stevie

Very neat!

There are two ways of designing a bass guitar cab. You either design them to be flat response or you design them to exaggerate particular frequencies. The second option is by far the easiest and cheapest, which is why almost everybody builds them that way. If you don’t like a cab with a baked-in response, it’s not always possible to eq out what you dislike. That’s because the peaks in the response are often due to cone break-up, which means that, even if you do notch out the peaks, you’re still left with the distortion component. So you’re faced with the task of finding a speaker whose ‘tone’ appeals to you, or one that fits with your desired sound, or matches your other equipment. Some players like cabs with pronounced mids while others prefer an exaggerated bass hump or mild upper midrange distortion – and choose their cabs accordingly. That’s fine. Given a decent eq, however, you can easily eq your tonal preferences into a flat response cab – and there’s always effects pedals and modellers. And – importantly IMO, you always know what your starting point is. Amplifying bass guitar isn’t the same as amplifying a 6-string guitar, where the speaker is an important part of creating the overall sound of the guitar. It has more in common with amplifying a double bass. The main reason I prefer to use a flat response cab is not so much for the on-axis response, as that’s only part of the story, but more for the off-axis response, i.e. the power response. I also find that I don’t need a modeller. In fact, the only eq I use in the vast majority of venues is the 3-band eq on my bass.

Thanks for the tip, Al. I've been looking at the Casio CTS-1, which is very similar, and that might just fit the bill.

I'm with @BigRedX on this one. Not everyone wants a coloured cab with peaks and dips at random frequencies. If I need colour, there are plenty of ways of adding it.

I don't think any of that video applies to bass guitar cabs, hi-fi cabs, PA cabs, studio monitors or most other speaker systems where the cabinet can make an appreciable difference.

I think the aim of the video was more to be entertaining than to be educational.

That was an interesting watch. I've no idea how long it took him, but it must have been ages. He's also a helluva country picker (see his other vids).

Jaydees have always been out of my price range, but it's heartening to know that a British boutique bass company is still alive and kicking. They've certainly been around for a while.

Congratulations on a job well done!

Glad to hear the problem's fixed. Wadding should always be held in place inside a cab. I'd recommend you staple it down (or used some spray adhesive) when you can find the time.

'Shamelessly copy' is a bit strong in this particular case, IMO. They've just taken a few style cues from another product. Every designer does that. Shameless copying is this:

Russ Andrews has been outed a few times in the press for his outrageous claims - I'm surprised he's still in business.

Well spotted.😃

It looks like somebody chancing his arm. The website needs a proofreader. Of course, the claims are ridiculous and I blame the hi-fi press for creating and perpetuating these myths.

Cabinet noises can be quite difficult to trace sometimes. I'd start by swapping the drivers in your cabs to eliminate the driver as the cause. In answer to one of the questions raised, yes, leaks can certainly cause the kind of noise you're hearing. I'd advise against using PU adhesive to fill the gaps, however. It's fine as an adhesive but structurally weak as a filler. Aradaldite would be better, or fibreglass body filler. Another tip: playing a recording of bass through the cabinet will make it much easier to locate the source of the noise.

You lost me at Ab, Chris. 🙃

Six flats! I don't even know what key that is.

Good choice.

No, that's hearsay.

Got any proper test data on this well-known trial?

Well, this is what he says about it: Grundsätzlich ist mir der Preamp des 800b viel zu schlapp. Viel zu wenig Gain. Wenn man die Endstufe direkt (also wirklich alles umgeht) mit einem guten Preamp zB. dem API Tranzformer anfährt, klingt es um Welten besser. Auch über den EFX Return wird das Signal schlapp und träge. Des Weiteren verkraftet der Return keine hohen Pegel, es knackt dann immer wieder seltsam. Habe dies schon bei 2 verschiedenen 800b's erlebt. Obwohl grundsätzlich linear ist mir die ganze Preamp Sektion viel zu träge und schlecht. Da lohnt sich das moden meiner Meinung nach nicht.

According to the comments quoted by @kodiakblair, the preamp lets it down. It's OK, but not great. Not surprising really.

This is all a bit of a strawman. The instructions for assembling the crossover are on page 3. We're not using a PCB; we're using a chocolate block. The resistor is fitted against the chocolate block and taped (or tie-wrapped) to it, and the chocolate block is then screwed to the cabinet. If you wire it up this way, there is no chance of the resistor wires breaking. The heaviest component isn't actually the resistor - it's the coil. And the advice there is to screw the coil directly to the cabinet.

While it's true that the resistor in the crossover isn't going to see much more than 8W, I'm a great believer in overspecifying resistors in power speakers, having seen too many burnt-out crossover boards in the past, where the resistors have overheated and taken everything else with them. The best place to get these in the UK is Blue Aran, where a 4.7 ohm 20W resistor costs 79p.