Ok . So here goes my first post . Gonna kind of seem like a whiner post but please accept my apologies in advance .
So I am NO bass player per se. Although I have been a musician for a number of my 52 years . I've kinda been around the block and down about a million back alleys lugging gear my fair share over the years I suppose . But I will spare you all my war stories and get right to the meat of things .
I primarily have been a blues musician in my semi-pro status you might say . I've bought and sold about a gazzillion dollars in equip of all kinds over the years as I am sure most on this forum has done as well .
With that said, several musician pals of mine have sort of sparked my interest in learning bass in my old age . Although my music influences range from all the REAL MUSIC that stems from the 50's , 60's and 70's, (here's where you can laugh if you like ), I've taken up ukulele in the recent past quite adamantly . Currently I have acquired a pile of all flavors of custom luthier ( mostly USA made ) ukulele .
My bass playing buds that play well across genre and instrument lines convinced me to purchase a Kala UBass and of course, that's what I did a few weeks back .
Being in need of a small amp of reliable quality, coupled with the little knowldege I think I hold in amps and not needing a million watts, two words came to mind . Ampeg and BA110 . So of course , I purchased one today .
Got the Ampeg BA110 home and did the normal thing . Fired it up and away I go . To the ill effect of ..........
BBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTT !
FFFFAAARRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTT !
Sounds most awesome in all other respects though . lol
It seems to truly be the perfect setups for my needs, but good Grief Charlie Brown. That's not a fart. That's one mean nasty rattle . I MEAN BAD BAD BAD .
So naturally I went in search online to see if any forums mentioned the noise . Seems I found several threads addressing such and issue . They seemed identical to mine .But noen addressed the possiblity of sa loose baffle brace. Most all the racket came off the E string , but it really isolates nicely as an F# disaster . F# across the spectrum sets this thing off in one fool of a fit of bbbbbbbbrrrrrrtttttt, ffffffrrrrrtttttttt .
My first notion was speaker rattle, thinking maybe it wasn't screwed down tight enough . Come to learn, nearly every screw in the thing ( not only the speaker screws ) needed a fair bit of tweeking . All but one screw on one of the rubber feet were even close to being bottomed out.
I took the speaker out and looked for anything loose in there . NOTHING ! I've heard these amps before at all volumes and at all onboard EQ variances and had never heard such as any of them sound anything but great .
This one is on a mission to not only rattle like mad, but also a mission to rattle my last nerve with so much extraneous RACKET .
I tried the gentle touching of the edges of the speaker basket to see if that would make it stop . " VOILE " , not a single rattle with my foot touching the speaker basket edge . But just how much fun is it to play like that ? NONE.
I took the speaker back out and fooled with it again but to NO avail . Put the speaker back in and still had the BAD rattle unless my foot was touching the speaker basket . All the rubber gsskets were in place and it just seemed impossible to be coming directly from the speaker rattling on the mounting baffle . SO ....... I touch my big toe to the speaker baffle board and again , " VOILE' " no rattle .
All that dissertation to say that I am absolutley amazed Ampeg is building any of their units at any price point with such a defect as that . My guess is that all the other threads in regard to farting and buzzing will find if they put pressure on the speaker baffle, all that will go away .
I can play this thing at any volume and at any on board EQ setting and it sounds absolutely SHMOKIN with the UBass . Take your foot off the baffle and all the world sounds like it is coming apart at the seems .
So here I sit whinning like a girl scout and kinda pissed . Actually, highly pissed . Ought not be pissed really because truth be told, I'm old enough and far enough down the rail on this old music train that I know things just aren't always perfect .
For the most part , I went through all this long windedness for twofold cause . One is to see if anyone else had the baffle super rattle and to possibly and politely suggest that the past problems some thought was speaker buzz, may well want to take a look at their baffle and be no more baffled at their buzz .
The good news is that I got the Pro Warranty . The bad news is that I bought it at GC and for me to get to GC and back for a full replacement within 60 days is awful tough . Otherwise I have to send it back and wait .
I thought I was buying the Ampeg Pro Warranty when I bought it which pays for anything and everything for two years . GC warranty pays for everything except for shipping . That's yet another pisser .
To add insult to injury here, just as soon as I got off the phone with GC, I Google Ampeg and it seems they no longer have a website at ampeg.com .
NOW THAT'S ONE HEC OF A NICE NOTE AND COMFORTING THING HUH ?
Anyway . Hope I didn't piss and moan to badly here . I full well know this stuff happens . Although Ampeg quality isn't what one expects anymore I suppose . At least not on the BA110 I have . Price point it NOT the point here . I could have bought top of the line anything I wanted had I so chose. Needing a master blaster rig is not what I need . I needed something for small professional level acoustic gigs and I got a box of alien farts instead .
Hope this helps someone and noone flames me to bad over it . More and better posts in the future from Old RAGZDADDY to come, I am sure . Like I said, I am no bass player so I likely will need some learning tools to help in the future . Playing bass will be a secondary effort . I am really not looking to cutting to much time off my 20+ hours a week of working on my tenor ukulele workouts .
Thanks for your tolerance of this post .
RAGZDADDY !
