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Well - my speakers caught fire.
- Thread starter killjeats
- Start date
Just say its part of the show! Some cheesy rocker actually had a dummy pickup added to his Les Paul that would emit smoke, sparks and even fizzled like it was burning during one of his solos.
And then there was Pete Townsend who use to smash up his guitars and amps at the end of their shows. Combined with Keith Moon's tearing up hotel rooms night after night, the band almost went bankrupt early on in their career.
And then there was Pete Townsend who use to smash up his guitars and amps at the end of their shows. Combined with Keith Moon's tearing up hotel rooms night after night, the band almost went bankrupt early on in their career.
And half the people here say that is a myth then start a flame war over distortion pedals and compession. Pardon the pun "flame" war.
I can almost read the minds of those being so passionate against the possibility of pedals blowing speakers and it is clear they don't seem to understand that what a pedal does to the signal content can certainly contribute to a dangerous situation. They seem to be focused on the fact that the output of the pedal is line level without understanding the dynamics of the big picture, pardon another pun.
Fact is worn out speakers were paired with a likely worn out underpowered amplifier, running flat out with a fuzz. The fuzz both makes it harder to discern power amp distortion from the fuzz effect itself, and the higly compressed signal gives the voice coils and amp much less time to cool down and recover, as they would with a normally dynamic cleaner bass signal content.
But it is also not common to blow up speakers like that so this is likely a case of malfunctioning amp paired with worn out speakers.
A normal amount of clipping like with hitting the rails on a gk, or in my case pushing a wm10 into distortion is not likely to blow speakers, but treat a distortion pedal like a volume boost to take that way past the red line for a couple hours of jamming and your speakers won't handle it forever. I blew the amp.chip on the wm10 after 15 years but the speaker is just fine according to the tech who fixed it. I go pick it up tomorrow, yay!
I can almost read the minds of those being so passionate against the possibility of pedals blowing speakers and it is clear they don't seem to understand that what a pedal does to the signal content can certainly contribute to a dangerous situation. They seem to be focused on the fact that the output of the pedal is line level without understanding the dynamics of the big picture, pardon another pun.
Fact is worn out speakers were paired with a likely worn out underpowered amplifier, running flat out with a fuzz. The fuzz both makes it harder to discern power amp distortion from the fuzz effect itself, and the higly compressed signal gives the voice coils and amp much less time to cool down and recover, as they would with a normally dynamic cleaner bass signal content.
But it is also not common to blow up speakers like that so this is likely a case of malfunctioning amp paired with worn out speakers.
A normal amount of clipping like with hitting the rails on a gk, or in my case pushing a wm10 into distortion is not likely to blow speakers, but treat a distortion pedal like a volume boost to take that way past the red line for a couple hours of jamming and your speakers won't handle it forever. I blew the amp.chip on the wm10 after 15 years but the speaker is just fine according to the tech who fixed it. I go pick it up tomorrow, yay!
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I personally don't find childish or ridiculous ramblings sig worthy. Different strokes.
I'm assuming you think my comment about doing an actual field test childish or ridiculous. Which is both educational and informative.
But I digress. U probably think pedals start fires
Semantics. You do that cause you can't control your gear or you bought a new distortion pedal. This is total BS
Again reading minds here...
He wasn't referring to the distortion pedal, he was referring to the poweramp being driven so far past clipping that it was sending pure square waves to the speakers. Not a square wave effected tone, but the amp itself pushing square waves at high amplitude.
The distortion PEDAL just makes it easier to achieve that, as well as masking perception of that happening to a degree. I don't think anyone here is ignorant enough to think that simply using a distortion pedal causes speakers to spontaneously combust.
But then again as an audio engineer I could be wrong about that part because I have heard questions along that sort from people confusing a distorted signal that is being reproduced cleanly by an amplifier, and that which is being caused by a power amplifier clipping. Same word, different scenario.
He wasn't referring to the distortion pedal, he was referring to the poweramp being driven so far past clipping that it was sending pure square waves to the speakers. Not a square wave effected tone, but the amp itself pushing square waves at high amplitude.
The distortion PEDAL just makes it easier to achieve that, as well as masking perception of that happening to a degree. I don't think anyone here is ignorant enough to think that simply using a distortion pedal causes speakers to spontaneously combust.
But then again as an audio engineer I could be wrong about that part because I have heard questions along that sort from people confusing a distorted signal that is being reproduced cleanly by an amplifier, and that which is being caused by a power amplifier clipping. Same word, different scenario.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,077
- 46,033
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Was this a homemade Great Destroyer clone done on perfboard by any chance? Was it professionally built or a DIY?
Also, was the tweeter in your cab actually physically disconnected, or was the L-pad just turned all the way down?
It was a DIY kit built by someone who has made pedals, but by no means is a pro. And the tweeter is most definitely connected, just all the way down.
Gawd that would have sounded worse than solid state peavey or carvin guitar amps on full gain if the tweater was on!
What he said. Many don't get that under-powering is often more dangerous than overload. Seems even more likely if the pedal was pushing a lot of higher-frequency information.
I suggest we try to avoid sarcasm as it might be misinterpreted by less informed readers.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,077
- 46,033
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Cool, just trying to approach things methodically. Turning the L-pad all the way down and sending lots of high frequency energy into the cab makes a pretty nice toaster out of the L-pad windings, so in the future I'd roll with an on/off switch in front of the high pass board and the L-Pad. It also might be worth having a tech scope the output of the pedal and seeing just how unstable the intentional instability is. I've melted voice coils before with ultrasonic oscillations. Didn't get to flames in the cab though, only in the homemade dual fuzz. I asked about perfboard because ground faults or other power supply related instabilities are a little more probable if the builder does a janky job or uses an oversimplified layout, at least IME. The first perfboard layout I found online has no power supply filtering at all, FWIW. Edit: turns out that the original was built that way too.
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[QUOTE"dincz, post: 17595690, member: 176830"]I suggest we try to avoid sarcasm as it might be misinterpreted by less informed readers.[/QUOTE]
And don't mix driver sizes in the same rig either?
And don't mix driver sizes in the same rig either?
I'm honestly proud and amused at the fact that this thread lasted eight pages. Y'all need a popcorn eating emoticon.Hello killjeats. Welcome to TalkBass. I hope you are having fun here.
