Glowing speakers...Ever happen to you?

[cracker75]

I'm fairly new to TB, and wanted to share an experience I had many years ago, because I've never understood exactly what happened, and there's a lot of tech guru's here.

I was playing in a 3 piece band, bass-drums-vocals, and was writing all the songs. I faked dynamics by using distortion on most of the choruses of the songs. At the time I was having fun and wanted to experiment with smooth, controlled feedback solo's kinda like the last 3 minutes of Smashing Pumpkin's Drown.

So, anyways, I had mostly been using a 215 cab with a guitar amp as a pre-amp------>out to a crown power amp-----> to the cab, and it had been working pretty well. Lots of fun

One day we're invited to a party (just me and the drummer) and I bring my little eden-nemesis 210 combo amp, and use a boss ds-1 distortion pedal.

We're playing along, I go in for the feedback solo, it's not really giving me much....so I turn it up.

And when I go back in close to try it again, the speaker surrounds actually light up.

My speakers emit blue visible light. I s__t you not.

I freak out and power down the rig. I was definitely drunk. Nobody believes me. I do not think Mac n Jack makes people hallucinate. Nor do I black-out when drinking. Nor were any drugs involved.

To this day I cannot explain it. But I swear to God Himself it happened.

Fast forward....the rig was not damaged at all, though it has refused to feedback ever since. It has never happened again no matter how hard I've tried. Otherwise the amp works just as it always has, and I have never had a problem with it.

Has anybody ever seen speakers emit light? Or know how this could even be possible?

[Phalex]

We had fire shooting out of a 1/4" jack on the back of a sub once. That got expensive.

[Jimbob Jones]

The peavey Black Widow series had a safety system in them: When you put too much power through the cab and risked blowing the speakers, it diverted excess power to a big fat lightbulb (green in this case) and the whole cab lit up from the inside. This system meant that (in theory) you couldn't blow the speakers, only a big green lightbulb.

I don't know about Eden combos, but maybe it was a similar system?

[SpamBot]

+1 to Jimbob, that is likely the case. It's a lamp in series with the speakers. The lamp's resistance is low at low filament temperatures, sapping little current, but at high power the filament warms up and its resistance rises. This causes less power to make it to the speakers.

I can't think of any other possible cause.

[Mad_Phingers]

I've had this happen several times on my SVT410HLF. Always seems to happen when I stomp on my OD pedal while facing the cab. Get a real high squeal then the speaks light up. Definitely not good, but I couldn't tell you why....

[thetawaves]

Who you gonna call...

[StyleOverShow]

What's that thing in nuclear physics, about blue lightning before it blows....

[B-string]

I am guessing the Eden has a tweeter horn? The light was the current limiters (light bulbs) on the crossover. Does the horn still work (they really don't like distortion much at all, much less feedback).

[FromBeyond]

Strangely enough, i had a (sorta) similar issue with an eden i tried out at a demonstration in a guitar shop.
I sat down with a bass (a very nice lakland DJ, but i digress) and the employee put a cable in the bass first, and then connected it to a eden amp (was a hybrid head of some sort, high powered, and connected to a Eden 210 and a 410). When he connected it to the head, we heard a very loud popping sound, and blue flames actually shot through the tone ports
Scared the life out of me...

[cracker75]

Originally Posted by FromBeyond

...... and blue flames actually shot through the tone ports
Scared the life out of me...

OK....You win.

Now that I know a bit more about gear, it would make sense that it was a bulb to prevent speaker blowout....but man...did it ever freak me out.

It's nice to know I wasn't crazy after all.

[cracker75]

Maybe I should build cabs that have built-in pyro-technics.....that would be really cool.LOL.

[FromBeyond]

Originally Posted by cracker75

OK....You win.

Now that I know a bit more about gear, it would make sense that it was a bulb to prevent speaker blowout....but man...did it ever freak me out.

It's nice to know I wasn't crazy after all.

Funny thing is, it actually worked fine after that. And the guys from the company who import Eden here in Holland (they were present, it was a demonstration of sorts) sort of shrugged it off. Everyone in the store looked like a grenade just went off though.

[cracker75]

Originally Posted by FromBeyond

Funny thing is, it actually worked fine after that. And the guys from the company who import Eden here in Holland (they were present, it was a demonstration of sorts) sort of shrugged it off. Everyone in the store looked like a grenade just went off though.

That's one hell of a testament to eden's build quality.

[FromBeyond]

Originally Posted by cracker75

That's one hell of a testament to eden's build quality.

Haha, that's exactly what i was thinking
It didn't sound spectacular to me though, but it sure as hell proved reliable.

["Q"]

Originally Posted by FromBeyond

Funny thing is, it actually worked fine after that. And the guys from the company who import Eden here in Holland (they were present, it was a demonstration of sorts) sort of shrugged it off. Everyone in the store looked like a grenade just went off though.

Maybe the cab was new and there was some solvent from the manufacturing inside the cab airspace. Thats one of the only scenarios I can think of that would give you a flame that long. It would also explain why it was fine after that.

Tho the fact that there was a spark in the cab seems a little disturbing.

[rodl2005]

+1 what I was thinkin

[B-string]

Yeah I don't see flames shooting out of a new product as a "testament" to build quality or reliability?

["Q"]

Originally Posted by B-string

Yeah I don't see flames shooting out of a new product as a "testament" to build quality or reliability?

You've never heard of a "hot" product??.........I know I know

[svtb15]

Yup . i had an old EDEN 210. did that if i got on it too hard..
White light from around the speaker surrounds...

Originally Posted by cracker75

I'm fairly new to TB, and wanted to share an experience I had many years ago, because I've never understood exactly what happened, and there's a lot of tech guru's here.

I was playing in a 3 piece band, bass-drums-vocals, and was writing all the songs. I faked dynamics by using distortion on most of the choruses of the songs. At the time I was having fun and wanted to experiment with smooth, controlled feedback solo's kinda like the last 3 minutes of Smashing Pumpkin's Drown.

So, anyways, I had mostly been using a 215 cab with a guitar amp as a pre-amp------>out to a crown power amp-----> to the cab, and it had been working pretty well. Lots of fun

One day we're invited to a party (just me and the drummer) and I bring my little eden-nemesis 210 combo amp, and use a boss ds-1 distortion pedal.

We're playing along, I go in for the feedback solo, it's not really giving me much....so I turn it up.

And when I go back in close to try it again, the speaker surrounds actually light up.

My speakers emit blue visible light. I s__t you not.

I freak out and power down the rig. I was definitely drunk. Nobody believes me. I do not think Mac n Jack makes people hallucinate. Nor do I black-out when drinking. Nor were any drugs involved.

To this day I cannot explain it. But I swear to God Himself it happened.

Fast forward....the rig was not damaged at all, though it has refused to feedback ever since. It has never happened again no matter how hard I've tried. Otherwise the amp works just as it always has, and I have never had a problem with it.

Has anybody ever seen speakers emit light? Or know how this could even be possible?

[countrybass007]

My old 60s Standell had the bulb, and it scared the crap out of me the first time it lit up, I thought sure my rig was on fire. Turned out to be a bad resistor.