chyc

Gig over. The verdict is that these cabinets are indeed perfect for double bass, and are plenty powerful and clear.  I played some small band stuff, but also some big band which I wasn't expecting. These cabinets filled the room with the GSS bullet amplifier you can see on top of it. Got some nice compliments about my sound, and a distinct lack of compliments about the woodworking and varnishing efforts on display.

Venue was a nightmare scenario of a gym with hard floor and high(ish) ceilings. Almost certain my Acoustic Image wouldn't have coped but this setup worked fine. It is significantly heavier mind you, and while there was a little left on the dials to give more welly, the GSS was warm to the touch by the end of the gig and I wouldn't want to chance it. It's soo portable and cute though how could anyone not love it?

I will have to get L brackets for the grille as the duct tape holding them in place is starting to peel. I think I will also make a scrap ply wedge to angle the upper cabinet towards my beautiful face next time (if there is a next time: I was quite rusty.)

Here is all my equipment fitting into my car, double bass, cabinets, and child seat because I was too lazy to take it out.

1 hour ago, Phil Starr said:

Let us know how you get on

Bad news. The venue have helpfully provided their own equipment. I may have to throw a hissy fit and say that my sound is unique and can only be achieved with the equipment I've brought.

I'll be taking these puppies on their maiden gig tomorrow. Double bass + GSS B-100. Should be fun.

For the record, the higher sensitivity of the 10NTR-2520E over the Pulse 10 meant that high frequencies were a little shrouded for my taste in the end. I could have fixed that with eq, but at the same time the crossover was there for tinkering. I knew just enough electronics to know that the resistor handles sensitivity of the tweeter in this simple design, and phase shifting isn't really going to (ahem) phase me, so I just shorted the 4.7Ω resistor. @GlamBass74 helpfully showed me a link which (for Convair's crossover at least) gives a -4dB attenuation when using a 4.7Ω. The Pulse 10 is 2dB less sensitive than the 10NTR-2520E so in theory I've gone too far, but I reckon only a cat would hear the difference, and it's done now Really happy with these cabinets. They look the biz too, and hopefully the natural finish will age like a fine wine compared with peeling tolex and fluffy patchy carpet.

14 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

How's the build going?

It goes in fits and starts. I'm actually building it at my parents' house so was able to get a fair bit done. All sides are in, as is the wadding. The top needs to go on, but there's about 1mm discrepancy in the height of the four walls. I will need to take a plane to a side before I am able to put the last side in. I'm now back home but will update as soon as I can.

I've been in correspondence with @GlamBass74 who has been an immense help and support to me in this and the BC110T builds. One thing that I was going to blindly do (and may still do) is use wood screws to drill in the woofer. I figured that it was light enough and I wasn't going to be taking it in and out once everything was build. However, he did suggest reinforcing the inside of the baffle with either a ring or small strips of spare ply. I didn't do it for my BC110Ts and the wood screws barely poked out the other side, but for the heavier 12PR320 is it a necessity?

That looks lovely and a lovely price to boot. GLWTS

On 31/12/2022 at 08:20, Phil Starr said:

If anyone wanted to there is no reason not to build this cab using any method they want so long as they keep the internal dimensions the same. 

 

Now he tells me

 

 

 

 

ARRRGGGGH.

Lol, just kidding. Sometimes it's the journey rather than the destination that's the reason for going somewhere, as it is in this case.

Now that @stevie has announced it officially as a service, I feel free to say that I was an early beneficiary of the crossovers he sells. The crossover arrived promptly and was very competitively priced. I must say this is what convinced me to try the BC112mk3 over another competing design that I was thinking about. It arrived without the caulk: that butchery was me.

Going back to the port hole, it came out better than I thought, but still not perfect. It's got caulk on the other side of the baffle so is airtight. If I feel moved to I may use wood filler later which is more amenable to painting, but I do like natural wood and filler tends to stain.

Here is the last side panel going on. The wool cool has gone in and is looking fabulous.

One advice I can give is to purchase TiteBond Premium over EvoStick. I cannot say whether one is a stronger bond than the other, but the former has the massive benefit of having a far superior applicator which makes spreading it easier, and stops it drying out when it's closed (it presses out the remnant on closing: genius).

Had the timings been slightly different I may have purchased a LfSys bass cabinet, but I'm currently having a lot of fun building the BC 112mk3.

Some things to note, in comparison to the BC110T cabinet which you may see photos in another thread:

1. It is a significantly harder build than the BC110T. The tolerances are tight and there is not much margin for error. The battens round the edge of the BC110T proved invaluable to affix panels.
2. The parts are harder to source. Even the wood, being of the 15mm variety, required me to search online whereas 12mm can be found in B&Q and Wickes.
3. Clamps are essential, including great big fat ones as seen in the photo

I don't own an LfSys, but as everyone knows round here, bass gear can be judged by pictures alone so that's what I'm going to do. The LfSys looks to have groove joints, presumably to save on weight and increase the inherent strength to the build. There is absolutely no way I am capable of making such joints. Secondly, the circular cut-out for the port I did with a jigsaw. I did the best I could but it's not perfectly circular so when I do install the drainpipe it's going to look a little messy with caulk round the edge. The LfSys looks to either be CNC'd or cut using a hole saw so the port tube looks very professional. When it comes to cost, yes this is a saving over a Silverstone, assuming you already own the woodworking tools. Using the back of an envelope calculation I think I spent around £400 on parts, although I see that the 12PR320 has gone up a fair amount since I purchased it, and I bought cheap 15mm hardwood.

Anyway, onwards to victory! I have a panto in January (oh yes I do) so I have that as an ambitious target to get this ready. I haven't decided what colour this is going to be. Orange tolex with a red baffle may cause the universe to implode, so that's tempting.

I believe the journey is close to an end. Plugged these in and fired them up to find a very nice sound indeed. Personally I can listen to all genres of music quite happily through these, except classical which seems hollow and lifeless for some reason.

Tips for the next person:

• Black screws. Someone of this parish pointed out they look more professional and now I cannot unsee it when big-bucks cabinets are sold with silver screws. Saying that, the screws to put in the corner protectors were like hens' teeth so I had to settle for either countersunk silver or black button head. You can see flashes of silver in the corners: function beats form every time IMHO
• The grilles are held on with black gaffer tape, because I didn't like the look of the four grille holding plates: form beats function every time IMHO.
• If you get decent wood and varnish it the results are killer. No idea why this isn't more of a thing in the professional world. Varnish is yacht varnish from Wilkos. £12 and I used less than half a tin for both cabinets.

Next stop is the bc112mk3. Still need to buy a few things for that build but to be honest this pair of cabs is more than I'll ever need. I used one with an ABM600 and it rattled my teeth.

Thanks for the great review. The Monaco seems incredibly competitively priced as you say, so much so that to me I can't see many people wanting to save the £100 by buying the Silverstone. My guess is that the £100 is purely the difference in parts cost and there's no luxury tax added on top that Apple seems to use quite extensively. To look closer to home, the Super Mini and the BB3 are £350 apart.

That's not a criticism in any way. If anything, it's showing that stevie is not doing this for the money, and if you do decide to get one of his cabinets, you're getting a very very good deal. Sadly he released it just a little too late for me and I've committed my dime elsewhere, but in a parallel universe somewhere I'm probably a happy LfSys user.

I know why people like 12" drivers, but the market seems to be saturated with them.  Like @nekomatic says I think people are scared away from 15" by the marketing around dispersion, which is silly because a cabinet with a 15" can have as good a dispersion as any other sized woofer. RCF have the 15" ART-945A as having 100° coverage, which could mean anything, but crucially it's the same as their 12" ART-932A. Not cheap though.

53 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

What does RFI refer to apart from Radio Frequency Interference?

Lol. Request For Information

2 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Question @ped @PaulThePlug why does lag/latency matter when using headphones for practice? Surely the delay isn't critical In this application, unlike when playing along with others?

Trust me, you will notice the lag, and it will be a major distraction. I think some Bluetooth codecs offer low latency. AptX from a quick Google says it's less than 40 milliseconds. That's still too much in my book.

I think things like laptops measure the latency for Bluetooth and delay things like videos so they sync up with the audio. If they didn't you'd know all about it!

Genelecs in terms of form factor! I don't own a pair but I know someone who does and quite frankly I was astounded the amount of noise that came out of it. He played dance music in a hall.

The Vox Amplug2 comment is just a nod that I accept that these speakers don't need to sound like the Genelecs. IIRC when the speaker was released Vox made noises that it was appropriate for bass practice, but they seem to have rowed that back now looking online. I can practise just fine on it: I just need to hear myself. However it distorts too easily, which is probably not helped that it's battery powered, and cheap, and nasty.

A bass-specific combo with a single 4" driver exists   in the form of the PJB X-4 combo. By my maths, a pair of 3" is bigger than a single 4" (4.5π > 4π), so it's not like it's impossible. Whether its 15kHz upper bound means anything is another matter.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will trawl GumTree for spare Altec Lansings at bargain basement prices, and rebuild the cabinet. Good idea Phil.

9 hours ago, RhythmJunky said:

Wouldn't you be better off buying a s/h pair of hifi speakers ? Something like Wharfedale Diamonds.

Doesn't fulfill my first use case 😁

Thanks @nekomatic. I did see those but 6" is too big for my desk. My current cheap-as-chips bookshelf speakers at 4.5" and they're already too big.

I would love to get (even pay) for plans for something like this, although I suspect I'm not going to strike gold here. People doing this stuff will be looking for performance that I don't need, and will be prepared to spend levels of money that I don't have.

I wouldn't say no to a tweeter. Principal aims, in order of descending priority

1. Bragging rights to say I've made it myself
2. Dinky
3. Not sucky performance. A frequency chart looking like the Himalayas is fine so long as there's not too much distortion at reasonable volumes (looking at you Vox Amplug Cab) and a smidgen of bass.

I've looked on eBay and I reckon the second two criteria could be had within £20 or so. In fact if I ignored the first criterion and spent the same amount as I would have on a pair of AN3510s and some wood I probably could get something both compact and fairly decent and active. The Creative Pebble Pro has RGB lighting to boot

Doesn't scratch the woodworking itch though.

I'll cut to the chase, I want something like the Genelec 8010a, but passive and not so eye-wateringly expensive. If you've seen my other threads, you'll know I have caught the bug about building my own cabinets. It's a lot of fun, so I'd like to make one here. Trouble is I am nowhere near the stage of designing my own enclosure or crossover.

Use case:

• Bragging rights for building my own desktop speakers
• Gaming
• YouTube watching
• Very light bass practising. It has to be better than the Vox amplug2 cabinet, but not by much: I accept the compromise.

It doesn't have to be as good sonically as the 8010a. It doesn't have to be quite as small as the 8010a, but it should be small enough to look reasonable either side of a 14" laptop. Is there a source of designs for this type of speaker? If not I'm currently eyeing up https://celestion.com/product/an3510/ as a single driver (no tweeter) in an easy sealed enclosure. Is that madness? Sensitivity seems rather low, but it's for me sat at my desk and I don't want to wake the neighbours. The Celestion is a little larger than the 3" speaker in the Vox, and I presume its xmax is orders of magnitude higher.

Assuming the following:

• You have a computer
• You have a Hi-Fi
• It is just for practice and doesn't need to be portable.

You can do what I do:

• Guitar/bass into audio interface
• DAW/IR software for tone shaping
• Blending with external audio such as YouTube or Tidal
• Audio sent to Hifi via said audio interface

As you'll be reusing existing kit you can probably do this for a good deal cheaper than other suggestions. An audio interface from a reputable manufacturer can be had for under £100, and you can easily pick up something usable for under £50.

2 minutes ago, stevie said:

I've always had the impression that shopping sites wipe the contents of your basket after a while - not just Blue Arran.

My experience too. My issue with BA is that there doesn't seem to be a way to build up a basket over a long period. Most other sites call this a wishlist and frustratingly there looks to be the facility on BA, except I don't know how to use it!

https://www.bluearan.co.uk//myaccount/myaccount.php?wishlist=view

Blue Aran looks to be a wonderful site that stocks many items that I like to buy. However, it's driving me absolutely insane, and I don't know if it's just me not understanding how it works or if there's just some setting that I need to tweak.

If I go to the site, fill up my basket then immediately buy there and then there's no problem. The issue I have is that if I leave my basket too long it wipes its contents. Okay, that's irritating but prices may change etc, but I now have no way of knowing what was in my basket. How do I create a semi-permanent basket which I can fill up over the course of weeks? Aha, I see a Quote button in my basket which turns my ethereal basket into a permanent record. Sadly there is no way of turning a quote back into a basket for purchasing, and even worse the quote page you are shown gives you no link back to the items themselves, just a link to "Open a Help Ticket".

Aha, there's a Favourite list down the left hand menu. Unfortunately  I cannot see any way of adding items to this list.

My current workflow is creating a file in Notepad and copy/pasting the URLs of the things that I want, then creating the basket at the last minute when I want to buy which is bonkers in this day and age. Is there some setting that I'm missing? I can see my basket number changes whenever it's emptied. I make a note of the basket number with the items in, and yes, I cannot seem to recover it even with that knowledge.

I cannot imagine that this would fly in this day and age and perhaps there's some trick that I'm missing, which is why I'm asking here.

Lol, I wish I'd never uploaded that picture now 🤣

Port is on the bottom. Image from https://barefacedbass.com/product-range/one10.htm

I've played with an Encore that had the truss rod adjustment down by the pickups. It was a standard 6(?)mm hex bolt. I had to take the scratch plate off which was a real pain because I think the scratch plate could have a cutout to accommodate adjustments, but it doesn't.

Back when I adjusted it I didn't know any better and thought you needed to take the strings off. In a sense you do: that's how you get the scratch plate off. However if you want to adjust with the tension of the strings that is possible: loosen the strings, take the scratch plate off and bring the strings back to pitch. It's really fiddly to adjust with the strings in place, but it's not impossible.

Good luck is all I can say.

5 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

I am intrigued to know how the 5 sided cab in the front sounds.

That's a building defect. I'm just mixing up the wood filler for that hole now.