stevie

No, the screws in the parts list are fine. I only listed t-nuts and 30mm machine screws in the parts list and they are perfectly all right for the main chassis. If you want to use t-nuts on the horn, however, the hex heads won't look great. So you can either use black wood screws (without any t-nuts) or pan headed machine screws and t-nuts. The lengths I suggested above are nominal and 30mm (or even 40mm) is OK.

Sorry Pete - that's what you get for being first out of the blocks. 🙂 I'll try to sort the screw situation out as soon as I can and include the recommended types in the parts list. I imagine it's a bit confusing at the moment. To compensate for your mis-purchases, I'll send you some screws for the feet and handle when I send your kit off (shouldn't be too long now) , as I have some spares. If you need any more M5 t-nuts, I also have spares and can send you some of those too. Black screws are a pain to source in small quantities. As a temporary measure, you can use normal chrome-plated screws from B&Q etc. and just paint them with car touch-up or whatever you have once they're screwed in. They look all right behind a baffle.

The Speakons are included in the crossover and wiring kit. There's no need to worry about drilling vertical holes, as all the holes have been predrilled in the kit. They're a standard sized pilot hole, which is good for woodscrews but will need to be drilled to size for t-nuts. You'll have to drill holes for the feet, as it didn't make any sense to pre-drill those. I wouldn't use the method of installing t-nuts shown in that Youtube video because you'll deform the front of the baffle - bear in mind that poplar is a relatively soft wood. It's actually a lot easier to tap them in with a hammer before assembling the cab. The hole for the port tube is being cut to within half a milimetre to provide a friction fit. So make sure you fit it before you glue the baffle in because it takes ages to fit from the front. There's no harm sealing the port tube from the rear with some glue or silicone. To paint the port tube, there are a number of spray paints designed for painting plastics which cost between six and eight pounds a can. I used a paint designed for spraying car bumpers because I had some in my workshop. It's quite likely that something else would work, and I'll carry out a few experiments this week. It would be ideal if we could use the Tuff Cab paint. I'll check. I obtained a generous discount from Celestion on the compression drivers, as Luke mentioned. I'm not going to mention the price on list because it's more than just a few percent.

Back from my break. I'll take the queries in date order. The rollers Blue Aran sell are the same as the ones you can buy in most DIY stores. To get the stippled finish, use the foam roller. On the matter of costs, the cab is going to be less expensive to build if you already have tools and bits and pieces in your workshop. I expect quite a few people already have some matt black paint, wood filler, wood glue etc. in a cupboard that they can take out and use. If you have to go out and buy a drill and paint brushes, for example, the cost will go up. Nevertheless, if you could buy a cab like this one in a shop, it would cost at least twice what you can build it for. Thanks for bringing up the question of screws. There are actually quite a few different types of screw needed and I haven't really provided much info on that. For the main driver and horn, I'd suggest black 25mm M5 machine screws into t-nuts. The parts list says hex machine screws, which are great for the main driver, but look pants on the horn. So it's probably better to standardise on M5 pan head, Philips or pozidrive machine screws, 25mm long. The t-nuts need to be the smaller type. There isn't enough space for the large ones behind the horn. I've heard good things about the threaded inserts mentioned by Luke, and they could work for the horn - but I've no experience of them personally. I'd suggest flange headed screws for the feet. No. 10 size (I'll check on it) 25mm, although you could also use the same machine screws and t-nuts used for the main driver and horn. The four central screws for the handle can be normal woodscrews, say 25mm long. However, when you lift the cab, all the weight is on the central handle, and that is attached to the top of the cabinet with another four screws. I don't see a problem with using woodscrews here also, but some people might be happier using four t-nuts behind the handle. The machine screws would have to be about 40mm long because of the thickness of the handle support. Then you have the problem of getting all eight screws to look the same. If you've bought the Chinese corners I recommended a while back, you'll already have the screws needed for those. If not, you'll need screws for your corners depending on which corner you're using. You'll need M6 two hex head bolts to fit the compression driver to the horn - about 15mm long, but I'll check and confirm. Finally, you'll need four small self-tapping woodscrews, 25mm long for the Speakons. I'm not sure of the size, but I'll do some research. That's an awful lot of screws to source. I'll see if I can put together a screw pack to save everyone a lot of time and trouble.

I'll be thinking of you! 😀

I'm packing up to go on holiday, guys. So we'll have to discuss speaker power handling another time. And I'm not saying those of you who are using this combination are not getting a good sound. Just that if you have a 400W cab like the OP, it's not a great idea to buy a 200W cab to run it with. Better to get a (matching) 400W cab.

If you want to add a second cab, it makes sense to add one with a similar power handling capability.

Sorry to hear that, Stew. I'll send you a pm with the costs. Bear in mind that you can actually build the cab in two stages to spread the cost if you prefer. Stage one would be to fit the Faital Pro driver only. That'll give you a working cab. You'd just have to fit a blanking piece of wood behind the horn cutout - not a very difficult job. The Faital driver works well on its own. Stage two would be to fit the horn, compression driver and crossover. That would give you the complete cab. Don't feel you are committed to spending money you don't have.

1) Fine for bass frequencies, not so great for midrange, but I take your point. You'll get a slight sensitivity increase. 2) The one 10 is a 200 watt cab. The SC is a 400 watt cab. (Barefaced exaggerate their power ratings.) So you have 600W total power handling capacity but are limited to 400 watts in practice, which is what Frank is saying. So you really haven't gained anything. 3) Yes, you're going to be putting 2 x 200 watts through each cab if you have two. Or 400 watts if you have one. This is my point. 4) There's not much difference in the HF response of the SC and the One 10. 5) If TJ said the earth was round, would you take that as a vote of confidence over theoretical objections? He's entitled to his opinion.

Here's an update. Mike aka Chimike has now produced some really nice CNC drawings for us. I used these to approach a number of suppliers for quotes (again). I've now selected a company and ordered a single cab, which I'll check thoroughly before ordering the first batch ot ten. I'm not expecting any problems, as Mike has managed to produce a cab from the drawings on his own mini-CNC machine and tells me it goes together perfectly. If he sees this, perhaps he'll post a few photos on the thread. I'm about to go on holiday for ten days, but the cab will be delivered when I get back, i.e. around 12 August. I'm therefore expecting to send the first cab kit, complete with all the parts that I can supply, to Funkle by the end of week beginning 12 August. If everything goes to plan, I'll be sending the first batch of ten out at the beginning of September. Orders for a second batch are building up, and I'd expect those to go out at the beginning of October. I've spent some time trying to sort a grille out for everyone. I managed to find some very nice expanded metal, which is fairly lightweight, but I've been struggling to cut it to size. My tin snips aren't good enough and a jigsaw proved useless. So my next step is either to get a local engineering company to cut them up, or to do the job myself with an angle grinder. I'm not a big fan of angle grinders, as I value my body parts, but I'll be looking into it when I get back from my hols. I really appreciate everyone's patience.

This is good advice.

Definitely. It will make a difference to the sound. Scandinavian birch ply is considered the best for cabs and is well worth the extra. Don't skimp on the wood - you'll not save that much and you'll regret it in the end. I normally specify B/BB.

Only just noticed this - sorry Funkle. I wouldn't use the Faital driver in Phil's small cab: it's too small. It'll sound boomy with no low bass - a bit like the red curve in Stub's simulations above. The Faital is more efficient than the Beyma, but the downside is that it needs a larger cab.

It's in the Parts List on page one of the thread: "For the metal grille: 11mm x 15mm planed softwood x 2400mm. B&Q. They normally have it in stock but it’s not on their website. Also available from other wood merchants. 12mm x 15mm is also OK £3.00 Foam tape 1mm x 10-12mm – can also be used for the horn instead of TUFFGAS20. UK Ebay supplier item no. 163731460245 £2.59" The trick is to use a picture frame support that's not too wide - a wide support just looks cheap. And to go for 1mm-thick foam strip - anything thicker pokes through the holes in the grille and look cheap too.

My main charger is an oldish Engergizer Universal smart charger. It's not bad, but doesn't give you much information and only lets you charge in pairs. I also have a Lidl one, which has more features (like showing you the percentage charge) but sometimes doesn't detect when a battery is full and overcharges it (bad!). Both of them charge 9-volt batteries but only have an auto-shutoff for 1.5V ones. I use rechargeables a lot and would buy a decent smart charger if I could be confident I wasn't wasting my money. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a minefield.

And if you add a decent neo midrange driver, you'll have spent almost as much as our entire cab. Then you need a tweeter. Three-way systems do have their advantages, but it's telling that most modern PA cabs choose the two-way approach (plus sub); you just have to spend on the HF driver and horn. I'm not knocking the Fearless cabs: I've been saying positive things about them for years. But I think two-ways are a better solution.

The Fearless F112 and the Fearful DIY models use the Eminence Kappalite speakers, the 3012LF in the case of the F112.

The BCcab 112 uses a more advanced version of the Faital driver used in the Bergantino CN112 and 212 - similar sound, but twice the excursion. Interesting, eh?😀

What a gent that Acebassmusic is! Mike offered a soundcard on the Recycling part of the forum and wouldn't even accept payment of his postage in return. Lang may yer lum reek, Mike.

You really need to take the driver out and have a look at it. Chances are it's a 4-ohm driver, in which case you're going to struggle to find an aftermarket replacement. As has been mentioned, chassis size is likely to be a problem - they're not all the same. I agree with the suggestion of trying the manufacturer. You may be pleasantly surprised.

I suspect that if Al were interested in all that geeky, nerdy stuff, he'd have read it already. Allow me to summarise. The original thread, which is probably another 28 pages, was Phil Starr's original idea. He suggested that a few of us should get together to design a bass cab that would perform well, be relatively cheap, and be easy for DIYers to assemble. Phil's background is in hi-fi while mine is more in PA, but neither of us had designed a bass guitar cab before. So it was a bit of a learning process for us, and we shared the lessons we learned with the Basschat community in the Diary thread. We came up with a cabinet equipped with a single, high-performance driver. Phil also made a more compact version, which he assembled in about 20 minutes in front of an admiring audience at the last South West Bass Bash. The video is online and well worth a watch. The next stage in this project (where the Continued thread begins) was an attempt to design a compact DIY bass cab that would compete with high-end commercial products. It wasn't an all-out, cost-no-object design, as we did keep a eye on costs, but there was no skimping on either components or materials. One of the goals was that the cab should be able to handle the output of the many lightweight 500W (into 4 ohms) amps on the market. By this time, I had come to the conclusion that an FRFR design was by far the best design approach for bass guitar (and not just with modellers). So I published a design based on the Beyma 12" driver we had been using very successfully up until then - but with a compression driver and horn. Surprisingly, I thought, didn't attract much attention. The next step was to work on the weight factor. So I chose a couple of very high quality neo drivers and designed a system around them. The first one I built was demoed at the South West Bass Bash and went head-to-head against several expensive branded cabs. The latest version, which will be available as a kit (soon, honest!), took into account some of the comments made at the Bash. It is slightly larger, which extends the bottom end response a tad (it should now be similar to the Fearless in this respect) and I've modified the crossover to reduce a slight excess in the midrange. Basic specs just for Al - power handling: 300W AES, weight with metal grille: 14kg approx., frequency response: +/- 1dB from 80 to 18kHz, 8 ohms. The major design feature as far as I'm concerned is that you can hear your bass very clearly even when you're directly in front of and above the cab. Not only that, but the sound you hear in front of the cab is the same as your audience hears when they're 20 feet away; it doesn't change. It's all about dispersion and power response (but let's not go there now). It plays music like a monitor. So your bass sounds like your bass, or like it would through a console and monitors in the studio. It also has the ability to kick like a mule. During the demo at the SW Bash, Phil turned the volume up and it did that physical chest-hammering thing that you get from big systems with subs. You should be able to build one for about £300, thanks to some canny purchasing input, although experience has shown that the costs of DIY projects can easily escalate if you're not careful. No pics of the final cab until Blue Aran deliver my paint - but it'll look good.