speaker rattle or cab rattle, is there a way to tell?

on1ne · #1 02-24-2011, 06:21 PM

My GK MB150s has suddenly developed a rattle when playing at moderate volume.

I've tried holding down all the outside faces and it makes no difference. Whatever is rattling is on the inside somewhere.

Is there any good way to tell if a rattle is coming from the cab/housing or from the speaker itself?
Or at least to eliminate one or the other as the source of the rattle?

lowfreq33 · #2 02-24-2011, 06:27 PM

Make sure the speaker mounting screws are tight, as well as the grill.

T-Bird · #3 02-24-2011, 11:42 PM

Hi.

^What he said.

Standing on the cab and listening the rattle is also a good way to eliminate (or confirm) the cab from the equation.

Regards
Sam

MuzikMan · #4 02-25-2011, 03:59 AM

Make sure your internal wiring isn't touching the driver. Take the screen / Grill off. Tighten the driver mounting screws (don't go overboard on this). Some cheap handles can vibrate.

MuzikMan · #5 02-25-2011, 04:00 AM

Also make sure it isn't actually something else in the room. Move your amp to a different room.

ErnieD · #6 02-25-2011, 04:27 AM

I'm going thru this with a used Epifani UL410-II I got last winter. It got here a little banged up via Fedex; one corner protector is cracked. I'm having a bear of a time isolating the buzz/distort(??) Don't ask about insurance claim; whole other story.

At best it seemed the upper left driver was buzzing. I arrived at this by placing my ear near cab and felt this was where I could hear the buzz. I pulled the front grill off to get to the upper left speaker. I pulled the driver and I lightly pushed in/out the speaker surround, totally quiet, not scratchy. Played thru cab, no noise.

Looked in/around cab, all seemed well, no hanging wires, all screws tight as if new from factory. I reinstalled speaker, grill, tightened all screws again, etc. Noise is still there and now it sounds ever more like a speaker distort than a sorta cab noise as it did before but not the speaker I pulled. I noticed the noise now when I play only a couple hard, low notes on B string only. Like C# and D# pretty much.

I have a second UL410-II so that buzzy one is just staying parked til I feel like mucking with it again. May just drop it off at speaker repair center to let them try to find the issue. But just done dealing with it for now. Bought it here on TB, have not used it yet for gig or rehearsal. Summer gigs will be coming up where I planned to use the second cab, so might give it one more look then go drop it off at shop if I can't figure it out.