ross distortion pedal 1979 Ross Stereo Delay R80 – Telluride Music Co

ross distortion pedal 1979 Ross Stereo Delay R80 – Telluride Music CoEveryone has heard of the old pedal company Ross, who are most famous for what may be the finest compressor pedal ever made, the ever cloned Ross Compressor. In the '70s, Ross produced a full line of pedalsincluding the sought after Compressorand the Stereo Delay R80 covered the delay end of the spectrum. Many Ross designs very closely resemble MXR schematics, and the Stereo Delay is very similar to the green box MXR Analog Delay. The Ross produces

Everyone has heard of the old pedal company Ross, who are most famous for what may be the finest compressor pedal ever made, the ever-cloned Ross Compressor. In the '70s, Ross produced a full line of pedals—including the sought-after Compressor—and the Stereo Delay R80 covered the delay end of the spectrum. 

Many Ross designs very closely resemble MXR schematics, and the Stereo Delay is very similar to the green box MXR Analog Delay. The Ross produces warm analog delay, and it features two output channels so you can run it in stereo (Local and Remote, each with its own Mix control knob). The Delay knob controls the overall time of the delay, and it maxes out at 500 ms. The Recycle knob sets the number of repeats.

True analog delay sound is achieved using the highly-influential "bucket bridge" design, and the Ross circuit features three Reticon SAD1024 chips. These are rare, and if you can even find them for sale, these chips are expensive nowadays. But the Reticon chips are what makes this pedal stand out from modern interpretations. They give the Stereo Delay that musical, perfectly imperfect "holy grail" type of tone. Organic and lush, the Stereo Delay does subtle reverb, awesome slap back, cool undertones, and you can even push it into runaway self-oscillation as well.

This 1979 Ross Stereo Delay was made in the USA, and while it shows plenty of signs of wear and use, it functions 100% as it should and sounds fantastic. It looks like a past owner used duct tape to set the knobs and fit it on a pedalboard, so there's some rash from that (see photos). Like other early analog delays, it has its own integrated power supply.