The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a 1970 Emmons D10 where the lower notes on the C6 neck are making a farting sound through an amp when plucked assertively (nothing crazy hard). It sounds just like a blown speaker, but after testing a few other things through the same amp and also experiencing the issue when playing the steel through another amp, I'm suspecting it's the pickup (original single coils).

Has anyone experienced this before? My initial thought was, maybe the pick up height is too high (not sure what proper height should be), but wondering if the pickup could be bad.

Try lowering that end of the pickup and see if that makes any difference. Check to see if anything is loose and vibrating by touching that end of the pickup while you pick the string...

It sounds promising for a comedy interlude at the singer's expense...maybe you should leave it alone.

You may have the next new craze. Think “Don’t Worry Bout Me”.

you guys are killin' me

The frequency of the low C6 notes will make any speaker issues, possibly pickup/amp issues show up. They will also make anything loose or in proximity rattle, including your speaker wiring connections.

My first thought was the speaker as these low notes will definitely show up a rubbing or bad voice coil where it might not be evident in the higher frequencies. Also an amp with not enough power will cause this noise.

If you are satisfied that it's not the speaker or amp, I would likely investigate the pickup for loose windings, etc.

About the only way to find out if it's the pickup is to change it, but I would certainly check and double check these other things before resorting to that.

When they tell you to 'give it the beans', they don't mean it literally...

My Nashville 400 was doing the same thing and I took it to Peavey to get it repaired. They said that it had a dirty voice coil. They fixed the problem and now it runs like new.

Mitch

Some helpful replies here (and some just plain hilarious ). I think I got to the bottom of it. The bad "farting" sound was with my Fender Steel King with the Fender Custom 15" 4ohm (it's my understanding that this is a JBL D130-F clone made for Fender by Eminence). I picked up a used Peavey Nashville 400 with the 15" Black Widow. I don't hear the problem through that at all, although the amp is humming regardless of ground setting (capacitors need replacing I'm pretty sure), which is a separate issue. I may just make one good amp here with putting the BW in the Steel King. I'm in no hurry to get the caps replaced in the Peavey.

Strange thing is, playing a regular bass guitar through the Steel King sounds fine. Also the other amp I heard an issue with (but not as bad) is a guitar combo with a 12" Celestion (maybe that one is starting to go).

Does anyone recommend someone who's dealt with this particular Fender speaker before and would know how to re-cone it with the correct kit?