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Topic: Randall Steelman 500 problem................ |
Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 16 Oct 2008 6:48 am |
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I've noticed a problem with my Randall Steelman 500 lately. I started doing "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" again as an instrumental and do a break on the bottom three strings of my S-12 similar to what a guitar would do. I've done it with a couple of my other amps but with the Randall, I get a lot of distortion. It doesn't distort on any other notes except on the bottom end. The amp has a 15" JBL speaker which is in good shape so I can't figure out why it's doing this. The lowest note is an E, same as the low E on a standard guitar. Any ideas what might be causing this?........JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!! |
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Mike Taylor
From:
Wetumpka, AL
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Posted 17 Oct 2008 2:20 pm
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Jerry...
Try connecting the amp to a different speaker to see if the source of distortion is the amp or the speaker itself.. You may be overdriving the pre-amp or power amp section..
Mike |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 17 Oct 2008 2:48 pm
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Hard to tell...it could be just a dirty control, and the vibration caused by picking the low strings is aggravating the problem. It could be a cold solder joint or dirty jack, too. Of course, if it's never been serviced, it could also be that the caps (bypass, coupling, and power supply) are giving out under the stress of high power. If a few "thumps" on top, and a working of the controls yeilds nothing, it's time to tear it apart.  |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 18 Oct 2008 10:49 am
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Thanks guys, I appreciate the tips.....JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!! |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 21 Oct 2008 4:58 pm
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I have a pair of these amps, Jerry, both with 4 ohm JBL speakers and every time I think the amp is gunny-sack it turns out to be a damaged speaker. The 300 watts or so that these lovely combos deliver at that impedance can take out the older, alnico JBL units (D and K series) as the gap is pretty small and if the voice coil gets good and hot it will warp and rub and things will not go well after that. I had to replace the D130F that I èad installed in one of them with an E130 (which has a slightly wider gap and an extra eight pounds or so of ceramic magnet) for this reason and have not had a problem since.
As has been mentioned, try your amp with another, known quality speaker, also try the speaker with another, known quality amp, thus the culprit will be revealed.
Good luck, that's a fine amp and well worth fixing
dg |
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