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Messed up noises

C

coolnumber11

Nov 23, 2012
5
0
#1
Hey guys, I'm new here and somewhat new to bass altogether so please have patience with me and excuse any lingo I may get wrong :)
I've been having a problem with a bass amp combo. I think it started because of the volume being whacked up pretty high, so I'm guessing that something has probably blown.
Ever since its been making a kind of rattling sound and the notes being played are barely audible. I'll post a link to a recording I just took so you can get a rough idea of what I'm talking about.
I removed the head from the speaker that was being used and tried it in a speaker which I know works for definite, but the exact same noise is coming through, so its definitely not a problem with the speaker.
It's a fairly old thing but if the problem is fixable, i'd love to get it sorted. It's a hiwatt b30015 if that helps at all, cheers guys.

 
#2
Sounds like you have blown the driver. You can't crank an amp up and dime it, adding low eq, and expect the spkr to survive. When you need loud, it's more spkrs that you need, which is why most combo amps are a bad idea. If your combo amp has an ext spkr OUTput, then that's how you get it louder. But for now, you need to re-cone or replace the blown driver first.
 
#4
Sounds blown. For future reference, with a bass amp/combo, usually the blowout happens only after adding a fair bit of distortion/farting noise into the notes, giving you some warning that you need to turn down either the volume or the low-end.
 
#5
You stated it sounds the same through a different speaker cab? That make the amp the trouble!
Don't know newer Hiwatt suff, but the old stuff was good equipment. The video is not too clear so I could not tell if the was valves in the head unit? Valves (tubes) could be suspect, anyway I would at least spend the bench fee to have a tech take a look.
 
#6
Yeah, I removed it from the combo speaker and used the speaker output to try it in a speaker that definitely works fine. The noise it makes is exactly the same. Sorry the video isn't so clear, will try and get some pics up if its any help.
 
#11
that sounds like an output transistor to me, If you are any good with a soldering iron , I would hit any suspect cold solder joints with heat and a quick dob of new solder , but I have popped a transistor or 2 in solid state stuff before , pretty much exact sound. Too bad they are post trans instead of the old bottle caps , they seemed much tougher
 

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