Tolex crazyness - The stack is finished

[MortenB]

Just wanted to share the bass stack project I'm working on. I like DIY stuff, and I like to have made as much of my gear myself. I have 3 Warmoth basses, so now it's time for a DIY stack  :glasses10:

I have chosen Fearful designs, but with a few twists... I'm using a different (better) midrange driver from B&C with a crossover I design myself. And I build this based on 12/6 CUBE cabs, where one is used as a sub/extension module. And since I like tolex I have gone tolex crazy on this one. I have never worked with tolex before, so I thought that I might as well start out with something difficult for my first try  :doh:

Here are a few pics of the process, and the status right now. What I still need to do is to make the frame for the black grill cloth, install the drivers, and finally to design the crossover for the B&C midrange.

 

[Kostas]

Anything than standard black is interesting  :icon_thumright:

 

[sixstringsamurai]

Dude, First go? :icon_thumright:

Go big or go home!

Those cabs look great! :headbang1:

 

[bagman67]

That's totally badass.  Very nice work!


Complements that sexy p-bass as well.

 

[MortenB]

Thanks guys..! Ha ha... Go big or go home... I like that  :icon_thumright:  It's my style when it comes to DIY projects. 
It's been a lot of work, and since it's my first tolex project I have been quite slow. But I love the result and I think it's both classy and unique.

 

[Cagey]

Very nice job! Those look great! What did you use for an adhesive on the Tolex?

 

[MortenB]

Very nice job! Those look great! What did you use for an adhesive on the Tolex?

Thanks Cagey... I used this stuff:  https://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/product_info.php/info/p4756_Tolex-Glue-SG5--500-ml.html

 

[Cagey]

Interesting. I'll have to look around better next time I do that sort of thing. The last few times I've done it, I used 3M's Super 77 adhesive. It works well and is easy to deal with since it's a spray, but it's expensive and you don't get much in a can. To do a project like you just did, you'd probably need 4+ cans at ~$10ea.  Plus, you need some serious ventilation.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Looking good. Any particular reason for the colors?

 

[swarfrat]

And since I like tolex I have gone tolex crazy on this one

Plus, you need some serious ventilation.

Nice job. The Marshall MG 412 I scored is cream, but I'm thinking about recovering it and the head I build in white. Just because. But the 412 is also slated to become a 212 when that happens, courtesy of WGS.

Cagey speaks truth on ventilation.  My first Tolex job, I did in the dead of winter in a friend's shop. I finished up the tolex about 2AM. I was trying to be mindful of ventillation, but I also couldn't let it get too cold in there either. I got the tolex on, slapped the 15" speaker in, went to bolt on my hardware so I could go home. I tossed the speaker jack hardware on the cabinet back, and the washer stood up on edge.

  :sad: (The icon labels itself sad, but I'm using it here for Bugeyes)

I was sleep deprived, and breathing way too much contact cement, and the first thing that popped into my mind was OMG I'm hallucinating!!! Forgetting that there's a BIG HONKING 20 lb magnet stuffed into this really really tight cabinet. 

 

[Great Ape]

WHOA!! Great work!!

 

[MortenB]

Thanks guys  ccasion14:

@The glue... I chose this type of glue from a (non rattling) can both because it's a lot cheaper AND because I did not want the spray glue all over the house. Thanks for the story Swarfrat, that was exactly what I was trying not to do  :toothy12:  I can recommend this glue, it's takes longer before it's ready for gluing (30 - 45 minutes), but it works perfectly.

@The colors... I wanted something that was both classic, modern and unique. I did not want a vintage look, so no tweed and stuff like that. So I thought of this idea to let it start out classical -from one side- with the black and the white piping, to start out with a totally classical combination, and then let it go a bit crazy from there and let classical and modern meet... So to speak. And I like contrasts, so I thought these would both blend well and have good contrast. The grills will be black, no piping, no nothing, just black. This will bring ''balance'' to the front - I think. I made the black section smaller than the orange both because I like the asymmetrical look, and also because the black grill will push the balance between orange and black, when seen from the front. Had the black section been as large as the orange I think it would end up too black seen from the front. So when finished the grey/silver on the fronts will not be seen, there will just be the grey/silver stripe visible.

 

[Cagey]

Great reasoning all around, and for proof you have the end result, which is fantastic.

I'd never heard of that company, but they have some interesting stuff with good design intent. I've been paying more attention to speaker/enclosure design over the last year or so, but didn't know anyone was working in the direction of transparent FR/FR for bass cabs. Makes sense. I've heard a metric ton of bad bass tone in my day, but usually blamed the amp.

 

[MortenB]

Thanks Cagey... I do my best to think my designs through, so there is some reasoning to it.

I have been working with speaker design etc for two channel audio for many, many years, in the high end segment. So when I took up playing the bass a few years back I was surprised how terribly bad the designs/constructions are of just about ANY bass cab on the market.

There are a few companies who makes their bass cabs based on solid engineering designs, and knowledge of speaker design. These are cabinets designed to be as transparent and full range as possible, so that the cabinets are as ''invisible'' as possible and what you hear is the bass and the amp. One of the pioneers is Barefaced:  http://barefacedbass.com/

And then there are DIY options, designed after the same principles: http://greenboy.us/fEARful/ There is also a nice forum  http://greenboy.us/forum/index.php  My cabs are based on the Fearful design, but I use a higher quality midrange driver, this way I don't need a tweeter horn. If there is a simpler way or a more complex way to address something, the simpler way is usually the better sounding - when it comes to speakers. So I have opted for a more full range midrange driver, that goes well into the treble range. I need to design my own cross over for it though to get it well integrated with the woofer.

 

[MortenB]

OK... I FINALLY finished my Fearful cabs and thought I would share the result with you. Work has been eating away my DIY time lately.

As mentioned in the beginning of the thread I'm using a different midrange driver (that I find better) with a more extended high frequency response. This means that I had to design my own cross over for the B&C midrange driver. I did measurements, simulations and final measurements and ended up with this frequency response and cross over design. IMHO this is as good as it get's for bass cabs, and I really prefer bass cabs without tweeters. To ''clanky sounding for my''. With this high frequency extension to around 7-8khz the cabs will be excellent for guitar as well. But of course without the cone break up and distortion from that break up that you guys playing the thin strings are used to. I will ask our guitarists to hook up to this rig, will be interesting..!

Anyway, it's all done now. Time to run in the drivers and then do the final small crossover tweaks to set the level for the midrange driver. So far, from testing at home, the performance is really, really good.

I LOVE the result..! I wanted something both classical and a bit crazy, and I believe this is both. Classical with the tolex, piping etc and crazy (cool) with the 3 colors. Matches my orange Gecko quite well  :glasses10:  The light is really bad here in the Danish winter, so the colors are a bit off, especially the orange, but you get the idea. The first picture of the stack, with the Gecko bass, shows the colors more true than the other pics.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Indeed very cool. Nice execution Morten  :icon_thumright:

 

[jackthehack]

Anything than standard black is interesting  :icon_thumright:

:icon_thumright:

I've got to get around to recovering my Fender 75 amp with Python Snakeskin Tolex...

 

[MortenB]

Indeed very cool. Nice execution Morten  :icon_thumright:

Thanks man! This has taken so much more time than I thought it would (being the first time I work with Tolex etc etc), but the result is worth every hour spend (I think).

 

[MortenB]

Thanks..!

Here is a few better pics taken outside - between the endless rain showers we have here. The light is much better than in the previous pics and show the cabs better. I also have the greenboy fearful logo's on the cabs now. I really, really like how they turned out  :cool01: