Blown Black Widow?

Bruce Atkinson · Post by **Bruce Atkinson** » 14 Apr 2008 1:45 pm

Lately, my (bought used) Peavey Nashville 1000 has been making a raspy buzzy sound...like that of a torn speaker. By lately, I thinking about a month...give or take. I remember torn speaker sounds from my high school days long ago with the top down and full-blast radio 'crusing the avenue' in downtown Milwaukee.

Part of me thinks the damage may have occurred when I changed my guitar from the low-gain to high-gain input on the amp or some other cable changes while the amp was on at a fairly loud volume. Loud enough to hurt my ears when I did it. Note that I wear hearing aids, too, so it was LOUD!

Before I blow a wad of money on a new speaker, I'm trying to 'prove' that is what's wrong or not wrong. First, I did a visual inspection as well as feel-around and found no tears. I also moved the amp to a different area of my hardwood floor thinking maybe it was a 'harmonic' of the floor or simply a 'not-so-flat-on-the-floor' situation - no change.

Then I plugged my steel directly into the amp, removed all other connections, set all knobs at zero and turned off the reverb, and the problem continues. I also tried both the 'low gain' and 'high gain' input jacks as well. I did this as I have had a couple of changes of external electronics in the past few weeks and wanted to eliminate them as a possible source (pedal, sustain unit and wires).

About 2 months ago, I replaced the internal chips with the Burr Brown upgrade. I repair & upgrade computers on the side, so it was no big deal to open the amp and pop out the old chips and put in the new. Maybe one of them went bad?

I replaced the strings about 3 weeks ago with a full set of John Pearse strings.

I'm leaning towards the problem being the strings, as the problem ONLY occurs when playing the wound strings (bottom 4), and, I'm thinking I first noticed the problem about then, too.

So now I have two possibilities in mind...option one is the strings. It won't cost much to replace the last 4 with a different brand and see what happens. Option two is that somehow, the size of the strings is too close to the pickup (George L E-66 installed by a previous owner), and the pickup distance is incorrect.

Has anyone else had string problems? Or a blown Black Widow?

Is it time to replace my MSA Semi-Classic I've been learning on for the past 5 or 6 months?

David Nugent · Post by **David Nugent** » 14 Apr 2008 2:34 pm

I believe the speaker is plugged in to your amp by a 1/4" jack. If you have access to another Peavey 400 series (or certain Fender amps like the reissue series) try plugging the speaker into another amp and see if the noise persists. If not, then try the amp into a different speaker. This hopefully will isolate the problem.

David Nugent · Post by **David Nugent** » 14 Apr 2008 2:35 pm

Please excuse the triplicate post.

David Nugent · Post by **David Nugent** » 14 Apr 2008 2:37 pm

And again, my apologies.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 14 Apr 2008 2:40 pm

Do you have another speaker that you could use to test? It doesn't have to be installed in the Nashville 1000, just disconnect the speaker leads from the internal BW speaker and connect those leads (you can use AC "zip" cord for extending the speaker leads to the test speaker. That will tell you if the speaker is the problem or not.

If the BW speaker is the problem, first step is to "clean the gap" on the speaker. Remove the magnet from the speaker and clean anything that is on the rear of the speaker or in the voice coil area and on the face of the magnet then reconnect the speaker magnet and tighten the magnet mounting bolts and try.

If the BW speaker is blown you can buy a new "basket" and reuse the magnet from the old speaker.

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 14 Apr 2008 3:01 pm

Cleaning that gap fixes a lot of black widows. Give it a try. JP

Jim Eaton · Post by **Jim Eaton** » 14 Apr 2008 5:05 pm

I got a NV-1000 for "cheap" from a music store that thought the speaker was blown. 30min's of work to clean the gap and it's good as new!!!!
Search for the posts on how to do it and I'd bet your problem go's away!!!
JE:-)>

Bruce Atkinson · Post by **Bruce Atkinson** » 15 Apr 2008 6:21 am

Sounds like the gap may be the problem.

I'll give it a shot!

Many thanks for all your help!

Bruce Atkinson · Post by **Bruce Atkinson** » 15 Apr 2008 2:37 pm

I was doubtful that simply cleaning the front of the magnet and back of the cone could make a difference. Nevertheless, it was quick and no cost to try.

Although I didn't see any dust, dirt, or foreign matter, I wiped the magnet and cone and reassembled it. Success! The 'torn paper' sound is gone!!

Many, many thanks to all for your help and the the great resource that exists for us steelers on this website!

Bruce