone. It will suck tons of tone though when off. The original jack is weird by today's standards. If you want to put a new one in, go for a more contemporary jack, but check on the polarity first.
In case you haven't seen this yet, http://www.home-wrecker.com/ross.html (http://www.home-wrecker.com/ross.html). I don't know how useful it'll be for your problem, but there's a couple of photos, a schematic, and even a pcb layout for it. There's also a hint on how to remove the pots.
Looking at the schematic, it looks very close to an MXR Distortion+. Interesting.
You guys are so helpful. Yes, for some reason the power jack is missing? Ad I bet that black mystery wire was where it should be soldered. I'm getting nada sound out of it when the pedal is switched on. I'm gonna mess around with it learn a bit about soldering and the basics of deconstruction. I hope to get something out of messing with it maybe even some nasty distortion.
Thanks,
Nick
I have one of these
I will take a look at it.
Its painted black but im sure the construction is identical
Quote from: funky see on July 09, 2013, 02:22:02 PM
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
top.jpg (22.25 KB, 533x640 - viewed 9 times.)
innards.jpg (29.73 KB, 468x640 - viewed 18 times.)
power?.jpg (16.62 KB, 640x427 - viewed 10 times.)
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
thanks so much.
nick
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
I don't know what they're worth, but my vote is rebuild, not gut. Ross pedals are cool.
Jacob
Quote from: jkokura on July 14, 2013, 11:15:46 PM
I don't know what they're worth, but my vote is rebuild, not gut. Ross pedals are cool.
Jacob
I second that motion!
Quote from: hammerheadmusicman on July 14, 2013, 11:17:58 PM
Quote from: jkokura on July 14, 2013, 11:15:46 PM
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.
Gotcha, I'm betting I could find better quality components and beef that bad boy up a little.
Nick
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.
Quote from: LaceSensor on July 19, 2013, 10:02:37 AM
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.
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 :)
(http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r428/Regina_Stracii/IMG_1207_zpscf6c160b.jpg)
(http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r428/Regina_Stracii/IMG_1198_zpsb3d5f88a.jpg)