• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How do you fix an old rattling cab?

throbbinnut

throbbinnut

Jun 20, 2000
1,405
110
georgia....georgia........geor
#1
So I've got this 70's B-25B cabinet with the original speakers, and I go to use it today to make sure it's cool for a gig, and when I put the full V4B clean volume to it, it had a nasty rattle that I hadn't heard before. The cab's been sitting in a non-climate controlled covered space (my shop building) through many years of sopping-moist southern summers and now a very dry, very cold winter. I'm guessing the joints are all broken and loose, or at least some of them.

So here's the problem - is there any way to fix this thing since it's sealed up by way of the tolex, does not have a removable back panel, and it looks like it's glue and staple construction? I'm guessing I'd have to take off the tolex and basically take it all the way apart to try and put it back together right again with glue and screws? That does not make me happy.

But, here's the thing. That cabinet and those speakers - minus the rattle - were freaking amazing. I want it to work and not just replace it.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Chris
 
#2
Woah! Don't do all that yet. The old Marshall cab I had in 1964 (no I don't still have it - everybody asks that) had a lot of screws and cup washers - those are the sort of washers that look like a u profile and the countersink part of the screw goes into the washer and the edge of the washer is raised - someone will post a picture I'm sure. Work out where the bracing is and use brass screws and brass cup washers to tighten it all up. If you get all the screw heads to be symetrically measured out it can look pretty cool. In fact there are cabs that do it this way new.
 
#3
You could remove the speakers and any batting (if there is any in the cab) and use something like PVA glue, thin it a bit with water the let it run into all the joints from the inside.
Are you certain that the rattling is not from a speaker, having a partly detached spider or cone edge.
 
#6
Could be a couple of simple things.
One or more of the plastic grippers on the grill cloth frame may have come un-glued, which will cause a nasty rattle.

Check that the speaker bolts are tight

Both are quite common and easy to check without screwing up anything.

Things in dust caps is a stretch and like something (nut) between the cone and frame cause a buzz not a rattle.

MM
 
#7
There are lots of techniques for "tightening" up loose cabinets, two of which are mentioned here (additional screws, and watered-down glue.) I'd go with watering down the glue, getting a furniture-maker's syringe from woodcraft.com to make sure it gets into the joints, and then clamp it up for a day before re-installing the speakers.

Git yer Google on and check out some furniture repair techniques. There's no need to disassemble the thing, or even remove the tolex.

That's all assuming that it isn't just a couple of loose screws letting the speaker cones rattle, of course.
 
#9
Also check the electronics and connectors. Tracked down a pesky rattle on an old pair of Carvin PA speakers to the old style cannon input/output plugs [the parallel 1/4" phono connectors were fine]. Fixed em with a shot form the trusty hot glue gun [never used em anyway - someday I'll convert em to speakons].
 
#11
lazyone2 said:
Not sure that this matters but the B25 cab is or was rated at16 ohms and designed to use with the 55 watt B25 amp.The V4B's put out 8-4- or 2 ohms and 100 watts. Could be a blown speaker.
Click to expand...

Nah, mine's a later one that has the 4/16 ohm switch so it can be used with V4B or B25B. Still might me a blown speaker, but I'm pretty sure it's a wood-on-wood rattle. I'm going to remove the speakers and insulation and use the thinned out wood glue trick on every single joint in the beast and see how that goes.

Rock,
Chris
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back