JHV3 Ghost Drive User Guide

Ghost Drive – V2F-L

Thank you for trusting JHV3 with your tone!

The design goal of the Ghost Drive
was to leverage the best ideas and
techniques into one pedal to create
an unusually versatile and inspiring
overdrive/boost to equip the player
for most any environment where they
need an outstanding drive tone,
enabling you to attain many different
forms of natural grit and overdrive
while preserving the magical dynamic
between your guitar and amp. Each
circuit is inspired by several great
pedals/builders that made a
significant difference in the way we
play. Several years were invested in
trial, error and iterations leveraging
component selection and techniques
to please the most demanding tone
snobs.

The independent clean boost and
drive sections were paired together in
the same enclosure to create an
remarkably versatile tool that
leverages the benefits of pairing
similar effects that would otherwise require more resources from your equipment setup. Here you'll find a range
from extremely transparent chime to warm/fat/rounded chunk. Certain to be one of the most useful low to
medium gain pedals you’ll ever own, this pedal will serve you well for years and quickly become a trusty “secret
weapon” whether you're playing live or trying to nail a remarkable in-context tone that get's you called back again
and again for session work.

As simple as you want it to be. Plug it up, dial everything to noon and go! On the other hand, if you're more into
the fine details of crafting tone that's unique to you, there's plenty of details to give you control over your dirt of
choice.

As a designer/builder my hope is that the Ghost Drive helps to inspire some of the greatest playing and art you'll
ever produce. As a listener, I'm looking forward to enjoying what you come up with!

Internal Trim Pots

There are three more adjustments on the inside to help fine tune the Ghost Drive for your unique application:

Drive Bass Control - Adjust this
control to find the sweet spot between
your specific guitar and amp
combination. Leaving it neutral plus a
bit will allow single coil guitars to
remain full sounding without becoming
muddy. If your main guitars are
usually darker sounding (semi or full
hollow bodies) dialing this back a bit will help your tone cut rather than become "woompy" at higher gain settings.
It leaves the JHV3 shop at a fairly neutral position that covers most single and double coil solid body guitars.

PURE Gain Control – (read Gain here as the ratio of input to output, not as adding “dirt” or another drive
control) This is the amount of unaffected clean signal that is available as you mix clean and drive signal

together. Adjust the pot to fine tune the dynamic of adjusting the Pure knob which changes the amount of clean
signal relative to it's (PURE) position. The Pure is designed to introduce clean into the drive signal from about
4:00 to 8:00 (at noon is 1/3 clean, 2/3 grit). Max to the right (5:00) is no clean signal, you'll hear exactly what the
drive alone sounds like. Max to the left (7:00) is all clean buffered signal from the input, the Drive output volume
knob still controls the overall signal level when the drive is engaged. With the Pure knob turned full CCW the
Drive side becomes another pristine clean boost! (See how you can leverage this to your favor below.)

Clean Boost Gain - Adjust this to increase available volume at the Boost control. Setting this trim high will add a
bit of top end sizzle to your notes after 12 on the level control. Decrease if you begin to hear noise in the boost. If
running the pedal on an 18v supply, you may need to decrease this pot to get rid of the same type of noise.

Clipping Switches

The Asymmetrical and Symmetrical clipping switches are designed to provide multiple contours or intentional grit
that pre-shapes the signal waveform before hitting your pre-amp tubes. These shapes or “feels” range from very
transparent/open/full/articulate to more compressed/singing/traditional boutique overdrive. Because the main
audio path of the Ghost Drive is intended to maintain the original content of your guitars tone the more clipping
you select the more you'll need to adjust the output volume to get back to your original signal strength. Even at
the most compressed setting (asym switch up) there's an abundance of available volume to drive the front end of
any amp into saturation. Each setting interacts with the gain, tone and pure control differently. It's safe to
consider that each position is like having a completely different overdrive pedal. Each of these may need minor
adjustments to land the grit texture you're looking for.

The new Ghost Drive (made from April 2012) has clipping components in every position. Earlier versions do not
when both switches are set to the middle position. This can be modified for the cost of return shipping to JHV3,
or a DIY instruction set can be made available.

Asym - middle, Sym - Middle

Most open/full/articulate, breaks up later in the gain
range. Loudest of all settings, great for mild amp-like
rhythm tones. Articulate high end with the most
headroom and sparkle.

Asym - middle, Sym - down

Very similar to the mid-mid setting, but earlier breakup in
the gain range. This range is the same as most other
"transparent" overdrives. Adjust volume to match or
boost output.

Asym - middle, Sym - up

Slightly more grit range as mid-down setting with a
rounder top end. Gives the overall drive a more sustain­ish singing tone with a tighter bottom end. Adjust
volume to match or boost output. (Great for detuned
riffing too!)

Asym - down, Sym - middle

About the same volume as the mid-down setting but
twice as much clipping on one half of the waveform.
Grit takes on a more complex nature, feels "looser" and
when dialing in a slight amount of PURE you can hear a
very rich and colorful overdrive that makes your amp
think it's a lot bigger than it really is! Sizzle, chunk and sparkle.