stevie

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.

Phil, would you mind double-checking your simulations? I'm pretty sure that a 3012HO would produce absolutely no bottom end in a 20-litre sealed cab.

Bought some tuners from Lozz last week. Good deal and excellent service. Thanks!

Split surounds can be successfully glued, as long as the rest of the speaker isn't knackered. You'll need some very fine cloth and some of this glue: http://www.wilko.com/adhesives/unibond-repair-extreme-power-glue-20g/invt/0231136.

I agree with Phil. Avoid the W version with foam surround unless you're going to use it in your car. The other one looks like it might be rather good.

I'd second that. Fan noise is generally directly related to its speed. The Quiet PC fan you linked to only runs at 2,000rpm. Did the salesman point this out to you, Jules?

My complaint was about the Quarter Pounder model, not Seymour Duncan pickups in general.

Before spending lots of dosh on amps and cabs, ditch the Quarter Pounder. You can spend thousands on amplification but never get a proper P-Bass sound with that pickup, which is midrange-heavy. Put the original back, or fit a Duncan Vintage P.Bass or something similar.

Consider reconing the drivers, which will cost you half as much as replacing them.

That volume is not really ideal for 15s. I could suggest a couple that would work but they're expensive. Your best bet by a country mile is to make a reduction piece by cutting a hole in some 1/2" MDF and fitting a 12. Lots of 12s will work well in 45 litres, like the Celestion bass guitar 12s or the Beyma SM212.

I'm pretty sure that the tweeter Aguilar use is the P-Audio PHT-410, available from Blue Aran for £19.

Looks really nice. You can't beat a bit of DIY, especially when it comes to speaker cabs.

Seriously, some of the old Country songs are very basic, and there is not a lot you can do about it, because there's nothing worse than a bass player who overplays, IMO. Play some more modern country material and it gets a lot more interesting.

And when it goes from F to C, play F, E, D, C. I think I should start giving lessons.....

When playing Fulsom Prison and the harmony moves from C to F - play C, D, E, F. Knocks them dead every time.

The guitarist in my last band had a knock-off RB 6-string. He changed the pickups and you couldn't tell the difference between that and the real thing. Why are the originals £1500? Because people don't know any better.

I've installed the fan, and yes, it's LOUD. I can't be doing with that, as it's annoyingly loud inside the house, and I'm going to slow it down. I can't see why it needs to pump that much air when there is a huge heatsink inside. It wouldn't have cost them much to link the fan to a heat sensor, but when you stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap I suppose every eurocent counts. Anyone thinking of trying to slow their fan down might like to consult this very useful site: [url="http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/fanspeed.shtml."]http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/fanspeed.shtml[/url] The calculator tells me that a 8-ohm resistor will do the trick. [The link is correct, but for some reason a full stop gets inserted at the end or the URL. Copy the URL (rather than clicking on it), delete the full stop in your browser and you'll get to the site.]

Check out post 554 in this thread. I'd advise you to make a removable front baffle, as there will be further developments at some time in the future that you might like to incorporate.

I remember these speakers from back in the day. They were very popular and really pretty good. Use a sander on the grilles and buy a can of spray black and you'll have a pair of speakers that will be more than adequate for the pub circuit.

You should know better than to believe everything you read on the internet. Looking forward to your impressions.

PMs are being exchanged as I write. Phil is also going to let me have the prototype cab to work with. So maybe we'll see some developments on a Mk2 cabinet soon. Incidentally, I don't think you're going to get the best out of the Beyma in a 30-liter cab.

I ordered this one, Tim: <http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391490937364?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT>. That brand has quite a good reputation. Unfortunately, I've never heard the amp with the fan going - so I can't make a comparison, but I'll let you know what it sounds like when I fit it. People often make the mistake of fitting a quieter fan without realising the new one will run at a slower speed and will therefore not cool as well. Behringer specified a fan that runs at about 3,000rpm and that's never going to be really quiet. Because of the fan problem, I haven't played the amp outside the house, but I rather like it. I particularly like the eq, which I believe was nicked from Ashdown, but still - they probably nicked it from someone else.