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Well - my speakers caught fire.

#103
BurningSkies said:
Wow. That's a pretty good job.

You're probably right that it was one of your pedals, or a combination. Although I don't believe it was by fault of some malfunction. Loads of pedals, especially distortion related tend to send a higher average power to your speakers, therefore getting them hotter. By the first time you got smoke, they were done. Applying more power by way of a second head only did the job more completely.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but that is impossible. Pedals do not work that way. I run 40 plus pedals. No pedal can start a fire
 
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#106
Pedals can compress the signal raising the average power that the amp sends to the speaker. That doesn't cause flames, but it can cause the speaker to heat up more and not cool off as quickly as it may in a normal situation. Depending upon how many layers of pedals he's using that could be layers of compression and distortion...which could certainly cause speakers to overheat. As pointed out some speakers appear to be weakened anyway, in which case that thermal meltdown could do this.
 
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#107
My vote is for well worn speakers.
If one or two were already dragging the voice coil
before the gig, they certainly wouldn't get any better
from playing.
I imagine that if a VC drags long enough, it can short
to the magnet.

Although the pedal didn't directly cause the damage,
it would mask the sound of it happening,
so, in that respect it was a contributing factor.
 
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#108
Bill Whitehurst said:
My vote is for well worn speakers.
If one or two were already dragging the voice coil
before the gig, they certainly wouldn't get any better
from playing.
I imagine that if a VC drags long enough, it can short
to the magnet.

Although the pedal didn't directly cause the damage,
it would mask the sound of it happening,
so, in that respect it was a contributing factor.
Click to expand...

Also a possibility.
 
#110
BurningSkies said:
Pedals can compress the signal raising the average power that the amp sends to the speaker. That doesn't cause flames, but it can cause the speaker to heat up more and not cool off as quickly as it may in a normal situation. Depending upon how many layers of pedals he's using that could be layers of compression and distortion...which could certainly cause speakers to overheat. As pointed out some speakers appear to be weakened anyway, in which case that thermal meltdown could do this.
Click to expand...

I'll make a bet with you that will only cost me if I'm wrong. I'm going to run all 16 of my fuzz pedals, 9 distortions, 6 overdrives and 2 compressors at max settings for 30 minutes and see what happens.

It is impossible for a pedal to compress a signal to the point of thermal meltdown of a speaker
 
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#111
DirtyDuke said:
I'll make a bet with you that will only cost me if I'm wrong. I'm going to run all 16 of my fuzz pedals, 9 distortions, 6 overdrives and 2 compressors at max settings for 30 minutes and see what happens.

It is impossible for a pedal to compress a signal to the point of thermal meltdown of a speaker
Click to expand...

Do you have the same setup as the OP?
 
#112
B-string said:
I place bets on the suspension on those speakers being worn out and loose. Would take very little power for the cones to hang outside the motor assembly, once outside the motor gap the smoke follows pretty quick from the voice coil.

DO have the amp head checked, DC offset is a speaker cab killer no matter what the rated output is.
Click to expand...

Listen to this man. He knows what he's talking about. For real.
 
#113
DirtyDuke said:
I'll make a bet with you that will only cost me if I'm wrong. I'm going to run all 16 of my fuzz pedals, 9 distortions, 6 overdrives and 2 compressors at max settings for 30 minutes and see what happens.

It is impossible for a pedal to compress a signal to the point of thermal meltdown of a speaker
Click to expand...

Please record this, because that's a Feedback Friday clip that I desperately want to hear! :)
 
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#114
874442.jpg
 
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#115
BurningSkies said:
Do you have the same setup as the OP?
Click to expand...

No. Your right I do not. But I will state repeatedly it is impossible for a pedal to cause a speaker fire. There are 50 reasons it could happen but adding a new distortion pedal is not one of them.

I'm sorry but your theory is just wrong, impossible actually. So I will just leave this thread. But what I will do is call an actual audio engineer and an electrical engineer for a professional opinion.
 
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#116
DirtyDuke said:
No. Your right I do not. But I will state repeatedly it is impossible for a pedal to cause a speaker fire. There are 50 reasons it could happen but adding a new distortion pedal is not one of them.

I'm sorry but your theory is just wrong, impossible actually. So I will just leave this thread. But what I will do is call an actual audio engineer and an electrical engineer for a professional opinion.
Click to expand...

Thermal failure is thermal failure no matter how you get there. There are guys here in this thread who have worked for decades with speakers who are saying that it is a plausible notion.
 
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#117
BurningSkies said:
Thermal failure is thermal failure no matter how you get there. There are guys here in this thread who have worked for decades with speakers who are saying that it is a plausible notion.
Click to expand...

Seriously from a distortion pedal!!!!!???? A pedal??? A 9v, maybe 100ma pedal? Compression?

Any audio engineer who says a distortion pedal will cause a fire is not someone who's professional opinion I trust.

Anyway. I'm out. This is the reason I don't venture out into the amp world.
 
#118
DirtyDuke said:
Seriously from a distortion pedal!!!!!???? A pedal??? A 9v, maybe 100ma pedal? Compression?

Any audio engineer who says a distortion pedal will cause a fire is not someone who's professional opinion I trust.

Anyway. I'm out. This is the reason I don't venture out into the amp world.
Click to expand...

What does the pedal voltage have to do with anything? Its upstream from the amp input. Again, pedal doesn't cause fire, thermal failure causes fire.
 
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#120
Jason Tubbs said:
You are seriously under-powering your cabs. The likely culprit is a clipped signal (to the point of DC) overheating the coils.
Click to expand...
+1. clipped signal means no time for the speaker coils to cool. Overheated coils = transferred heat to paper cones = flaming speakers. A friend did it once to an 18 when he was running sound, and I blew a speaker once using a 25 watt amp that, when it went, blew a smoke ring out the front of the grille cloth. Poof.
 

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