Building Bass Cab

[vaca11]

Im bit familiar with building stuff... i have builede and repaired few guitar cabs and speakers..


How can i build a bass cab ? is there any guide


and why are they so heavy ? ( most of them +25kg)

i want a small lightweight cheap thing..

[will33]

Start here:

The Speaker Building Bible - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video, and Electronics Customer Discussion Forum From Parts-Express.com

And read through a lot of the diy threads here. Lot's of real pro's to offer advise but you need a basic grasp of things first. Making a bass cab small, light, cheap AND sound good is no easy task. Compared to guitar cabs it's like going straight from building a birdhouse to building your house. Not to discourage you, there's just a lot more to it. A lot of guitar engineering goes into just designing the driver, on bass, the best driver in the world will sound like crap if it's not designed into the right box for it.

[Marko5657]

Is this something you want to do as a personal challenge, or are you trying to save money?

[rpsands]

Saving weight is an eminently realistic goal. Any bass cab on the market can be reduced maybe 20-30% or even more with just a switch to a light 1/2" ply.

Eminence has specs for various speakers that include what should be the design for the cabinet (basically e.g. net internal space and porting).

[scottfeldstein]

I did it once. Basically because nobody told me I couldn't. I had been doing sound for a trio rock band whose bass player used a commercial 18 + 2x10 cab and I wanted one of my own. The guy who owned the sound company helped me out a bit acquiring the speakers and doing the wiring. But I got out some graph paper and designed the cab myself. I did call the manufacturer of the 18 to ask how I should port the cab, given so many cubic inches of air, etc. But basically did the job myself. Screwed it together with a power drill and some drywall screws. I think maybe the sound company guy stapled some home insulation into the inside of it, not sure anymore. It was a lot of years ago.

I wasn't the tone freak then that I am becoming now, but to the best of my recollection that cab rocked the hizouse. I powered it with a Peavey slave amp and ran it through a 31-band EQ.

It had no grit, tons of clean power. Tons of thick bottom end. And I never wanted for volume on any stage I used it on.

[fdeck]

In addition to the above, check out:

TB'er Greenboy's "Fearful" plans
TB'er Bill Fitzmaurice's bass horn cab plans

I built a 17 pound cab that I'm quite happy with. Something to consider is that you can save money if you don't need all of the trappings of road-worthy commercial speakers, such as casters, corners, handles, feet, jackplate, custom grille, and so forth.

[vaca11]

Its abouth weight... well i can spend 500 sterlin and get a lighter cab but i dont have that much..

[will33]

Look through the pics and explanations in the diy threads, fearful threads. Thinner plywood braced properly will be both stronger and lighter than commercial stuff. It's more laborious which is why most commercial companies don't do it.....runs up the cost.