Help - Can a Red Rooster be dangerous?

[dirty finger]

Anyone tell me if blasting a Rooster at full tilt into a compressor or any other pedal might fry the circuit due to the RR's massive boost?

Thanks in advance,
Dave.

[Graham]

With all the guys over the years goosing their fuzzes, etc with one, I'd imagine it wouldn't hurt a circuit..

It's not the circuit that is at risk of getting hurt!!

The ancient and esteemed British art of "Fuzz Goosing" -for I believe it pretty well originated with the Rangemaster - doesn't so much risk damaging the fuzz circuitry (although I am no tech) - so you may want to hear that from someone like the Captain - no it's not what you can do to the fuzz so much as two other areas of great risk

#1 What the freshly muscled input might do to an unsuspecting and possibly valuable old amp - maybe more specifically its speakers if they are on the "margins" of handling what the amp pushes out (this is a mega biggie if you are into down tuning your guitars - don't play bass but imagine the risk is similar!)

#2 What damage getting a taste for the "Art" can do to your wallet - it can be like treble boosting your GAS because of course you will need to try them all!

Graham

btw - not that I was stirring anything with my claims to the provenance of the "Art" being British ---- of course

[dirty finger]

Yippeeeee!
I was hoping that'd be the case.

What the freshly muscled input might do to an unsuspecting and possibly valuable old amp

Do you reckon this might be averted by the fact that I'm probably going to put the Rooster before the compressor? I was thinking this might round off any "dangerous" edges. When playing with the setup so far (with comp on all the time) the volume stays the same when engaging the RR - it just gets nice and raucous. Any suggestions Donovan - I think I've read in the past that you seem to know a fair bit about comps?

[Geoffrey]

I will agree with Donovan here. Slamming a compressor has much less sonic value, to me anyway, than putting the comp first and fiddling with the order of other things. I know a Sonic Titan isn't a Rooster, but I have slammed all my fuzzes with it and vice versa and it hasn't hurt any of them. (meaning I fuzzed the Titan's output)
Graham's advice about not overloading your amp is relevant in certain circumstances. I don't worry about it with my Traynor or Plexi Marshall though.. It would take a nuclear powered pedal to kill the front end of either of those...

[Graham]

I will agree with Donovan here. Slamming a compressor has much less sonic value, to me anyway, than putting the comp first and fiddling with the order of other things. I know a Sonic Titan isn't a Rooster, but I have slammed all my fuzzes with it and vice versa and it hasn't hurt any of them. (meaning I fuzzed the Titan's output)
Graham's advice about not overloading your amp is relevant in certain circumstances. I don't worry about it with my Traynor or Plexi Marshall though.. It would take a nuclear powered pedal to kill the front end of either of those...

What - you never heard if that mid sixties experimental FuzzTone they developed those components - the glowing transistors - down in the desert at (whats the name of that air force base - Groom Lake or is it Broom) anyway Denney (through a "friend" as always) got four matched triplets of those Tritium driven trannies back for the super experimental AtomBender pedal - reckoned it was what they needed for those big festivals - didn't even need any batteries! Charlie Watkins put his foot down when two of the roadies from one of the bands crews had their hair suddenly start dropping out - all covered up quickly and quietly you know the score!! Rumour goes they were last heard of stashed in the Macaris underground vaults in sturdy lead lined boxes!!!! Only a whisper mind - probably nothing to it - best just let it drop......

[Geoffrey]

Cool story! Wonder what they did with the Dr. Who fuzzes that bend time itself?

[dirty finger]

Thanks for your input chaps.
Sickle - it's a Keeley compressor by the way.

I know that what I'm talking about here is a rather unconventional setup and that usually running any noisy or fuzzy pedal into a compressor will result in destruction of fuzz and a crappy sound.
With the Rooster though I'm able to get a great sound. I can whack the output right up high and get its juices flowing without a ridiculous increase in volume. When I was dicking around with different pedals the other day even as I was about to put the RR into the comp I thought to myself that this is never going to work. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that I got a guitar sound pretty similar to that on the first Funkadelic album (one of my all time faves)! It's very springy and semi dirty - a sound I haven't achieved before without running the amp slighty dirty.
Now with a fuzz after the RR>comp I can get normal fuzz, comped fuzz (which with some fuzzes sound darn good) RR'd fuzz and RR'd comped fuzz which works well. You obviously don't get a significant volume jump when engaging the RR but because of its tonally qualities it still cuts right through the mix and kind of sounds like a volume jump.
So I'm kind of liking the setup as I can have a totally clean sound, slightly Funkadelically dirty, fuzzy and finally all out mayhem with just three pedals.

you are going to dramatically raise your noise floor depending on how hard you drive the compressor. If you're a shit bag, dirty-assed player like me who thrives on ugly noise and feedback, this is a good thing.

I'm right there with you on that one. I've never been averse to a bit of extraneous noise myself - often adds abit of "spice" I reckon.

What damage getting a taste for the "Art" can do to your wallet - it can be like treble boosting your GAS because of course you will need to try them all!

I think (well hope) I may be safe on this score. I have a few other boosters already but nothing comes even close to the mighty Rooster.

[starlingbrothers]

A D*A*M Red Rooster is only dangerous when you first hear one, then can't buy one for a while and other boosters just let you down in comparison during the wait time