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Help with faulty Barefaced Super Midget needed


BillyBass
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I acquired a Super Midget on E Bay just before Christmas.  It had a few knocks but it plays fine until you get up to the E and F and particularly further up, to 13th to 14th fret on the G string and above.  If I dig in on the Ab, A or higher I get a rasping/ringing sound coming out of the tweeter area.  The sustain on these notes is accompanied by this raspy ring.  The A seems to be the worst note for this.

I contacted Alex about this just before Christmas and he thought it might be a cracked horn on the tweeter.  I ordered a replacement from him and installed it yesterday, same problem occurs.

None of my other cabs have tweeters, so I'm not used to playing through one but I'm sure this isn't normal.

I took the tweeter out and placed it on top of the cab, still with the spade connectors on the terminals and it still made a sound but it was not so loud.  I couldn't tell if the sound was coming from the tweeter or inside the cab, as there was just enough slack on the cable attached to it to place it on the top of the cab.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

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That may be the front surround suspension. They can become noisy and sound raspy as they vibrate. You'll be able to locate the area by playing the note and running your finger around the edge of the speaker. If you can make it stop, its a problem with the main driver, not the tweeter. It's a sneaky fault as it does sound tweeterish.

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2 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

That may be the front surround suspension. They can become noisy and sound raspy as they vibrate. You'll be able to locate the area by playing the note and running your finger around the edge of the speaker. If you can make it stop, its a problem with the main driver, not the tweeter. It's a sneaky fault as it does sound tweeterish.

Ta, I'll try that now.

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There are three places this could be coming from. The tweeter - which you've now eliminated as a source of the problem by fitting a new one - the bass driver and the cabinet.

To locate the exact source of the noise, it would help if you can record and play back the notes so that you are not playing the bass while you are troubleshooting.

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Here's an online tone generator: https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/. If you can locate the frequency and play it continuously through your speaker, it'll be easier to pinpoint the source of the problem. The most likely culprit is a duff glued connection - so look for locations where the cone, surround, centre dome and suspension are glued, or else faulty glue joints in the cabinet itself. Don't rule out things rattling inside the cab, like speaker lead-out wires or internal wiring.

It could be anything, but I did see a couple of these drivers where the domes were not properly glued to the cone. So I would check that area closely.

I may have misunderstood the OP earlier. Did you replace the horn flare but not the compression driver? If that's the case, you still need to consider the possibility of a faulty compression driver.

Edited by stevie
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I found the source of the noise.  The handle!🙄

I took the grille off again and continuously plucked fret 14 on the g string while running my fingers over bits of the cab, then back to the bass for another long pluck.  I started out with the eminence speaker but no joy and then went round everything until I got to the handle.

The handle has seen better days, I don't think the previous owner looked after the cab so well.  The handle looks fine and is perfectly usable but its loose, so I have just found out, and at the appropriate frequency it vibrates against the two metal clips that hold it onto the cab.  As I mentioned above, it particularly likes the last A on the G string.  If I pull the handle up, so that the metal ends of the strap are tight against the two clips it doesn't make a sound.

I shall send Alex another e-mail on Monday morning.

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4 hours ago, stevie said:

To locate the exact source of the noise, it would help if you can record and play back the notes so that you are not playing the bass while you are troubleshooting.

That would have been the smart thing to do.  Next time!

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