Guitar Cab Help

[Trooper46]

Hi,

I am in the process of building a ax84 P1, and i am going to need a cab to accompany the head. I play almost everything, but i find my self playing more 80s rock and metal than anything else. (Van Halen, Dio, Priest, Dokken, Etc..) I would like to build a 1x12 cab to start off with and maybe add a second 1x12 cab later after i get out of appartment life. Kinda like a mini stack. I am looking at the Eminence Red Coat Lynch Super, the Man-o-War, and the Black Powder for speakers. But I have no idea where to start designing the cab. Are there any calculators where I can just plug in the TS parameters and get a good starting point?

Any help would be great!

Thanks!

[wakibaki]

Most guitar cabs have an open back. Bass is a bit different.

An open back cab is effectively an open baffle. The most basic open baffle is just a flat sheet with a hole for the speaker. It prevents cancellation taking place between the sound coming from the back of the speaker cone and the front.

The frequency at which cancellation starts is the frequency whose wavelength can creep round the smallest dimension (measuring from the speaker to the edge) of the baffle. Circular baffles have octave resonances which are problematic, and rectangular baffles are often used. Open-backed boxes are often treated as folded open baffles.

An open-backed box will give you a sound probably best described as 'classic'.

For a more complete treatment of the theory of open baffles see this page:- Electro-acoustic models and others at Seigfried Linkwitz' site.

You can get some other info by googling 'open baffle speaker design' or 'open baffle calculator'

Since guitar cabs are often placed without regard to the sound (the cabs sit on the floor, which has an influence, and near walls, which have an influence), I would not be overly concerned with the exact dimensions of any open back cabinet I built, concentrating rather on convenience of transport and storage and robust construction without any rattles or buzzes, although many might disagree with this. To a certain extent, bigger is better (more extended bass response, although this will be limited by the driver anyway). You could take a tape measure to the local music shop and copy something there...

There are many other enclosures which can be used, basses often use ported boxes and may have tweeter reinforcement. You can find a number of enclosure design programs, having a look at these will give you a bit more grounding in the subject generally. google 'WinISD' which is free or simply 'speaker design software'.

w

[Trooper46]

My first thought was to haphazardly throw together a cab and just see how it sounds. I have usesd winISD to model some small two way sealed enclosures in the past. Maybe i'll plug in the TS from each and see what works best for the size i want.

[chris661]

Hi,

Here's what I'd try to bear in mind in your situation.
- the dimensions of the head. Do you want the amp to be smaller, wider, or the same width as the cab?
- how loud? Given a set wattage (assuming the speaker can handle it), a more efficient speaker will play louder.
Here's what I did when making my 1x12" cab...
Made it the same width as the amp driving it; looked at the frequency responses of speakers known to sound good (in my case, I was using a combo with 1x10", so I chose a 12" with similar response); I made the back removable, so I could experiment with sealed vs open backed (I preferred open back).
When an open backed cab is being used, most manufacturers will put boards across the top and bottom. Perhaps trying those would help?
100_0847 - My Photo Gallery

Might give you more to think about, though I would be jealous if you got the Man O' War.

Chris

[Minion]

I recently built a 1x12 cab , it is a closed back Ported enclosure , about 1.5 Cubic feet .... sounds good ...... 15 inches high , 18 inches wide , 12inches deep with a 2 inch across port in the back ......

Cheers

[TechnoBeaver]

Ya don't stress it too much, I settled for a comprimise, I built an open back ontop of a closed back Just make some removable panel(s) if you are concerned.


When I was building my first amp years ago, I tried My 2 12" Celestions on a slab of 2'x4' plywood. Sounded great! lol. It only sounded slightly better in the finished box (3/4 closed back)

When I say "better" I mean it sounded more like what I was aiming for, very subjective.

[TechnoBeaver]

Here's a peek of my newest one.

[rwalkerphl]

I have built an XF212 from http://www.bilfitzmaurice.com that goes with my AX84 P1 Extreme. It is designed to be open or close backed, and I am running a PRD DGT through it. It sounds awesome open backed, and it cst me $150 in materials...

Regards,
Robin.

[chris661]

Looks like you guys spend more on a single driver than I have on my entire combo+extension speaker (still, the combo was faulty off ebay).

Chris

PS - error in the above link, there's two 'L's in "Bill"... XF Guitar Cabs

[TechnoBeaver]

I looked at that kit, interesting concept.