so got a fEarful cab today... it is everything they say it is... few questions...

If you know what you are doing with wood, you would also know that screws are never used for long term holding of the joints... that's what the glue is for. If you want to make the joint even stronger, use 3/4" or 1" triangular cleats (glued of course).

 

follow the plans and it'll all work out

 

I've made all of my gigging cabinets out of 1/2" Sandeply from Home Depot and they all work great. No issues here.

 

I'm not sure the plans call for it, but most people glue small blocks of plywood to add "grip" for the screws at stress points such as woofers, handles, etc. Very little decrease in internal volume.
The recommended adhesive is stronger than the wood it's holding.

 

With quality plywood (and proper screws) corners, handles and jack plate screws are no problem.

Speakers are generally installed with T-nuts, with 1/2" ply the shorter neck version is used. If you don't have the thinner version, a glued backing ring can be used.

The strength of the joint is determined by the glue and the surface area. Properly built 1/2" ply cabinets using quality materials can be plenty strong.

 

I was among the first handful of people to build a fEARful 12/6 and later was a beta tester for Leland's (discontinued) lightweight (Okume?) plywood flatpack. Prior to that I built a couple of Bill Fitz's Jacks. These cabinets were knocked around considerably for years without any problems/damage other than cosmetically. (Well...I did have a crossover come loose in a Jack, but that was due to a poor mounting choice on my part.)
I've never heard of anyone having structural problems with either designer's cabinets.
You can't go wrong if you follow the plans and peruse greenboy's (or Bill Fitz's) forum for tips and advice.

 

Being a cheap-arse SOB, I mounted my drivers with what I had on hand: Plain old wood screws. Rather than full backing rings, I glued 1" x 1" blocks of 1/2" ply for the woofer screws. Those drivers have been in and out multiple times over the years as I changed the color of the baffle and the screws are still holding tight.

 

Great choice of cabs. Wait till you hear that cab with some real power behind it, that low B will bruise your kidneys...…. Don't worry about the 1/2" ply. It will be fine. Like wcriley, I used small blocks of scrap wood behind every screw location. Probably didn't need to, but I had left over wood scrap & thought, why not? I've found that with the 66, it's always good to have a smaller cab for most lower volume jams. I have (1) band that practices at pretty low volumes. I barely have to turn up on a 12/6. My other band plays hella loud. Ear plugs and my 66 for that one. If you're running stereo for clean/distorted signals, you may not need to do this. My fEARfuls take distortion very well. If you're doing it for more modulation based effects, then carry on.

 

I built one of the very first fEARful 12/6 cabs out of scrap 3/4" Europly, using pocket screw joinery. And I used tiger maple strips on the top and bottom front edges, out of necessity since my plywood dimensions weren't quite big enough:




Great if you want a 65 lb. 12/6, but I would defintely never do that again. As @Foz said, just stick to the plans.

 

@mistermikev ... ^^^^^THIS^^^^^

Also, with that much fEARful, I'm not sure you'd need a stereo rig, but you know your needs..
I'll also say, throw some watts at that beast and you'll really hear it sing..

When I had my 12/6, and F112, I'd bridge a Crest Prolite 2.0 into either... 1100 watts @8ohms... and it was magical!!

That same amp will put almost 2000 into your cab
Congrats!! Enjoy it

 

How do you end up with 1/4" or 1/8" of plywood supporting the speaker? This is certainly not true of any commercial speaker I have ever designed using 1/2" ply.

 

FWIW, I have often used stereo rigs and also put guitar synth, guitar, and processed vocals through my cabs. And I'm doing a 100 watt tube amp build with clean/dirty rig in mind at the moment as well. Playing out is no longer a priority to me, so none of the usual caveats matter at this point. I'll just mention that a variable HPF on at least one or the other of your rigs is likely to enhance bottom end rather than diminish it in many if not most cases.

 

I used the method AH endorses above on the woofers on my GB cabs = T-Nuts. Other methods will work fine for most but having done quite a bit of fiddling with xover mods I opened up some of my cabs more times in a few weeks than an average user would in a lifetime. Thus having zero wear-n-tear fasteners for the woof was extra beneficial.

I used 5/16" tall, 1/4-20 T-Nuts with 4 prongs and Socket Head Cap Screw - 1/4-20 x 1" - Hexagonal Allen Bolt -Full Thread fasteners. Avoid as best you can non-perfect T-Nut alignment with the mounting holes in the speaker... getting a "factory" grade alignment on these parts makes all future woof removal / reinstall a snap.

I drilled one through hole and installed one T-Nut using a large washer under the bolt against the baffle [set speaker aside] and cranked down until T-Nut was fully set and confirmed perfectly square... then reinstalled speaker and affixed the one bolt so I could confirm perfect alignment of the next through hole. Once you have two or three set perfectly you can probably do all the rest at once.

 

OP, If you're using a fractal AF3, it will sound great. I use to use an AX8 and my cab sounded great for bass or guitar. With the AF3, you should be able to control about any parameter you need.