Is my voice coil bad?
 

I just picked up a peavey combo 300 bass amp off craigslist. Before I even plugged it in, I took the 1502 black widow out of the amp and took the magnet off. I checked the foam and it is fine. I ran a piece of tape in the magnet groove. Everything looked good except there were some small marks on the voice coil. I put it back together and plugged it in. When I play at low/medium volume there is a scratchy sound. When I press in down on the cone there is no noise or scratching. There is no scratchy noise at low volume. Here's a pic of the voice coil. There is a small black mark and some small white marks. the big white mark is just the flash from my camera. Is it bad? any other ideas what the scratchy sound is? Thanks.

Now I'm confused

It sounds like the voice coil is rubbing on the magnet.

I just took the speaker out again and when I push out on the cone from the inside it makes that noise. I can only find a small bump in the outer edge of the voice coil. I guess i need a new basket.

i cannot understand why you would take the driver apart without even trying the amp first. If the driver exhibited a problem THEN is the time for remedial action.

May I suggest you repeat the procedure and see if you did something wrong. Possibly you introduced some contaminants into the voice coli gap.

the reason I did that is because the foam screen is known to deteriorate in these speakers and gum up the voice coil. I tried to rotate the basket with no luck. Still sounds scratchy. Here's a pic of the little bump in the coil that I think is making the noise. I wonder if this could be fixed without having to drop $70 on a new basket.