hey guys and girls.. just wondering if anyone here can shed some light on the black art of speaker cab making? i want to make a 2x12 2x10 cab maybe with a horn for the ultra high frequencies. any help would be most appreciated

What is the cab going to be for?

I can give you some general tips.

The "black art" as you may have guessed is more "simple science" or "simple maths".

Once you realise what makes a "good" cab, you will realise why other cabs are so shit and why others are so good.

it's not a black art, but like many things, unless you have the knowledge/experience/patience to do it properly, it may be more cost effective to leave to the professionals.

here's the task: it needs to be strong, indestructible, at the same time not so heavy you can't lift it, it needs to either not resonate, or resonate in a way that is pleasing, it needs to be big enough to have enough air volume so the speaker cones can actually move (you are building a sealed box speaker, right?) and, you, apparently want a 2 or 3 way speaker. is it going to be an active crossover or a passive?

your materials are: 5/8 marine plywood, 1x2's, wood screws, glue, corners, vinyl, cloth, wheels, handles, drivers of your choosing, female 1/4 inch jack, wire, solder

your tools are: drill, screwdriver, circular saw, jig saw, table saw, soldering iron, stapler.

go for it!

i have no idea of the difference between an active crossover or passive at all. maybe i should just seek out a cab already like this or find some one locally to build it for me. i mean hell i build guitars so a cab cant be that hard , but then again maybe it is!

It's much more simple than building a guitar.

Basically, you want to make a big box and cut adequately sized holes in it to fit a loudspeaker and a horn.

A simple passive crossover would probably be fine for a guitar or bass. You are not dealing with Hifi. The crossover would consist of literally a few electronic components which would split the main signal to your loudspeaker and horn.

If the cab is going to be closed-back, you may wish to add a bass port. This is a pipe (of a specified length) which fits into the cabinet that allows you to extend the low frequency response. This is more commonly used for bass cabs. I'd quite like to try it for guitar.

sonikBOOM wrote:i have no idea of the difference between an active crossover or passive at all. maybe i should just seek out a cab already like this or find some one locally to build it for me. i mean hell i build guitars so a cab cant be that hard , but then again maybe it is!

A passive crossover is the kind that's in your stereo speakers. It comes between the (single) amp and the speaker components, and splits the speaker-level signal at a given frequency between two components designed to handle different frequency ranges.

An active crossover is used for biamping or triamping a signal, expects to see line-level signal, and comes between the source and the amps. It splits the signal in much the same way that a passive crossover does, and seperate power amp and speaker (in the same or different enclosures) combinations receive each of these limited frequency range signals.

A passive crossover is probably more suited to what it sounds like you are planning to do. Of course, there may be a need for more than one of these in your cab, depending on whether you want to split the signal three ways (between horn, 10s, and 12s each getting a part of the signal) or two (horn and all speakers). Speaking only as the typical sound guy you will encounter on tour, a two-way design would be slightly preferrable from the "miking you up at a show" point of view, but do what sounds/feels right to you.

I'd recommend trying some cabinet modelling software. It allows you to try limitless design options and instantly see the results. All the tedious calculations are done automatically.

I use Bass Box Pro and Xover Pro. They have an extensive driver database that is periodically updated when new drivers become available. There are also many other programs available with prices ranging from free to astronomical.

Also, check out the loudspeaker section of DIYAudio. It's mostly dedicated to hifi, but there are a lot of meaningful discussions going on there.

thanks for the imput guys! im currently thinking up a new rig wich may be bi amped ill split my signal into 2 chains one going into the 2x10 2x12 and horn and one signal going into a 1x15 bass cab i have lying around. i figure ill run the bass cab fully distorted with this pre amp i have and run the other cab and horn as more a overdrivin sound with alot of mid punch. i dunno im up for sonic exploration and i have a few different amps kickin around here. just not alot of cabs.

thanks again
!!!

ooooooo! what about slapping a couple of these in a cab?

http://www.fedsig.com/products/index.php?id=125

i can imagine some pretty telephonic wierdness coming out of these! and there not that expenisve to boot? any thoughts on how hard itd be to integrate these into a cab?

sonikBOOM wrote:ooooooo! what about slapping a couple of these in a cab?

http://www.fedsig.com/products/index.php?id=125

i can imagine some pretty telephonic wierdness coming out of these! and there not that expenisve to boot? any thoughts on how hard itd be to integrate these into a cab?

That could potentially be quite cool. Who knows what it would sound like? Certainly not Hifi. It could be quite cool.

If you plan to spend a reasonable amount of money though, don't cut costs. Get what you want. It will pay off in the long run.

Decide what you would like as an end product and decide from there.

Those drivers would be easy to integrate as any other horn would.

Since guitar cabs are not Hifi, it is difficult in some ways deciding what should sound "good".