Blown amp or speaker or what?

[mcarb]

Please forgive my ignorance, I know jack squat about electronics. I did a search and couldnt find much info on this.

SO I have been away for two months and like an idiot I left my amp at my friend's house (where we jam). I came back and as I am tuning up I couldn;t help but notice and God awful crackling sound coming from the amp. It sounds like when you have a bad cable.

So I tried a new guitar cable, a new speaker cable between the amp and cabinet (GK amp and cab), and it still makes the same noise. My buddy assures me they didn't trash it or turn it up or anything, but who knows?

Anyways, what's the best approach to figuring out what is wrong and fixing it?

Ideas?

[wcriley]

Sounds to me like the problem is in the amp.

Best appoach to figuring out which part of the system is bad? Hook the amp up to a different cab or vice versa.

Best approach to fixing it? Take it to a repair tech.

[Plstrns]

Active bass? Check the battery/ies.

[mcarb]

Thanks. It is an active bass, but I tried another bass and it did the same thing. Ill try the swapping pieces thing and replace my batteries.

[anderbass]

Good advice so far but another possibility here is dirty switching contacts in your amps Effects return jack. An easy test/remedy for this situation is to simply plug one end of a (known-good) guitar cord into the Effects return jack, and then plug that cords other end into the Effects send jack. Let us know If this immediately stops the crackling sound and we'll give you more info.

[mcarb]

Ok, another little piece of the puzzle. Yesterday i bought a new cable, put a new battery in the bass and tried it out. It worked and I had no problems until the amp warmed up. After about 5 minutes of jamming the buzzing started and got worse quickly.

Any thoughts? I could take it in, but there isn't an authorized repair shop anywhere near me so I am trying to self diagnose if possible.

[craig.p]

Could be a cracked circuit board etch or a component has come partially loose from a circuit board. Whatever it is, it can be pinpointed with a heat gun and/or cold spray. This is tech work (sorry).

But look, let's step back from this a bit and take a wider view. This is not your problem to solve. It is your so-called "friend's" problem to solve. While you weren't around to witness it, either he or someone he knew abused this amp in some fashion: either too much volume or too much bass or physical shock or something similar. Your "friend" either caused the problem himself or allowed it to happen. Now let him fix the problem. I think giving him two weeks is reasonable. He should be able to locate a good tech and get the amp there and back to you by then.

[M0ses]

Originally Posted by craig.p

I think giving him two weeks is reasonable. He should be able to locate a good tech and get the amp there and back to you by then.

Have you ever taken anything to a tech? They work on their own schedule, not your two-week one.

[craig.p]

It's not the OP's problem. It's his so-called "friend's" problem. He needs to have a fire lit under his butt for allowing this sort of thing to happen.

[mcarb]

Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen. But I have learned a valuable lesson here. Never leave your stuff.