Razbo Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 Hi. I have not had much success finding plans for a 2x12 cab. I've got outside dimensions for cabs from various ads that I've compared, but I can never be certain the internal chamber is the same (minus the wood thickness). I pulled apart a 4x12 and the internal chamber for 2 speakers is roughly 14x14x26 and this is nowhere close to the dimensions of any 2x12 cab I've seen. I am planning to build a closed back (removable). If anyone had a suggestion for a site or anything, that would be awesome. I've marked my lines, but haven't ripped anything yet... The material is 3/4 birch if that matters. Thanks in advance for any help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdogg Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 Try over on AX84.com. They've got plans for a 1x12... just double it and stick the two together... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted October 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 They appear to require me to register before showing me any info. Might do that later. Thanks for the link. There is not much out there, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 26, 2011 Report Share Posted October 26, 2011 Try over on AX84.com. They've got plans for a 1x12... just double it and stick the two together... ...then stack four together and you have a nice 8x12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mender Posted October 26, 2011 Report Share Posted October 26, 2011 Try over on AX84.com. They've got plans for a 1x12... just double it and stick the two together... ...then stack four together and you have a nice 8x12. ...then hire a heavy duty crane to lift it off the ground... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 26, 2011 Report Share Posted October 26, 2011 Indeed! I've been a bit interested in making a cab recently also. The Gallien-Krueger MB-200 would be great in a compact monitor wedge 2x10 bass combo. Very convenient and a great opportunity to improve my dovetail joints. Perhaps next year at ammattikoulu I'll spend some time making something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted October 26, 2011 Report Share Posted October 26, 2011 Here's where the speaker geniuses live: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ I think they speak English, but sometimes it's hard to tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted October 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 Could not find much there, either. How can there be no plans on the whole friggin' internet? I guess it's because any box will do? Take away the speakers and there is not much difference between a $200 Kustom cab and a $1700 Koch cab. The speaker cavity space would be the primary factor, and to a degree, it's relative dimensions, I would think. Kustom 27.6"H x 27.4"W x 12.8"D = 9679.9 ci; / 2 = 4839.95 ci for a 2 x 12 Koch 29.1H x 28.3W x 13.8D = 11364.7; 5682.35 My Plan for a 2 x 12 was 16H x 26.5W x 13D = 5512 ci. Guess I was on track. I can actually get a 2 x 12 AND a 1 x 12 cab from a single sheet of ply. And my sheet of 3/4 birch only cost me $70... Someone please help me understand how a cab can be worth $1700? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 29, 2011 Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 Throw together a cab and you can charge $200. Put together a cab using materials and components specified for the quality rather than the bottom line plus spending time on the workmanship and QC, and $1700 doesn't seem all that unrealistic. Same as a guitar. Hammer some Basswood and randomsawn Maple together and you end up with an instrument costing less than €150. Craft better materials with slightly more complex build processes and you quadruple that. Put it this way - how much is an hour of your time worth? I topped out at £45 once. Imagine a skilled cab builder working for a small company where all cabs are build by hand where it takes a few hours of dedicated work into each cab. Costs soon mount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted October 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. It's a wooden box and it's covered, it's not even fine carpentry. It's a crate. A $1700 crate. I'll just put on my rose coloured glasses and mind my business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 29, 2011 Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 Maybe. Anything is worth what people will pay for it, after all. Perhaps with the right marketing crap and a dovetail jig I can sell €1700 cabs too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted October 29, 2011 Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 I can see a difference in a cheap tossed together cab and a good well made cab but can in no way justify 1700 for a cab there are too many good cabs on the market for much less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 29, 2011 Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 I agree very much in that respect. I adored (and I don't use soft words like that) the cab I used with my old AH12-300. It had the nickname of the "pain cube" on the basis that it weighed more than your average car. Saw one on eBay just now, currently £40. Would buy it again, no doubt about it. New? I would pay a little over €500 for what it gave in return. A great live cab. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Bass-Cab-4x10-/130591364703#ht_500wt_1413 If I built a cab I would either make one with the same volume and dimensions as that, or if my back wasn't such a mess an 8x10 :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 29, 2011 Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 I built a 2x12 cab about two years ago. This is what I based my build on: http://www.novacron.com/uploads/dc30_212_cabinet_plans.pdf Only major difference was that I replaced the rear opening on page 2 with a removable panel to make it a closed back cab (preferred the sound of it when I compared it with and without). The dovetail joints shown in those drawings are probably overkill. I used lap joints reinforced with 42x19 rectangular-section braces inside each edge. Once the front baffle and rear panels are installed the whole thing becomes rigid. Based on what I've seen there's nothing particularly special about guitar cab construction. Whatever works to make a box large enough and strong enough to hold a bunch of speakers is pretty much it. Your only major decisions are likely to be open vs closed back, what type of speakers you want to install, the number of speakers, material (plywood will be the weapon of choice nine times out of ten), and how you want to pretty it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted October 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 I built a 2x12 cab about two years ago. This is what I based my build on: http://www.novacron.com/uploads/dc30_212_cabinet_plans.pdf Only major difference was that I replaced the rear opening on page 2 with a removable panel to make it a closed back cab (preferred the sound of it when I compared it with and without). The dovetail joints shown in those drawings are probably overkill. I used lap joints reinforced with 42x19 rectangular-section braces inside each edge. Once the front baffle and rear panels are installed the whole thing becomes rigid. Based on what I've seen there's nothing particularly special about guitar cab construction. Whatever works to make a box large enough and strong enough to hold a bunch of speakers is pretty much it. Your only major decisions are likely to be open vs closed back, what type of speakers you want to install, the number of speakers, material (plywood will be the weapon of choice nine times out of ten), and how you want to pretty it up. Now we're talking. Nice job! What is the depth of the cab, did I miss it? Not that know what I'm doing half the time, but I have built a few cabs and experimented with the size of the 'inner cabinet', plus compared to what other cabs I could pull apart. There seems to be a consistent cubic area that works and it's a little larger (per speaker) for 1 x 12's. There is a minimum before bass response dies, which I assume to be relative to the wave length of the frequency. I was looking for some kind of confirmation for my 'last cab', and/or a better idea. Assuming the depth of those plans is around 13", it would put it in the same ball park as my current plan (16"H x 26.5W x 13D) and what info I've gleaned. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 30, 2011 Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 (edited) There is a lot of voodoo attached to anything which can attract big bucks from discerning/bulging wallets. I would say that though, since I believe that solid design principles and workmanship factor out voodoo. I wouldn't go as far as to saying that you can throw together a reasonably solid cab and match the quality of better products out there, but with a bit of thought and effort you can certainly beat the quality of mass production stuff. Except for Marshall. Not that know what I'm doing half the time, but I have built a few cabs and experimented with the size of the 'inner cabinet', plus compared to what other cabs I could pull apart. There seems to be a consistent cubic area that works and it's a little larger (per speaker) for 1 x 12's. There is a minimum before bass response dies, which I assume to be relative to the wave length of the frequency. That probably explains why all the kids in their tinny little box "cars" stuffed with subwoofers sound truly awful. For closed back cabs it is more than likely the volume of air that lower frequencies need to displace. If a cab is sealed then the compressibility of air becomes a massive factor, hence the value of porting. My old studio monitors (Spirit Absolute 2s) are ported, and covering them with my hand severely reduces the low end. Edited October 30, 2011 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 30, 2011 Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 Now we're talking. Nice job! What is the depth of the cab, did I miss it? I think I based my measurements on the Bogner Oversize 2x12 (25 3/4" height x 29 3/4" width x 11 7/8" depth), slightly larger than those plans. I used a manufactured pine panel as the basis for the build. I can't remember what it was called exactly, but it was a kind of laminated thing made up of long strips of smaller timber fingerjointed together to make one large board, kinda like a kitchen benchtop. The fingerjointed construction also prevented warping of the board. They come in a width of 300mm, so all I had to do was cut the sheets to the appropriate lengths to make the sides, top and bottom. Front baffle was 12mm ply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted October 31, 2011 Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) I built a cab years ago for a speaker only. Some good info found here I just googled "guitar speaker construction" " speaker construction" and theres quite a lot of info out there Edited October 31, 2011 by jaycee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 31, 2011 Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 Agreed. Some very pragmatic guidelines there, and it appears to be fairly voodoo-free on cursory inspection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted November 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2011 That probably explains why all the kids in their tinny little box "cars" stuffed with subwoofers sound truly awful. Ha, they always make me think of my little sister playing jumprope: "Lookit me! Lookit me!!" I built a cab years ago for a speaker only. Some good info found here I just googled "guitar speaker construction" " speaker construction" and theres quite a lot of info out there ...But I didn't want to build a speaker, I wanted to build a cabinet. I will have to dumb down my searches, or maybe learn to try more terms. That brought up several links I had not found yet. I cut the 2x12 according to the dimensions I'd planned, plus had plenty left to build a 1x12 in the same dimensions as the Traynor Darkhorse cab. Two cabs from one sheet. Hopefully they turn out ok. Thanks for all the input, folks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted November 2, 2011 Report Share Posted November 2, 2011 Ok, terminology. What most people call a speaker is more properly called a "driver." The speaker is the entire assembly, with a driver mounted inside a cabinet. You actually do want to build a speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted November 2, 2011 Report Share Posted November 2, 2011 Most people would look at what you want to build as a "speaker" not a speaker cabinet, hence my search for "speaker construction" Also if you want to build a speaker you need to construct a cabinet to put the driver into. Altering the phrase you input into google can make a huge difference with the results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 2, 2011 Report Share Posted November 2, 2011 How about Googling "construction speakers" and getting a load of results consisting primarily of civil engineering seminar transcripts in PDF format? You're right about the difference between speaker and driver though. Ambiguity is the mother of all f Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted November 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2011 Ok, terminology. What most people call a speaker is more properly called a "driver." The speaker is the entire assembly, with a driver mounted inside a cabinet. You actually do want to build a speaker. Not to be contradictory, but I am not so sure about that. Driver is obviously a correct and unambiguous term. If we called it a Loudspeaker instead of 'Speaker, we'd be talking about the driver. However, in context, it's true we could also be talking about the whole cab, altough I consider that a misuse of the term... kinda like a Tremolo. Regardless of what we call it, I have boxes to put things in to make noise! Life is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 3, 2011 Report Share Posted November 3, 2011 Specificity is in the eye of the specifier, perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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