ghost FAQ: Technical
What ghost parts do I need to order?
To get Acoustic sound from your electric guitar, you need the PE-0240-00 Acousti-Phonic. To add MIDI capability to your electric guitar, you need the PE-0440-00 Hexpander. For either of these, you also need saddle pickups to fit your guitar; these are always ordered as a separate item, because they are different for each type of guitar.
The Acousti-Phonic and Hexpander will function without the accessories -- these are truly optional. If you're thinking of getting more than one of the accessories, consider the Kits, which include either the Acousti-Phonic or Hexpander and all the accessories. These save some money and the hassle of ordering individual items.
Is the QuickSwitch available in gold finish?
We only stock the QuickSwitch in chrome finish, but the switch is a regular on/off/on SPDT mini toggle, available at most guitar parts retailers. You can special-order the QuickSwitch harness-only by phone (for half the price), but you may find it easier to order the whole QuickSwitch assembly and just move the wires over to your gold switch one at a time. Then you'll have an extra silver switch for making an A/B switch or coil tap or something. If you get the harness only, the wiring to the switch is detailed in the Acousti-Phonic wiring diagram.
What's the advantage of building a ghost-only instrument?
In a lot of ways, magnetic pickups are "throwback" technology. They're what we had in 1950, and what we've been using for half a century, and a lot of technology and music has developed around them. If you want to use a rack of effects that was made for magnetic pickups, and get a lot of traditional guitar sounds, then you will need magnetic pickups.
There is an increasing number of musicians developing ghost-only instruments because of the increases in sound possibilities and sound reinforcement options. This way 1) you can get a true acoustic sound directly off the saddles, even with steel electric guitar strings. 2) you open the door to MIDI and virtual instruments, as well as guitar and amp modeling. 3) you can create traditional guitar, as well as sounds guitars have never made before. 4) you are not restricted to using steel strings. Nylon, bronze, and gut strings work with piezo elements. 5) now days you never play a gig without sound reinforcement, and sound reinforcement introduces feedback issues, but piezo saddles offer the greatest immunity to feedback.
The only down side is you won't be able to make use of the microphonics in magnetic pickups to generate wailing feedback, ignite your uke with lighter fluid, etc. Perhaps that's part of your act.
Can you suggest some soldering tips for working on guitars?
A soldering iron rated at 25 to 30 Watts should be about right for soldering in a guitar's control cavity. These are commonly available at Radio Shack/Circuit City, and some hardware stores. Here are my soldering tips:
1) apply a small amount of solder to the tip of your iron just before you begin heating the joint. This provides "wetting" which is a liquid heat bridge between the iron's tip and the wire or contact. It increases the surface area in contact between the two.
2) pre-tin your wires, pots, and your contacts too. This means that before you try to join a wire to a pot or a contact, melt some solder onto each one separately first. It takes a lot of heat to get a pot up to temperature, and not very much to heat up a wire, so trying to do both at the same time is asking for trouble. Once both are tinned, you can heat up the pot in the spot you tinned, and introduce the tinned wire to the melted puddle of solder.
3) The sequence for soldering is: Heat in - solder in - solder out - heat out. And remember to hold the wire steady until the solder has completely cooled. If you pre-tin your leads, you may not have to add solder, so it's just heat in - heat out, and hold it steady until it cools -- count the seconds it takes to heat up the joint, and hold the joint steady at least that long while it cools down.
4) Cleanliness is important. You can clean the tip of your soldering iron before each joint by wiping it on a damp sponge, a damp rag, or a ball of steel wool. You will find the solder more obedient if the process is kept clean.
5) If you have to re-do a joint, add in a little fresh solder as you heat the joint. There is a cleaner in the solder (called either rosin or flux) that cleans the metal when it heats up.
As you get more practice, you will be able to go quickly, and do the little dance with the molten metal, and your joints will get easier and prettier.
Which way does the QuickSwitch go so that the mag position is where I want it?
When the switch is towards the side of the switch with the blue wire, that's the mag position. This means, however, that the connection is between the center lug and the red wire. The acoustic-only position is when the center lug is connected to the blue wire, and the switch is toward the red-wire side of the switch.
Yeah, those little switches work backwards inside.
What type of switch is the QuickSwitch?
The QuickSwitch is a SPDT on-off-on, so neither wire is connected when the toggle is in the center position. It actually functions as a mute switch, shorting the signal you don't want to ground. In the middle position, the switch makes no connection, hence the "-off-" position.
My QuickSwitch isn't working properly. What's wrong?
Check that you have plugged in the QuickSwitch correctly, with the colored wires on the row with all the other colored wires, and the black wires on the ground row with all the other black wires. Plugging in the QuickSwitch turned 90 or 180 degrees will make the switching options peculiar.
Do I have to convert my tone pot to install the Acousti-Phonic, or can I drill a hole in my guitar and add a new pot for acoustic volume?
If you use the tone pot a lot, you can add a new pot for acoustic volume, rather than converting a tone pot to a volume pot. If you don't want to drill a hole in your guitar top, install a stacked pot (500k or 250k).
I want to be able to adjust the blend between the magnetic pickups and the ghost saddle pickups. Which product will allow me to do that?
The most basic way is to order just your saddles and the Acousti-Phonic, and sacrifice your tone control to become the volume pot for the acoustic pickup. This allows you to blend in the acoustic sound, and still adjust your magnetic volume separately. If you think you'll miss having tone control, also get the Mid/Dark pot, which gives you two tone positions, instead of a tone knob.
How exactly are the ghost pickups fitted?
Ghost pickups are fitted as replacement saddles that you install on your existing bridge. Graph Tech makes saddles to fit many different types of guitar. These are always ordered as a separate item from the ghost Hexpander or Acousti-Phonic so you can get just the components you need for your guitar.
Is it possible to have a USB port in addition to the 13 PIN jack combined in one output plate?
It is possible, but it's not yet part of the ghost system. Keep checking our new product announcements for a USB module.
Can the ghost system be used with other manufacturer's components?
Yes, many piezo technologies are similar enough that they will interface successfully. Often the biggest difficulty is getting parts from different manufacturers physically hooked up together. Other companies don't use the nifty plug-in connectors like the ghost system, so you're in for some stripping and soldering.
An inexpensive way to interface another manufacturer's piezo bridge with the ghost system is to order the Extension Harness and solder wires from the bridge to the pins on the harness. That way the other manufacture's bridge will plug in to the ghost system.
BE-0511-00 ghost Extension Wiring Harness
For inspiration, check out what a couple of other creative customers have done:
http://www.pbase.com/agitprop/graphtech_ghost_hexpander_install
http://www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/guitars13.htm
