Resonating/Buzzing PPC412HP.. plus anger & venting (Beware!)

[David Verb]

Hi Forum,

After some recent posting. I was doing some experimenting with my amp to explore some of the suggestions posted by users.

I was playing it MUCH louder than usual. And I noticed a lot of buzzing or resonance in my cabinet.

I run a Rockerverb 100 into a PPC 412HP. The resonance began at about 9 o'clock on my clean volume. I have never really paid attention to the noise before... because I never play it so loud.

The more I turned up the volume, the more annoying and loud the sound.

So...

I decided to put my ear to the speakers and I deduced that it was coming from the centre of the two right speakers. When I applied a fair amount of pressure to the rib of wood between them, the resonating stopped. I am under the impression, that something has come loose!

Aren't Orange known for there amazingly strong and reliable cabinets?! Has anyone ever had problems?

In a perfect world, this would not be an issue, I would simply return it to the place of purchase, where the friendly sales staff would carefully pack my severely overpriced and defective cabinet into protective packaging, send it to the closest Orange distributor, who would identify the minor issue, repair it and send it on home, in due and reasonable time.

However, It's not a perfect world. My local guitar shop is staffed with douche bags and neo-shred-metallists, who's extent of knowledge on a fret board is limited to the E minor scale and diminished arpeggios! My paranoia is leading me to believe they up-sold me on the HP because it was buzzing to begin with. (FYI they sold me the Rockerverb with a blown fuse too!)

Furthermore I'm located in Sydney, and the Orange distributor is in Melbourne. The last time I went into my guitar shop, for an unrelated matter, I was told there was a waiting time of up to 6 to 8 weeks!

What b/s is that?

Is there a way I can pull off the grill without damaging the unit and repair it myself, or should I suck it up, delay my inevitable tinnitus and send her on her way?

Please forgive my venting, but my hate for Australian music retailers consumes me!!!

[Sooner]

My local guitar shop is staffed with douche bags and neo-shred-metallists, who's extent of knowledge on a fret board is limited to the E minor scale and diminished arpeggios! My paranoia is leading me to believe they up-sold me on the HP because it was buzzing to begin with. (FYI they sold me the Rockerverb with a blown fuse too!)

Well if you got got all four tubes you did better than this guy:
http://forum.orangeamps.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41488" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[OU818]

Dude just take it back, tell them if they can't repair it within a week or so then you'll just take another 'unplayed' one. Say you have a gig in a fortnight and don't have the time to be messed around.

How long ago did you buy it? Also did you get the amp checked after you discovered the blown fuse?

[Randy Bass]

You're not going to be able to pull off the grille of a rear-loaded cab. The grill cloth is stapled and glued to the baffle, to which the speakers are mounted. You can remove the back panel to get a look inside the cab to try to identify the source of the resonance. It is almost always caused by out-of-phase resonance between the baffle and back panel and is quite a common occurrence in 4x12 cabs when played at high volumes. This is why center posts are fitted on some cabs. If yours is like my PPC412-LTD, it has a rather thin center post to synchronize resonance between baffle and back. Sometimes the post is not fitted well and can actually cause vibration. I once had to adjust the center post on a M*rshall 1960TV that was poorly fitted from the factory. The cab was over ten years old and the previous owner had never noticed it. It only made noise when it was really taking a lot of power. The end had not been cut cleanly and the mounting block at the baffle end did not have the screws counter-sunk, so I used a Dremel to make the needed repairs and it worked like a box of Lucky Charms. If you are so inclined, you may do some investigating to see if you can sort it out. Good luck.

[David Verb]

My local guitar shop is staffed with douche bags and neo-shred-metallists, who's extent of knowledge on a fret board is limited to the E minor scale and diminished arpeggios! My paranoia is leading me to believe they up-sold me on the HP because it was buzzing to begin with. (FYI they sold me the Rockerverb with a blown fuse too!)

Well if you got got all four tubes you did better than this guy:
http://forum.orangeamps.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41488" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ouch... that hurts. There could only possibly be one thing I hate more than music store workers... real estate agents! *shakes fist*

Dude just take it back, tell them if they can't repair it within a week or so then you'll just take another 'unplayed' one. Say you have a gig in a fortnight and don't have the time to be messed around.

How long ago did you buy it? Also did you get the amp checked after you discovered the blown fuse?

No. I haven't checked the amp since the blown fuse. I suppose since it is less than 12 months old I should just send everything back together. It may be too long gone to pull another one of the shelf though!

Sometimes the post is not fitted well and can actually cause vibration.

Yeah. That sounds like my problem!

[baytamusic]

I'd at least check to make sure all of the baffle screws are tight and also check the center post as Randy suggested. I've read of people putting small pieces of some kind of rubber cloth like stuff between the center post and the baffle and between the center post and the back panel to eliminate wood on wood vibrations. Another screw might even fix the problem. Or, like Randy said, it might not be cut straight. I think that's what he said anyways?! I just skimmed his response.

Is the center post even necessary really?

The handles on my 70s Marshall cab vibrate and it's annoying, but to be fair, the cab is at least 30 years old and it's seen a lot of touring in it's time. I've just been too lazy to fix it as my band isn't playing shows right now.

[a.hun]

Hi there David Verb.

I'd just do as the Randy B suggested and have a look at the cab yourself. Though sometimes Orange cabs are TOO well put together and almost impossible to get into. (Orphin had that problem a while back.) At any rate don't go stripping the heads of any of the fixing screws or it'll just get 10 times harder to sort - even worse for your blood pressure!

I would say though that I do like to check the tighness of all screws / bolts in my guitar and bass cabs and combos from time to time as they can loosen off with the strong vibrations. Thats pretty normal IMO. The only ones you don't want to overtighten are the actual speaker mounting screws / bolts as that can distort the speaker frames and damage the drivers.


Andy.