ghost fizz

Singtall

Experienced
Vendor
i apologize if this has been covered a million times before but.....

when i roll back my guitar volume control there is a kind of high end distortion/ghost crap going on. it happens on every amp model that i've tried. what i'm shooting for is that EVH roll the volume back to clean up thing. the plexi amp model really makes this distorted thing happen a lot. i tried downloading the EVH plexi preset that Cliff made about a month or so ago and i hear the same thing with it also. i tried other guitars, cables, and IR's just to be sure of what i was hearing.

and yes, i can post a clip of what i'm talking about.

any/all help would be appreciated.
 
IMO, EVH's volume-knob "cleaned up" tones still have a fair amount of hair on them. Most of the amp models I've tried can be dialed in to clean up very well with a twist of the volume knob. Not so easy if you're running with a significant amount of preamp distortion.
 
Have you tried lowering the input trim trick? I have a few EVH presets that I have been stuck on for quite a wile and the pups that I have are a tad hot so I just lower the IT until I get what I need.
 
https://soundcloud.com/singtall/ghost-fizz

for this preset i used the brit pre with low master volume. even with the "ideal" setting it makes the unwanted distortion sound.


Yep, that "Ghost Fizz" showed up with firmware v10.00 (for me anyway) and has been bothering me as well. I have several patches where I can lower and raise the gain by having an expression pedal controlling the Level parameter of a Drive block that is active in the patches. Whenever I lower the Drive blocks Level with my pedal, that unwanted distortion shows up. It is also just as present when lowering a high gain amp sims Input Drive or Overdrive (for the amp sims that have them) controls.

I'm no expert on all the various characteristics of tube amps, but this overlaying distortion really doesn't sound normal or like it should be there.



P.S. Thanks for starting this thread Singtall. I've been wanting to start one myself, but really didn't know how to describe the problem. "Ghost Fizz" is pretty good. ;)
 
Last edited:
i agree, this problem wasn't always there. matter of fact; i didn't have this problem with the Ultra either. when i got the axe-fx II, it was on v9 i believe. i'm not sure when the problem started, but it's there and it really bothers me. i considered going to another preamp for live use until this issue is figured out.
 
Could you please post your patch? I'm interested in seeing if I get the same thing. I am using medium output Bareknuckle pickups (black dog bridge in particular).
 
A few questions:

-You have hot pups. Are you getting this with every guitar?
-Have you 'zeroed' out your amp models to start them from scratch after a FW update?
-Have you eliminated every possible 'phase' issue here? I've noticed that if I have 2 cabs in stereo, and I have a MIC involved, I will *sometimes* get an odd phase thing that doesn't sound right. (The SM57 has been a recurring theme for me.) Going MIC - 'NONE' works and viola'...gone.
-What have you done (or tried) to get rid of it?

R
 
Was eager to know what

Have you 'zeroed' out your amp models to start them from scratch after a FW update?

meant. How do we do that?
 
It is part of the modeled amp.

It happens to varying degrees with my real amps. you don't notice it as much on real amps as much because your ear is generally pretty far away and off axis to the speaker.
the close mic'ing really brings it out.

You can reduce it by using the ideal/smooth modeling mode and increasing the power amp bias.
 
Last edited:
there is only so much room for really hot pups to clean up.

No, not really. It's all about voltage to the input. Let's say pickup X gets the desired 'cleaned up sound' with the volume control on '5'. Pickup Y, which puts out 50% more voltage than pickup X, will generate the same voltage to the input, if you just lower the volume more.

Pickup Y will sound a little darker at that level, due to the increased series resistance on the voltage divider (the pot), all else equal, but it will 'clean up' just as well as anything else.

Pickups don't distort or compress, they're just voltage generators.
 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5622773/Singtall presets.zip

it happens on all of my presets, regardless of pickups and cab selection. i normally don't use a mic either. i tried all of the amp settings including "ideal" and none clear it up.

the worse offender is the "singtall plexi crunch" preset. any cranked master volume makes the problem worse.

i have mic'd up a number of tube amps and never heard that kind of fizz. i just tried the same guitars on two different tube heads and the ghost fizz just isn't there at all. i tried the same guitars on a digitech rp1000 and a eleven rack and i don't hear it there either.

i hope its a simple setting to fix it.
 
Back
Top Bottom