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Possible blown speaker or duff connection?

matei

Banned
Joined
Jan 2, 2004
Messages
158
Hi all,

Question for the amp/speaker gurus. Last night I was using my Friedman Smallbox 50 combo at practice. I wasn't too loud, only on about 4 on the BE channel, when suddenly all sound stopped coming from the amp. The amp itself is fairly new and hasn't been run at anything past 4 ever.

I initially thought I had a bad valve, as there was a tiny bit of sound coming from the amp, a rattly, distant, "tiny" sound - kind of like what you get playing through an attenuator, when you can hear the tubes singing. I turned the amp off, disconnected the speaker and plugged it into my backup amp. However to my surprise the issue persisted even with the new amp.

I tried moving the cable about a bit, which resulted in a stuttery type of sound, a bit louder - but no real improvement.

In all my years of playing I've never, ever blown a speaker - so no idea if that is what I've done. Anyone else familiar with this type of symptom? The speaker is the stock Celestion Creamback.

The only thing I did different last nigh was to face the amp to the wall, but I didn't think doing so at 4, volume-wise, would have this effect?
 

PaulD

Active member
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
673
First thing to check is the connections to the speaker where the wires solder on to it and the connections to the jack plug, make sure all the wires are securely soldered. If the connections are all ok and you have a multimeter measure the resistance across the speaker terminals with the speaker unplugged from the amp, it should read slightly lower than the rated speaker impedance (an 8 ohm speaker will typically read around 6 - 7 ohms). If it is significantly different to this that would indicate a problem with the speaker itself.
 

matei

Banned
Joined
Jan 2, 2004
Messages
158
First thing to check is the connections to the speaker where the wires solder on to it and the connections to the jack plug, make sure all the wires are securely soldered. If the connections are all ok and you have a multimeter measure the resistance across the speaker terminals with the speaker unplugged from the amp, it should read slightly lower than the rated speaker impedance (an 8 ohm speaker will typically read around 6 - 7 ohms). If it is significantly different to this that would indicate a problem with the speaker itself.

Super - thanks, will check when I get in. The joints are soldered on the speaker end, rather than clamped.

I did visually inspect the joints on the plug end, they looked sound.

Will dig out the multimeter when I get in, thanks!
 

Wally

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
3,535
I keep a 9 volt battery with clip on leads handy. with the speaker disconnected from the amp, contact the positive battery lead to the + contact on the speaker. Swipe the negative battery lead across the - contact on the speaker....you should hear a pop. IF not, the speaker is dead. IF you don't hear a little pop, the speaker is toasted. Fwiw, this battery test can ascertain polarity as well. With positive to the positive and negative to the negative, the speaker will move forward if it has 'normal' polarity. There are speakers that have 'backwards' polarity.
 

buckaroo

Formerly Tweedguy
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
938
Agree with Wally. This is a great way to check the speaker function and polarity.
 
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