Bytrix

You're still going to need some kind of pre-amp to run the speaker too, right? Someone here at work just bought one of those Marshal Micro Amps, it'd be pretty cool to rip the guts out and put them in a guitar.

That's what I'm doing now, I was going to buy a 4x12 but after some feedback from the guys here I'm gonna build a 2x12. Jeff B gave me a few great links you might find useful: http://colomar.com/Shavano/stereocab.html http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/pa_speaker_project.html

Well I officially have 'the bug' now, spent all morning here at work looking for the parts. Found some 18mm plywood from a local timber merchants, the speakers from that bluearan site, and all the other bits to complete the cab from maplin. I can't wait to start this now. Maybe I should document it and submit it as a tutorial for the main site? Even though I won't be looking much into the science of building a cab I think it'd be good to have some kind of guide on there.

It may not be old but it's twice my age Happy Birthday Brian

Thanks, I had searched and found a few 'this is my cab' sites, but nothing with a real tutorial or specifications of the wood used (like how thick it should be, how much support the thing needs so it won't come apart etc..). I was planning on just building one first, better to get it built then try a second once I know what I'm doing.

A search on froogle only brought up this one: http://www.studica.com/products/product_de...productid=12760

There are a load of great Inlay tutorials over on the main site: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial4.htm

ok, more noob questions: Does anyone have any references for someone who's never built a cab?, what woods to use, how thick, general guidelines on dimensions etc.. I've read a little into it and I think I might have a go at 2* 2x12 cabs: one fitted with 2* Eminence Patriot Series - Blue Tick Hound 75W 12 inch 8 ohm ; the other fitted with 2* Eminence Patriot Series - Screamin Eagle 75W 12 inch 8 ohm Both wired in parallel as I've read it's 'safer' than series, meaning each cab would be capable of 150W @ 4 ohms ? So a power amp like the Alesis RA300 Reference Power Amplifier one would be suitable : ? Thanks for putting up with my stupid questions again I'm quite looking forward to having a go at building a cab now, maybe once I've built one (or both) I might finally get the courage to start making the neck for my guitar.

Thanks Jeff B, those power amps look nice (I've been looking around for power amps but they're all way too powerful for what I need. I was wondering about building a 2x12 cab too.. perhaps I'll take that path. Does anyone know where to buy Celestions in the UK? [edit] actually just found a site with a massive range of Eminence speakers (bluearan.co.uk).

So basically a 4x12 isn't the way to go? and I should maybe instead look at a 2x12 combo?.. something like that behringer (but I really want something simple, there's no point having a load of controls on the amp itself because my V-amp can output hundreds of different amp and cab tones....

hmm, well this is the cab I was looking at getting, I like to use stereo effects and this seemed like a good option: http://www.behringer.com/BG412S/ 'Power rating: 400 Watts into 8 Ohms mono, 2 x 200 Watts into 8 to 12 Ohms stereo.' I know I'll be going nowhere near 200W or 400W and if I ever do it's years away, but I don't want to buy something that I have to replace/upgrade in 6 months time. It's all this stuff I don't really get (I know I'm a complete 'noob'). Anyone just want to recommend me some heads to run my V-amp into one of these ?

For a guitarist just starting out with a small band what kinda amp power am I going to need? I know there are a bunch of things to take into consideration like how many people we'll be playing to, the size of the places and what other equipment I have and I've never used anything other than small combo-amps which has been fine up to now. I run a V-Amp Pro along with a few other rack units and some pedals straight into a 30w combo amp at the moment (on it's clean channel) and I want to go down the cab path, so first of all what wattage should I look at in a cab, and if I get something like a 400w (like the stereo behringer cab I am thinking of getting), will it still sound good at 200w? So If I'm getting a cab, I then want a head/power amp to drive the signal from my V-Amp into the cab.. BUT I don't want it to saturate the sound or change the tone from the V-amp to the cab, I just simply want it to amplify and be capable of running the cab at it's max (if that's ever needed)), any recommendations? I'm on a fairly tight budget, and I've just got so confused looking at cabs/heads/poweramps that I have no idea what I actually need in terms of power. Any help is appreciated...

I think starting younger definitely has advantages. I'm not 'old', got my first guitar when I started Uni 4 years ago but didn't really play a whole lot till just over a year ago when I got myself a nice Charvel 375. 2 months later I gave my old strat copy to my 13 year old brother (on his birthday) and now he's at about the same level as me, BUT he's way more dedicated, he practices probably twice as much as I do. There's no doubt he's going to be 'better' than me in a year or two, I'm even considering starting a band with him (just not sure about the age gap, 10 years between us).

I think it'd be much easier for you to come up with something yourself, jam Voodoo Chile with your band and just add to it.. and see what comes out. That way you'll come up with something unique

I was wondering a while back of using a stereo jack on the guitar.. one channel is the output from the bridge humbucker, one channel from the neck.. 2x tone and 1x vol, even I can draw up a diagram for that, that way you're not just 'running two amps' but you can run the neck pickup through your small amp and bridge pickup through another.. ? good idea, or stupid? Or even 2 vols, and messing with them you can get a kinda ping-pong effect, or balance out the volumes from each pickup if you're playing through similar sized amps etc..

My suggestion is to never throw a riff or song away, always keep them there and listen to them every so often. I recorded loads of riffs a few years back which I would never consider good enough to go in a song, but after listening to them a few times (2 years later) I came up with some nice fills and riffs based on those old crappy pieces. And remember to add a bit of variety in your songs, you don't want them all to be shred fests or the fans'll soon get bored and think they're 'all the same' (remember fans don't have the ears of guitarists, they listen to a melody and think it's cool where a guitarist might think it's the simplest thing ever..). In terms of getting rid of equipment, I'd never just sell stuff.. only if I was planning on buying something better (I plan on selling all my guitars to buy a Les Paul and a Jem... eventually, it'll definitely be worth it but I don't feel like parting with my guitars just yet.)

As far as my electronics knowledge goes, a cap affects the resistance against higher voltages from the pickups? It's a very basic piece of 'circuitry', so I can't imagine how a 30 year old cap would be any better than a brand new one.

That's awesome, the warrior is one of my favourite 'Metal' guitar shapes and I like what you did with that lower horn. How long did that finish take you, from bare wood to finished ?

Well to be honest I don't use it a whole lot, you can get some nice sweeping sounds going from the single coil thin sound to the humbucker sound. The pickups in the WI66Pro give me a nice range of tones for old classic rock.. which is what I bought it for. I don't have much use for playing in split mode. It's just like the tone control.. but a little different, there's not alot to say.. imagine single coil sound, and humbucker sound.. and the ability to use a control to go from one to the other.. very much the same way you can go from a fat sound to a thin sound with the tone control.

That sounds the same as the VCC on washburn guitars (like my WI66Pro)

That sounds interesting, anyone else have any opinions on trying that? or any examples of what it'll do to the sound?

I think there are two main reasons people play guitars (or any instruments) : a. you want to come up with something that sounds cool and makes people listen. b. you want to play something cool that you or your friends like. Not much of a difference, but I firmly fall in category a. Just like most people I started out learning songs by guitarists I liked but it gets boring and you're too restricted by it. To get the band to the kind of level you want, all the members should be in category a. They should recognise what's good in other music, but don't try to emulate it or copy it, if you do that you'll just keep coming up with the same stuff and throwing it away coz it doesn't sound 'as good' as what you're trying to emulate. I'd say try and find musicians who are willing to be experimental and different, that's the best way to keep constantly interested, don't fix yourself to one style and as the band grows the style grows and changes. .. Maybe I should listen to my own advise, the only people I've played with want to play Slayer covers all the time.. If only it were easier to find these people and start a band with 'em...

Thanks man, I'd looked on the dimarzio site and didn't see a schematic for what I wanted, there's one almost exactly like I need on the SD site.

Wouldn't the volume control on your guitar do the same job?

So I'm getting a Seymour Duncan Invader in my bridge position and a Dimarzio Evolution in the neck.. these are replacing the two EMGs I had in it previously with vol/tone and a 3 way switch. I can just hook them up like I did with the EMGs (no split options) but I'm wondering if I should wire it so I can split them too.. so I've a few ideas: a. Use two mini-toggle switches to control whether or not the pickups are 'split', the 3 way toggle can still be used to blend the pickups, single tone and vol. b. Push/Pull pots (vol splits neck, tone splits bridge). I'm guessing both would work exactly the same but having only ever wired up a pair of EMGs my experience is somewhat limited. If someone could help me out with diagrams for the two options I'd be very grateful, I'm sure it'd only take someone a few minutes. Also, I think my Ibanez used 250k pots as standard, would you recommend 500 or 1000 as a replacement? I was going to go with the 500s but I'm not sure which would be best for the two pickups I have.