DIY 110 & 112 cabs - light, loud, & cheap - inspired by the Duke

[Mr. Business]

Zombie thread, I know.

I have had two PA310 12's sitting in boxes for years now. I have a design for a cab for them, but I'm unlikely to get it done before winter, so I looked a little more closely at this, just so I'd have a cab. It's a long story, why I don't have a giggable bass rig right now.

The cab itself comes out closer to 1.3 ft^3 when you've deducted the volume the port takes up and the volume the speaker takes up. Tuning comes to 52.1 Hz in WinISD. The Transfer Magnitude curve looks nice. F3 comes out at around 56.66 Hz, which is not too bad at all.

I've weighed all of the things that Aged Horse said about the shortcomings of going this route but ordered the cab and all of the fixings yesterday. Since I am looking at this as a short term solution and I can reuse a lot of the parts, it seemed like a good route to go, despite the acknowledged negatives from Aged Horse.

Hdwr
1x grill holders 7.44 Home

1x grills 9.29 Home

1x corners 8.49 Home

4x Feet 1.48 Home

2x handles 9.18 Home

1x cab 60.98 Home

Total with cab 96.86
Total w/o cab 35.88

Less than $100 for the cab without the speaker is not bad.

1x PA310 109.98 Home

A little over $200 for the works for a somewhat complete 1x12 cab. You'll want to swap out the jack and you'll need screws and maybe a few more items. Again, Aged Horse is correct - it weighs too much and won't tolerate getting wet, but I have most of the other parts, can reuse a lot of the stuff I just bought and I'm looking at this as a short term solution until I build the cab I actually want.

KO

When I did mine, they sounded pretty good to me. I ended up selling mine and then I tried a pair the pa310s in this box and it seemed even better. SA-212 E - 2x12 Empty Guitar Speaker Cabinet
I now have them in completely custom built cabs. I have 2 212s and I did a 210 also.

 

[MadJack]

Along the lines of these cabs and the formerly Zombie status of this thread, I just swapped the speakers in my two "TB/DIY-110" cabs.

I started with the Dayton PA310. It was alright. I tried a Faital-PRO 10FE200 in two. I liked it a little better than the Dayton, but I never really bonded with their tone and the Warwick Gnome i I play through them. I got the opportunity to get a set of Eminence S2010s and got them. I also tied my newly acquired Ashdown MAG300H through them and they took it in stride, no problems.

I should have gotten these speakers in the first place! These boxes are the perfect size for these speakers and sound incredible with the Gnome. At the time, it was more economical for me to build these, but now I would just build from scratch or buy complete cabs.

I guess I'm going to have to do the research to find what size box will work with the Faital-PROs, as they are still decent speakers, just not quite what I was after for the Gnome. I just need the right volume cab that is properly ported.

 

[kraigo]

I guess I'm going to have to do the research to find what size box will work with the Faital-PROs, as they are still decent speakers, just not quite what I was after for the Gnome. I just need the right volume cab that is properly ported.

There is no "right size". You can build things larger and get more low end with less power handling or you can build smaller, get less low end but more power handling. Someone who knows more than me can chime in, but my models with the drivers I'm modeling don't show that much more volume for the power handling. Then again the low end isn't night and day either. "Loud, light, low: pick two". It's still largely true, but small, light high powered amps and explorations of Neodynium, etc. have changed speaker design, so there you go!

I can't give you the ultimate solution. I spent most of the summer trying different trade-offs. The thing I was having trouble with was visualization in size and weight. Buying the cab in this thread has really showed me how big a 1.3 ft^3 cab is. My Mark Bass 1x12 combo + 1x12 extension speaker is amazingly smaller. I suppose I'm giving up quite a bit of low end extension as a result, but it's not necessarily the end of the world. TB speaker threads have taught me that it's nice to have F3 at less than 60 Hz for a five string, but you can probably go higher, especially if you are commonly on a four string.

That cab in this thread is fairly large for a 1x12 you normally see in commercial settings. I was thinking that a 1.5 ft^3 cab (again, all things equal, this is a 1.3 ft^3 cab) in my designs was small, but when I go back to the drawing board it will be quite a bit smaller I think. I'm prepared to give up low end for something portable.

But, I like Faital Pro speakers and I may take a look at how it comes out. I have too many speakers in the house looking for projects, so I won't buy, build or prototype anything, but I'd like to model your speaker. Are you looking at the eight ohm or the four ohm? A link to the speaker on Faital's and Parts Express's sites would eliminate a lot of potential confusion and mistakes.

Added: I've got the Faital eight ohm sitting in a box here, assuming this is the one Home, so I've got the speaker model laying around somewhere. Mine is going into a sealed box which I've already built.

 

[bassically_eli]

I was really interested in the Faital FE300 series when they came out. It's been a while since I modeled them, but the 8", 10", and 12" all looked very promising for bass at very reasonable prices and good weight for ceramic drivers, iirc. There's also a 6", but it's not suitable for bass; the 6FE100 is better, which is what Duke used in the Birdhaus iirc.

 

[kraigo]

But, I like Faital Pro speakers and I may take a look at how it comes out. I have too many speakers in the house looking for projects, so I won't buy, build or prototype anything, but I'd like to model your speaker. Are you looking at the eight ohm or the four ohm? A link to the speaker on Faital's and Parts Express's sites would eliminate a lot of potential confusion and mistakes.

Looking at the model for the speaker, it doesn't really seem to play well in ported boxes. I'll rebuild the model of the speaker (it doesn't take that long), but I am currently of the opinion that you'd be best with a sealed cabinet for it.

 

[manbass]

Zombie thread, I know.

I have had two PA310 12's sitting in boxes for years now. I have a design for a cab for them, but I'm unlikely to get it done before winter, so I looked a little more closely at this, just so I'd have a cab. It's a long story, why I don't have a giggable bass rig right now.

The cab itself comes out closer to 1.3 ft^3 when you've deducted the volume the port takes up and the volume the speaker takes up. Tuning comes to 52.1 Hz in WinISD. The Transfer Magnitude curve looks nice. F3 comes out at around 56.66 Hz, which is not too bad at all.

I've weighed all of the things that Aged Horse said about the shortcomings of going this route but ordered the cab and all of the fixings yesterday. Since I am looking at this as a short term solution and I can reuse a lot of the parts, it seemed like a good route to go, despite the acknowledged negatives from Aged Horse.

Hdwr
1x grill holders 7.44 Home

1x grills 9.29 Home

1x corners 8.49 Home

4x Feet 1.48 Home

2x handles 9.18 Home

1x cab 60.98 Home

Total with cab 96.86
Total w/o cab 35.88

Less than $100 for the cab without the speaker is not bad.

1x PA310 109.98 Home

A little over $200 for the works for a somewhat complete 1x12 cab. You'll want to swap out the jack and you'll need screws and maybe a few more items. Again, Aged Horse is correct - it weighs too much and won't tolerate getting wet, but I have most of the other parts, can reuse a lot of the stuff I just bought and I'm looking at this as a short term solution until I build the cab I actually want.

KO

Thx kraigo. What about wiring/jacks? I want to build (2) 8 ohm cabs that can be used single or chained together (12 version). Any how to wire info resource you may have seen?

 

[kraigo]

I would get four of these. They are fairly inexpensive and really, really easy to install. One jack goes to the speaker, the second ties the two jacks together, + to +, - to - for a parallel connection. For one cab, just plug and play. For two cabs, daisy chain the two cabs and run one of them to your amp.

Good luck!