AJ Ghent’s uniquely inspired Singing Guitar has its roots in the Sacred Steel musical style and African-American gospel traditions that developed out of a group of Pentecostal churches across the South. Ghent comes from a long line of innovative players, including his father, Aubrey Ghent Sr., and grandfather, Henry Nelson. His great uncle Willie Eason is credited as the founder of the Sacred Steel rhythmic guitar style.Ghent invited John Bohlinger and the PG team to his soundcheck before his show at Nashville’s City Winery to talk through his rig and play some inspiring music on his lap and pedal steels.
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Guitars
Ghent keeps it simple on this current solo tour. His number one is this 6-string Asher custom model lap steel built to 25" scale. The neck-through-body is African okoume wood, from the Congo, similar to mahogany but lighter. The top is quilted maple and the fretboard is rosewood. There’s a Lindy Fralin Pure PAF in the bridge, and a Fralin hum-free P90 in the neck position, hidden under a humbucker cover. There’s also a LR Baggs acoustic Tune-o-matic-style bridge, with acoustic pickups under the saddles. A Bartolini acoustic magnetic blend circuit combines with a chicken head control knob to blend the acoustic with the other pickups. Ghent uses Rocky Mountain Slides Company slides, and Dunlop finger and thumb picks. The coveted Asher is strung with Asher Electro Hawaiian Lap Steel Strings.
This 6-string Jackson Maverick HD pedal steel guitar features two foot pedals and four knee levers. It’s based on the classic Sho-Bud Maverick. Ghent runs it straight into a Goodrich volume pedal then into his amp, sans effects. The Jackson is strung with either D’Addarios or Asher Electro Hawaiian strings, depending on what is handy.
Pedalboard
Ghent’s tone is really about the guitar and the amp, but he does have a modest pedalboard that includes an Eventide H90 and a Boss RC-5 Loop Station. He uses Lava Cable to connect the dots.
Amps
AJ runs his lap steel through his pedals then onto his AJ Ghent 12" Signature Edition Guitar Amplifier by Quilter Labs. The signature combo is stacked with a Celestion Copperback speaker.
For his pedal steel, Ghent plugs directly into his Milkman The Amp 100, which feeds a Quilter Labs BlockDock 15 1x15 extension cabinet.
Shop AJ Ghent's Rig
2-Quilter Labs Overdrive 202 Guitar Head
Quilter AJ Ghent 12" Signature Edition Guitar Amplifier
Quilter Labs BlockDock 12CB 1 x 12" Extension Cabinet
Boss RC-5 Loop Station Compact
Eventide H90 Harmonizer Multi-Effects Pedal
Quilter Labs BlockDock 15 1 x 15" Extension Cabinet
Celestion Copperback 12-inch 250-watt Guitar Amp Replacement Speaker
For the first time we managed to house four distinct tones in our popular block-style enclosure.
Clean Channel
The big brother to our 101 Reverb. “Tone Stack” EQ section married with an active mid control for a wide range of high headroom.
Crunch Channel
A preset mid scoop is engaged for a tight mid-gain tone. EQ controls are defeated and the Drive Channel’s Gain and Output are activated so desired saturation and volume balance can be easily achieved.
Lead Channel
The lead channel shares the EQ setting with the clean Channel so to not have a dramatic shift in tone between voicings. The gain structure is based on rare and collectable early cascading gain stage amplifiers. The Gain and Output controls also become active and is balanced with Crunch Channel.
Bonus: Lead + Crunch
Engaging both the lead and crunch channel delivers the high gain tone of the Lead Channel and removes the EQ from the circuit for an unrefined heavy tone.
Footswitch
The Overdrive 200 accepts a standard two position footswitch with or without LEDs. In the interest of saving you money we have decided to not offer a Quilter branded footswitch. Generic footswitches are widely available at music stores around the world. We have included an adhesive label with every Overdrive 200 so that you can label any footswitch of your choosing.
The Quilter OverDrive 200 features:
- 200 watts of power 4 to 8 Ohms
- Two Channels, 4 modes
- Clean channel: Gain & Output
- Dirt channel: Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, & Master controls
- 1/4" high impedance input jack
- Effects Loop: 1/4" Send and Return jacks
- 1/4" Headphone jack for quiet practice
- Dual 1/4" speaker outputs for variable loads 16 to 4 ohms
- Locking IEC power cable
- Universal power supply – automatically works anywhere in the world
- Ultra compact (roughly the size of a double wide effects pedal)
- 3.15" (80mm) x 8.5" (216mm) x 5.8" (147mm)
- 4 Pounds (1.8kg)
The Quilter OverDrive 200 has begun shipping to one of the hundreds of Quilter dealers in the US and internationally, contact your favorite Quilter dealer to pre-order yours today.
“The Quilter OverDrive 200 represents world class tone, power, portability, and flexibility at a fraction of the weight and cost of ordinary guitar amplification.” Says company CEO Chris Parks. “You could spend much more and get much less.”
For more information:
Quilter Labs
