nekomatic

I am definitely not one of life’s natural dancers but some years ago I went along to a salsa class for something to do and discovered it is quite possible to learn.

The good thing about taking this cab to a jam was that I not only got to hear myself play through it - which was fine - but also got to sit in the room while another jammer played his Precision through it and then the house band bassist Gavin played first his double bass and then my Jazz through it. And they all sounded great, but particularly the last of those which maybe shouldn't surprise as I'd set the amp up to make a sound I liked from my bass and Gavin is a much better bass player than I am. Perfectly adequate volume for a jazz band in a small-to-medium size function room and all in all doing exactly the job I built it for, which is all I could ask. Plus it weighs a very manageable 7 or 8 kg, carries nicely, and if I say so myself looks pretty decent - I'm very happy! Back at home, I did a side by side test with the 112 and I actually found it easier to get a sound I really liked out of the 1x8. It does appear to be, as Phil says, a pretty musical little speaker. Advice for potential constructors? Go for it - this was really not difficult to build. I guess I think I know a little bit about woodworking but I'm certainly no expert, and any issues I did encounter were mostly the result of pressing ahead without double checking stuff, and were fixable. The total cost is going to depend on how you want to finish it and on what tools and materials you already have or need to buy, but I'm pretty certain it'll come in a lot less than you could buy something new with equivalent specs. Do ask any questions, there are no stupid ones - I really am no woodworking expert. Thanks once again to Phil and other contributors for the design and the invaluable hints and tips I've picked up on the various cab design threads here.

I recently acquired an Eden WTX-264 which is compact but not 'micro' and while it has a fan, it's not too loud - a soft rushing sound rather than a whine. As far as I know the Phil Jones D-400, Eich T300, Tecamp Puma 300 (no longer made) and the GSS range are fanless. Some people have reported success replacing the fans in amps with quieter versions from somewhere like quietpc.co.uk, but you would need to be comfortable with opening up the amp and would need to check that the supply voltage was the same, current draw same or lower and airflow same or higher than the fan being replaced.

Cornered (this was more effort than expected, and the electric driver threatened to mash the little screw heads although I'm sure I was using the right size bit, so it was a manual job): Speaker mounted: I was not correct that self-tapping screws into the baffle alone would be fine; at least one of them has pulled its thread out of the wood. I'll have to live with it today but will come back to fix this, probably with T-nuts seeing as I have them. Grille attached, using a nylon washer under each screw to protect the grille from scratches. A couple of the blocks started to split, probably from the combo of not doing a proper pilot hole (I did after that one), tightening too quickly in one go, and trying to put the screw too close to the end of the block, but I reckon I can fix this by forcing a little wood glue into the split while the screw is in then removing the screw and letting the glue set. And subject to those snags, it's done. Obligatory pose with the Eden and the bass: How does it sound? Well, I could tell you more based on noodling about on the landing but since I'm taking it out to a jam tonight, why don't I report back after I've tested it in the field? However I do believe I'm getting ready take back what I said about refinement…

If this is confusing (to anyone, not ezbass in particular) I do recommend going back to this post on the first page and forgetting about the ‘it’s the scale of C but starting on a D’ stuff.

Double pole switches makes life easier. You can just wire a momentary push button in parallel with the foot switch contacts in your circuit, then pressing the push button will change the LED state but not the amp.

I’m always the optimist 😁 I went for the diagonal braces in the end. We’ve Got A Mitre Box And We’re Gonna Use It I’ll have to wait until the cab is reassembled to find out how much use they are but they barely add any weight so can’t really do much harm. Thank you for the further thoughts on the other ways though, which I’ll come back to if I think more is needed. A bit more painting action was needed (inspection in daylight revealed) so it’ll go together tomorrow morning probably.

You’d want to connect D to Qbar I think. Also if your footswitch is only a single-pole switch with one set of contacts, you can’t necessarily just connect this circuit across them without first checking the voltage and polarity that the amp puts across the open switch.

Second coat Tuff Cab. Trim applied to grille. We’re getting close!

Two coats black satin applied to baffle and baffle reveal; first coat Tuff Cab to cabinet exterior; port siliconed in. Next update this time tomorrow.

I have just learned that Tamsin Greig plays bass in a forthcoming TV series and I may need to loosen my collar and lie down for a bit.

Assembled for testing. It sounds pretty good! Maybe not quite as refined as the two-way 112 but that's only on a quick test, and I'm still learning how to get the best out of the Eden anyway (which deserves a NAD post at some point). There's a slight whirring sound on low notes at louder volume which I'm assuming is a bit of air leakage and unsurprising as I haven't put screws in all the mounting holes or properly sealed the port. Testing with an oscillator app on the phone, the tuning feels like 60-65 Hz and I can't feel any resonance on the side panels, but I can on the back at somewhere like 80 Hz. Any thoughts on bracing the back panel - a front-to-back brace would require that I glue the baffle in permanently (which is an option), alternatively a brace along the length, one across the width, or how about two diagonal braces from the back panel to somewhere around the centres of the sides? Also have other constructors lined this cab? I've got some wadding left over from the last project.

That’s not a bad look, at a good price. Do you know what the percentage open area of that mesh is, and have you compared the sound with and without the grille fitted? Edit: Actually their price for 10 mm mild steel mesh is OK too, not sure why I didn’t find that in my own eBay search.

Grilles. This is a speaker for taking out and about so I want a bit more protection than just some fabric. Custom made and painted speaker grilles aren't cheap, but I am. Well, I'm trying to keep the budget down for this project anyway. ESR do pre-painted speaker grille material which I could cut to size, but with postage that's still over twenty-five quid. Even a piece of unpainted steel mesh from eBay suppliers is north of twenty. The only really low-cost speaker grilles are the round ones you clamp in front of the speaker, but that doesn't protect the port, and I'm afraid I do think they look a bit amateur. The round grilles though, they do come in sizes all the way up to a whopping 46 cm (eighteen inches if you'd rather). That's quite a large area of grille material. I wonder if… A quick consultation with Mr. Pythagoras showed this plan had legs, and part of the CPC order that went in just before I discovered the handle issue was an eighteen inch round grille for seven pounds eighty-six. A few minutes of sparks-flying fun with the cutting wheel on the Dremel (in the back garden, WITH eye protection) and I have a perfectly proportioned grille. The edges are a bit messy, but happily the plastic trim easily comes off the circumference of the round grille (what's left of it) and should cover all that up if cut into the right lengths and attached to the rectangular one with a bit of superglue. I cut sections of batten as shown in pic which are now getting glued to the baffle to mount the grille but leave the baffle screw holes exposed - I could have made a continuous frame and used long screws but this way seems OK to me. The long horizontal piece in the middle is simply what was left over after cutting the other bits, but I decided to use it like that as it should add some stiffness to the baffle. Meanwhile the new handle arrived, and I cut holes for that and for the connector plate, also bevelled the edges and corners with some more Dremel madness (a bit rough, but I'll try and even them out with the proper sander). And here's the handle in place. I think we can say we're going for an 'oversize' aesthetic here, but it fits, and crucially the actual handle is only a centimetre off the centre-of-mass line for near-optimal carrying. As soon as the grille supports are all glued and dry (I only have four clamps, so be patient) I'll be able to assemble and test it…

Hello! I grew up in Southampton and am now not far from Wythenshawe, and I think several of my older work colleagues started out at Ferranti.