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Are Lightweight Plastic Cabinets Coming Soon ??

#81
It seems we are stuck thinking inside the box....
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The thing that will make that even cooler will be a phone app that lets each listener make their own mixes in real time. More bass guitar please.
 
#83
dukeorock said:
Seems like around 10 years ago or less, this was a hot button topic around here. The race to make the lightest cabs. I messed around with it myself, trying a bunch of different methods (foam/glass, acrylics, aluminum) as well as looking into injection molds. It was just way too expensive, labor intensive, working with toxic materials, blah blah. I couldn’t come up with anything I’d consider viable. I can think of a couple commercial attempts at ultra light composite cabs that ranged from spotty to disastrous. I can see someone coming up with some great new ideas, but as a small batch boutique builder, it just made no sense at the time. And as has been said here, if the cab is too light, it’s gonna walk around.
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I did this as well, ended up with more sophisticated bracing, lighter wood species, and thinner, more structural plywoods. That for me was the point of diminishing returns.
 
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#84
agedhorse said:
I did this as well, ended up with more sophisticated bracing, lighter wood species, and thinner, more structural plywoods. That for me was the point of diminishing returns.
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Sounds about right! Though it’s labor intensive, bracing is everything if you want relatively light weight and great performance. I’ve worked with a few plywood variants with mixed success.
For awhile, I had sourced an Arouco(sp?) variant that was pretty light, pretty stiff and very affordable, BUT found too many voids and the stuff would warp if you looked at it wrong! Had to do glue ups very quickly after cutting and it would still occasionally warp. I personally found Italian Poplar to be really light, great to work with, but too soft for touring. Cabs take hits on the road, or mine sure do! Scratched that wood off the list for my needs.
Probably the best that I’ve tried is Okoume. Beautiful to work with, light and stiff. Where I live I have to get it shipped in and it’s crazy expensive. I just can’t bring myself to charging customers an extra $150 or thereabouts for a cab that’s gonna be 3-4 lbs lighter. So I’m full circle using Baltic Birch on nearly all of my builds. Not too heavy, no voids, super stiff and tough enough for hard touring. I’m sure I’ll keep looking around for other alternatives, but I’m perfectly happy using BB for the cost to benefit ratio it provides
 
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#86
dukeorock said:
Sounds about right! Though it’s labor intensive, bracing is everything if you want relatively light weight and great performance. I’ve worked with a few plywood variants with mixed success.
For awhile, I had sourced an Arouco(sp?) variant that was pretty light, pretty stiff and very affordable, BUT found too many voids and the stuff would warp if you looked at it wrong! Had to do glue ups very quickly after cutting and it would still occasionally warp. I personally found Italian Poplar to be really light, great to work with, but too soft for touring. Cabs take hits on the road, or mine sure do! Scratched that wood off the list for my needs.
Probably the best that I’ve tried is Okoume. Beautiful to work with, light and stiff. Where I live I have to get it shipped in and it’s crazy expensive. I just can’t bring myself to charging customers an extra $150 or thereabouts for a cab that’s gonna be 3-4 lbs lighter. So I’m full circle using Baltic Birch on nearly all of my builds. Not too heavy, no voids, super stiff and tough enough for hard touring. I’m sure I’ll keep looking around for other alternatives, but I’m perfectly happy using BB for the cost to benefit ratio it provides
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Hey Mark
I've also looked at many alternative and like you and Andy---have found diminishing returns. I do have a good source for Okume at a not-too-bad price. And shipping isn't too bad. (less than $140 for up to 10 sheets) Also---all Okume is not created equal. Most of the high end Okume is from French or Dutch manufacturers. I get stuff that I think is from Greece. More plys, better quality.

I've learned a lot of construction stuff from Bill Fitz. He has built cabs out of 1/4" BB braced with a zillion dowels. I build most of my cabs out of 3/8 Okume. I can get away with this because with all of the crazy panels in my cabs, there is never more than 5" where there isn't an intersecting panel.
 
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#87
marcwhy said:
Well, they make guitar, bass, PA monitors, and PA main speakers (which point out from a stand, not on the floor). Steve Mosher (Moses Graphite) is the man, and is a pretty technical dude. Check out the other FAQ stuff if you haven't; they are definitely designed to "fill a room," rather than "beam the sound" like a regular cab (sort of like the Bose L1 tower does -- he compares the two on the site), so you can gig just like your main rig. I've only tried one at a rehearsal, not a gig, yet, and it certainly did its job!
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Thanks. Will look into this. Very light, interesting and the pricing is very competitive. It's a game changer.
 
#89
Has anyone moved forward with any projects with this fun idea? I'm still interested in pushing the envelope on lightweight cabinets. Sadly, I don't live where I can have a wood shop and besides I lack the experience and wisdom to do something like this. Anybody heard of lightweight Fearful/Fearless cabs?
 
#92
It's been a while but I've posted pics of these before. 1x12 cabs with Eminence Neo speakers. Weight is right at 17 lbs. One cab is adequate for most gigs around town. I'll use 2 for large venues. Ive used these for about 5 years now without any reliability issues and always get compliments on my tone, be it an electric gig or an upright gig. I drive them with a Mesa Subway. I have a background in High Performance Composites so I built tooling and made the cabinets. I can't imagine lugging heavy stuff around.
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#93
Bob Heil did several ply cabs with bass boat inserts and horns in the 70's....

I do not recall them being that light at all when slinging em...Good stuff though....

Still don't know why I liked Bob's Troffs.... I guess I liked the white weirdness... I'd put a crown on em after shop hours when we were building systems for the soundco side of the house at my bros shop... Sounded pretty good for back then with ELP blasting....

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#94
agedhorse said:
Before you jump down omega monkey's post, the input impedance of the K12 is 20k ohms, far too low for almost any passive bass and the sensitivity is pretty low too, even for many active basses.

This is why a preamp will be helpful in most cases.
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I did a very short notice fill-in for a bass player a while back. I used one of my active JBL 15" cabs, a Soul Food to jack up the signal, and my old Cali Series PJ...
Sounded damn good... a little grit and stanky good... I was surprised...the guys were too... They thought I had lost my damn mind when I walked in... They were as surprised as I at how good it sounded... I didn't have time to go home and load up the big GK rig, so I grabbed what I had with me at the shop....
 

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