[speakers] Damp vs. dry speakers
Posted by: crann <crann@...>
Wow - I just had a major point driven home this week.
I was asked to play bass for our community concert choir because they needed someone who could read sheets and improvise off chord charts for different songs. I showed up with my practice rig and my "big rig". I've been using the practice rig this winter (we live in Michigan), and had stored the big rig out in the garage. It's warmed up some but has been damp out there the last couple of weeks.
So I showed up, tried using just the practice amp because they were going to mic it and put it through the house, but the director wanted a bass solo-ish part for one song and the smaller amp just didn't have the oomph or phatness of tone that I wanted. So I set up the big rig (bass to Presonus tone box to Crown power amp to a Carvin 4x10 with a horn) expecting that I'd need to turn it way down so I didn't blow the pianist across the stage.
I turned on my rig, and proceeded to be horrified by the floppy, thin, wavery sound coming out of it. Talk about dead spots - I was only getting every other note to sound it seemed. I seriously was thinking maybe mice got into it while it was in the garage and had chewed up stuff that I couldn't see from the outside. It was especially bad on Fs and Bbs, which was going to suck badly because one bass-feature piece is in F 🙂 So I kept playing scales and it started sounding a little better, though nothing at all like my big rig should sound. After practice I was wracking my brain to figure out what was going on.
The next time we got together - 2 days later - "my rig" was back. It sounded awesome - tight, punchy, growly, and LOUD (I did end up turning it way down at that point). I think it just needed to warm up and dry out (the cones are paper fiber) to get the mojo back. Everything seems to be working as it has in the past, and I think it was dampness and not mice that caused the issue.
So I'm trying to think of where else I can store my equipment when I'm not using it 🙂 And if you've had equipment in storage in a not-ambient atmosphere, maybe it just needs to acclimate to sound right. Oddly enough we have played some venues when the humidity was high but I don't recall ever having my rig sound like it did that first night at practice - and I hope I never do again....
Alternatively, has anyone tried "bagging" their equipment in such a storage situation, and does that keep out the moisture well enough? I'm not sure where I would store my equipment elsewhere, so the garage may be my only option.
Grace,
Sherry
"A person's a person, no matter how small."
Horton the Elephant
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