Building a speaker cabinet

[The Doctor]

Just looking for opinions here from those of you who strive for a specific sound in your guitar or bass playing. I'm considering buying an empty shell or building my own 4x12 cab and experimenting with speakers and different mixtures/configurations...

If you were to build your own speaker cabinet, how would you go about it?

[White Boy]

I got some wood if you need.

[hektik]

build your own. just make sure you get the right kind of wood, it's some kind of glorified particle board. i know its not particle board, but it's similar in the way it's constructed, its super super dense stuff. i know that didn't help

[Jebodiah]

Don't ever listen to some ugly faggot telling you that your choice of wood sucks also.

[Mescalito]

build your own. just make sure you get the right kind of wood, it's some kind of glorified particle board. i know its not particle board, but it's similar in the way it's constructed, its super super dense stuff. i know that didn't help

mdf?

[Mescalito]

I know mdf is sort of like particle board but it is way more dense.

[ron c nigbur]

Would MDF withstand the constant vibration?

[Mescalito]

Yeah, I think it would.

[CFH Eternal]

Baltic Birch Ply.

[The Doctor]

I meant more along the lines of the speakers themselves.

I'm considering building a 4x12 cab with 2 Eminence Governors and 2 Eminence Legends in an "X" configuration...

Though I may just skip the whole bit and decide on an already built cab. I've considered a rig with a Vader 2x12 and an Emperor 2x12 running off the same head, though I don't know how sensible that would be.

[texasborn]

ah I see exactly what you need I think,






















a big ol' TAG!

[JesseJames]

Ernie should chime in on this.

[Balls On Parade]

get Peavey Black Widows, if you can find them, really punchy, with a lot of presence, no sludge at all, but don't oversize the cabinets, I think the larger Mesa cabinets don't sound all that great...porous frame (sides, top, back) woods absorb too much of the lower frequencies, so if you can build the cab out of really dense hard rock maple (and add a piece of bracing in the center to tighten the front speaker baffle to the back wall), then I would use MDF for the front baffle...will keep all frequencies well balanced, and the inner airspace can dial in your peak low end resonance...I prefer about .85 cu ft inner volume per speaker...

...geeky enough for ya?

[The Doctor]

get Peavey Black Widows, if you can find them, really punchy, with a lot of presence, no sludge at all, but don't oversize the cabinets, I think the larger Mesa cabinets don't sound all that great...porous frame (sides, top, back) woods absorb too much of the lower frequencies, so if you can build the cab out of really dense hard rock maple (and add a piece of bracing in the center to tighten the front speaker baffle to the back wall), then I would use MDF for the front baffle...will keep all frequencies well balanced, and the inner airspace can dial in your peak low end resonance...I prefer about .85 cu ft inner volume per speaker...

...geeky enough for ya?

Beautiful.

I was pondering cabinet size as well and you answered that question before I asked it.

Is there anything readily available that is comparable to a Black Widow that I can get my hands on and try out if I can't find one or four?

[Balls On Parade]

not sure, I thought I had read recently that Peavey started reissuing them again (models 1203-4 or 1203-8, for instrument applications)...Eminence speakers, to my experience, sound better with solid state amps, while Celestions and Peaveys usually are engineered for tube heads...the good thing about the Black widows is they are very sensitive, not as much power is needed to drive them, and they sonically break up earlier than Celestions, so even a 50W tube head will sound great with these...I'd say the closest thing to them would be old Altec Lansings, but the only guitar player who used those that I know of was Randy Rhoads...JBL is supposed to have some thing similar, but require a lot more power to drive them to the same levels, which could be taxing on your amp, but some people like to drive their amps hard...all just preference, really...

Peavey JSX's are great too; more plentifuul, and in current production:

http://www.peavey.com/products/speakers ... 8OhmSS.cfm

[AoD]

Ernie should chime in on this.

[The Doctor]

You do your shit in metric? Classy.

[The Doctor]

not sure, I thought I had read recently that Peavey started reissuing them again (models 1203-4 or 1203-8, for instrument applications)...Eminence speakers, to my experience, sound better with solid state amps, while Celestions and Peaveys usually are engineered for tube heads...the good thing about the Black widows is they are very sensitive, not as much power is needed to drive them, and they sonically break up earlier than Celestions, so even a 50W tube head will sound great with these...I'd say the closest thing to them would be old Altec Lansings, but the only guitar player who used those that I know of was Randy Rhoads...JBL is supposed to have some thing similar, but require a lot more power to drive them to the same levels, which could be taxing on your amp, but some people like to drive their amps hard...all just preference, really...

Peavey JSX's are great too; more plentifuul, and in current production:

http://www.peavey.com/products/speakers ... 8OhmSS.cfm

I've heard several people say the same thing about Eminence, which has steered me away from just getting a few and getting going on this. I use a tube amp. Anyway...

Those JSX's are already available in cabs. I should just track one down and give it a go. If they're easy to find and reasonably priced I could just order an empty Emperor.

[Tyson]

I should get my Dad to post here if you want to know about tube amps, it's all he ever talks about, seriously

That and his Stratocasters & Sg's

He fucking goes to tips and their recycling centres country wide searching for tubes.

[Dimebag_Dave]

I should get my Dad to post here if you want to know about tube amps, it's all he ever talks about, seriously

That and his Stratocasters & Sg's

He fucking goes to tips and their recycling centres country wide searching for tubes.

[CFH Eternal]

Eminence gets a bad rap but IMO they work great for tube amps, are cheaper than Chinese celestions, and are made in America. If you are playing just brutal stuff, I suggest the governors.

You should contact emperor cabs about getting one empty because I would not recommend building a cab unless you have a lot of experience. The same with speakers, unless you know how to solder.

[PABassPlayer]

Eminence gets a bad rap but IMO they work great for tube amps, are cheaper than Chinese celestions, and are made in America. If you are playing just brutal stuff, I suggest the governors.

You should contact emperor cabs about getting one empty because I would not recommend building a cab unless you have a lot of experience. The same with speakers, unless you know how to solder.

I have 2 JBL 2X15 with horn pa mains, one night one of them was knocked off the sub cab and the impact pulled both of the cones from the voice coil, I replaced them with 2 $70 a piece Eminence speakers with the same ratiing and that cab actually sound a bit better than the stock JBL cab. Someday i'm going to replace the other 2.

[TerryToughCunt]

Eminence gets a bad rap but IMO they work great for tube amps, are cheaper than Chinese celestions, and are made in America. If you are playing just brutal stuff, I suggest the governors.

You should contact emperor cabs about getting one empty because I would not recommend building a cab unless you have a lot of experience. The same with speakers, unless you know how to solder.

I have 2 JBL 2X15 with horn pa mains, one night one of them was knocked off the sub cab and the impact pulled both of the cones from the voice coil, I replaced them with 2 $70 a piece Eminence speakers with the same ratiing and that cab actually sound a bit better than the stock JBL cab. Someday i'm going to replace the other 2.

Shut your fucking mouth old man. Thanks.

[PABassPlayer]

Eminence gets a bad rap but IMO they work great for tube amps, are cheaper than Chinese celestions, and are made in America. If you are playing just brutal stuff, I suggest the governors.

You should contact emperor cabs about getting one empty because I would not recommend building a cab unless you have a lot of experience. The same with speakers, unless you know how to solder.

I have 2 JBL 2X15 with horn pa mains, one night one of them was knocked off the sub cab and the impact pulled both of the cones from the voice coil, I replaced them with 2 $70 a piece Eminence speakers with the same ratiing and that cab actually sound a bit better than the stock JBL cab. Someday i'm going to replace the other 2.

Shut your fucking mouth old man. Thanks.

+1 to my "peoples ass to kick" list.

[Balls On Parade]

Eminence gets a bad rap but IMO they work great for tube amps, are cheaper than Chinese celestions, and are made in America. If you are playing just brutal stuff, I suggest the governors.

You should contact emperor cabs about getting one empty because I would not recommend building a cab unless you have a lot of experience. The same with speakers, unless you know how to solder.

My old Fender M-80 cabinet with Eminence speakers sounded pretty fucking awesome when I was letting notes and chords ring out, and the palm muting sounded great until I was trying to staccato the effect, those speakers seemed to have a slower snapback than most Celestions, and light years slower than anything I've heard Peavey make, no matter what amp I pushed it with.

BTW, my other guitar player used a single angled Peavey BW cabinet powered by an old Peavey Butcher head...holy fuck that setup was LOUD AS SHIT...that thing would overpower some Marshall JCM800 100W full stacks in the same room, and certainly had a lot more presence...

[CFH Eternal]

Yeah those old Peavey heads are actually good (the Butcher, VTM). I will agree, as much as I love Eminence it's hard to beat the sound of a broken in Vintage 30 or Greenback.

[Skull Dragon]

I'd go with a 2x12 x 1x15 cab if I were to make my own... The way that music is now and at the rate everybody is tuning down, it only makes sense to use a speaker that can handle the frequencies.