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DIY bass cabinets

I'm thinking of building a 4x10 bass cabinet, just as a fun project for my friend and I over the winter. (He'll be putting together his own guitar cabinet). I just had a few questions regarding DIY bass cabs.

1) How many of you have done this before? Are you happy with the results? Anything you wish you knew beforehand?
2) Are there any available plans I can work off of? Or good/affordable resources for parts, etc.
3) Is Tolex vinyl recommended? Would it negatively effect the tone if I were to finish the wood with a stain and lacquer? (I'm most likely going to go the Tolex route, I'm just curious about other finishing methods.)
4) Is insulation recommended for bass cabinets?

*Feel free to add any other tips or information & if you made your own bass cab post a picture of it below! I'd love to see what you have!

Thanks!
 
... could definitely be a fun project, however, with all due respect ... questions such as driver options, cab volume size per driver, porting vs sealed, porting per volume size/type, etc might be a bit more priority before wondering whether to stain/paint or tolex ... ;)

I have built a few, and the first ones I did the above mentioned were not a priority, and I regretted it ... build technically correct, and then finish aesthetically to taste ...
 
What's your end tonal goal? If you want a flat response cabinet the fEARfuls are great, just don't expect it to be cheap.

Q-Components and Next-Gen Guitars are based in Canada for parts. I used a local Penn Elcomm supplier for most of my pieces and the speakers from L&M. I got some from Speaker Hardware as well but they're in the States so you pay for the stuff. There was no 18Sound dealer in Canada when I built my fEARful so I had to order that through SH. I used duratex over tolex and staining the cab will not impact the tone, insulation (or a lack of) will impact the tone though.
 
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If you can, build a kit or from a set of plans. Otherwise, find something that works and copy it.


The finish, be it tolex, varnish, paint, or DuraTex does not affect the performance of the cab. It helps protect the cabinet.
The insulation is called damping. If the cab is sealed you fill it, if it is ported, it is lined on the inside walls.
 
A 115 or 112 might be a better starting place. Less upfront cost in drivers. Last thing you want is to have a bunch of money sunk into a cabinet that sounds like doodoo.

I built my fearful 12/6/1 following a very well established set of plans designed by Dave Green. Probably the only reasons i got good results was:
1. The hard part(design) was done for me.
2. I read nearly every DIY cabinet thread here and elsewhere before i started. Every mistake in those threads i learned from. Every reason they did something i learned from.
You can too.
2012_09_29_13_41_30.jpg
 
Another good place to start would be Invalid Link Removed.

Simple, well engineered plans in a kit that puts all the odd pieces in one purchase for you.

The customer service with that website is top notch.Whenever possible I buy from him.
 
Another good place to start would be Invalid Link Removed.

Simple, well engineered plans in a kit that puts all the odd pieces in one purchase for you.

The customer service with that website is top notch.Whenever possible I buy from him.

The speaker hardware kits are pretty great, but I'd start with a Jack as opposed to a simplexx. The simplexx aren't bad, but many recommend building the jacks instead.

That said, however, I'll fill OP in on the BFM and Greenboy stuff. Bill Fitzmaurice, also called BFM, sells his designs for speaker cabinets for money, not too much if I recall. His designs are unorthodox compared to most because they use horn loading techniques. It works on the same principle as a musical horn does (like the trumpet or the trombone), they can be a lot bigger, heavier, and harder to build/design than their more conventional counterparts - but they have increased sensitivity and efficiency as well. His simplexx series are more conventional boxes as well, though they're very well designed conventional boxes. In a nutshell, Bill Fitzmaurice's designs tend to use horn loading to help you get the most out of a few drivers and a few watts.

Dave "Greenboy" on the other hand, has designed a number of cabinets, but some of them - the fEARful line - have been released as DIY designs. Those were his first designs and they were always free and DIY. The fEARful cabinets are also a bit unorthodox, though less so than the BFM cabinets, in that instead of a 15" + horn cabinet, you get a 15" or 12" subwoofer using a top-of-the-line Eminence driver, paired with a 6" midrange driver, depending on the design it can be either an eminence or an 18sound midrange, and an optional horn tweeter, paired with a very well thought-out crossover. Compared to the BFM cabinet, it will be a smaller, easier to build cabinet, but it will also be rather pricey - given that instead of having a range of speakers to choose from, you'll have to buy specific drivers, and they won't be too cheap (I've looked up the cost of getting those drivers in Canada). However - they'll go very loud, and very low, and stay very clean with a lot of power.

If you pick either one of those, you definitely can't go wrong, though they're both a bit unorthodox compared to the "410+horn" configuration - that's because the whole 410 thing doesn't throw the higher end of your sound around the whole room evenly, it's best to have your speakers placed in a vertical line on the baffle as opposed to side-to-side like on a 410. If you want a more conventional 410, then Eminence's website does have recommended speaker cabinet designs on their website - you can look up the drivers, and simply multiply the cabinet internal volume and ports by four to get an approximation of a 410. From there the external dimensions, and bracing and such can be worked out by preference. There are some other designs as well, like John_k10's 215 build - which you could take some notes from as well.


Edit for another option: make a 410 with a .5 alignment. This means that two vertical drivers will have an inductor, which is a component in crossovers that filters out high-end, wired to them. This will cut off the high-mid and high-end from two of the tens, so that the two vertical tens left over will throw around their mids and highs better.
 
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It's a nice video if you're going to build a cab with that design using the techniques shown, but the design and techniques aren't exactly state of the art.

+1, follow the link @Passinwind posted too see the much simpler and lighter methods using PL glue. Some of the DIY threads include plans or on simpler designs, the dimensional information to build.

Decide what you want from the cab, not just build "A cab" or even "A 4 x 10."

I suggest keeping the first build as simple as possible. A single driver and maybe a mid or tweeter if you want one. There are simple plans here. If you buy a flat pack, you're more likely to succeed with something more complex.

You need a way to cut accurately, edges and large holes, unless you use a flat pack.

You guitarist friend has it a lot easier. Bass cabs are a lot different and the details more important.
 
I object to his misrepresentation of this cabinet as a Fender Custom Shop cabinet, which it most certainly is not.

I also wonder how much air leakage there is where the grill folds over the baffle board and mounts to the cleats. Doesn't look like he calked this. It also means that the grille is not replaceable.

This is how you can build a guitar cabinet, but I wouldn't recommend building a bass cabinet like this.
 

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My first DIY bass cab was good for home practice. It met all my design goals, which were: Flat response, critical damping, and low frequency extension. It served me well until I made the transition to playing with a band with a live drummer. Then I needed a cab with different design goals.

With bass reproduction, you have to rob Peter to pay Paul. Many properties are mutually exclusive, so you have to choose which you want to maximize. Commercial cabs are designed to best fit most band applications: Efficiency and high volume in the sonic range between the drums and the guitars where your bass fits into the mix.

My first DIY cab is back in use with my drummer, who's triggering his kick for extra oomph in a dead room with a concrete floor (top left corner of pic):
 
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I bought plans from Bill Fitzmaurice http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/ and a pre-cut flat pack for Bill's simplex 15 from
DIY Speaker Kits & Parts | Speaker Hardware. I had a lot of fun building my cab but, I don't think I saved any money
That depends what you're comparing it to. You wouldn't save anything compared to a garden variety 115 loaded with an inexpensive driver. But see what it costs for a factory built cab with a driver equal to the 3015 and it's a different story. Then try to find a factory built cab that has internal bracing that even comes close to what the Simplexx has. Your sweat equity let you build a design that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. You don't have a $399 speaker, you've got at least a$799 speaker.
You've got a good point, you can't build an inexpensive speaker for less than you can buy one for. But you can build one that you might not be able to afford if you wanted to buy it.
 
My first DIY bass cab was good for home practice. It met all my design goals, which were: Flat response, critical damping, and low frequency extension. It served me well until I made the transition to playing with a band with a live drummer. Then I needed a cab with different design goals.

With bass reproduction, you have to rob Peter to pay Paul. Many properties are mutually exclusive, so you have to choose which you want to maximize. Commercial cabs are designed to best fit most band applications: Efficiency and high volume in the sonic range between the drums and the guitars where your bass fits into the mix.

My first DIY cab is back in use with my drummer, who's triggering his kick for extra oomph in a dead room with a concrete floor (top left corner of pic):

...what you want is not always what is needed...