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Pics of inside Ampeg cabinets?

#3
to me, there is nothing special at all in the design of ampeg cabinets. i remember talking to my good friend Bob Rufkar that was the rep responsible for putting the Ampeg SVT on the map in '69 when he got the rolling stones and the faces to use them. he used to say, "they just load alot of cheap 32 ohm tens in a basic non-ported cab, and with that many tens, it has to sound big." i always laughed at that remark, but i think that he was right.
 
#5
who cares? if they sounded great, they sound great. i think that people make too much out of the new "science" and the real way to tell is by listening. i don't listen to a computer program or a piece of paper, i listen to a speaker cabinet.

the programs can be helpful to get you in the ballpark or to maximize a small cabinet's characteristics, but with something as large as a n 810, IMO almost anything will work.
 
#12
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#13
johnk_10 said:
to me, there is nothing special at all in the design of ampeg cabinets. i remember talking to my good friend Bob Rufkar that was the rep responsible for putting the Ampeg SVT on the map in '69 when he got the rolling stones and the faces to use them. he used to say, "they just load alot of cheap 32 ohm tens in a basic non-ported cab, and with that many tens, it has to sound big." i always laughed at that remark, but i think that he was right.
Click to expand...

HI

Why then the SVT amp is so sophisticated and great sounding? It doesn't make sense to me, that you first make a suberb 300 W bass amp and then put some cheap speakers in some "basic" big wooden box. Come on. Why 32 ohm? I bet 8 ohm would have been cheaper. An open back cab would have been cheaper. Etc.

I belive they intelligently -with big ears- build and test the amp& cab. And they ended what we now we call a classic or the king of bass amplification.
 
#14
Sorry for no pics (my cab is stored at practice spot) but...I recently picked up a vintage ampeg svt 810 from the 70's. Its angled back cab with the built in dolly. It has a pretty ugly appearance on the outside obviously for being a 30 year old cab. Wanted to check the drivers to verify the codes to see what was actually in the cab (CTS btw). But anyways when I pulled out the driver I was amazed of how nice the inside of the cab was. Well insulated in the back, it is very well designed.

But my question is, why build a cab? Buying all the materials wont come cheap and it will take quite a bit of work to get it done. So if you are trying to save money buy building a cab, I think you would be wasting your time. The only reason to do it if you wanted something one of kind and to have the satisfaction that you were the one to build it.
 
#16
I have made my own cabinets before and I am just looking to start a small business.

I actually do save money by building my own, I have wholesale accounts at the places I buy speakers from so I end up saving a lot of money.

Not if you include my time I put into it, but it's just something I think is fun so I don't include that.

I'll post pics of the next few cabs I make so you guys can see I'm not just some idiot throwing some plywood together and stuffing whatever cheap speakers in it that I can find and just hoping it will sound good.
 
#19
They more likely put 1 speaker in a few different size boxes and picked the best sounding one and multiplied by 8. There wasn't much science to it then. Cost was also a huge factor. Ever wonder why the SVT cab is 48" tall and a sheet of plywood is 48" wide?

To a more musical, subjective point, there are a lot of things that sound good that maybe shouldn't sound as good as they do on paper. Also I would say that most people make their judgements as to what sounds good standing pretty close to their rig where things like dispersion and comb filtering are less apparent. Get 30 - 40ft. away from the band, walk left to right in the room and the differences become more obvious. Also consider that the taller the cab is, the closer it is to your ears, the shorter it is, the closer it is to your knees. Ears are for listening, knees make your legs bend and help you walk or lift that cabinet up on the stage. :D
 

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