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Troubleshooting an amp..

Landy67

Landy67

Guest
Jul 30, 2012
456
99
The Peoples Republic of MA
#1
Hi All,

I have a Genz Benz Streamliner 600 connected to a Focus 210 cabinet. It's had a fantastic tone until today. Now the tone is so muddy, that I've had to turn the bass, treble and mid all the way down, and it still sounds like those big sub woofers they put in cars. No tone, just boom.

I haven't changed anything, not even the settings until today. I use the rig in a small room, so it's always at a pretty low volume.

Does this sound like an amp or cabinet problem?

Thanks

Dan
 
#2
First, double-check with a different cabinet and then with a different bass (is your bass active? Have you changed the battery?) to be sure it's not something external to your amp. Go straight into the amp, no pedals, tuners, switchers etc.

Once we do these things we will have a better idea as to what may be wrong.
 
#3
I have two bases, and they are both active. I tried them both plugged directly into the amp. I didn't try replacing the batteries, because they sound good (relatively speaking) when I play them through the portable amp.

I did a Skype session with a friend, and he thinks it's a blown tweeter. Apparently the amp and speaker is a bit of a mis-match. The cabinet handles 300W @ 8 ohm and the head does 375W @ 8 ohm. (it does 600W @ 4 ohm but I don't see a switch to select it)

I'm using Speakon cable between the head and the cabinet. Does that auto-select the 8 ohm?

Lately, I've been playing an acoustic guitar through it, and the setting I like is to turn the pre-amp volume to max, the gain to about 10 o'clock and the master volume down, but for the fretless bass I've been turning the pre-amp volume down, gain up and the master volume pretty high. (it's still a comfortable volume for a 18' X 25' room)

Since I don't have another cabinet with a Speakon input, and I don't have a Speakon to 1/4" cable, I'm going to try it out with a set of headphones and see if that sounds as bad.
 
#5
Cirk said:
Check the protection circuit on the crossover in your cab. Could be a blown fuse or light bulb. Also, check your speakers with a multi meter.
Click to expand...

It was the cabinet. There is a switch on the back of the cab for the tweeter control. The settings are on/off -6db. The switch doesn't appear to be making contact anymore. I put a jumper between the middle and other posts (one at a time,) the tweeter started working, and the amp sounds the way it used to. I guess that's a warranty job.

It's amazing how much difference a tweeter makes to a bass.
 
#6
If you PM me with your location, I can help you get this repaired and find a service center close to you. The part number for the crossover with switch assembly is GBE-4500_134963, this is the part that the warranty service center will need to order.

Landy67 said:
It was the cabinet. There is a switch on the back of the cab for the tweeter control. The settings are on/off -6db. The switch doesn't appear to be making contact anymore. I put a jumper between the middle and other posts (one at a time,) the tweeter started working, and the amp sounds the way it used to. I guess that's a warranty job.

It's amazing how much difference a tweeter makes to a bass.
Click to expand...
 

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