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AMPEG BA115 Tweeter Removal

AddictedtoBass

AddictedtoBass

Aug 19, 2009
44
0
East Coast, Canada
#1
Hopefully this is the right place to post. I have seen a lot of questions about the HISS that the AMPEG BA115 tweeter makes. I have one, and agree, it is hissy! I disconnected mine and now I LOVE this amp.

To Disconnect the tweeter:
1. Remove the grill cover. Great video HERE of how to do that!

2. Locate the tweeter (it is the small speaker) and remove the four screws:
2.
DSC03281.jpg
3.
DSC03282.jpg


3. The tweeter will be loose now, and you can pull it out of it's hole.

4. If you are lucky (like on my amp) the connections will be made with a slide connector and not soldered. If so, you can just slide one connection apart. No need to remove screws or anything. If the connections are soldered, you'll have to snip a wire.
4.
DSC03285.jpg
5.
DSC03287.jpg


5. Pull the loose wire through the hole, and replace the tweeter over it with the screws you took out originally. This holds the now disconnected wire in place tightly so it won't fall down in the cab and rattle or short against something.

6. Replace your grill, and enjoy the lack of hissing!

SPECS
RMS Power Output: 100-Watts
LF Driver: 1 x 15" Custom Ampeg Speaker
HF Driver: Piezo Tweeter
Preamp: Solid-State
Power Amp: Solid-State
Tone Controls: 3-Band EQ
Mid Tone Control: Style
Balanced Line Out: Yes
CD/MP3 Input: Yes
Headphone Output: Yes
Dimensions (W x H x D inches): 21 x 21 x 16
Weight: 62 Pounds
 
#2
First off, tweeters don't hiss, amps do. It may be a small distinction, but still...
Second, if a speaker has a full crossover, rather than just a high pass filter on the tweeter, disconnecting the tweeter could result in amp failure by presenting a dead short circuit at the crossover frequency. And if that's all Greek to you think twice before doing cab mods, lest you find out the hard way that it did have a full crossover. :crying:
 
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#3
All good points! The amp does hiss still with the tweeter disconnected, but it is normal amp sounding hiss, and barely audible. Don't think that your amp will be silent. That being said, the tweeter hissing on this particular model is nasty. The wiring in the BA115 has 2 wires going directly from the amp to the 15's posts and then two other wires going from the posts to the tweeter. There is no evidence of any crossover in or near the 15's posts. Like billfitzmaurice says, check the wiring before messing around.
 
#4
I eventually disconnected mine also, after checking via email with Ampeg.
The tech who replied said no damage would result from disconnecting the tweeter. Mine was actually distorting intermittently, even at low volume from the very first gig.

It proved to be a decent sounding amp for small gigs with the tweeter gone.

Good luck!
 
#7
thanks for this thread! i bought my ba115 a couple nights ago and the his wasn't too bad in the store but when i got it home it was aweful! i was considering taking it back until i found this thread and disconnected the tweeter and coupled with my sansamp bass driver it sounds great. thanks again.
 
#14
Viola, completely wrongly crappingly soundingly ported. :)

If you're too lazy to pull the woofer out (you only have to do it once) at least screw some caps on the wires before you haphazardly throw them inside and hope they don't get tangled up on anything when you load the rig in your vehicle sideways or whatever. Another simple solution is to wire in an on/off switch for the piezo. I also noticed in his pics there's no resistor in front of it. Another "save a buck to make a buck" move. Cratepeg's......meh.
 
#17
Can you explain the statement below. I'd think no current would flow at the cross over frequency do to the open circuit.

Thanks for your knowledge.



First off, tweeters don't hiss, amps do. It may be a small distinction, but still...
Second, if a speaker has a full crossover, rather than just a high pass filter on the tweeter, disconnecting the tweeter could result in amp failure by presenting a dead short circuit at the crossover frequency. And if that's all Greek to you think twice before doing cab mods, lest you find out the hard way that it did have a full crossover.
 
#18
He's coming from the angle that you have an actual HF driver/horn in your cab which requires a highpass filter at least or better yet a true crossover which requires lowpassing the woofer as well. Basically assuming your cab is designed better than it is. Most bass cabs cheap out on the design more than that no matter what you paid for it, letting the woofers receive the whole signal then just highpassing the tweet knowing the woofers response will fall off before it hits tweeter frequencies anyway.

Also you don't always get what you pay for either. Not too long ago there was some dude on here concerned about blowing the tweet in his Orange 410 (expensive) by playing distorted guitar through it. Turns out his tweet was protected by a single capacitor (1st order/cheap).

By contrast I once had a Nemesis 410 (budget stuff) where the tweet had a 3rd order filter on it (many times better).

The woofers weren't lowpassed in either case.
 
#19
And yes it's true that no speaker regardless of how big/small, low or high makes noise. They only reproduce sound being sent to them. If your tweeter makes noise it's not the tweeter's fault, it's the amp's fault for sending high freqency noise that the the tweeter is picking up/reproducing...not making.
 

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