Blue Ringer v1

Description

FROSTWAVE BLUE RINGER V1 Ring Modulator with adapterVersion one of the Frostwave Blue Ringer ring modulator. I purchased this in the very early 2000s (late 2000 iirc) so I'm guessing it dates to around the late 1990s-early 2000s. It's a pretty straight forward ring modulator created by the great Paul Perry in Australia. The serial number is 048. Included with the pedal is the 18v adapter. At the time this was one of the only ring mod pedals around that would easily work with a guitar. The effect varies based on the pitch and timbre of what you feed into it and where the internal oscillator is set. I've mainly used it for guitar but I've also run bass, keyboards/synths, voice and percussion into it. It was surprisingly awesome on a full drum kit. Generally, it's unconventional but in a way that I find interesting and paradoxically even musical in a way.I have since tried other ring mods and the Blue Ringer is still one of the best imho. You can get a wide variety of ring mod effects from tremolo at the lower oscillator settings to lo-fi or "analog bit crusher" types of sounds on the high end. Along the way you can get a wide range typical ring modulator sounds. You know the ones: synthy, metallic, and dissonant. The tremolo settings can go from choppy to smooth based on how you balance the effect and dry signals. The controls are simple - you have a 1/4" input and a 1/4" each has its own gain knob. These can be very useful for boosting and even driving your signal. You then set the internal oscillator frequency with the OSC FREQU knob and balance the effect and dry signal with the BALANCE knob. There is an additional 1/4" jack on the front which I've never used, oddly enough. The Blue Ringer is an analog beast and it is as most ring mods are by nature on the noisey side. Finely adjusting the in and out gains helps minimize the noise and bleed. This one does not gate the oscillator and depending on where the BALANCE and FREQU are set you get a fair amount of bleed even with the effect bypassed. Leaving the gate out and allowing the bleed I think gives this pedal a more rich sound than many of the rest. I have taken advantage of this and used the oscillator as an instrument on its own by setting the balance to all effect and boosting the output then turning the OSC FREQU knob to get theremin-like sounds. It would be optimal to use this in a switchable gate I think. I would loosen the screws to open it up some to minimize the bleed which seemed to work. Perhaps this was corrected with the v2 enclosure as it seems moving the pots away from the rest of the circuit helps. There are two trimpots inside the unit that allow you to tune the oscillator and adjust the bleed but I've never been brave enough to adjust them. This is a used pedal and it does show some cosmetic wear which is why I've listed it in "GOOD" condition. I did basically baby it but I also used it a lot and it did pick up some visible wear. I made one modification to it about a decade and a half ago when I replaced the power adapter jack. The original one left much of the barrel out and did not seem to hold it very securely and that bothered me. So, I installed a new one that fits much more snug. It's always worked excellently for me but given its age and the rarity of these older Frostwave units I've become a little leary of taking it out as much and I think it belongs with a collector or somebody willing to put it to use.

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