The Weather and your gear

i cant imagine it would have that big an effect, but i wouldnt wanna leave an 8x10 in the car overnight. Id be scared of it getting stolen lol.

 

don't leave your gear out side in the car unless you absolutely must. temp variables can seriously work a neck over....i dont let my bass sit more than an hour in a vehicle if at all possible...

 

I can't imagine that leaving such a box in the car would harm something. Of course you shouldn't wait until it is completly chilled through, and then take it into a room where the heating is on. Give the material some time to adapt to the situation, and everything should be fine.
But there is one thing you should never do: Don't push your speakers hard when they're nearly frozen, temperature-wise. Some "warming-up" at lower levels will help.

Johannes

PS: reading through my own reply makes me stumble: Would a big wooden box seriously suffer from humidity or temperature changes!? Nah....

 

In my experience, temp extremes don't seem to bother speaker cabs much. Some electronics and guitars get real upset over being left out in a cold car and suddenly warmed up. I had a nice Ibanez Musician that I left out in a sub 0 car. When I opened the case the finish had a big crack in it. Didn't seem to bother the neck though, guess I was lucky. My Carvin Powered PA head has refused to come on until it dries out completely after being left out in the cold and brought into a warm room. The cold surfaces in the amp cause condensation that can short stuff out. I guess it has some sort of (due sensor) that just shuts it down. On the other hand my old QSC USA power amps don't seem to mind the temp change. They just come on and work normally. I don't think you have anything to worry about with speaker cabinets. jmho

 

Being the world's laziest bass player, I can
tell you from experience the should be no
problem. I gotta 8-10" SVT which travels in the
back of my VW GTI- Gig on Friday-no practice
till next Thursday? I'd leave it in the back
all week! I had some sick wishful thinking
that I would someday catch someone try to steal
it- since it has no wheels, I'd love to see
someone else wrestle it! (I'd let em drag it
a while before I start shooting!) Just don't
drive around w/ it like I did- a sudden stop
could drive it into your seat-and you into the
dash!

 

Yup, I remember...stuffin' Ampegs into VWs...Had a V6B which was dimensionally comparable to the 810 SVT cab that I used to wrestle into the back seat of my then new wife's Beetle. To say it was a tight fit was an understatement. She lowered the boom(no pun intended) when, after spirited cornering the cab pushed the rear window glass out of the rubber molding and we nearly lost it(the glass) on the road.
Back on topic, I, too, have had the condensation probs on electronic gear left outside in the winter. I try to keep that stuff...and my bass...inside. I haven't experienced any speaker cab problems, but it only gets down into the teens here on the coldest winter nights.

Kim

 

The speakers are made up of metal among other things. What happens to metal when it is cooled? It shrinks. Send a large chunk of watts through it when it's in this state and the voice coil in particular is going to expand rapidly. Over time, this is likely to prove damaging. I don't have any facts to back this up other than this experience:-

We did some gigs in the snow fields. All the equipment was in a van that didn't do a great job of keeping the back section warm. Set up for the first gig and half of the amplifiers failed. Why?

Turns out that the solder joints shrunk and became brittle in the cold. Hit one bump on the road and a few of them dislodge.

Since then, we've been more careful with the cold and always give our gear time to acclimatise to temperature changes.

Speakers are less likely to develop these problems but I wouldn't leave them out in extreme cold.

 

On this same topic, what about extreme heat? I'm moving to Houston, and it is conceivable that my rig could be in the car for days in 100+ temps.

 

You want heat, try an Australian summer.......

Heat isn't as bad. Electronic devices generate heat anyway and are designded to cope with it (usually).

Basses are a different story. Any temp extreem is bad for timber.