What's That Bad Sound?

[nonrappingJZ]

I hope that this is in the right place....this is important (to me).

3/4 though our gig on Saturday night, my rig made some expensive sounds (bad bad bad sounding buzzes). I wasn't sure if it was the guitarist's amp or mine. Apparently, the bad sounds weren't noticed by anyone except the two of us--we got a decent review for the show today.

After checking things over, 't'was indeed 'my' cabinet. I'm so pissed. I never had this problem with my big cabinets when I was playing loud music. This quiet band with quiet cabs is a pain.

To keep a long story as short as possible, I think that it's a voice coil issue (searched through some threadsl). This cabinet is a vintage Horizon 4x10" that the band owns, so it's seen some action from several other players before I joined the band, and I'm pissed that I'm the lucky one that "broke" it.

I need to replace the speaker, but I'm reluctant to replace all four. Currently, there are four Sammi 10", 200 watt drivers. My thoughts are to replace it with one of the Eminence Legend 10s (I'm a big Eminence fan).

I'm intrigued by the basslite series (neos), though, and I might be interested in replacing 'em all (especially if the band foots the bill, which they might...I have to run it by them).

I only use this cab as a monitor live (DI to PA works well for my situation), and at practice (fairly quiet because our violinist's amp isn't that loud). I'm using a Mesa 400 to drive it (225 watts, according to my amp tech). The horn in the cabinet has been removed at some point (fine by me). Surely I should just replace the cab (seriously looking at building one of Greenboy's cabs), but it's been a freebee to use, until now.

My questions to you, my bass brethren:

• replace one or all;
• neos versus standard ferrite magnets; and
• non-Eminence alternatives.

Thanks for your help in advance.
Jeremy

 

[dog1]

Since nothing lasts forever, my first thought would be who owns the cabinet? If it is owned by the band and would not be your's to take should you decide to move on some day, just replace the one speaker that is blown.

The Eminence you mentioned are 60 bucks each plus tax or shipping, so to replace all 4 would not be totally out of line if you are otherwise happy with the cab. Since the neos are almost 100 each, I would think twice about having 400 bucks in a used cabinet.

BTW, if it were mine and I was going to keep it, I would want matched speakers.

 

[SteveC]

If the band owns it, the band should repair it. Simple.

 

[nonrappingJZ]

Done. Not even a big deal. I was freaking out mostly because of the really bad sounds coming from it. There's a first time for everything, and now I know what a screwed up voice coil sounds like and what a cool band is like.