Ross Flanger - Possible to add Thu-Zero?

[alteredsounds]

Nice warm flanger, certainly one of the better ones, very much in the mxr vein of flange but I'd love to get a thru-zero effect out of it.  I used to have a cheapy jap flange in the '80's that did it and it rocked (wish I could remember what it was and where it went!)  Is there any kind of bolt-on I could do within reason to get the Ross to do it?  I've looked at a couple of thru-zero older posts and cant 100% fathom it all out.

Cheers,
Nick,

[Mark Hammer]

Through zero requires some means of adding a small amount of delay to what functions as the dry signal.  hink of dry and wet signal portions on a normal flanger as runners on a trak.  The "dry runner" is always in the lead, and the "wet runner" falls behind and comes close to catching up but never really does.  Through zero involves having the wet runner passing the dry runner for an instant before falling behind again.  So, in order to pass "through zero", the modulated part of the signal has to reach a point where its delay time is actually less than the delay time of the "dry" signal.  Achieving that is no small matter and not the sort of thing one would add on to an existing flanger without a complete overhaul and redesign.  I'm certain there are other "tricks" you could extract from the Ross unit if you didn't mind forfeiting some vintage resale value, but conversion to through-zero is much too big an undertaking.

A nice dream, though. 

[alteredsounds]

Thanks Mark, I had a feeling that it would be  quite full-on.  As far as affecting the vintage resale value, I dont mind, its not one of the collection, always on my board being abused.  You have me intrigued though 'I'm certain there are other "tricks" you could extract from the Ross unit'.  Any ideas?

Thanks and many thanks for the help with the mains powering issue, i'm now running it on 15v from my Dunlop Powerbrick.

Cheers,
Nick,

[Mark Hammer]

Same as any flanger.

You can change the clock range-setting cap.  This is generally going to be a small-ish (<680pf usually) cap somewhere in close proximity to the BBD itself.  If the Ross uses a Matsushita MN3101 for the clock it will be snuggled up against there.  If it uses a CMOS chip for the clock, it will be snuggled up against that.  Either way, it is preferred to keep the clock lines to the BBD mercifully short so you know it will be within an inch of the BBD and usually the smallest-value cap in the vicinity.  Making it higher in value increases the delay range for more chorus-ey sounds.  Making it smaller in value ups the clock rate so that the minimum delay is shorter (closer to through-zero though never really there, for reasons elaborated earlier).

Another thing some folks find useful is restricting the bass in the regen/recycle path to eliminate annoying "metallic" sounds.  I have no idea how close the Ross is to the MXR (so many of their pedals were), so I couldn't ID a specific cap value, but you should be able to trace the regen pot and identify a cap in series from the output of that pot back to the mixing stage where input and regen signals are combined to feed to the BBD.  Chopping the value by maybe 80% or so might help, depending on the stock part value and rolloff produced.  What you want to do is take out a lot of the regen signal below 500hz or so.

Finally, the Ross is a 4-knobber, with the missing knob being blend or mix.  Maximum effect if produced with a 50/50 mix so most companies will simply set the blend to that and omit the pot.  Sometimes, people want a subtler effect, though, or else they want the vibrato capability of an all-wet signal.  That's where a blend control adds value.  Alternatively, one can easily identify the mixing point and install a dry-lift switch for getting vibrato.

[alteredsounds]

Genius! I know what I'm doing after work!

[Processaurus]

How about adding an FX loop for the dry signal on your ross flanger, so you could insert a short >5ms delay of you choice (like a cheap analog flanger with the dry signal lifted and the LFO stopped, a digital delay that can get very short, maybe some funky digital thing that has a tiny bit of latency, etc)

[alteredsounds]

'How about adding an FX loop for the dry signal on your ross flanger, so you could insert a short >5ms delay of you choice (like a cheap analog flanger with the dry signal lifted and the LFO stopped, a digital delay that can get very short, maybe some funky digital thing that has a tiny bit of latency, etc)'

Interesting idea!  Got a bucketload of delays and flangers here, gotta figure where I could tap the dry signal