Ghosting; Love it or Hate it?

This is what it sounds like, when cones cry.

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Analogman88
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Ghosting; Love it or Hate it?

Post by Analogman88 » Sat Jun 18, 2016 8:02 pm

Hello fellow Marshall heads!

When you play an overdriven plexi through a good cabinet, a very unique sound occurs when you play the the D, G, and B strings near the 9th-20th fret area, especially near the 12th fret. You know the sound I'm speaking of... a curious undertone that rumbles when you solo, you feel it in your chest when you play a unison bend or harmonized bend, or any two notes together in this area of the fret board. If you really want a solo to exhibit this sound, use the neck pickup and turn the un-used channel volume all the way up as well as the channel you're plugged into. Old Voxes do this too, just in a slightly different way.

It's called GHOSTING and I love it! I have always found this sound to be very pleasing and I want to hear it when I'm playing licks or solos near the middle of the fret board. I intentionally turn up the volume on the un-used channel when I solo or riff on the neck pickup, although it sounds good on the bridge pup too. For me, channel 2 is the un-used channel 80% of the time and once the tubes warm up and I've played for a couple minutes, I just dime both volume knobs and savor the bloom of each note.

I always thought this was desired by every guitarist, until I joined guitar and amp forums and was shocked to read of people trying to get rid of this natural occurrence or remedy the "problem". Anyone is entitled to their own taste preferences, but I do not understand this. I'm not talking about loose low-end cone flap that some of the small 1" voice coil speakers have, I mean GHOST NOTES. Personally, I think it sounds great with the nature of a very throaty, midrange focused cabinet. My new Metropoulos cab with 25W Greenbacks really ghosts well, even when attenuated significantly. I can't wait to hear that sound when the speakers break in and loosen up fully.

Any way, love it or hate it? Your opinions please :popcorn:

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Carbia
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Re: Ghosting; Love it or Hate it?

Post by Carbia » Mon Jun 20, 2016 4:24 pm

I hate it.

You sound out of tune with ghosting, it's like a bad ring modulator.

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Re: Ghosting; Love it or Hate it?

Post by Scumback Speakers » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:03 am

Carbia wrote:I hate it.

You sound out of tune with ghosting, it's like a bad ring modulator.
Exactly my opinion on it. I hate ghosting, ghost notes and cone cry.
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Carbia
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Re: Ghosting; Love it or Hate it?

Post by Carbia » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:55 pm

I had to deal with ghosting in many vintage marahalls and usually I could fix it replacing premp and PI filter caps. It worked well on superleads, bass amps are way more difficult to fix. (More bass= more energy needed, so more critical about filtering and power transformers)

Analogman88
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Re: Ghosting; Love it or Hate it?

Post by Analogman88 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:03 pm

Interesting... Thanks for your opinions :toast:

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