HELP 410 cab question

[Heavision]

Yo. Just signed up. I’m actually a guitarist.

Situation: I want to buy a 410 bass cab for my friend/bassist in my band. I got a local guy who builds standard (guitar) 410s. I’ll be ordering an empty cab, no speakers. He uses Baltic birch, finger joints etc; all the features a good, standard cab has.

Question: what upgrades make it a good BASS cab? Guys have suggested ports, internal bracing and, of course, good bass-specific speakers. Thanks y’all

 

[Sparky Mark]

Yo. Just signed up. I’m actually a guitarist.

Situation: I want to buy a 410 bass cab for my friend/bassist in my band. I got a local guy who builds standard (guitar) 410s. I’ll be ordering an empty cab, no speakers. He uses Baltic birch, finger joints etc; all the features a good, standard cab has.

Question: what upgrades make it a good BASS cab? Guys have suggested ports, internal bracing and, of course, good bass-specific speakers. Thanks y’all

 

[buldog5151bass]

Guitar cabs are not the same as bass cabs. You can't just slap some speakers in a box. You want to help your friend, contribute to buying a cab from a known company.

 

[Sparky Mark]

Guitar cab design vs bass guitar cab design is like chalk vs cheese. A massive difference in almost every aspect and a few searches on Talkbass will inform you better.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

Yo. Just signed up. I’m actually a guitarist.

Situation: I want to buy a 410 bass cab for my friend/bassist in my band. I got a local guy who builds standard (guitar) 410s. I’ll be ordering an empty cab, no speakers. He uses Baltic birch, finger joints etc; all the features a good, standard cab has.

Question: what upgrades make it a good BASS cab? Guys have suggested ports, internal bracing and, of course, good bass-specific speakers. Thanks y’all

Hey! Welcome!
You made the correct move to come here first and ask your question. So many jump in first and end up here later wondering what went wrong. Just as playing the bass is very different from playing guitar, so is the science, engineering and technology involved in bass cabs. And you probably avoided wasting a lot of $$$.

Do a little searching around here and you'll find a wealth of information just about how bass cabs and speakers are different. And that's even before you get into the details of it.

This arguably is one of the favorite subjects here. I'm sure plenty of folks will chime in, so stick around.

 

[mmbongo]

Definitely a very wise move to ask for information before wasting all that money.

A guitar cab with bass speakers in it defintely won't work, and I'd even avoid a 4x10 all together and get a properly built 2x12 to get better dispersion.

 

[Heavision]

So is there somewhere to find a schematic or something?

 

[two fingers]

So is there somewhere to find a schematic or something?

Try this first. Ask him what inside dimensions his guitar cabs have. Ask if he knows anything about ports/vents in bass cabs. If so, ask what size he would likely use.

Once you get that data, call US Sepaker and give them those dimensions. See if there is a bass speaker that works well with those dimensions.

www.usspeaker.com

They will pinch your data into their software and give you options. If there aren't any bass speakers that work with those dimensions it's back to tue drawing board

Welcome to TalkBass!!!!

 

[joel406]

So is there somewhere to find a schematic or something?

It's not that simple.

Buy a ready-made bass cab. One that was made to be a bass cab. One that has actual bass speakers(drivers) in it. Properly tuned.

You are headed for an unnecessarily expensive disaster if you don't.

I tried... you all saw.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Yo. Just signed up. I’m actually a guitarist.

Situation: I want to buy a 410 bass cab for my friend/bassist in my band. I got a local guy who builds standard (guitar) 410s. I’ll be ordering an empty cab, no speakers. He uses Baltic birch, finger joints etc; all the features a good, standard cab has.

Question: what upgrades make it a good BASS cab? Guys have suggested ports, internal bracing and, of course, good bass-specific speakers. Thanks y’all

Before the engineers kick in who will explain why building a cab is more complex than a box with speakers in great detail, might I suggest 2 210 cabs as opposed to a 410 cab. One, 410 cabs tend to be heavy, bulky, two, there may be times when a 210 cab is more than sufficient.

It might be a properly designed efficient 210 cab (or a 115 cab) might be all you need for your project and if so, a plus is it would likely be a less expensive option than a 410.

I will say this, whatever you settle on this is really nice of you.

 

[evs]

There's so many cheap and good 4x10 bass cabs on the used market.
Save your money and time by just getting a proper bass cab.

 

[Sparkl]

There is no harm in ordering a custom built cube as long as that cube follows some proven design and is being built with certain speakers in mind.

I did that for my wasted Ampeg 810 fridge, kept the original CTS speakers and had a completely new fridge built, following original dimensions and design.

It not only sounds better/the same but is also way better and stronger built. Also the guy who made the cab for me did an excellent job at being very precise and caring about the details. About the only thing my cab is missing now is the ampeg logo pretty much.

 

[MIMike]

^^

Yes, if a 4x10 is the route you want to go, a used, working version by a decent manufacturer will most likely perform better and cost less than anything you could build. There are exceptions, but in this day and age, 4x10’s are not as popular, and pretty readily available on the used market.

 

[Marko 1]

Another vote for buying a bass cab.

Now just ask advice on what bass cab might be best for your situation.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Yo. Just signed up. I’m actually a guitarist.

Situation: I want to buy a 410 bass cab for my friend/bassist in my band. I got a local guy who builds standard (guitar) 410s. I’ll be ordering an empty cab, no speakers. He uses Baltic birch, finger joints etc; all the features a good, standard cab has.

Question: what upgrades make it a good BASS cab? Guys have suggested ports, internal bracing and, of course, good bass-specific speakers. Thanks y’all

Engineering makes it a good bass cab.

Buy a bass cab.

It's been engineered to sound great with custom voiced speakers that match the braced enclosure for the sole purpose of producing good bass tone all day every day.

Bass is not guitar. Most guitar cabinets are just frames that hold open speakers. And they still sound great.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Yo. Just signed up. I’m actually a guitarist.

Situation: I want to buy a 410 bass cab for my friend/bassist in my band. I got a local guy who builds standard (guitar) 410s. I’ll be ordering an empty cab, no speakers. He uses Baltic birch, finger joints etc; all the features a good, standard cab has.

Question: what upgrades make it a good BASS cab? Guys have suggested ports, internal bracing and, of course, good bass-specific speakers. Thanks y’all

Don't try to use a guitar cab for a bass or one that is built like a guitar cab. If the cab has an open back, the bass will shred those speakers. Also, it's particularly important that the speakers are right for the cab. If you buy some really nice speakers and put them in a cab that is too small or too large for the way those speakers are designed to work, they may or should I say probably will end up sounding like crap. Baltic birch is very nice for bass cabs but the cabs and speakers have to to be properly matched for them to work well.

As others mentioned, it's probably a better idea to find a decent used cab with a cab and speaker design that we already know works well together.

If you are adamant about using the guitar cab builder, you'll need to figure out the inside volume of it (space inside), whether it has any ports or is a sealed cab, and then I'd give Eminence speakers a call for some recommendations from them. They make a wide variety of excellent speakers and are usually really helpful. The fear about doing it this way is you may drop a fair bit of change for something that when complete doesn't perform nearly as well as some of the older cabs that you could buy for about half the price. Lots of good 410 designs out there that are heavier than most modern cabs but still sound as good or almost as good as the newer lighter weight cabs.

Eden D410XST and D410XLT cabs spring to mind. They are really great sounding cabs but they are heavy (close to 100-lbs). They are/were about $1,000 new and I've seen them used under $400 and commonly under $500. You do have to be careful that the speakers are in good shape - not creased or blown - with any cabs when you buy used but you can usually find decent stuff for much less than new or than building your own cab.

 

[Heavision]

The guy who is going to build the 410 is a very experienced cabinet builder. He builds 412s, 410s, 212s, you name it. But his experience is with guitar cabs. He and I are now trying to find info on specs for a bass 410. So I was trying to find out if he can maybe start with a guitar 410 and make the necessary changes. Or maybe he needs to start from scratch? Either way I’m confident in his abilities. He built me a 412 and it’s stellar; excellent craftsmanship, vintage Marshall spec. He’s also trying to get his hands on a friend of his’ Ampeg 410 so he can reverse engineer it.

 

[5StringBlues]

Sorry I'm late. Has anybody said buy a used commercially available cabinet yet?

 

[6thplanet]

Craigslist, FB marketplace, TB classifieds, ebay, ect..... Done.

 

[6thplanet]

... actually, heck with 4/10, build this:
DIY Vertical 312