Hartke 215XL Cab - Blown speaker?
 

Hi guys. I recently got hold of a Hartke HA3500 head, a 215XL and a 4.5XL cab. The 215XL seems to have a problem with the top speaker. It distorts on certain notes. The bottom speaker sound fine, so it's definitely a speaker rather than an amp issue.

At first I thought it might be blown, but I've done the usual check of gently pressing on the aluminium cone and I can't feel or hear any grating.

I've read a bit about the dust caps being a common issue on these speakers, i.e. they work loose and produce a sound similar to a blown speaker, though I can't actually see any evidence of this. Is this always visible?

I've been trying to source a replacement speaker but I'm not having much luck. I'm in the UK.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Carl

Yep, it was the dust cover!
 

Well it seems I've answered my own question! I had a bit more of a poke around and had a *really* good look at the dust cover on the top speaker. Had to use a magnifying glass to see it properly, but there was a small section - maybe about a half inch or so - where the dust cover wasn't stuck down. You would really struggle to see it with a casual glance because it wasn't at all obvious. I couldn't see how such a small area would make much of a difference, but I decided to run around the edges of the cover with some superglue just in case, and pressed down around the cover till I could see it was stuck down again.

Presto! Problem solved. No more distortion and two perfectly sounding speakers again. I did the other one while I was in there, just to be belt and braces.

So, it goes to show that even the smallest area of detachment of the dust cover can make a big difference to the sound. Who'd have though it?

Yup...happened with my 410XL