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Routine maintenance. Tighten those screws!

JGbassman

JGbassman

May 31, 2011
4,564
10,033
The midwest. South of Lakes, North of Rocks.
#1
im just wondering if I'm the only one that does this. These days as a weekend warrior, I move my gear and play almost every Friday and Saturday nights, with some Thursday's thrown in to make me miss out on sleep, lol.

About every six months, I go around my cabs and gear with a screwdriver to make sure the screws are still tight. There are always a few that have worked loose due to vibration, hot/cold, etc. I don't crank them down, I just make sure they are snug. I learned this from a sound man that would go through his club gear once a month when we toured an were using his company for club gigs. I guess I've always done it ever since.

So am I the only one that practices this ritual? I'd love to hear if anyone has any other tips like this.
 
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#2
If you live in an area with cold winters and hot humid summers, speaker fasteners in particular loosen due to seasonal changes. Anything that can rattle gets a once over once a year.

I find that amps do better with a slip cover over them. Keeps dust off but also prevents the vinyl from fading long term. Keep them out of direct sunlight.

A shaving brush ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed]) works well when cleaning dust on rack equipment, keyboards, and especially instruments -- under strings around pickups, the bridge, and the nut. The brush don't scratch and won't change knob settings.
 
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#6
I do this tightening on the regular, too. The dry climate here causes cabs and instruments to shrink a touch, so tightening is done at least once when something comes here from pretty much anywhere else.
I have also gone through my speaker and head cabs and sealed all the joints with wood glue or silicone caulking (or the like) as well. Gets rid of some sympathetic rattles and also helps keep it from rattling apart.
 
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#9
I do this as well, but pretty casually. But I started to get a bit more planned about it when I got a PF500/115HE rig several years ago.
After a few months of use this rig developed a bad rattle/buzz and it drove me crazy until I realized that many of the fasteners were kind of loose (from a little to a lot). The nuts holding the speaker to the baffle were the rattle culprit.
Since then, I do check the fasteners on my other rigs from time to time, but the Ampeg cab was the worst culprit out of 5 amps and 5 cabs.
 
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#12
I periodically check my neck screws. It seems to me that about once a gear, I can manage to turn the screwdriver ever so slightly, without a lot of force. Three things have worried me ever since I encountered my first 'sort of' loose neck screw:
1. Is it normal......2. Will there come a day when I'll permanently damage the neck?......3. Am I crazy because I check them?
 
#13
This is absolutely good advice :thumbsup:

It's such a simple, quick thing to do that can save you a night (or tour as pointed out above) of headache or even pricey repairs on combos and cabs.

Just think about the hassle of pulling off a back or taking out a speaker cause a screw backed out and the little threaded insert with the pointy feet is loose and rattling around inside.
 
#15
bumperbass said:
I periodically check my neck screws. It seems to me that about once a gear, I can manage to turn the screwdriver ever so slightly, without a lot of force. Three things have worried me ever since I encountered my first 'sort of' loose neck screw:
1. Is it normal......2. Will there come a day when I'll permanently damage the neck?......3. Am I crazy because I check them?
Click to expand...

Neck Wood does expand and contract. Wood has natural movement. Truss rods need adjustment because mainly the wood expands or contracts.

If you tighten neck bolts while it is contracted, and later it expands it can pull on the screws which could stretch the threads the screw makes in the wood. Or it could cause other stresses on the wood itself. Nobody ever loosens the screws when high humidity hits.

If it's not having problems, wobbly, or making some noise, it might be best to just leave them alone.
 
#16
I don't necessarily do it on a regular basis, but that is the first thing I do when I here a cab start to rattle. I bought my Carvin BRX really cheap, presumably, because of loose screw on a couple of speakers. It was cheap enough I was willing to buy it and fix anything wrong. After some initial troubleshooting, I figured it was a blown driver. Bought a factory replacement, but it didn't match the other drivers, so I decided to tighten everything down after tearing the cab apart and send the replacement back. No issues.

Had the same thing crop up on a couple other cabs... one time it was the grill, another time it was the driver
 
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