Broken Amp

[Whyte Ice]

I have this old Crate GX-15 amp that I haven't played in a long while and I took it out today and when I turned it on, it made this very loud, annoying, buzzing noise. And when I had the guitar plugged in, nothing would come out, all that was coming out was this loud noise. I turned it off an turned it back on, I did the same thing, I tried different inputs, different cables, different guitar, and the same thing.

I was thinking maybe the speaker has gotten bad or something and I was looking through the internet and could not find one place where they had a replacement speaker for this for sale.

Is there any tips on what I can do with this amp to get this to stop?

 

[getuhgrip]

Is this the same amp you're trying to sell?

Have you got another speaker you can use to test?

 

[Whyte Ice]

Of course its not the same amp I'm trying to sell.

I don't have any other speakers that would work with this amp.

 

[Whyte Ice]

Here is a sample of the noise I'm getting.

Click here to download wave file.

 

[getuhgrip]

Chill dude! I wasn't implying any piracy on your part. I assumed that the amp you were wanting to sell might have just started wiggin' out on you.

Anyway, after listening to the wav, I'm not so sure it's the speaker making that racket rather than something loose in the bus or the power supply.

Any similar impedence speaker at low volume would take yours outta the path and eliminate it as a culprit.

Good luck.

 

[Major Tom]

If you are getting buzzing out of the speaker, it is probably good. Speakers pretty much work or don't work, when they go bad, its either the voice coil is burned out (no sound at all), the voice coil is warped and rubbing the magnet, or the paper cone is deteriorating. In the last two cases, your GUITAR sound will be distorted in an un-musical way. If you have no guitar sound, and your cable is good, the problem lies between the input jack and the speaker out. It could be a bad component, or a solder joint that has been broken (very common on electronic devices that have been moved a lot or have taken one hard drop). Try gently tapping the amp and placing it in different positions (on its side, back, upside down) to see if you can get it to at least momentarily stop. If so, it is probably a broken solder joint on the PC board or some other loose component. Sometimes heavier components on a circuit board will tend to break the solder joints over a period of time, you may need to use a magnifying glass to see it. Usually it will look like a tiny circular crack around the lead of the component.