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Variax Standard Ghost Notes In Alternate Tunings


lespaulbonamassa
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Hello

I have a issue with Ghost Notes In Alternate Tunings on my Variax Standard bought  desember 2016,

some tunings low E. A, D and E, sounds awful.

Reinstalled Workbench HD 2.12 and I tried reflashing the guitar, it's the same.

in standard tunning no problem.

is there anybody who's got this issue?, what can i do?

 

I have Line6 monkey 1.72

Workbench HD 2.12

USB firmware 1.03

and TylerVariax_2.21

 

Line6 monkey say : This item is up to date.

 

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I also had problems with alt tuning on my Variax Standard.  Sent it back to Line6 under warranty. See my thread right below yours    http://line6.com/support/topic/25019-alt-tuning    .  Apparently the issue on mine was being caused by the mag pups being out of adjustment.  I assume too close to the strings.  I am supposed to get it back next Tuesday.  Does yours sound like the mp3 files I attached to my thread?

 

Ben   

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Is it possible you are hearing the original notes produced acoustically along with the modeled alt tuning notes?

 

 

Reply to uber guru answer is : no

 

...

 

 

I have no problem in standard but all the other alternate tunings it's like double sound on some strings

 

In my experience most reports of this sort end up being caused by exactly what Triryche has suggested. The acoustic vibration of the physical string (in standard tuning) is surprisingly loud to the human ear, given its close proximity to the ear when you're playing. It's only a foot or two away from your ear and it's easy to get confused about it.

 

There's really only one way to tell. Record a segment while your guitar is in an alternate tuning mode. The recording will definitely not pick up the natural string vibration. If you play back the recording and the dissonance is present then there's an actual problem. But my guess is you won't hear the dissonance in the playback, which confirms that what you're hearing is the natural vibration. The only way around that it to turn your guitar amp/speakers up really loud - very surprisingly loud - in order to drown out the natural string vibration to your ears.

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  • 11 months later...

I tried using cheap closed-back headphones to suppress the ghost notes, but that didn't work. However

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006NY2IUW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

which are industrial ear defenders with speakers inside so that the wearer can listen to portable music seemed to do the trick well enough. Its possible that a more expensive closed back, around ear, pair of headphones (or active noise cancelling ones) might give enough sound isolation, but it would be a matter of trial and error to find which work and which don't.

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  • 2 months later...

Triryche is spot on. I tried an experiment by listening to my JTV-69 through headphones plugged into the headphone jack of a small practice amp that I have. This negated my amp's speaker so that I could only  hear my guitar through the headphones. I tested all alternate tunings, and all ghost tones were gone. I was pretty amazed how the acoustic resonance of the guitar was indeed causing the hearing of these ghost tones.

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On 1/31/2017 at 3:23 PM, jbuhajla said:

The magnetic pickups shouldn't have any effect when you are running the Variax models. Variax models/alt tunings only use the piezo pickups in the bridge.  

Unless of coursee you have mags blended in wour model which can be adjusted in Workbench.

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  • 4 years later...

I'm posting in this ancient thread as it seems to be the newest thread on this ongoing problem. I recently bought a JTV-69S for use in a cover band that requires alternate tunings. The ghost note issues have rendered it pretty much unusable. I opened a ticket with support and the response was as if they've never heard of it :)  In my case, I get them ANY time the Variax system is being used, sometimes even with standard tuning. They are far off from the intended notes, like a high sitar sound. NOT the sound of the actual strings (1/2 step off etc.). It happens primarily on the high strings. Adding to the mystery, the problems happen frequently at gigs, yet I am unable to cause it to happen at home. My guess is there's something about the ambient noise on stage that is contributing to the issue, the only other thing I can think of is some wireless interference (everyone is using in ear monitors and there are multiple wireless mics). All that said, the stage volume is quite low (NO amps, monitors, even drums are electronic).  I'm continuing to explore damping, I started with foam in the area between nut and tuners and the trem springs. However that did not solve the issue. Now I'm carefully placing foam on the string behind the bridge and also am damping the springs of the bridge saddles. I'll make another attempt at my gig tonight but have little confidence in success. The last couple of times I tried the ghost notes were so bad I had to change guitars in the middle a song. Bottom line, VERY disappointed. It seems now that the JTV-69S is discontinued? Hm... I wonder why??? :) 

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1- Dual tone effect,... hearing the standard tuned strings at the guitar and alternate tuned strings from the amp.

Very apparent with 1/2-step down (semitone difference) as that and a tritone are the most dissonant of the intervals.

Not using amps,... carefully,... carefully bring up the amplitude. 1) turning up the amp, you hear more amp an less string,

2) over the ear headphones, or in your case in-ear monitors.

 

2- Warbling,... a result of the pick-up heights not correctly adjusted and set, and can aggravate #1 even more.

 

3- Tuning and intonation,... has to be more spot on than with regular passive electronic guitars.

 

 

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