If the panel material is crisp and light, like a few layers of curved veneer, it could rely on the surrounding air doing the damping. Maybe it could even have those 'f' style sound holes as something between a vent and resistive damping?
been there done that and many others too, not easy or good so i can't understand why people keep suggesting it but in a thread where material thickness was at question it was inevitable...
If you look on "Shop Good Will" dot com, search for "guitar"; there sure is a lot of junk in the world...I mean USA. One probably could pick up an identical pair - of something - eventually, for cheap.
If you have some real $ to burn on the idea, there's https://www.ebay.com/itm/312814059989. Too bad there's only 1 left, of 181 sold; looks like it's too late for a stereo pair. There's others, but alas, they seem to all be at "last one" status too.
On classical guitars, I've found that the box / port resonance is about 110 Hz. This could be lowered perhaps to 80 by using a duct in the sound hole.
I wouldnt think the configuration pictured above is the best you could do. You'd want to put the speaker where the bridge was, with a slight offset on the top baffle. That would require getting the saddle off and keeping the wood underneath pretty; not an easy task. Plus, there's bracing beneath there, which would inevitably get disturbed by the driver cutout.
If you have some real $ to burn on the idea, there's https://www.ebay.com/itm/312814059989. Too bad there's only 1 left, of 181 sold; looks like it's too late for a stereo pair. There's others, but alas, they seem to all be at "last one" status too.
On classical guitars, I've found that the box / port resonance is about 110 Hz. This could be lowered perhaps to 80 by using a duct in the sound hole.
I wouldnt think the configuration pictured above is the best you could do. You'd want to put the speaker where the bridge was, with a slight offset on the top baffle. That would require getting the saddle off and keeping the wood underneath pretty; not an easy task. Plus, there's bracing beneath there, which would inevitably get disturbed by the driver cutout.
Perhaps instead of conventional drivers, an exciter mounted on the bridge area.
Or perhaps if the guitar body was only used for certain frequencies (with a conventional driver) - perhaps the bass, and the mid-range/treble by something else.
Or perhaps if the guitar body was only used for certain frequencies (with a conventional driver) - perhaps the bass, and the mid-range/treble by something else.
I've done that and you get something like;
You'd really want to use the guitar body as a ported air volume cabinet, versus attempt to drive its top as a speaker.
There's a couple octaves there that seem reasonably flat, maybe cross around that with lower / higher drivers
I think that’s too thin. Unless you are making extremely small boxes, that wood will tend to crack like an old cigar box in a few years time. I think you should get some 1/4-3/4“ birch ply or MDF, something more stable than plain 1/4” wood, and then laminate it. I make most of my speakers with a constrained layer. The toughest part is getting the panels to glue up evenly. I use a lot of tightbond and milk jugs full of water to press the panels together. the glue line has to be very thin for constrained layer to work properly. My usual method is 1/4-1/2” MDF, followed by 1/4-1/2” birch ply, and then cover it in thick 1/4” veneer. At a minimum you get 3/4” thick panels and they are very dead. I think it’s better than plain birch or MDF, and they look nice due to the veneer.
Saw at Goodwill in Seattle the other day. (Hard to believe I was walking around in there without a respirator) $25 each, but I just couldnt to try to make speaker cabinets out of...
Corian is also a nice material to use for enclosure making. It looks great and is very inert if one side of it is roughened up and thickness is 1/2" min. Machining Corian is difficult without specialty tools.
Concrete is great too if the right filler is used, otherwise it can ring like a bell. Casting in the threaded inserts in the accurate locations is not easy. I use 3/8 plywood as form walls and locate the thread inserts with holes drilled through the plywood walls. You can create rounded edges by caulking the form inner corners.
Concrete is great too if the right filler is used, otherwise it can ring like a bell. Casting in the threaded inserts in the accurate locations is not easy. I use 3/8 plywood as form walls and locate the thread inserts with holes drilled through the plywood walls. You can create rounded edges by caulking the form inner corners.
I have never regretted using Corian for the bottom/front (painted black), top, and actual bottom of my speakers. Solid woods used for the rest. Unbeatable pitch and accuracy in the bass. And they can push you around if they are asked to. To be fair, there is a lot of thickness and bracing as well.
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CLD is IMO better than stiffening a plywood panel with more plywood. You may end up with a very stiff cabinet wall, but the higher up frequencies won't be attenuated as effectively as with CLD.
In my more ambitious cabinet making days, I used a sandwich of 2 layers 3/8" marine ply with sterilized sand in between. The resulting enclosure was dead as a door nail across the entire audio bandwidth. I got the idea from a pair of Leak speakers which had sand filled walls.
In my more ambitious cabinet making days, I used a sandwich of 2 layers 3/8" marine ply with sterilized sand in between. The resulting enclosure was dead as a door nail across the entire audio bandwidth. I got the idea from a pair of Leak speakers which had sand filled walls.
I am going throw something out here that I has crossed my mind. A tunable enclosure using a bolt mounted internally to a cabinet wall. This same bolt protrudes to the other opposing cabinet wall allowing outward pressure (adjustable by an external knob, hence the tuning). This would look most acceptable from the inside of the baffle with the bolt exiting the rear of the cabinet. I admit this is a pretty strange idea.
The cabinet walls could be then, thinner?
The cabinet walls could be then, thinner?
Yeah, the only boutique speaker system I can to date relate to at all was a huge curved stack of individual (alleged) pure Corian boxes that actually did a near enough 'eyes closed' rendition of a bass fiddle from a RTR master tape, though 'gagged' at the mass quantities of high SQ parts required to the point where I wondered if a much simpler Corian box speaker with minimal/no parts in series would be the 'Hot Ticket', but I was past my DIY audio days and the forums yet to come still a few years away to 'see' if others agreed.
Sorry, tune-able panel cabs go wayyyyy back and here's a modern dual purpose variant once popular on the 'FR' forum.
Since we are into matching different materials...
Shameless plug, I built these OB using a layering of 15mm plywood, 6mm honeycombed aluminium and 6mm stone panels.
Even playing loud, the baffle doesn't vibrate at all, when placing your hand on it. Also shown in the distortion measurements.
Also did a TABAQ pair using plywood and stone only, the box being so small didn't need the extra aluminum layer.
Shameless plug, I built these OB using a layering of 15mm plywood, 6mm honeycombed aluminium and 6mm stone panels.
Even playing loud, the baffle doesn't vibrate at all, when placing your hand on it. Also shown in the distortion measurements.
Also did a TABAQ pair using plywood and stone only, the box being so small didn't need the extra aluminum layer.