Help! Speaker cab on the fritz!
- Thread starter B2D
- Start date
J Moose
New member
Re: Help! Speaker cab on the fritz!
Sorry man I got busy for a few days and haven't been over here.
Yah, that's freakin' weird! It sounds fine with the clean channel but dirt has gone to hell?
Strangeness.
What's your theory because I don't have one! :smash:
B2D said:Well here's a riddle for you then...
Pulled the speakers out and did the push test you described for me. The result? No noise. No rubbing or clicking. No NOTHING.
I thought it was a bad connection so I tightened everything up and checked everything for looseness. After everything was fastened down, I plugged in the amp again and after a few moments, the crackling and whoompfing started again. BOTH speakers are doing this.
I did notice that this ONLY happens with the dirty channel, and when I play loudly and hit chords hard. I recognize it immediately because the sustain gets killed right away.
Anyways I turned the amp off right away and I proceeded to practice for the rest of the day through a Marshall 1960A cab I borrowed from a friend. The amp sounds great and performs flawlessly. No whoompfing or farting to be heard.
So the push test produces no results, it's not a bad connection, it's not the amp. So the speakers act as if they're blown (on the dirty channel only) but do not click or rub when pushed. Could they be blown and not seem like it from the push test?
This is so damned frustrating. I have a theory as to what is causing this but I'll reserve it until I get an answer from J.
Your move, J.
Sorry man I got busy for a few days and haven't been over here.
Yah, that's freakin' weird! It sounds fine with the clean channel but dirt has gone to hell?
Strangeness.
What's your theory because I don't have one! :smash:
Re: Help! Speaker cab on the fritz!
Lemme put it this way... this cab has ALWAYS been pretty vibration-sensitive, much more so than other cabs. In fact using the Legacy with it I could never turn up the reverb a whole lot or else the vibrations from the cab would rattle the reverb tank and make the springs produce false tones.
Anyways... the Legacy isn't a real gainy amp but it puts out a TON of bass for a guitar amp. Bass that REALLY drove the speakers and made the cab rattle a lot...
You know how for all objects, there is a wave frequency at which they will vibrate a lot? I think the bass frequencies and overtones that the speakers and amp were putting out was causing that cab to vibrate especially hard and I think the vibrations eventually damaged the drivers just enough to cause them to fart out when played loud.
I play the Marshall cab and it doesn't vibrate at ALL (hence no reverb problem) and the overall sound is much tighter.
Am I making sense here? Like I said this is the only idea that makes sense to me.
J Moose said:
Lemme put it this way... this cab has ALWAYS been pretty vibration-sensitive, much more so than other cabs. In fact using the Legacy with it I could never turn up the reverb a whole lot or else the vibrations from the cab would rattle the reverb tank and make the springs produce false tones.
Anyways... the Legacy isn't a real gainy amp but it puts out a TON of bass for a guitar amp. Bass that REALLY drove the speakers and made the cab rattle a lot...
You know how for all objects, there is a wave frequency at which they will vibrate a lot? I think the bass frequencies and overtones that the speakers and amp were putting out was causing that cab to vibrate especially hard and I think the vibrations eventually damaged the drivers just enough to cause them to fart out when played loud.
I play the Marshall cab and it doesn't vibrate at ALL (hence no reverb problem) and the overall sound is much tighter.
Am I making sense here? Like I said this is the only idea that makes sense to me.
J Moose
New member
Re: Help! Speaker cab on the fritz!
That's kind of a standard thing. In the studio I never stick the head on top of or even near the cab if I can. It's not just reverb, but the extra vibration causes weird tube noises and artifects and some guys say that it shortens the life of the tubes, but I'm not sure that's entirely true but it seems plausible. I do the same thing at gigs if I have enough space to get away with it and stick the head on a milkcrate or leave it on the ground.
Yah it's called the "resonant frequency". Everything has one, even the human chest cavity is centered around 50Hz depending on the person. The cab vibrations wouldn't kill the speakers but the low end from the amp could. Guitar speakers aren't really designed to take low end punishment for long periods of time at loud levels. What you're describing is pretty typical of speakers that aren't caked but are getting close to it. With continued use they will pop at some future date. Though if they're making noise like that now they should also do it with the clean channel at higher volumes and be obvious with extra low-end, especially if you put a synth or guitar & octave pedal through there.
It won't help 'ya now but if you hear speakers bottoming (farting) out in the future back the level down and/or low end ASAP!
B2D said:
That's kind of a standard thing. In the studio I never stick the head on top of or even near the cab if I can. It's not just reverb, but the extra vibration causes weird tube noises and artifects and some guys say that it shortens the life of the tubes, but I'm not sure that's entirely true but it seems plausible. I do the same thing at gigs if I have enough space to get away with it and stick the head on a milkcrate or leave it on the ground.
Yah it's called the "resonant frequency". Everything has one, even the human chest cavity is centered around 50Hz depending on the person. The cab vibrations wouldn't kill the speakers but the low end from the amp could. Guitar speakers aren't really designed to take low end punishment for long periods of time at loud levels. What you're describing is pretty typical of speakers that aren't caked but are getting close to it. With continued use they will pop at some future date. Though if they're making noise like that now they should also do it with the clean channel at higher volumes and be obvious with extra low-end, especially if you put a synth or guitar & octave pedal through there.
It won't help 'ya now but if you hear speakers bottoming (farting) out in the future back the level down and/or low end ASAP!
Re: Help! Speaker cab on the fritz!
Usually at the gigs I do I don't have the space for that. Would a blanket or a towel stuck between the head and the cab help dampen vibrations?
The amp's a very chunky, dark amp and I never have the low end past 5, otherwise I'd rival the bass player. I use a delay pedal, a wah, an Fulltone Ultimate octave, and and chorus as effects. I play loud but not STUPID loud and i do use an attenuator most of the time.
The stock speakers in the legacy cabs are vintage 30s... i had one v30 and one Eminence Wizard...
Still dunno what couldve happened other than excessive bass, but i dont have the bass up loud enough to do that, or so I thought.
Freak accident? :smack:
J Moose said:
Usually at the gigs I do I don't have the space for that. Would a blanket or a towel stuck between the head and the cab help dampen vibrations?
The amp's a very chunky, dark amp and I never have the low end past 5, otherwise I'd rival the bass player. I use a delay pedal, a wah, an Fulltone Ultimate octave, and and chorus as effects. I play loud but not STUPID loud and i do use an attenuator most of the time.
The stock speakers in the legacy cabs are vintage 30s... i had one v30 and one Eminence Wizard...
Still dunno what couldve happened other than excessive bass, but i dont have the bass up loud enough to do that, or so I thought.
Freak accident? :smack:
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