Building a Speaker Cabinet

[DocNrock]

Has anyone here build a speaker cabinet for guitar or bass?  I'm toying with the idea of building a 4x12 cabinet.  I'm pretty good with woodworking, own a router, etc.  I'm not so hot at wood finishing, so I'd likely cover it in Tolex or the like.  There were some tips online at a few sites and it doesn't seem that hard. 

Has anyone done this?

 

[theklanch]

I made a few cabinets for a guy a couple of years ago.  One fell off of his truck one night all that happened was a little crunch on the one corner.  He loves them.  I did 2 2X12 cabs for him and an effects board.  I haven't talked to him in a while, but I know he still uses the one box live and the one stays at his house.  I made them with 3/4" furniture grade plywood, put a little cotton batting on the inside walls and didn't finish them at all other than a quick once over with the sander.  I can't remember for the life of me what kind of speakers we used.  Pretty easy stuff to do.  I don't recommend using screws though, I prefer using bisquits and glue.  Super easy project to do, if you can build a guitar and cut along a line, you should have zero problems with this  and studies show that home-made musical equipment sounds 86% better than store bought swill

BTW  I gotta tell you I do love that WGD of yours.  Quite simply a beautiful instrument.  I read you aren't a fan, which is ok (I guess) but I'm glad to see you are paying homage to Jer even if you don't care for his music.

Go for the speaker cab build, you won't regret it.

 

[DocNrock]

I made a few cabinets for a guy a couple of years ago.  One fell off of his truck one night all that happened was a little crunch on the one corner.  He loves them.  I did 2 2X12 cabs for him and an effects board.  I haven't talked to him in a while, but I know he still uses the one box live and the one stays at his house.  I made them with 3/4" furniture grade plywood, put a little cotton batting on the inside walls and didn't finish them at all other than a quick once over with the sander.  I can't remember for the life of me what kind of speakers we used.  Pretty easy stuff to do.  I don't recommend using screws though, I prefer using bisquits and glue.  Super easy project to do, if you can build a guitar and cut along a line, you should have zero problems with this  and studies show that home-made musical equipment sounds 86% better than store bought swill

BTW  I gotta tell you I do love that WGD of yours.  Quite simply a beautiful instrument.  I read you aren't a fan, which is ok (I guess) but I'm glad to see you are paying homage to Jer even if you don't care for his music.

Go for the speaker cab build, you won't regret it.

Thanks.  Also, glad you like the WGD.  Funny, I probably play it the least of all my guitars, but I had it out last night for about an hour.  Plays and sounds great, its just heavier than two les pauls combined.  I have nothing against the Dead.  Through the years I've known a number of people who were die-hard fans.  I've listened to their music, and find it OK.  I even went to a show once, but I just didn't seem to feel the same thing as those who I went with.  To be sure, it was an arena show.  I can see how an outdoor "music festival" type venue might be different, I don't know. 

 

[blue313]

Funny, I probably play it the least of all my guitars, but I had it out last night for about an hour.  Plays and sounds great, it just heavier than two les pauls.

Considering it was New Years, somewhere out there Jerry's smiling ear to ear.  :icon_thumright:

 

[greywolf]

I've made 5 over the years  2 12" singles  a 2x12  a 2x10 and a 1x15    the last 2 were 3/4" plywood .  The 2x12 was ash and really sounded great.  I've done open back , sealed and ported which I prefer,  I've always liked Celestions.

I use screws and glue , but if you have the skills , dado /dovetail is nicer.

go for it

 

[DocNrock]

I've made 5 over the years  2 12" singles   a 2x12  a 2x10 and a 1x15    the last 2 were 3/4" plywood .  The 2x12 was ash and really sounded great.   I've done open back , sealed and ported which I prefer,   I've always liked Celestions.

I use screws and glue , but if you have the skills , dado /dovetail is nicer.

go for it

Celestions would definitely fill in the holes.  I'd planned on sealed, but I'm wondering about porting.  Any links for this.

 

[jimh]

Porting is considered a bit of a black art in some circles. To 'do' porting properly there are quite a lot of complicated maths involved revolving around resonant frequencies, port diameters, port tube lengths etc.

Do some googling for 'thiele/small parameters'. Mesa/boogie made cabs following these rules which were pretty well received.
I seem to recall quite a good cabinet and porting section on celestion's website. I'll see if I can find the link. 

 

[jimh]

Cant copy and paste the link. Damn iPhone.

Go to celestion's guitar loudspeaker section of the website.
Go to the 'dr decibel' section.
Go to the 'secrets' drop down menu and choose guitar cabinet design. There's quite a good text in there about what the important stuff is. And it goes on to discuss porting (aka reflex) and how it's not really necessary for guitar as it only applies to low frequencies. Guitars don't go low enough for 'thiele/small paramameters to come into play.

 

[blue313]

Got ya jim

http://professional.celestion.com/guitar/features/drdecibel/index.asp

 

[jimh]

That's the badger. Nice one Blue.
Right, it's 3.30 am and I've got a lunch date with a hot girl tomorrow (errrrr I mean today) so I guess I should go to bed.

 

[theklanch]

I use screws and glue , but if you have the skills , dado /dovetail is nicer.

+1 on the dado or especially the dovetail joints, but I am really a fan of Biskit joints.  My dad bought me a Dewalt Biskit cutter a few years ago and I love it for stuff like this.  You need to glue everything up, but they hold better than screws.  And they are much neater when the job is done, no visable fasteners.  I used it to build my kitchen cabinets too.  It is a really good setup, although it really is a specialty tool.  I don't find myself using it all that much, but when I do use it I am sure glad I have it.  Thanks Dad!!!

 

[mayfly]

I've built a lot of cabs over the years - probably about 30 or so.  Here's what I learned:

1 - screws and glue with butt joints work just fine for smaller cabs, but for a 4x12 you probably want to at least use biscuits.  Get a nice router for the edges, and use 3/4" multi-ply plywood.
2 - Although I'm fortunate to live in the town where Thiele and Small did their ground breaking research, I'd recommend that you don't use it.  The cab will end up being much larger than you want/need.
3 - yea, porting is a black art - I did about 10 porting experiments.  The best of these sounded fine until you put a microphone in front of them - then there were so many strange phasing effects it made the cab unusable.  I gave up.
4 - For cab dimensions, I used the golden ratio (1.618) for my cabs.  This means that if the smallest size (the depth) was X, the next largest size (the height) was X times 1.618.  Then the next largest size (the width) was 1.618 times the height.  The theory behind this was it would cancel out a lot of the internal reflections in the cab which would get rid of any wolf tones and odd resonances.  In practice this made some very nice sounding 1x12, 2x10  and 2x12 closed back cabs.  Didn't seem to add much to open backed cabs.
5 - tolex glue is a pain in the ass to deal with.  Use the water soluble brush on stuff available from antique electronic supply; don't bother with the spray on stuff from 3M.  Use a sharp knife, and do your cuts after placing the tolex.
6 - Use canvas pliers to put on your grill cloth and use a lot of staples.  Paint your baffle board flat black before you stretch on the cloth - learned this one the hard way  :toothy11:
7 - celestion speakers are fine, but Eminence speakers are just as good IMHO and a lot cheaper.  The Eminence GB12 is a very nice "greenback" style speaker and sounds better to my ears than a "real" greenback.
7 - T-nuts are your friend.  Don't forget to put them on before your grill cloth.

 

[DocNrock]

I've built a lot of cabs over the years - probably about 30 or so.  Here's what I learned:

1 - screws and glue with butt joints work just fine for smaller cabs, but for a 4x12 you probably want to at least use biscuits.  Get a nice router for the edges, and use 3/4" multi-ply plywood.
2 - Although I'm fortunate to live in the town where Thiele and Small did their ground breaking research, I'd recommend that you don't use it.  The cab will end up being much larger than you want/need.
3 - yea, porting is a black art - I did about 10 porting experiments.  The best of these sounded fine until you put a microphone in front of them - then there were so many strange phasing effects it made the cab unusable.  I gave up.
4 - For cab dimensions, I used the golden ratio (1.618) for my cabs.  This means that if the smallest size (the depth) was X, the next largest size (the height) was X times 1.618.  Then the next largest size (the width) was 1.618 times the height.  The theory behind this was it would cancel out a lot of the internal reflections in the cab which would get rid of any wolf tones and odd resonances.  In practice this made some very nice sounding 1x12, 2x10  and 2x12 closed back cabs.  Didn't seem to add much to open backed cabs.
5 - tolex glue is a pain in the ass to deal with.  Use the water soluble brush on stuff available from antique electronic supply; don't bother with the spray on stuff from 3M.  Use a sharp knife, and do your cuts after placing the tolex.
6 - Use canvas pliers to put on your grill cloth and use a lot of staples.  Paint your baffle board flat black before you stretch on the cloth - learned this one the hard way  :toothy11:
7 - celestion speakers are fine, but Eminence speakers are just as good IMHO and a lot cheaper.  The Eminence GB12 is a very nice "greenback" style speaker and sounds better to my ears than a "real" greenback.
7 - T-nuts are your friend.  Don't forget to put them on before your grill cloth.

Thanks for all of that, Mayfly.  And thanks to the others for their input, as well!  :icon_thumright:

 

[jackthehack]

Just my $.02, but if you live in a metropolitan area, it's not that hard to find a 4x12 for cheap that's trashed, has blown or pulled speakers, just grab one and refinish/recover it to save time and trouble. Times are tough out there, just checked my local Craigslist and there are some Mesa/Marshall 4x12s going for cheaper than the cost of the 4 decent speakers in them....

 

[GoDrex]

I think Doc wants to build one for the fun of it - though I might be wrong. That's the impression I get.

 

[DocNrock]

I think Doc wants to build one for the fun of it - though I might be wrong. That's the impression I get.

That's it!

 

[DocNrock]

Cant copy and paste the link. Damn iPhone.

Go to celestion's guitar loudspeaker section of the website.
Go to the 'dr decibel' section.
Go to the 'secrets' drop down menu and choose guitar cabinet design. There's quite a good text in there about what the important stuff is. And it goes on to discuss porting (aka reflex) and how it's not really necessary for guitar as it only applies to low frequencies. Guitars don't go low enough for 'thiele/small paramameters to come into play.

Very helpful.  Thank you.

 

[DocNrock]

Mayfly, thanks for the tip on the Eminance speakers.  Also, what sized biscuits would be used for this application?

 

[OzziePete]

What Jack said earlier about checking the classifieds for a 4 x 12 box is probably more cost and time efficient, particularly now it is a buyers' market everywhere. But if you want to build one for the experience, try and find out what the main manufacturers are using for joints and materials.

I'd also suggest looking at marine grade, 9 ply plywood. It's about 3/4" thick. I built a bed base with that stuff and it held together very well, strong as... I have also made a rack box out of a heavy type of particleboard that is still in one piece after 15 years. The rack box was just glued and screwed in.

 

[DocNrock]

What Jack said earlier about checking the classifieds for a 4 x 12 box is probably more cost and time efficient, particularly now it is a buyers' market everywhere. But if you want to build one for the experience, try and find out what the main manufacturers are using for joints and materials.

I'd also suggest looking at marine grade, 9 ply plywood. It's about 3/4" thick. I built a bed base with that stuff and it held together very well, strong as... I have also made a rack box out of a heavy type of particleboard that is still in one piece after 15 years. The rack box was just glued and screwed in.

I know it would be more time efficient, but I kind of have an itch to do this as a project.  I'm still not sure if I am going to do it or not, just looking into the idea.  If I do proceed with this, one major advantage over the used box approach is that it will be brand new, and likely will cost much less than an upper eschelon cab. 

Regarding the plywood, you are exactly correct, except I'm looking at 3/4" 11 ply marine grade birch.  I found a local supplier.  :icon_thumright: