Members bigjd Posted October 13, 2012 Members Share Posted October 13, 2012 Just recieved my new Adrian Smith SDX Jackson guitar. It was damaged in shipping and the tone pot had to be replaced in it. Now it seems as though there is a strange "overtone" or "ghost Harmonic" in the single coil positions. Could this be a phase issue or something else related to the tone pot replacement? It is a SSH 1Volume ,1tone. Jackson pick-ups stock config. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 13, 2012 Members Share Posted October 13, 2012 More likely a ground shielding issue. Did you ground the pot can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigjd Posted October 13, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 13, 2012 I didnt do the repair,music store did.When I checked it ,it was grounded. I'll pull it apart again to check the color coding on the HB for phase. They are the Jackson noiseless single coils and their version of a D'Marzio distortion so I believe the color code for the HB is different than a Duncan for example. Spent some time on google last night. This overtone or ghost signal sounds like a bad octaver when im in the single coil positions. Not real loud but noticable. If it was the same as the note played it might be intresting,but its way off color not even close in pitch and it does it in all of my patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kazinator Posted October 15, 2012 Members Share Posted October 15, 2012 Passive components like resistors and capacitors and pickup coils are not going to create a ghost note, at least not electronically. Firstly, are you sure it's not elsewhere in your signal chain? (Can you reproduce it with any amp?) If it's in the guitar, it could be some resonance. Tremolo springs, loose truss rod, trem bridge itself. Did you string it up yourself with new strings? Who knows what is on there. I've seen strings that cause ghost notes. How close are the pickups to the string? String pull from the pickups can cause ghost notes. Also, I believe that resonance can affect some of the electronic components like volume pots: they can be microphonic when they have a bad contact. At high gains, the slightest noises that you don't hear so much when playing clean can inter-modulate with the distorted note in ugly ways. I had weird ghost notes in my main guitar, which went away when I replaced the worn out volume pot that I had put in 20 years earlier. Before discovering that, I drove myself crazy, thinking it was truss rod, or tremolo springs, etc. The old volume pot showed something like 40 ohms of resistance between the wiper and lug, even when turned all the way toward the lug. That bad connection picks up vibrations, perhaps similarly to a carbon mic. I also now have a "loose" installation of the volume pot so that it does not pick up body vibrations. I kept the "nub" on the volume pot (the little metal that protrudes), and drilled a small hole that it fits into. The pot is only screwed in just tightly enough so that the nub stays in its hole, preventing the body of the pot from turning when the knob is used. But the pot is loose enough to wiggle a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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