DIY cab - just a thought...

[EliasMooseblaster]

Long story short: I'm taking a furtive look into acquiring the parts for a 1x10 cab and cobbling it together myself.

After upgrading to a much more powerful head (thanks again, Merton!), my Ashdown Little Bastard 30 is gathering dust. The original plan was to flog it, but I'm starting to think it would be awfully nice to have a valve amp to practice through at home. Only trouble is, the cheapest small cabs I can find are about £200 RRP. Inspired by Bottle's thread on DIY guitar heads (http://basschat.co.uk/topic/257258-diy-valve-amp-kits/page__hl__diy), I did some googling and found a TB thread on DIY cabs: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/low-cost-diy-practice-coffeehouse-tweeterless-110-long.736360/ and began to wonder if I could take a cheaper (and more fun) DIY route.

Trouble is, the above is all in American money. I've worked out that I can probably get a Celestion for £40-60, and an enclosure for somewhere in the region of £30. Add an appropriate jack, plate and wire and I might even be able to do it for less than a hundred...unless anybody with any knowledge or experience can warn me that this is a really bad idea!

[Merton]

An Ashdown Mi10 cab, like the one through which you tried the CTM100, could be found for less than that I'm sure You should contact Ashdown and ask

[Phil Starr]

I think 'cheaper' and 'more fun' won't be the same thing. It's almost always cheaper to buy a second hand cab than to build one. If you want a small box to put a speaker in one of the smaller wooden 10" PA cabs might be good. The Pro Sound made by Maplin come in fairly well made boxes if you can find a damaged one it will cost peanuts and it'll have all the connectors. The Basslite is fairly pricey so you might want to look at something else though it goes well in a smaller box.

[Beer of the Bass]

If you're using it with a 30 watt valve amp for home use, you could perhaps look for a driver which suits a sealed box, making the design and construction that bit simpler (as the only variable you need to concern yourself with is the volume of the box). The Fane 10-125 and Faital 10fe200 (specifically the 8 ohm version) are drivers which seem to crop up regularly in discussion of sealed 10" cabs on that other bass forum; either would cope with that application and they're a lot cheaper than the Basslite.

[6v6]

DIY cabs are a lot of fun, but as others have already said, it's not a route to a cheap cab by any means.

I documented my 1x12 build here http://basschat.co.uk/topic/200152-1x12-diy-cab-build - I didn't add the costs up accurately but it was definitely more than £100, probably over £150 when you add up all the little items and postage etc which soon adds up. Also good quality ply is surprisingly expensive.

It's also an extremely slow way to get a cab unless you've got a lot of spare time and/or are a pro-woodworker (mine took months of scarce spare time, but I did get delayed by family stuff for a while).

All that said, I will probably build another one over the summer

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1426713191' post='2721271']
DIY cabs are a lot of fun, but as others have already said, it's not a route to a cheap cab by any means.

I documented my 1x12 build here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/200152-1x12-diy-cab-build"]http://basschat.co.u...2-diy-cab-build[/url] - I didn't add the costs up accurately but it was definitely more than £100, probably over £150 when you add up all the little items and postage etc which soon adds up. Also good quality ply is surprisingly expensive.

It's also an extremely slow way to get a cab unless you've got a lot of spare time and/or are a pro-woodworker (mine took months of scarce spare time, but I did get delayed by family stuff for a while).

All that said, I will probably build another one over the summer
[/quote]

That's still a little cheaper than the cheapest new 1x12" bass cabs I can find, and almost certainly uses a better driver. So I guess that's good value!

[6v6]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1426713681' post='2721277']
That's still a little cheaper than the cheapest new 1x12" bass cabs I can find, and almost certainly uses a better driver. So I guess that's good value!
[/quote]

Heh, I guess so - I find it's best to avoid thinking too much about the obviously obligatory investment in new power tools or countless hours I spent in the shed working on it

[sifi2112]

I've done it a few times & it's really quite rewarding esp when they sound good .. I've been a bit bolder with my last two diy cabs & have done finger joints (35 years ago since I was shown dovetail & can't remember lol) .. so go for it but like some have said it might not be a cheap option .... or I might be persuaded to part with my 110

[EliasMooseblaster]

Many thanks for all the input, folks. Points duly taken about a lot of time and money being ploughed into a DIY project (and having assembled a Frankenbass recently I know how this can happen!), but in my trawling of BC Marketplace, Google and eBay, the only "cheap" options seem to be SS 1x10 combos - and I already have one of those!

I was thinking of buying a pre-built enclosure and simply mounting the speaker in that, then maybe modding it as necessary to replace the jack plate with a speaker cable input. I'm not expecting to end up with anything that will compete with a Mi-10 in terms of tone, as it would really just be for home use. On the other hand, I wouldn't feel any compunction about modding it to buggery if I felt it needed porting or whatever...