Hartke 215XL Cab - Blown speaker?

[bassman_manc]

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

[bassman_manc]

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?

[murphy]

Yup...happened with my 410XL