Stevie’s 12” FRFR Cab Build Thread (Basschat Cab v3)

[Jack]

I think the speakers are good up to 5kHz, so it's not really a sub at all. A lot of people would probably not need the horn driver at all. 

 

Did you enjoy the build and are you happy with the cab?

[LukeFRC]

4 minutes ago, Jack said:

I think the speakers are good up to 5kHz, so it's not really a sub at all. A lot of people would probably not need the horn driver at all. 

 

Did you enjoy the build and are you happy with the cab?

build Number 1 I used one of stevies' kits - it's great. I love it - it lets me hook up to my HX stomp and use it as a platform for amp and cab sims....

build number two I had some spare ply, I found out my saw wasn't very accurate and straight and there's a pile of bits sat in the garage waiting to be built. Need to chat to Stevie and get his recommendations for the sub. I don't need two cabs as the one will be good enough for what I do - but having two cabs is something I kinda want and building it myself gives me the opportunity to do that at a relatively low price. 

[stevie]

On 21/01/2021 at 11:40, Jack said:

I think the speakers are good up to 5kHz, so it's not really a sub at all. A lot of people would probably not need the horn driver at all.

It's true you can build the cab without the horn, but that's missing the point of the design, which was to reproduce the midrange frequencies that other cabs neglect - even cabs with a tweeter. You're right that the main driver does extend quite high but unless you're directly on axis, you - and your audience - won't hear those frequencies.

This is because the cone drivers used in bass guitar cabs start to beam at around 1kHz. Stand off axis - like in front of your cab - and you won't hear the frequencies between 1kHz and 3kHz that are responsible for a lot of the bass's tone, as well as for pitch definition.

To make matters worse, driver beaming means that the further you are from the sound source, the less of the direct sound you hear. You don't have to go very far before most of what you hear is what is bouncing off the walls and ceiling. Because cone drivers in most bass guitar cabs don't have adequate dispersion much above 1kHz, the indirect sound lacks those frequencies. As a result, what your audience hears is the muffled, indistinct boom boom boom we've all heard when we've listened to bass players reliant on their backline to get their sound to an audience. The midrange simply doesn't carry.

This shouldn't happen if the bass is fed through a decent PA, because (good) PA's are designed to reproduce the entire frequency range and to disperse it efficiently to an audience. The technical term for all this is power response.

Off the soapbox now.

I appreciate that the design that was the subject of this thread is a bit too complex for most people to tackle from scratch - which is why I made the kits and ready-built crossovers available. I've been chatting to some of the usual suspects recently about designing a compact, very cheap but capable two-way ten inch cab based on the excellent "build-it-in 20-minutes" box that Phil demonstrated in the video posted on Basschat. The idea would be to keep complexity and cost to a minimum so that virtually anyone who is minded to can produce a bass cab during this awful  lockdown. It will be big enough to gig with but also compact enough to use for home practice. Cost ('cos I know you're going to ask) would be well under £100 plus your wood - for a 200W 10 with a compression driver and horn. If you have a spare sheet of plywood or chipboard in your garage, so much the better.  What do you think?

[Jack]

17 minutes ago, stevie said:

wisdom

Preaching to the choir, my friend. I've been a 'pa for bass' convert since my Dr. Bass 2460. Getting closer every time!

 

I just need a lot of stage volume about 10 times a year and can't think of the best way to do it. The appeal of the bc cab or 2 is that they will approximate what I'm used to but the truth is that they would be overkill. I'm still going to have my helix going to the pa and I'm still going to have good monitoring. The whump can come from anything. Anyone selling 2 Peavey 4x10s?

 

I know it was a thread-wide question but still: hells yeah I'll build a small cab for £100! What do we do? 

[3below]

1 hour ago, stevie said:

I appreciate that the design that was the subject of this thread is a bit too complex for most people to tackle from scratch - which is why I made the kits and ready-built crossovers available. I've been chatting to some of the usual suspects recently about designing a compact, very cheap but capable two-way ten inch cab based on the excellent "build-it-in 20-minutes" box that Phil demonstrated in the video posted on Basschat. The idea would be to keep complexity and cost to a minimum so that virtually anyone who is minded to can produce a bass cab during this awful  lockdown. It will be big enough to gig with but also compact enough to use for home practice. Cost ('cos I know you're going to ask) would be well under £100 plus your wood - for a 200W 10 with a compression driver and horn. If you have a spare sheet of plywood or chipboard in your garage, so much the better.  What do you think?

Bring it on  I do not see my 'full stage rig' and/or pa being used any time soon, the (very) cheap practice combo I have struggles with the B string. A 'nice' 10" would be the business.

Edited January 25, 2021 by 3below

[nilebodgers]

Interested to see the compact 10. I’d never build an expensive box because of the resale problem, but sub £100 is fine.

[Chienmortbb]

I really do not heed another cabinet. My second/third MK3 cab is assembled but not yet painted or fitted with drivers. I really need todfinish my self build head, BUT of course I am IN.

 

[LukeFRC]

1 minute ago, Chienmortbb said:

I really do not heed another cabinet. My second/third MK3 cab is assembled but not yet painted or fitted with drivers. I really need todfinish my self build head, BUT of course I am IN.

 

you've made three of them???! Impressive

[stevie]

I'm also in the middle of some almost-finished design projects, John, but I think it'll do the Basschat community good to "make some sawdust" and build something useful.

 

[stevie]

2 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

you've made three of them???! Impressive

John built the first prototype, Luke. Nobody needs 3 cabs (do they?)

[Chienmortbb]

17 minutes ago, stevie said:

John built the first prototype, Luke. Nobody needs 3 cabs (do they?)

If you count that one its four as I also built one of early iterations that had the horn horizontal rather than vertical. That is what I meant by too many cabs.

[Jack]

And people say that rock n roll is dead.