The first composite cab I built is 1 year old now and still looking and sounding fantastic. It was a 1x12 cab which weighs a mere 19.5lbs (8.87kg)... click here for that thread.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/another-composite-cab-build-inspired-zac-663169/
Armed with this knowledge, my good friend Evan has been inspired to ask me to make one for him. He approached me with the following challenge…...
Evan’s existing rig is rather impressive:-
- Epifani UL902 head, through,
- Epifani UL 212 speaker cab (4 Ohm), and
- Epifani UL 210 speaker cab (8ohm).
He’s very happy with the rig, and who wouldn’t be. But he quite often does gigs in venues which have tiny stages and/or terrible load in conditions. He’s planning to assemble a compact bass rig based on a lunchbox style D-Class head (possibly the Aguilar Tone Hammer 500), and one portable standalone bass cab.
He’s been tempted to just use the UL210 for the compact rig, but has found it can’t quite keep up at the required SPL levels required. It’s also 8 ohms and he is concerned by it pulling the maximum watts out of whatever compact head he ends up getting.
The UL212 on its own can produce the SPL levels required, and he considers the 4 ohm load is perfect. But this cab is not quite as portable as Evan would like for this mini-rig and it’s footprint on small stages is just that little bit too large.
So Evan has made a request to me to make him a stand-alone cab that is as close as a 212 cab with a horn can possibly be in size to his UL210, it must be more portable than his UL212, and as lightweight as possible. The dimensions would also governed by Evan’s requirement that this cab must fit into the boot of his Honda Jazz.
We’ve swapped many emails and texts during the design phase of this cab, and I’ve basically allowed Evan to customize the cab to his hearts desire, within reason of course. Evan has had input in pretty much everything, not unlike ordering a custom bass I guess.
I’m not going to divulge the technical aspects of this cab because there’s some pretty cool technical stuff that went into this design, too cool to just give the info away…. I will say that’s it’s not just a doubled up version of my previous composite 1x12. That would have been about the same size as the UL212 and even though it would have weighed a lot less, it wouldn’t have met the criteria for compact size. So this cab has been designed from the ground up specifically for Evan. I can divulge the following basic specs:-
Materials Used:- Composite Sandwich construction as per my previous composite 1x12 cab build, but with some refinements.
Estimated Weight at start of the build:- 40 pounds (18kg) is the target.
Size:- COMPACT!! Smaller than the UL212, only slightly bigger than the UL210, lighter than both of them.
So after spending considerable time and effort designing a cab to meet this criteria, here's how the build unfolded:-
The front baffle is easily the most difficult and time consuming part of these builds:-
A Monocouque outer shell - Jointless and super strong!
Recessing the Horn attenuator (and handles as specified by Evan
Pic with my Stingray 5, for size reference. A very compact cab!
Carpet goes on:-
And the finished product:-
The final weight was 37.9 pounds (17.2kg), less than his UL210 but will easily outperform it as a standalone bass cabinet.
Evan and I are both VERY happy with the final result.
I'm so in love with this composite cab idea, I honestly don't think I could ever build another cab from Plywood.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/another-composite-cab-build-inspired-zac-663169/
Armed with this knowledge, my good friend Evan has been inspired to ask me to make one for him. He approached me with the following challenge…...
Evan’s existing rig is rather impressive:-
- Epifani UL902 head, through,
- Epifani UL 212 speaker cab (4 Ohm), and
- Epifani UL 210 speaker cab (8ohm).
He’s very happy with the rig, and who wouldn’t be. But he quite often does gigs in venues which have tiny stages and/or terrible load in conditions. He’s planning to assemble a compact bass rig based on a lunchbox style D-Class head (possibly the Aguilar Tone Hammer 500), and one portable standalone bass cab.
He’s been tempted to just use the UL210 for the compact rig, but has found it can’t quite keep up at the required SPL levels required. It’s also 8 ohms and he is concerned by it pulling the maximum watts out of whatever compact head he ends up getting.
The UL212 on its own can produce the SPL levels required, and he considers the 4 ohm load is perfect. But this cab is not quite as portable as Evan would like for this mini-rig and it’s footprint on small stages is just that little bit too large.
So Evan has made a request to me to make him a stand-alone cab that is as close as a 212 cab with a horn can possibly be in size to his UL210, it must be more portable than his UL212, and as lightweight as possible. The dimensions would also governed by Evan’s requirement that this cab must fit into the boot of his Honda Jazz.
We’ve swapped many emails and texts during the design phase of this cab, and I’ve basically allowed Evan to customize the cab to his hearts desire, within reason of course. Evan has had input in pretty much everything, not unlike ordering a custom bass I guess.
I’m not going to divulge the technical aspects of this cab because there’s some pretty cool technical stuff that went into this design, too cool to just give the info away…. I will say that’s it’s not just a doubled up version of my previous composite 1x12. That would have been about the same size as the UL212 and even though it would have weighed a lot less, it wouldn’t have met the criteria for compact size. So this cab has been designed from the ground up specifically for Evan. I can divulge the following basic specs:-
Materials Used:- Composite Sandwich construction as per my previous composite 1x12 cab build, but with some refinements.
Estimated Weight at start of the build:- 40 pounds (18kg) is the target.
Size:- COMPACT!! Smaller than the UL212, only slightly bigger than the UL210, lighter than both of them.
So after spending considerable time and effort designing a cab to meet this criteria, here's how the build unfolded:-
The front baffle is easily the most difficult and time consuming part of these builds:-
A Monocouque outer shell - Jointless and super strong!
Recessing the Horn attenuator (and handles as specified by Evan
Pic with my Stingray 5, for size reference. A very compact cab!
Carpet goes on:-
And the finished product:-
The final weight was 37.9 pounds (17.2kg), less than his UL210 but will easily outperform it as a standalone bass cabinet.
Evan and I are both VERY happy with the final result.
I'm so in love with this composite cab idea, I honestly don't think I could ever build another cab from Plywood.
