Anyone built their own cab?

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coupie666

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Just curious if anyone has any advice on a cab build. I'm tempted to build a cab for my subway rocket. (The 10 inch speaker kinda sucks so I hoped to change it for a 12 inch speaker but it won't fit... Has anyone made a 12 inch fit inside?) so was planning to make a cab to match the size and style of the subway with a 12 inch speaker. And run the 10 and 12 together. Any advice is appreciated!!!
 
My father in law has built me a couple of 2 x 12 speaker cabinets.

advices.

1) Know a skilled carpenter. The cuts are challenging.

2) Use high quality wood and parts.

3) build from the inside out and size parts as you go. Pre cutting everything can cause you to run into trouble if the plywood is a touch thicker or thinner than the advertized thickness.
 
Cool thanks for the tips. My dad is a carpenter so he will be doing all the joints and wood cutting etc so I will be doing the tolex, grill and wiring the speaker. Obviously speaker choice etc will play a part. Was just wondering if anyone had any advice as well with open/closed back and if any specific sizes around the speaker would help to tighten bass response, etc? Have you had different sizes of 212 cabs or did you get a template and stick with it?
 
Posted some pics of a few 2x12's I built. I just went in between the dimensions of a Mills Acoustic 2x12 and a Mesa Recto 2x12 with a Rivera inspired style grill. I knew I wanted a completely sealed front loaded cab and I used the breathable partition kinda/sorta like mills use in theirs. I covered them in 1000 denier nylon, Paracord 550 for piping, and nylon webbing for the grill. I'm happy with the way they turned out. It's been fulfilling. My advice is to play some cabs in a music store and find the one you like, measure or look up the dimensions and go from there. Use 3/4 inch void free birch plywood.

The digital camo is mine and I made 2 more for a buddy in woodland camo. Mine has WGS veteran 30's and his Celestion Vintage 30's. http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659633-l.jpg
http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659634-l.jpg
http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659635-l.jpg
http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659636-l.jpg

hope the pics posted right
 
coupie666 said:
Cool thanks for the tips. My dad is a carpenter so he will be doing all the joints and wood cutting etc so I will be doing the tolex, grill and wiring the speaker. Obviously speaker choice etc will play a part. Was just wondering if anyone had any advice as well with open/closed back and if any specific sizes around the speaker would help to tighten bass response, etc? Have you had different sizes of 212 cabs or did you get a template and stick with it?

What do you need? Each design will have advantages and disadvantages.

oakabire said:
Posted some pics of a few 2x12's I built. I just went in between the dimensions of a Mills Acoustic 2x12 and a Mesa Recto 2x12 with a Rivera inspired style grill. I knew I wanted a completely sealed front loaded cab and I used the breathable partition kinda/sorta like mills use in theirs. I covered them in 1000 denier nylon, Paracord 550 for piping, and nylon webbing for the grill. I'm happy with the way they turned out. It's been fulfilling. My advice is to play some cabs in a music store and find the one you like, measure or look up the dimensions and go from there. Use 3/4 inch void free birch plywood.

The digital camo is mine and I made 2 more for a buddy in woodland camo. Mine has WGS veteran 30's and his Celestion Vintage 30's. http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659633-l.jpg
http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659634-l.jpg
http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659635-l.jpg
http://www.bandmix.com/media/431/431080/659636-l.jpg

hope the pics posted right

How did you find designing your own enclosure worked in terms of resonance frequencies etc? One of the 2 x 12s I have is a copy of the mills design and it turned out really well. I just find it resonates around low C and G. Definitely designed for chugga chugga.
 
I'm not an acoustical engineer or anything like that. I know that some speakers are better than others at certain resonating frequencies and thats about all i know on the subject. I did listen to a bunch of sound clips of the mills cabs(no where to test drive one near me) and I decided that the cab itself made alot of amps sound alike at least in recordings. Had a certain low end to them that I thought was a bit much. So for my platform I took a cab I knew and liked (the mesa recto 2x12) and started with it. I wanted a completely sealed cab with front loaded speakers and that itself would increase the treble of the cab so I had to offset that with more bass..So I added some depth to the cab, but not as much as the mills. I added the breathable divider to let the speakers share the same airspace and to stabilize the baffle and back. I also made the cab a little wider to offset the airspace the divider would take up. I figured if I did all this I would get a balanced tone out of it.
It turned out better than I thought it would. Maybe I got lucky or maybe its because building a box isn't rocket science, I dunno. But I do like the way front loaded speakers spread the sound a little more than speakers that are set back in a hole and this box is loud.

In the end it doesn't sound close to either one though. Here is my buddy on youtube playing a marshall through his. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oas8lm0UCao I play a mark v through mine.

I kinda rushed this cause I need to get to bed, please forgive my terrible grammar and lack of answering your question.
 
Wow everyone thanks for the replies. Those camo cabs look like absolute beasts! I think I might try to work to something like a recto cab. I've heard good things about the mills cabs but in the uk they aren't that readily available, so all I have is YouTube. Anyone built an almost exact copy of a recto cab?
 
Yes, here's my current projects for some customers. These customers wanted plain pine but I built enclosures from many type of material. Yes, other than solid wood, I prefer baltic plywood best. Splinter less than all the other plywoods.

dovetail_crazy0.jpg


note: these are from common pine. Customers did not want to spend more on premium sugar pine (knot-less).
 
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