New build: BassChat 110T

[chyc]

Thank you.

 

 

I was happy with ol' chippy, but this one is a different animal. It goes louder, and is deeper.

 

You'll notice the protrusion of the back panel. In the original chipboard cabinet the tolerances were so loose that I didn't notice that my battens were 21mm width, not 20mm. Well, on the plus side my measurements are improving!

 

I think my next one I'll leave a lip around the back panel, so I can sand it down for a really tight finish.

Edited October 28, 2022 by chyc
Remove repeating repetition

[stevie]

Great job. Well done! I'm glad you eventually decided to use some decent wood. It makes all the difference.

[chyc]

For the record, I purchased four sheets of wood for examining and building cabinets.

1. 12mm soft plywood from B&Q
2. Baltic birch [BB] from Fulham Timbers
3. Marine ply from Fulham Timbers
4. 15mm soft plywood from Fulham Timbers

The speaker you see above is the B&Q 12mm soft plywood. I was going to lead up to the BB after practising using the B&Q timber. Definitely the BB is better quality and looks nicer, but my goodness was it expensive. I cannot bring myself to say how much I paid for it, but you know where I bought it from, and prices are a Google away..... I want a natural finish on my cabinets to distinguish it from commercial cabinets. In my opinion the B&Q is good enough but too soft: it's very prone to dents and knocks. Whether I can strengthen it using yacht varnish is something I will experiment with later.

 

The marine ply was also reasonably pricey, and feels harder and better quality than the B&Q. The main downside that I wish I'd known about is that marine ply is darn heavy, waay heavier than the BB. I was hoping to build a BFM Omni 12 Tallboy with the marine ply but that design is already a heavy one and I don't want it any heavier.

 

The 15mm ply is incredibly poor quality, which is a shame as it is of a similar price to the B&Q 12mm which looks so good. I was hoping to build the BC112T using it and I may well still do that, but can't help feeling disappointed that I could have spent my money better. At the heart, the difference I think is that if you drive to B&Q you can select the nicest sheet. B&Q doesn't sell 15mm in any shape or size.

[Chienmortbb]

With the hatch varnish, thin it fit the first couple of coats and it will penetrate the surface of the ply. That should make it tougher. 

[Phil Starr]

20 hours ago, chyc said:

think my next one I'll leave a lip around the back panel, so I can sand it down for a really tight finish

That's pretty much what I do, I mark out the panels using off-cuts of the ply I'm using for the cab and use the outside of the thin pencil line to align the battens. That pencil thickness is just enough to leave something easily sandable. Don't leave too much though, sanding off more than a fraction of a mm takes forever. You'll find all timber sizes are nominal, especially planed timber. At the sawmill they will re-plane anything that comes out rough and you'll often find it isn't square but rectangular with one dimension slightly bigger. Even plywood thicknesses vary and of course wood swells and shrinks depending upon humidity.

[Phil Starr]

20 hours ago, chyc said:

For the record, I purchased four sheets of wood for examining and building cabinets.

1. 12mm soft plywood from B&Q
2. Baltic birch [BB] from Fulham Timbers
3. Marine ply from Fulham Timbers
4. 15mm soft plywood from Fulham Timbers

You can pay what you want for ply. the grading system is for the outer veneers from A to D where A is perfect and D will have large knots and quite a lot of filling and even some voids BB is pretty good and will have a nice solid core, unless it is Russian. Marine ply is waterproof as you'd expect and will have a high glue content so it is tougher, high quality hardwoods resistant to rotting are used in the core plies, hence the weight. Exterior ply is in between. I go to wickes for a lot of my ply, you can select your sheet and really examine the timber and some of the exterior ply is quite nice. It varies from batch to batch. BB grade Baltic Birch is what most pro cabs are made of so your timber merchant steered you in a good direction.

 

It is worth looking out for Poplar ply which is really lightweight and the basis of Barefaced and LFSys cabs amongst others. This varies in quality too with European sourced boards being great and Chinese boards still good but made with a different species of 'Poplar' outer veneers and cored with Eucalyptus. It's really well priced though and I sourced mine from Jewsons for the original 110T.

 

I'm really pleased you built the second cab with decent plywood. The panels won't be flexing the way the original flake board did and that's why it sounds better. The marine ply will be great and is what touring grade gear is made of but at the cost of extra weight, which doesn't matter if you have roadies .

Edited October 29, 2022 by Phil Starr

[chyc]

Really starting to get into the swing of this. One tip that I never saw anywhere because it's probably so obvious is that when you receive your wood, most likely there'll be a nice side and a crappy side, rough and dented. I made the mistake of drawing my cut lines on a good side. Such a rookie mistake. Also, when you're using a circular saw, be careful for a straight cut, but don't take too long or you'll burn the wood.

 

 

Some more questions. @GlamBass74 has been a phenomenal help in DM, but I thought I'd ask for more opinions:

 

1. Paint. Tuffcab comes in any colour so long as it's black. If I didn't want black, what are my options in Homebase or B&Q for a professional finish that, while not necessarily textured, protects the cabinet from dings and scrapes.
2. Handle: I have a leather strap handle. What's the best way of finding the centre of mass of the box such that the handle is positioned optimally? I'm guessing leaning it on the edge of a table and marking when it's about to tip, but is there anything more precise that I'm missing?

[stevie]

It's starting to look like my workshop.😃

 

Tuffcab's available in a variety of colours. You could also buy white and use an acrylic tint. Last time I looked, Blue Aran was out of Tuffcab in everything but black, although they say they'll eventually get more stock. There are other options, but as we know Tuffcab works well and is specifically designed for the job, you might be better off waiting. Anything else is an experiment, I'm afraid.

 

To find the centre for a handle (or a top hat), you need to load the cabinet and place a piece of 1x1" batten underneath it. Adjust the batten until you find the centre of gravity and the cab doesn't tip over.

Edited November 4, 2022 by stevie

[chyc]

Thanks Stevie. For the record I contacted Blue Aran and they said that supply problems means they don't know if and when they'll get in any other colours of Tuffcab. Such a shame.

[Phil Starr]

On 03/11/2022 at 20:51, chyc said:

Really starting to get into the swing of this. One tip that I never saw anywhere because it's probably so obvious is that when you receive your wood, most likely there'll be a nice side and a crappy side, rough and dented. I made the mistake of drawing my cut lines on a good side. Such a rookie mistake. Also, when you're using a circular saw, be careful for a straight cut, but don't take too long or you'll burn the wood.

 

 

 

That's a great photo

[chyc]

On 05/11/2022 at 17:18, Phil Starr said:

That's a great photo

My wife disagrees.

[FirstBass]

It's the socks that are intriguing me.....

 

I quite often seem to manage to capture my partner's undercrackers drying on the radiator in my build photos

 

much to her annoyance. Especially when it's the thousand wash grey ones 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by GlamBass74
pants

[Phil Starr]

3 minutes ago, GlamBass74 said:

It's the socks that are intriguing me.....

New ones  is that the deal? You can have new speakers but only if you throw out all those old socks

 

[chyc]

1 minute ago, Phil Starr said:

New ones  is that the deal? You can have new speakers but only if you throw out all those old socks

 

I never thought my dirty laundry would get an airing on this forum....

[Chienmortbb]

I am intrigued to know how the 5 sided cab in the front sounds.

[chyc]

5 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

I am intrigued to know how the 5 sided cab in the front sounds.

That's a building defect. I'm just mixing up the wood filler for that hole now.

[tauzero]

On 07/11/2022 at 11:52, GlamBass74 said:

It's the socks that are intriguing me.....

 

A new approach to wadding?

[SpondonBassed]

On 07/11/2022 at 11:52, GlamBass74 said:

It's the socks that are intriguing me.....

 

7 hours ago, tauzero said:

A new approach to waddling?

 

FTFY

[chyc]

Lol, I wish I'd never uploaded that picture now 🤣

[chyc]

 

I believe the journey is close to an end. Plugged these in and fired them up to find a very nice sound indeed. Personally I can listen to all genres of music quite happily through these, except classical which seems hollow and lifeless for some reason.

 

Tips for the next person:

 

• Black screws. Someone of this parish pointed out they look more professional and now I cannot unsee it when big-bucks cabinets are sold with silver screws. Saying that, the screws to put in the corner protectors were like hens' teeth so I had to settle for either countersunk silver or black button head. You can see flashes of silver in the corners: function beats form every time IMHO
• The grilles are held on with black gaffer tape, because I didn't like the look of the four grille holding plates: form beats function every time IMHO.
• If you get decent wood and varnish it the results are killer. No idea why this isn't more of a thing in the professional world. Varnish is yacht varnish from Wilkos. £12 and I used less than half a tin for both cabinets.

Next stop is the bc112mk3. Still need to buy a few things for that build but to be honest this pair of cabs is more than I'll ever need. I used one with an ABM600 and it rattled my teeth.

Edited December 23, 2022 by chyc

[Chienmortbb]

17 minutes ago, chyc said:

 

I believe the journey is close to an end. Plugged these in and fired them up to find a very nice sound indeed. Personally I can listen to all genres of music quite happily through these, except classical which seems hollow and lifeless for some reason.

 

Tips for the next person:

 

• Black screws. Someone of this parish pointed out they look more professional and now I cannot unsee it when big-bucks cabinets are sold with silver screws. Saying that, the screws to put in the corner protectors were like hens' teeth so I had to settle for either countersunk silver or black button head. You can see flashes of silver in the corners: function beats form every time IMHO
• The grilles are held on with black gaffer tape, because I didn't like the look of the four grille holding plates: form beats function every time IMHO.
• If you get decent wood and varnish it and the results are killer. No idea why this isn't more of a thing in the professional world. Varnish is yacht varnish from Wilkos. £12 and I used less than half a tin for both cabinets.

Next stop is the bc112mk3. Still need to buy a few things for that build but to be honest this pair of cabs is more than I'll ever need. I used one with an ABM600 and it rattled my teeth.

He knows his stuff does our @stevie

[basstone]

5 hours ago, chyc said:

 

I believe the journey is close to an end. Plugged these in and fired them up to find a very nice sound indeed. Personally I can listen to all genres of music quite happily through these, except classical which seems hollow and lifeless for some reason.

 

Tips for the next person:

 

• Black screws. Someone of this parish pointed out they look more professional and now I cannot unsee it when big-bucks cabinets are sold with silver screws. Saying that, the screws to put in the corner protectors were like hens' teeth so I had to settle for either countersunk silver or black button head. You can see flashes of silver in the corners: function beats form every time IMHO
• The grilles are held on with black gaffer tape, because I didn't like the look of the four grille holding plates: form beats function every time IMHO.
• If you get decent wood and varnish it the results are killer. No idea why this isn't more of a thing in the professional world. Varnish is yacht varnish from Wilkos. £12 and I used less than half a tin for both cabinets.

Next stop is the bc112mk3. Still need to buy a few things for that build but to be honest this pair of cabs is more than I'll ever need. I used one with an ABM600 and it rattled my teeth.

I know what you mean about black screws, but get yourself a medium tip black permanent marker and silver screws become black (at least the bits you can see anyway). It sometimes takes a bit of working into the  posi head but overall gives a good effect. It's also handy for touching up black screws that are slightly damaged by the screwdriver, I touch up black screws after repairing  / modifying all types of gear and it greatly enhances the overall appearance! 

[Pea Turgh]

Nice one @chyc!

 

If I had loads of space/time/money, I’d do a pair of the MK3’s with a medium dark stain and use them as a monster of a hifi between gigs 😂

[Phil Starr]

They do sound good don’t they. Well done.

 

btw I also use a black pen for screw heads.and sometimes use plasterboard screws which come in black.

[chyc]

I'll be taking these puppies on their maiden gig tomorrow. Double bass + GSS B-100. Should be fun.

 

For the record, the higher sensitivity of the 10NTR-2520E over the Pulse 10 meant that high frequencies were a little shrouded for my taste in the end. I could have fixed that with eq, but at the same time the crossover was there for tinkering. I knew just enough electronics to know that the resistor handles sensitivity of the tweeter in this simple design, and phase shifting isn't really going to (ahem) phase me, so I just shorted the 4.7Ω resistor. @GlamBass74 helpfully showed me a link which (for Convair's crossover at least) gives a -4dB attenuation when using a 4.7Ω. The Pulse 10 is 2dB less sensitive than the 10NTR-2520E so in theory I've gone too far, but I reckon only a cat would hear the difference, and it's done now Really happy with these cabinets. They look the biz too, and hopefully the natural finish will age like a fine wine compared with peeling tolex and fluffy patchy carpet.