stevie

The black and red combination looks very tasty.

Good work, Tony. That sounds like a good deal to me.

Thanks Stew. Not the easiest of transcriptions I'd say.

Don't worry about it. The similar fluffy material that chienmorbb and I used for the prototype cabs was actually a bit more effective at damping resonances than the needled felt. It's just that the needled version is a lot easier to work with.

That's the wrong fluff, Luke. They did that on me once. I complained and they sent me the right type. If you've already glued it in, it will doubtless work OK. Check what you ordered to see if it's their mistake. You want the needled felt. The material you have is similar, but it's not as firm, which makes it more awkward to use.

Has anyone mentioned how having a couple of pints magically has a positive effect on the sound of your gear?

I think you have to differentiate between bass and guitar when it comes to FRFR. The speaker is an integral part of the sound of the electric guitar. It's never flat and contains desirable distortion and resonances that wouldn't be acceptable in any other type of transducer. If you've ever plugged an electric guitar directly into a mixing desk or into a stage monitor, you'll know that it sounds dull and really bland. It really needs speaker colouration to come alive. Or some kind of modeller, of course. Bass guitar is different. You can plug your bass into a mixing desk via a DI and get a great sound right away. That's flat response. By the same token, plug a bass into a flat response bass cab and it'll sound good. How you tailor that sound afterwards is up to you. But if you play through a cab that has a strong, baked-in signature, as most players do, that's your sound and you're stuck with it. As far as I can see from my limited vantage point, the FRFR cabs currently on the market are designed for and aimed at guitarists. And "full range" for the guitar isn't by any means full range for the bass. BC forum members choosing the FRFR route seem to prefer PA cabs to do the job, which is probably not a bad choice.

They also make a 1,000W rms system with an eight inch driver. There was a thread on Basschat about it recently, and nobody mentioned the impossibility of being able to make such a thing, never mind sell it for £170. Marketing BS sells, I'm afraid.

That's not quite right, @itu. When you cut peaks with a passive crossover, you do just that: you cut peaks. By definition, peaks do not define the sensitivity of a speaker. So cutting peaks doesn't reduce the sensitivity of a speaker. Passive crossovers do have insertion loss which can reduce sensitivity slightly, but that's a different matter.

That was a very useful post.

Drill two or perhaps three screw holes in suitable places on the board and screw directly to the back panel using 15-18mm screws. The tie wraps space the board away from the back panel and the board rests on those. Ideally, use non-magnetic screws like stainless steel of brass, but if you can't, use what you have to hand.

Now get painting!😀

Yes, you can glue a small piece on the l.h.s of the top panel. That should be it.

It's always been possible to make a flat-response cab using passive rather than active crossovers. Many people believe that this approach can produce a better result than taking inferior drivers and "fixing" their weaknesses by tweaking the frequency response digitally. It's a bit like adding monosodium glutamate to cheap food IMO. Better to start with the proper ingredients. There is some discussion in professional circles about what DSP does to high frequencies. Quite a few pros a prefer a passive solution. Any speaker designer will tell you that it's quite possible to build a flat-response speaker that sounds awful. There are a lot more factors that go into making a good speaker. Which is why @Dave bass that flat-response cabs can sound very different, although I have my doubts about whether some of the products that claim to be FRFR are actually flat response at all. As EBS-freak says, there's a lot of jumping on the bandwagon going on. It's a bit like stacking one driver on top of another and calling it a line array. It sells product.

The flat piece on the handle reinforcement ring was originally there to clear the front baffle. We later discovered that it wasn't actually needed, but didn't bother changing it. I've just discovered that the plywood in this batch is actually 15.2mm thick. That extra .2mm takes up the clearance in the rebates originally intended for the glue. That's why some builders have found the panels a tight fit. I'm going to increase the width of the rebates in the next batch of kits, but I'd repeat my advice to use 40-grit sandpaper on any rebates that you find are a bit tight.

So that looks like a thumbs up for Halfords primer. The primer I used was smooth, like a normal spray primer.

I bought some expanded metal grill material and cut it to size. Unfortunately, it took me hours, as I only had an angle grinder. The end result was fine and I sold the few that I made to the first few Basschatters who claimed them, but I came to the conclusion that making metal grilles is not really a DIY job. SGS metals on Ebay offer a cutting service for their punched materials.I gave them the size (384 x 567) and they cut me an aluminium grille to fit the cab. They charged £15 including delivery. The grille looks great, is perfectly sturdy and very light. The downside is that you need to use an etch primer before you paint it, and that increases the cost. This is the kind of thing you need: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=etch+primer&rh=n%3A1938797031&ref=nb_sb_noss The black etch primer at £10.50 delivered gets good reviews elsewhere and quite possibly won't need a topcoat. I must stress that I haven't used it myself, however. I used the Autotek etch primer (further down on the same page) and found that it wouldn't adhere properly. So I'd advise against using that. (I managed to touch it up with some galvanised garage door primer I had in the garage). Plastikote also do an etch primer that sells on Amazon for £7.60 delivered. As I've always found that company's products excellent, that one is probably a good buy. If you're going to apply a top coat to the grille, you need one of the tougher acrylic paints for metal from Hammerite, Plastikote, Simoniz or the German supermarket discounters (when they're on sale). These are the ones that say you can apply them directly to metal. Don't use a cellulose spray paint because it'll chip. If you want the aluminium grille and have to buy the paint for it, it's going to cost you £30. If you're more concerned about keeping the cost down than the weight, get the same grille in 1mm mild steel from SGS for £8.95 delivered and use an acrylic spray to paint it. I'd be interested to hear builders' experiences with etch primers - which work and which don't.

You're not wrong, although there's nothing wrong with using screws, especially if, as @Chienmortbb pointed out, you use them in the corners where the metal corners will go. They're also easy to camouflage on the front baffle. Pre-drill first, of course.

I’ve been gigging different variations of this cab for a while. The standout feature for me is that I can make out the pitch of every note I play even when I’m right in front of the cab. That’s always been a problem for me with compact cabs in pub-type venues. With the amp flat, the overall sound seems balanced top to bottom – just the right amount of bottom-end fatness and top-end detail, but without the emphasis on string noise you get from a lot of tweetered cabs. In fact, you can't tell it has a tweeter - it just sounds like bass guitar. Subjectively, I feel more relaxed when playing through this cab. I play in a fairly loud band with the kick drum through the PA but have never felt that I’ve pushed it close to its limits.

As @stewblack would say: "T-nut porn!"😀

Yes, that's it. In the selection box, click Black needled felt 2 1/2 oz. Then 1mtr length. £4.99. I wish sellers wouldn't keep changing their Ebay ads!

I particularly like the "pour glue into a bowl" suggestion. Squeezing the glue out of a litre bottle over such a long length is a pain.

Today's the day then, Luke? Good question. If you're an experienced cab builder with plenty of clamps and the necessary tools (like a brad nailer), you should be able to assemble the cab in one go. If this is your first attempt at building a cab, I suggest you work on one panel at a time, following the order of assembly on pp 20-21 of the other thread. The reason was pointed out by basstone and chienmortbb earlier. The plywood has a tendency to bow in the centre when you apply pressure to both ends. So it's likely that you'll need all four clamps to ensure a perfect fit - especially when you're fitting the second side panel. The job of the clamps is a) to hold the wood firmly in position while the glue dries and b) to apply pressure where required to adjust the position of the panels to ensure a tight fit with smooth seams. Although they say that full strength is reached after 24 hours, most PVA wood glues are fairly solid after one or two hours. I'd give the back panel and braces two hours to set, with perhaps one hour for the other panels - but there's no harm in waiting longer. Just make sure all your 90-degree angles are 90 degrees and check the dry fit of the next panel or two panels before the glue sets. I know I keep repeating this - but it's really important. And don't forget chienmortbb's pencil trick.

That's the one. And they will print the logo on the outside for you. Worth checking out perhaps.

I'd also be interested in a cover. I seem to recall from discussions on here that there's an alternative supplier with a superior product.