Amp didn't like bass at all at last night's gig

electrogrimey

As the title said, played a gig last night, and I was getting a lot of distortion and noise on any kind of low end going through the amp (It's a Fender Princeton 911). It was grand at a gig last Saturday, and to my knowledge nothing out of the ordinary happened to it.

Any ideas on both what's wrong and how to remedy this?

feylya

Dirty electricity. Is it still doing it?

electrogrimey

Left it at a gaff around the corner from the Button Factory so I don't know, I assume so though.

Sandvich

Sounds like it could be a problem with the speaker.

Fingers Mcginty

feylya wrote: »

Dirty electricity

Damn that's a good band name right there

electrogrimey

Sandvich wrote: »

Sounds like it could be a problem with the speaker.

It nearly definitely is, I could hear the cone shaking whenever bass went through it. I don't really want to open it up and look around though...

Sandvich

electrogrimey wrote: »

It nearly definitely is, I could hear the cone shaking whenever bass went through it. I don't really want to open it up and look around though...

Low bass frequencies making a buzzing, distorted kind of noise usually means you've got something in there, like a rather large hair from some headbanger or even a dead insect. You never know what would end up in there, open up the grill and take a good close look at the speaker. This is usually what causes this. I used to have to change headphones regularly before I realised they were just getting full of hair.

It can also be because something is rattling in the amp itself. I left my AC4 purposely a bit lose when I was poking around inside and I notice it having an obnoxious buzzing sound. When I tightened it all up, it was grand. Just as well as I love that amp. If you've opened your amp lately or it's taken a bit of a knock make sure there's nothing rattling around inside, and that all the screws are tight.

electrogrimey

Sandvich wrote: »

Low bass frequencies making a buzzing, distorted kind of noise usually means you've got something in there, like a rather large hair from some headbanger or even a dead insect. You never know what would end up in there, open up the grill and take a good close look at the speaker. This is usually what causes this. I used to have to change headphones regularly before I realised they were just getting full of hair.

It can also be because something is rattling in the amp itself. I left my AC4 purposely a bit lose when I was poking around inside and I notice it having an obnoxious buzzing sound. When I tightened it all up, it was grand. Just as well as I love that amp. If you've opened your amp lately or it's taken a bit of a knock make sure there's nothing rattling around inside, and that all the screws are tight.

Cheers, thanks a million. I'll that so.

nialljf

Can a bass hurt guitar amps? I've been putting mine through a Fender Blues Deluxe for ages now. Maybe guitar speakers can't handle the lower frequencies....

Rigsby

nialljf wrote: »

Can a bass hurt guitar amps? I've been putting mine through a Fender Blues Deluxe for ages now. Maybe guitar speakers can't handle the lower frequencies....

The best advice is never play a bass through a guitar amp, for the reason you yourself have stated.

Grolschevik

Rigsby wrote: »

never play a bass through a guitar amp, for

...unless you're Lemmy!

Sandvich

Rigsby wrote: »

The best advice is never play a bass through a guitar amp, for the reason you yourself have stated.

No, actually, you can play it through the AMP, just not the speaker :P

You can do that too at lower volumes without any major harm. It might not sound very good but Lemmy seems to like it. I guess it's for Bass players who want to take the lead.

Eoin Madsen

nialljf wrote: »

Can a bass hurt guitar amps? I've been putting mine through a Fender Blues Deluxe for ages now. Maybe guitar speakers can't handle the lower frequencies....

Not especially. Your average guitar amp will have shelved off most of the low end before you hit the speaker anyway. Especially in a valve amp, the coupling caps won't usually pass frequencies below the guitar E fundamental, so the lows end up being fairly weak by the output stage. It's why the bottom bass notes will often sound quieter than the middle range notes.

I wouldn't recommend cranking it the same as with a guitar though, purely because a bass' output is relatively much hotter across the whole frequency range than a guitar. The energy for a bass to sound equally loud is considerably larger so it's easier to overdrive a given amp with a bass without realising you're doing it. And then your odds of sending clipped waves to the speakers are much higher.

But at clean volumes, it's really fine.