Speaker dissolving on (old) Gallien Krueger combo amp..help..arhg

[Morten]

Hello folks,

The edge of the speaker on my 15 – 20 years old GK combo (mb200) seems to be disintegrating…It started with about an inch of the soft material at the speaker edge falling off (the "suspension" part of the speaker, near where the screws fixing the speaker to the amp are)…I had a look at the bit that fell off, and the material felt like it was sort of, er, dissolving (maybe the result of too many cheesy bass lines…). Then I used it on a fairly quiet gig anyway, and now there’s about three inches of the edge missing..arhg…

Does anyone knows if this can be fixed somehow (maybe by changing the edge of the speaker, and keeping the rest)..? (and, er, would anyone happen to know a place in London where they could fix this..?) – Or would it be better to get a new speaker?

Thanks a lot for any suggestions!

Morten

[gp_bass]

This is easy to fix, as long as you can find the right replacement size. Do a google search for "speaker surround" repair kits. Foam deterioration is a common problem with older speakers (usually home audio, but it applies to bass amps, etc). You might be able to find a surround with the right diameter for your speaker. Repair is very easy to do at home. I just repaired a set of Bang & Olufsen bookshelf stereo speakers with a kit i got from these people: http://www.wooferrepair.com/
took me about an hour, and they sounded fine afterwards.

[T-Bal]

You might want to PM Winston, I sold him my 200mb and he ran into the same problem. I believe he got it fixed at a local shop.

[B String]

If you filled out your profile, someone could direct you to a
qualified speaker recone place in your area. The speaker from
my 200mb cost $60 to recone like new, or you can buy a new
one from GK. They still use the same speaker they've been
using for 20 years in the 200's and the 150's mb's

[eldave777]

If your actual speaker "material" is messed up try this McGyver type fix. You will need paper glue which you can get at any office supply store. NOT SUPER GLUE!!! Secondly get some dryer lent. Make a paste with these two ingrediance and work it over the hole in your speaker. It doesn't have to be pretty so just as long as it's covered. Let it dry aver a few hours and try it out. Of course ultimately you need a new speaker, but in a tight spot this fix will work.

[mje]

The lint trick works for cones, and for tiny hole sin paper suspensions- but not very compliant suspensions. However, foam suspension rings- which often degrade from ozone exposure- can be replaced without replacing the entire cone. I can't recall if my 200MB speaker has a rubber or a foam surround...

Check out PartsExpress.com; I bought some suspension repair kits from them a few years ago.

[winston]

I got the speaker refoamed on the 200MB T-Bal sold me. It's something any competent speaker repair person should be able to do pretty easily. www.nealspeakerrepair.com did it in a few days for $30.

However, to get the speaker out of the 200MB takes some doing because it's rear-loaded (mounted to the back side of the metal baffle). This means you're going to have to take out most of the screws that hold the amp together. Once you do this you might find that the rubber gaskets that keep the various parts of the amp from vibrating against each other need to be replaced--I used foam weatherstripping. I also took the opportunity to blow out the dust that had accumulated throughout the chassis. It took some time to do but the speaker's as good as new.