Hello fellow BTF'ers,
Got room for another rock-n-roll noob? My name is Troy. I am a somewhat beginner bass player. My 14 year old son recieved an American Fender Strat and a small Marshall amp for his 9th birthday. Been taking lessons ever since. After about a year, I bought myself a cheap-o guitar and amp with the thought of having my son teach me as he was being taught. If that makes any sense. Well, needless to say, guitar wasn't my thing. That got hung on the wall for a couple years until I traded it and amp in on a new Dean 4-string bass and a used Line 6 Low Down combo bass amp. 12in woofer.
Then about 4 months ago, my 10 year old daughter said she wouldn't mind playing drums. So a new 5 piece Ludwig set was bought and lessons instantly began. Now have all her cymbals replaced with Sabian and Paistie (all used). She is a natural. And not that I wanted to become the new Partridge Family, I bought a Beringer powered PA speaker, a Beringer 12 channel preamp mixer, couple mic stands and a couple mics. Thinking the wife would join in the rock-n-roll fun and sing for us. However, imagine the sound of a cat fight at 3am combined with nails on a chalkboard. That sounds like sweet harmony compared to my wifes singing voice...lol
Anyway, just an ice breaker and small introduction, I will not be a "here today, ask a question, and never hear from me again" type of guy. So, enough about me. Lets see how much you bass guru's know.
Ok, so I bought that Line 6 combo amp. Works great. However, every once in a while when turning it on, the sound is REAL scratchy and the volume is half of what it should be, If you pluck the bass string real hard, the amp will "wake up", so to speak. Once it wakes up, it peforms flawlessly. Only other problem with amp is it sounds great at low volume levels. But get it turned up and it quickly starts to sound like crap. At least to me. The louder you go the worse it sounds. Not blown speaker sound. Its just I lose all the low end frequency sound when I try to play next to the drums and my sons half stack guitar amp.
So, I just bought a Crate BT220H amp head and a Crate 215 cab. Figure this should maintain the lower frequencies at the volume level I want to be at while jammin with son and daughter. However, this amp did the EXACT same thing when I turned it on for the first time. Well, actually, it worked great the first time turning it on. It was after about 3-4 minutes of farting with it, the volume level went to about half. The sound when strumming any string was real real scratchy. Just like my Line 6. So i pluck a string with some force, and amp crackles a bit and "wakes up". Works flawlessly. Son has been playing with it for over an hour now at a pretty good volume level. Not a single indication anything is wrong.
So, my question. Anybody have any similar senerios involving solid state amps? Just wondering if this is something that I should worry about or is this something that just starts to happen on an older amp? OR, could it possibly be my bass? Its a brand new mid priced Dean. Can't see it being this, but you never know.
Thanks in advance to anybody for any info or tips. Much appriciated. Im a pretty tech savy kinda guy. In case I would need to open anything up. Was thinking maybe a can of Dust Off on the inside of the head? Good or bad idea?
Got room for another rock-n-roll noob? My name is Troy. I am a somewhat beginner bass player. My 14 year old son recieved an American Fender Strat and a small Marshall amp for his 9th birthday. Been taking lessons ever since. After about a year, I bought myself a cheap-o guitar and amp with the thought of having my son teach me as he was being taught. If that makes any sense. Well, needless to say, guitar wasn't my thing. That got hung on the wall for a couple years until I traded it and amp in on a new Dean 4-string bass and a used Line 6 Low Down combo bass amp. 12in woofer.
Then about 4 months ago, my 10 year old daughter said she wouldn't mind playing drums. So a new 5 piece Ludwig set was bought and lessons instantly began. Now have all her cymbals replaced with Sabian and Paistie (all used). She is a natural. And not that I wanted to become the new Partridge Family, I bought a Beringer powered PA speaker, a Beringer 12 channel preamp mixer, couple mic stands and a couple mics. Thinking the wife would join in the rock-n-roll fun and sing for us. However, imagine the sound of a cat fight at 3am combined with nails on a chalkboard. That sounds like sweet harmony compared to my wifes singing voice...lol
Anyway, just an ice breaker and small introduction, I will not be a "here today, ask a question, and never hear from me again" type of guy. So, enough about me. Lets see how much you bass guru's know.
Ok, so I bought that Line 6 combo amp. Works great. However, every once in a while when turning it on, the sound is REAL scratchy and the volume is half of what it should be, If you pluck the bass string real hard, the amp will "wake up", so to speak. Once it wakes up, it peforms flawlessly. Only other problem with amp is it sounds great at low volume levels. But get it turned up and it quickly starts to sound like crap. At least to me. The louder you go the worse it sounds. Not blown speaker sound. Its just I lose all the low end frequency sound when I try to play next to the drums and my sons half stack guitar amp.
So, I just bought a Crate BT220H amp head and a Crate 215 cab. Figure this should maintain the lower frequencies at the volume level I want to be at while jammin with son and daughter. However, this amp did the EXACT same thing when I turned it on for the first time. Well, actually, it worked great the first time turning it on. It was after about 3-4 minutes of farting with it, the volume level went to about half. The sound when strumming any string was real real scratchy. Just like my Line 6. So i pluck a string with some force, and amp crackles a bit and "wakes up". Works flawlessly. Son has been playing with it for over an hour now at a pretty good volume level. Not a single indication anything is wrong.
So, my question. Anybody have any similar senerios involving solid state amps? Just wondering if this is something that I should worry about or is this something that just starts to happen on an older amp? OR, could it possibly be my bass? Its a brand new mid priced Dean. Can't see it being this, but you never know.
Thanks in advance to anybody for any info or tips. Much appriciated. Im a pretty tech savy kinda guy. In case I would need to open anything up. Was thinking maybe a can of Dust Off on the inside of the head? Good or bad idea?
