A little background: I just moved into a new house with a beautifully large garage that's just begging for a small wood shop. I have no tools at the moment, but I intend to go pick up a chop saw this weekend so I can build myself a work bench, which I will then slowly populate with more and more tools until the garage is full
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A few weeks ago I also picked up a SWR Interstellar Overdrive that I intend to use in my basement studio. It sounded great through my 410, but it was way louder than I imagined it would be.
What I would like to do is build myself a smaller 1x10 cab for monitoring the speaker output of the IOD while recording direct into the computer, but I'd also like to have the cab hopefully sound good enough to close mic with a SM57 or Senn e609. I already own or have access to both and no budget for more, so let's not turn this into talking about how great the XX-XX mic is for bass.
I have access to a wide variety of speaker brands, so I'd like to start by putting the call out for ideas from those more experienced than me. I intend to use 0.75" Birch Ply, and will be picking up a router as soon as the work bench project is completed.
A few conversation points for getting ideas flowing:
1) Essential tools.
As my first build I'd like to try and get by on the absolute bare minimum of tool purchases. What will I need to get the job done? No frills in the budget at this time.
2) Sealed or ported?
Sealed to me seems like it would be less work. Also, would porting even make a difference to a close mic on the cone? I'm also not worried about efficiency or power handling. In fact, the quieter the cab the better, since I have no plans to soundproof the music room at all in the near future.
3) Driver selection.
Depends on (2) I guess, but I'm open to suggestion. I have some spare 8 ohm drivers kicking around that I pulled from a Yorkville 410B, but I have no idea what the specs would be. Open to Eminence, Jensen, Weber, Warehouse, ???. Looking for a nice tight, punchy OD sound that will cut through and is not muddy. Currently listening to Torche, Russian Circles, These Arms Are Snakes, Mouth of the Architect, etc.
4) Cab design suggestions.
I was originally planning to just build a sealed 1 cu.ft. box and have at it, but again, I'm open to suggestions. Overall design plan will depend on what we come up with for (2) and (3). The simpler the better, but I am open to minor challenges.
I see this as a great opportunity for getting my feet wet in cab building, so I'm really open to all the suggestions/advice that you can give me. This will be a summer project, so I'll provide updates as everything progresses, but for now I'd like to hear some shop talk from the folks that live in this world.
Thanks in advance everybody!
Nathan
