Does your CLR rattle when you play bass through it?

quark

Experienced
I just tried playing a standup bass and a Jazz bass through my CLR and it rattled like crazy. I was using the Austin Buddy Ampeg B15 PortaflexBass v5 preset on Scene 1. If I kept playing I think I would have permanently damaged the CLR ( if I haven't already ). Has anyone else had experience with the CLR and bass and did you have any problems. I took the grill off and looked around but nothing obvious was loose. Any thoughts? Thanks ...
 
You should try taking off the panel, then you can see if any wires are loose, etc.

Did it rattle when you played a particular note? Or just any bass through it?
 
Okay, thanks, sounds like it's a problem with my CLR .... yes, I did take off the grill to see if anything was loose and it only happens with the low E (40Hz or so ) of the bass.
 
Okay, thanks, sounds like it's a problem with my CLR .... yes, I did take off the grill to see if anything was loose and it only happens with the low E (40Hz or so ) of the bass.
Not the grill but the panel. The panel gives access to all the components, the grill does not.
 
Is the CLR active or passive? I had an issue with one of my active CLRs (initial run), rectified on short order by Atomic. Never had an issue since.
I was able to isolate the problem by running a slow, modulating frequency sweep via the AxeFX synth block.

The CLR active cabinet will audibly limit the signal when the amp is maxed-out, and bass guitar can do that more easily than guitar. It doesn't really distort, but you can tell when the limiter kicks in. By contrast, I can really crank my CLR passives on bass. A pair of them can get louder than I ever really need on most stages. Love 'em!
 
Good idea - I'll try that frequency sweep and see what happens. Would not have guessed that there would be a difference between the active and passive CLR's ( mine is active ). The problem I had is apparent at moderate volumes, so I don't think the limiter is the cause ( but who knows ). Good news is that I contacted Atomic and got a reply back almost immediately from a technician and he's been asking me to try various things. Preliminary stages at this point but if we come up with an assignable cause I'll post back in case it might be useful for someone else. Appreciate everyone's help on this.
 
If it rattles a lot, then there's some structural damage in the wood frame somewhere, open it up, if big cracks, try to glue those together but that's not guaranteed. This happens with cabs transported in cars and the cab jumps around causing structural damage (personal experience). And the bass signal is a very low frequency with a lot of energy causing even smaller cracks to cause rattling.
 
Good idea - I'll try that frequency sweep and see what happens. Would not have guessed that there would be a difference between the active and passive CLR's ( mine is active ). The problem I had is apparent at moderate volumes, so I don't think the limiter is the cause ( but who knows ). Good news is that I contacted Atomic and got a reply back almost immediately from a technician and he's been asking me to try various things. Preliminary stages at this point but if we come up with an assignable cause I'll post back in case it might be useful for someone else. Appreciate everyone's help on this.

It's good that you're in contact with Atomic and they're on the case. They'll help you get to the bottom (ahem) of it.
 
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