Strange overtones

  • Thread starter Thread starter pdadda
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pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
I recently bought a new amp (used), and I noticed some strange overtones when I solo over certain notes. But I tried swicthing guitars and it was still there. I notice it from about the 8-12 frets on the high E, and I hear the same thing if I play the same notes on a different string. By overtones, I mean a hear another note, lower than the one I am playing--lower in volume and frequency. What could be causing this?
 
pdadda said:
I recently bought a new amp (used), and I noticed some strange overtones when I solo over certain notes. But I tried swicthing guitars and it was still there. I notice it from about the 8-12 frets on the high E, and I hear the same thing if I play the same notes on a different string. By overtones, I mean a hear another note, lower than the one I am playing--lower in volume and frequency. What could be causing this?

Could be the tubes.
 
Tube?

Is it a tube amp? Could be a bad tube(s) or one that needs biasing.
 
Bad power supply capacitors may also cause this problem-whether its a tube or solid state amp. They will dry out over time and won't supply the voltage or current needed. :(
 
I wouldn't be so quick to blame the amp if you have multiple effects in the chain infront of the amp.
 
I get the ghost notes without any effects. Its is just more pronounced with the Big Muff Pi.
 
if it's a tube... it's way more likely to be a pre-amp not an output...certainly not a biasing problem... and i can't think of anyway it could be filter cap related either.... unlikely but possible it's a coupling cap in the tone circuit....
 
Can you find the guy who "professionally rebuilt" the amp last year? Take to him as he already knows what's going on with this unusual amp.
 
it could be the tuning of your cabinet. Try putting some stuff in the back of the cabinet, like wrap a brick in a towel and put it in the cabinet. That will alter the resonant frequencies of the cabinet and cause a shift in the overtones you're hearing if it's coming from cab tuning.

You might also try to tighten all the screws a bit.
 
I'm with the previous poster.

Can you hear it playing really loud or on smaller volume?... could be there is something loose and resonating with one or two notes..

every B-note makes the floor tom of our drummer resonate and cause a weird farting sound, Fis cause something to "purr" on the wooden building we rehearse in. :D
 
Jouni said:
I'm with the previous poster.
Yay!

Jouni said:
every B-note makes the floor tom of our drummer resonate and cause a weird farting sound, Fis cause something to "purr" on the wooden building we rehearse in. :D

Hehe, yea I remember that stuff. You have to be careful when the low E's make the glassware resonate off the shelves...
 
Another vote for some sort of resonance problem. It could be the cabinet, it could be the room in which you play.

The dimensions of the cabinet or the dimensions of the room will accentuate certain frequencies at certain amplitudes and cause stuff like that to happen. My room is terrible and untreated. I get sympathetic vibrations from the walls, bookshelves, other guitars, and knick knacks every time I fret certain notes. Like anything above the 7th fret on my low E string. Look out!
 
I tried messing around with dampening the cab to no avail. Then I brought it into the amp tech who originally worked on it. He changed out the capacitors for free and the overtones went away. Also, the hum almost completely vanished. Boo-yah!
 
pdadda said:
I tried messing around with dampening the cab to no avail. Then I brought it into the amp tech who originally worked on it. He changed out the capacitors for free and the overtones went away. Also, the hum almost completely vanished. Boo-yah!

Sounds cool, it sounded so similar to an amp problem I had 20 years back. Glad its working fine again! :D
 
Well I'll eat my words then. Glad you got it fixed. Happy playing!
 
There is still the buzz issue with the cabinet. I have tightened everything down, and it is still there. I was thinking about putting some silicon sealant all along where the speaker chassis meets the cabinet. Can anyone think of a downside to doing this?
 
Question for ya...if you turn the volume on the guitar to roughly half volume, does the "additional note" go down about the same? Second test,...turn the master volume down about halfway, does the "additional tone" do down about half". Then finally, try the same test by turning down your gain control. Don't do them all at once and don't pile them up...just one at a time. This can help to isolate where the harmonic or additional "ghost" tone is being amplified. We're looking for a response which is "non-linear". If it goes down about half volume when you turn the control down about half, you're not there yet. If it goes down a lot more in volume when you turn it down, you're on top of the amplifying stage that's responsible for bringing out the offender.

If the answer is no to all the above, you're introducing the tone to the input of the amp and it's doing what it's made to do...make it louder. On that note, if it's being introduced by pedals or external effects, simply take them out of the picture to be sure.

Anfotan is right, dried up caps can make a power supply sag. This can be a good thing as we all love our tube rectifier amps but that's done a little differently. Too much unregulated supply voltages and the amp becomes unstable and who knows what will happen. You'll probably eat up tubes and won't be able to bias them properly but it's been my experience that when this happens, they distort horribly and get real mushy sounding. They won't just act up during a solo.

Tubes...could be. Microphonic possibly but without hearing your problem it's hard to say. An old school check would be to get out a pencil, strike a chord then give each of the tubes a light tap. The thing will go nuts and ring out if you've got a microphonic tube.

Good luck...
 

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