stevie

Before we can even think about working with the drivers, we need to take a closer look at the cabinet to make sure it’s fit for purpose. So let’s install and connect the bass unit. I’m going to carry out some tests on the box, which you can easily replicate on your own cabinet at home if you wish. The standard material for wooden cabinets in the world of sound reinforcement is, and has always been, 18mm birch ply. Because they are stiff, cabinets made from birch need relatively little bracing (I say relatively....). The lighter stuff is different, however: here, bracing is mandatory. The lightweight spruce plywood that our test box is made of is unlikely to be as stiff or well damped as the poplar ply we will ultimately be using, and it is certainly nowhere near as stiff as birch. Bracing is therefore a necessary exercise and we should be able to transfer the lessons learned to the final version. The test CD I’m going to be using contains test tones at the usual frequencies. Playing them through any cabinet starting at 40Hz quickly reveals resonances and problems, if there are any, with the cabinet’s structure. You could say it’s a bit of a torture test. If you’d like to try your hand at this on your own cab, download some of these MP3s and give it a go: http://www.testsounds.com. It’s a sad fact that many expensive bass cabinets suffer from cabinet resonances, by which I don’t necessarily mean rattles. It’s often a commercial necessity to build cheaply in order to remain competitive. After all, who checks a bass cabinet for resonances before buying, or even looks inside it to see if it has been properly braced and damped? The problem is that a vibrating cabinet will colour your sound and detract from its perceived sound quality. Panel vibrations simultaneously add to and subtract from the sound of your bass, continually altering and masking its tonal colour – so it’s important to try to keep them under control. To make matters worse, the bigger the cabinet you have, the more difficult resonances are to control. Fortunately, the DIY builder is not constrained too much by the extra cost of building a well-behaved cabinet. Test results Not great. Not unexpectedly, the cabinet as it stands rings like a bell. The worst vibrations were on the baffle – so that will be the first area to deal with. This test is normally carried out using an accelerometer, which is a type of vibration detector. Since I don’t have one, I simply felt the vibrations on each of the panels with my fingertips, rated them subjectively for level, and entered them on a sheet of paper in tabular form. Rather than reproduce the entire table, which is a bit difficult on here, I can summarise the results as follows: Baffle Resonances starting at 40Hz and going through to 400Hz. The worst frequencies were 63 and 80, but 50 and 100 were also excessive. Sides Resonances starting at 100Hz through to 250Hz. Then a single resonance at 630Hz. Top Resonances at 80 and 100Hz. Then at frequencies between 250 and 400. Back panel Resonances from 40 through to 315 Hz, with particularly bad resonances at 80 and 200Hz.

That can't be right. My maths is rubbish! [Edited for a grocer's apostrophe]

It would be a bit lonely if nobody commented. So all comments and suggestions are, of course, welcome. One of the problems I've encountered over the years of playing on small stages and in typical pub settings is the inability to hear what you're playing when you're directly in front of your cab. The usual solution is to raise the cab or to use a second one closer to ear height. It should be possible, however, to design a speaker with dispersion characteristics that allow you to hear your bass even when you're right in front of the cab. That is one of the design objectives of this speaker.

The cab is the same internal volume as the one from the first thread ([url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/227904-1x12-cab-design-diary/"]http://basschat.co.u...b-design-diary/[/url]), but the height has been increased to allow for an HF unit. It has also been sized to accommodate a half-inch picture frame for a cloth (or similar) grille, which should be easier, cheaper and lighter than a punched metal one. We discussed, and decided against the use of a slot port, as it would make the box too tall and ungainly. The porting arrangement has been taken over from the first design, although the ports have been repositioned. So let’s get cutting! Here is my 70mm hole cutter, which makes a perfect hole for 63mm (internal) drainpipe. Four holes cut in next to no time. I love hole cutters! And here are four ports that I cut earlier. Now installed. Just grabbing my 80mm hole cutter to cut the hole for the tweeter. The first HF unit we will be working with is the P. Audio PHT-407, available in the UK from Blue Aran for a very reasonable £13. Don’t be put off by the price; it’s a quality unit. Install drivers, connect up, and we are ready to carry on.

That design was basically Phil's baby, and I know he has some assembly instructions and photos nearly ready to post. I think life got in the way a bit. I'm sure he'll be along shortly to confirm. It's true, however, that there is enough information contained in that thread to build a working cab.

Replied to 3below in pm.

At the moment, the project is for a two-way cab, 3below. We're going to start with a reasonably priced but high quality tweeter and then move on to a compression driver and horn. The Faital looks very impressive. I'm not quite sure how they get that kind of efficiency out of a 5" driver. If I were doing a three-way, it would probably be at the top of my list to audition. What are your plans for them?

Although it's been a while since there was any visible activity on the Basschat 12” cabinet diary, we have recently been discussing it again in pm. I have started this new thread because we have decided to take the project in a new direction. Phil’s original design objectives for the cabinet were these: Capable of keeping up with an unamplified drum kit (120dB across most of the frequency range) Compact (60l or less) Neutral /clean sounding Easy to handle Good low frequency power handling Readily available components, and easy to build Value for money. The end result was a 50-litre cab containing a Beyma 12” driver – the SM212, which a few of you have built and which Phil has been gigging for a while now. But we didn’t want to leave it there: this box has a lot more potential that we would like to bring out. A thread that Luke started a few years ago piqued my interest and got me messing around with bass guitar cabs based on PA/stage monitor design principles. I’ve knocked up a few cabinets since then, using some pretty tasty drive units picked up cheaply from eBay, and am convinced that this is the way forward. It also seems to be the direction that a few of the boutique builders are going in – so that’s a good sign. I therefore persuaded Phil that a flat-response, PA-type design would be a good avenue to pursue, although I have to say that Phil remains convinced that non-flat cab also have their benefits. Unfortunately, it has been necessary to alter the size of the baffle from the original design to make room for additional drivers. If I remember rightly, Phil built the original box in response to requests for a cabinet 19” wide. We are now going to jettison that requirement (sorry!) and adhere to the principle of form follows function – not a problem for everyone with a modern compact amp, but anything else will overhang. If that disturbs you, you need read no further.:-) At about the same time as we were discussing this, John, who is Chienmortbb and lives not far away from me in another less salubrious part of Dorset, offered to build a suitable cab using some spruce ply panels he had in his garage. As the plan was to try for a lightweight, poplar ply cabinet this time round, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to develop a prototype. The cab is here and I’ve marked it up for cutting. Game on! The parts list is for the latest version of this cab. It will be updated at regular intervals to reflect changes in the market. basschat-112-v3.pdf PartsList.docx

Funny you should say that......

If you don't have a soldering iron, you could get away with cutting and stripping the wires and connecting them with a terminal (aka chocolate) block. Not quite as elegant though.

That's very sensible. Two tweeters in two cabs will tend to produce cancellation - the dreaded 'comb filtering'. It's best just to have one active.

That looks like it might be a properly designed x-over. Why not give it a try before disconnecting it? If you do this, you need to bypass the crossover completely. You need to disconnect the wires that go from the input panel to the crossover from the crossover, and connect them directly to the bass unit. There's no need to disconnect the tweeter at all. From what I can see, that means unsoldering two of the red and black wires and connecting them together (solder and shrink wrap, or terminal blocks). I'm not sure what the third red and black wire is from the photo (second bass unit?) - so just make sure the input is connected directly to the bass driver(s) - and not the crossover - and you'll be good to go.

I didn't say anything about UK sales figures. I based my statement on what is shown in the For Sale section of this site and it is perfectly valid within the context of the recent discussion. Not only that, but anyone can check it out for themselves and dispute the figures if they want: there are ten times as many used Bareface cabs being sold on this forum than Bergantinos. This shows that molan's claim is not unreasonable. On the other hand, if you're going to claim that more Barefaced cabs have been sold than Bergs, you really need to produce the figures, otherwise you run the risk of looking like a real tit.

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1484244525' post='3213960'] Bergantino - probably the most common 'boutique' cabinet in the for sales sections on this site. Somewhat at contrast to a couple of posts in this thread! There always seems to be one for sale. [/quote] In the interests of fair play, I've just trawled through the For Sale section on here. There are about ten Barefaced boxes for every one Bergantino. I have to admit, I stopped at about the second Bergantino - but you get the idea. It certainly backs up molan's statement. Not that this surprises me, as molan is one of the few knowledgeable contributors to this part of the forum.

You're looking for a resistance reading of anything between 3 and 10 ohms, depending on the tweeter. A blown tweeter normally won't give you any resistance reading at all. Disconnect the wires from the tweeter first and measure across the connections.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1482620830' post='3202010'] If you are reasonably good at woodwork the the 1x12 Basschat design is hard to beat at sub £150. The TKS cabs give a nice "old skool" sound and some of BFM's plans make nice speakers but are a little complex if your woodworking skills are basic. Or you could wait until the new year and see whether Santa leaves an updated Basschat design or two. [/quote] Ho ho ho! The elves have been hard at work moving this project along to the next stage.

You'd think Screwfix would have a decent selection of screws, given their name, but they are useless for black screws - and stainless steel screws for that matter. The eBay suppliers are pretty good, I've found. Black socket screws alway look the business IMO, although you can always apply some black paint to a chrome screw. What kind of foam have you got, Owen? Generally speaking, if you blow into it and can feel your breath, slightly delayed, coming out of the other side, it should work. Otherwise, try pillow or sleeping bag filling. My current damping material of choice is felt - also available on eBay and not too expensive.

Yes, good luck with this, Owen. You might also consider getting some speaker damping material while you're browsing eBay. Unless they are some awful American size, the screws look like M3 to me.

I'm a bit confused about what's going on here, John: you say the driver is blown, Blue Aran say it's fine. Did you swap the drivers in your two cabinets? On the tuning frequency thing, ports provide support for the driver not just at the tuning frequency but also either side of it. A port tuned to 50Hz reduces the excursion of the speaker between 40Hz and 60Hz (and a bit beyond). Tuning to 40Hz means your driver will have less support from the port and 60 to 70Hz, where you really need it.

They are revealing one letter a day on Facebook? They must think their customers haven't got a life.

I agree that Antex are very good. Like Rich, I have a Weller soldering station that must be about 25-years old and still going strong. It's also still a current model. [url="http://uk.farnell.com/weller/wtcp-51-uk/soldering-station-50w-230v-uk/dp/1712854."]http://uk.farnell.co...-uk/dp/1712854.[/url] Support service is very good, and all spares are available. They're very expensive but used ones come up on eBay all the time.

What's even more bizzare is that they are saying there's nothing wrong with the speaker and that the cabinet is the problem.

The Faital is a very nice driver, but it's expensive and needs a ported cabinet. There is currently an Eminence BP102 on eBay with a starting price of £25. That works well in a sealed box and will save you messing with ports. If you download the cabinet design PDF from Eminence for that driver, you'll see a design for a cab not much bigger than yours (Med Sealed 1x10 Bass Guitar Cabinet). Yes, you've described a spacer ring perfectly. Cut a piece of 1/2" MDF slightly bigger than your current 12" driver. Use the driver holes in the baffle to screw the spacer in. As long as the grille allows you to have the speaker 1/2" further forward, it's straightforward. Use foam between the ring and the baffle, or just glue it on. I would expect the results to be really good.

I can see where you're coming from, Phil, but I'm fairly confident that that Eminence driver in such a little cab will sound like a transistor radio. The problem is, as you have already said, it's a bit too pricey to start experimenting with. I think the solution has to be to go with the original driver, which is more akin to a car audio driver than anything else. I've heard these combos, and they don't go very low even with the original driver. If it were mine, I'd modify the cab to take a smaller driver. A modern 8 or 10 would work quite well. It's not that hard to do - as long as you have enough space between the front grille and the speaker to take a spacer ring.