Silencing a rattling amp

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
This is probably not as cool as some of your mods, but it could be a helpful tip if, like me, you have an amp that rattles. My Crate 65w amp has been rattling for a while, so I decided I was sick of it and looked into it and found that the metal around the actual amp was rattling against the wood enclosure. It's a rather bassy amp and I have a rather bassy guitar, so it made sense that something would rattle. Anyway, I had some Dynamat left over from when I was fixing some rattling in my car (also a result of speakers) and put some strips anywhere that a flat surface of the metal touched the wood enclosure. It is now 100% rattle free :)

I didn't take any pictures on the way, but if anyone wants me to take some pictures of the now-reassembled amp and point out what I did, I can. The main point of this post, I guess, is to let anyone with this sort of problem know that Dynamat is a good solution. I think I just bought the speaker kit, though any of the kits would probably work (you really just need small strips). They make a spray, too, apparently. That could be fun.

http://www.dynamat.com/products_car_audio_speaker_kit.html

It's basically just like a thick tape, but specially designed for this purpose.
 
I use that foam rubber weather stripping. I always had this problem with 4x12 cabinets, so I would take off the back and line the lip that the back screwed into with the foam. I would also do the center post. Then I would put the back back on, and add a screw into the center post.
 
I think that you get similar results with any of the stuff. Dynamat is kinda cool and might be a bit thinner then some other options, but I think it's probably also the most expensive... I was just lucky and had some left over. It works really well, though, I can say that much.
 
Anything that rattles has always annoyed me. In places where heat is not a problem like speaker cabs, grills or sreaker covers, I use self adhesive felt strips. I buy it in sheets and cut it to fit wherever I need it. I've even stuck it to drum rims to stop rattles there too.
 
yeah, they actually sell kits for it now but did it years ago when I had some left over from doing my car.
 
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