amp tone dies out

Rhon · #1 01-02-2012, 03:20 PM

ive got the tone i wanted from my amp but after about 15mins the tone dies out and the tone starts to go flat. My tone is bright and the amp i use is a Gk RB III 115. i bought it used. My question is, is this normal?

jelwood · #2 01-02-2012, 03:22 PM

Is it a combo amp or a separate amp head and cabinet? What do you mean the tone goes flat? Does it lose all the high end? Lose the low end? The mids?

JimmyM · #3 01-02-2012, 03:24 PM

Are you playing really loud? Ear fatigue could be causing it if you are. If not, no it's not normal.

::::BASSIST:::: · #4 01-02-2012, 03:28 PM

Not sure if this will help but...

If you like super bright, you might try a sansamp bddi. With its 'presence' and 'treble' this box will help you sound VERY bright. Bypass your pre and use your amp's poweramp and you might solve the problem.

Just a thought.

Rhon · #5 01-02-2012, 03:30 PM

its a combo amp and i mean eq wise it goes flat. basically the high mids and treble go away and it begins to sound bassy. i like a bright tone. my settings are about 45% treble, 70% low mid 70% high mid and about 30% bass. it sounds like the treble goes down to 30 and the high mid goes to 50.

Rhon · #6 01-02-2012, 03:32 PM

ive tried that pedal and i did like the tone but the same thing would happen. the tone coloring would start to dissappear. its a used amp. the only problem is for some reason when i turn prescence up it would feedback with my epiphone eb0 (humbucker)

Rhon · #7 01-02-2012, 03:37 PM

oh, and no i dont play very loud probably a quarter of the volume of a 240 watt amp

Gearhead17 · #8 01-02-2012, 05:18 PM

Definitely not normal at all. Time for a new combo setup.

bassgod0dmw · #9 01-02-2012, 05:48 PM

Yep, not normal.

RobJ · #10 01-02-2012, 06:10 PM

Time for a trip to the shop, definitely not normal.

precision punk · #11 01-02-2012, 06:20 PM

Maybe the strings lost that fresh zing and you are confusing it with the amp being problematic?

Rhon · #12 01-02-2012, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by precision punk

Maybe the strings lost that fresh zing and you are confusing it with the amp being problematic?

no thats not it, the tone is there when i turn my amp on then the tone dies out its been doing that ever since i switched my tone from a "fat mike bass" tone to a completely different bright tone. and i thought a pedal would fix that but the same thing would happen, my brother said that the 115 just cant handle all that brightness after awhile but its not clipping so i doubt it and its not being played super loud.

sooo theres no fix? thanks for all the replies

JimmyM · #13 01-02-2012, 06:39 PM

Your brother's wrong about that, sorry. Speakers don't just lose their high end after 15 minutes of playing then get it back after you give it a rest, even 15"s.

lowendgenerator · #14 01-02-2012, 06:45 PM

You know, I kinda experience this same phenomenon with my GK rig. When I start a song, the tone is super bright, in a good way, nice and articulate. By the end of the song, it sounds like I've killed my strings. It's not a HUGE difference, but I can definitely tell. My amps fan kicks on and runs hard when I'm playing, the amp gets pretty hot. Maybe I'm draining some high end capacitor?

Should probably mention that I'm pushing my amp pretty hard, playing drop C through an 810E.

RobJ · #15 01-02-2012, 06:46 PM

Before something can be fixed the problem cause needs to be identified. Assuming you aren't hearing things, if the behavior is consistent in that after running the amp for about 15 minutes higher frequencies seem to be rolling off I suspect some component begins to fail as the amp heats up. Just my guess of course and the reason I suggested a trip to the shop for evaluation.

JimmyM · #16 01-02-2012, 06:50 PM

Ya, it's definitely not something you can work on yourself.

SmithLee · #17 01-02-2012, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowendgenerator

You know, I kinda experience this same phenomenon with my GK rig. When I start a song, the tone is super bright, in a good way, nice and articulate. By the end of the song, it sounds like I've killed my strings. It's not a HUGE difference, but I can definitely tell. My amps fan kicks on and runs hard when I'm playing, the amp gets pretty hot. Maybe I'm draining some high end capacitor?

Should probably mention that I'm pushing my amp pretty hard, playing drop C through an 810E.

If it's a 1001rb. i have one and when i ran it through low watt speakers such as 200 watt 8 ohm cabs x2 = 4 ohm..It was very hot. Now i run through 800 watt 8x10 4 ohm stays cool. All cabs svt ampeg. depends on the pad too. I have mine in.

lowendgenerator · #18 01-02-2012, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmithLee

If it's a 1001rb. i have one and when i ran it through low watt speakers such as 200 watt 8 ohm cabs x2 = 4 ohm..It was very hot. Now i run through 800 watt 8x10 4 ohm stays cool. All cabs svt ampeg. depends on the pad too. I have mine in.

I'm running it at 4ohms into an Ampeg 810 also. It's at a good roar for hours at a time. I expect it to get hot.

Rhon · #19 01-02-2012, 07:12 PM

its a 19year old amp soo yea maybe something went bad,thanks for all the help ill see if GC's pro coverage covers this

James Judson · #20 01-02-2012, 07:26 PM

I'm surprised you get any tone at all from that combination. I recently took my eb-3 to a jam. The host bass player had a GK and his tone was killer. I could do nothing to get that old gibson to sound good. Gibson/GK compatability issues???

Is it possible your band is covering up your tone. Thats happened to me on several occasions when I was trying to use effects. Bass sounded great til the band started up.

I reccommend trying a different bass before blaming the amp.

19 yo amp??? I'm not taking bets.