Hi all... I'm gonna be buying a high powered bass guitar amp hear soon and I'm trying to get the cab situation squared away. I'm converting an old peavey 4x12 guitar cab into a bass cab. Its not like a normal 4x12 though, its the size of one of those ampeg bass cabs with the 8 10 inch speakers in it. My amp will be putting out no less than 600 watts and no more than 1000 so I know I have to replace the wiring inside, as the guage isn't large enough. The cab had the speakers wired in series. Is it ok to wire it in series or should I rewire it to parallell? What guage wire should I use? And most importantly, what kind of 12 inch speakers should I load it with. Keep in mind I have to get the right impedence (whatever that is for the bass heads). Is it ok if it has like 1200 watt power handling when I am only running 600 watts through it? Cause with my expericnce with car audio that can actaully damage a speaker. I don't want to spend TOO much on it, after all, the only reason I'm bulding the cab myself is because I'm on a budget. Another thing... do I need to buy a crossover? I don't plan on putting any horns in it, just 4 12 inch speakers. By the way, I want this setup to sound AWESOME so please tell me if this setup has no potential without a horn or something... Thanks, Joe G.
Building A bass cabinet and I need sugesstions
- Thread starter cjx
- Start date
Scooter B
New member
cjx,
I am definitely an experiment, tweak and design your own thing kind of guy becuase I enjoy the research work and experimentation.
I do so much less than I want to because it is almost NEVER less expensive this way. I have built my own fretless bass and a 2-10 extension cabinet both of my own design. I know what you are saying about the bigger 4-12" cabinet. I had a HUGE 2-12" Peavey cabinet with Black Widow speakers in it for many years. I used with my 1-15" cabinet. The 2-12" brought a sweetness to the midrange not present it the 15" but lacked low end punch used alone.
My concern for you my bass playing friend in search of awesome tone is that cabinets are designed very specifically for optimizing certain frequency ranges. Porting (if a ported cab) and volume of space in the cabinet require carefull coordination. Sticking 8 "Top Shelf " bass speakers in a guitar tuned cabinet will probably not result in what you want...it might but you will not know untill you have spent alot of money on 8 12'' bass speakers (at least $150-$300 per speaker) and if you dont like it you have no resale value.
I believe you will get much more for your money if you can sell what you have and buy a used trusted design that you are happy with BEFORE you spend the money.
If you still want to do your own I would recomend doing ALOT of research on bass cabinet design and build your own cabinet if you have tools and space to do this. I am still tweaking my 2-10" cabinet and it is okay for an extension, biamped high cab or a small coffee shop gig but by itself it lacks the sound quality of the SWR Redhead Combo I was trying to emulate (I have an SWR Head). After I made the cab, bought the speakers a second power amp and an electronic crossover to get what I needed I could have bought a new SWR Combo that sounded better for less money and had more resale value.
I am not saying I am unhappy with the result but it was much more expensive and there is this subtle thing that creeps in to your mindset - that you want to be recognized for pulling off a good result so you overspend on every little detail to ensure success.
While if you by off the shelf and are not satisfied it's not your fault its not what you want...you are just saving up to get what you want.
Bassplayer did a three part series over three month on bass cabinets design etc and the speakers themselves are only 1/3 of getting what you want. Size, shape, materials, ported vs sealed and matching the characteristics of your amp to your cabinet are all critical.
This probably isn't the response you were hoping for but it comes from experience. Buying 8 10' or 12" quality bass speakers at retail will probably be more expensive than a good used amp and cabinet ready to go.
Good luck whatever you decide and let me know.
I am definitely an experiment, tweak and design your own thing kind of guy becuase I enjoy the research work and experimentation.
I do so much less than I want to because it is almost NEVER less expensive this way. I have built my own fretless bass and a 2-10 extension cabinet both of my own design. I know what you are saying about the bigger 4-12" cabinet. I had a HUGE 2-12" Peavey cabinet with Black Widow speakers in it for many years. I used with my 1-15" cabinet. The 2-12" brought a sweetness to the midrange not present it the 15" but lacked low end punch used alone.
My concern for you my bass playing friend in search of awesome tone is that cabinets are designed very specifically for optimizing certain frequency ranges. Porting (if a ported cab) and volume of space in the cabinet require carefull coordination. Sticking 8 "Top Shelf " bass speakers in a guitar tuned cabinet will probably not result in what you want...it might but you will not know untill you have spent alot of money on 8 12'' bass speakers (at least $150-$300 per speaker) and if you dont like it you have no resale value.
I believe you will get much more for your money if you can sell what you have and buy a used trusted design that you are happy with BEFORE you spend the money.
If you still want to do your own I would recomend doing ALOT of research on bass cabinet design and build your own cabinet if you have tools and space to do this. I am still tweaking my 2-10" cabinet and it is okay for an extension, biamped high cab or a small coffee shop gig but by itself it lacks the sound quality of the SWR Redhead Combo I was trying to emulate (I have an SWR Head). After I made the cab, bought the speakers a second power amp and an electronic crossover to get what I needed I could have bought a new SWR Combo that sounded better for less money and had more resale value.
I am not saying I am unhappy with the result but it was much more expensive and there is this subtle thing that creeps in to your mindset - that you want to be recognized for pulling off a good result so you overspend on every little detail to ensure success.
While if you by off the shelf and are not satisfied it's not your fault its not what you want...you are just saving up to get what you want.
Bassplayer did a three part series over three month on bass cabinets design etc and the speakers themselves are only 1/3 of getting what you want. Size, shape, materials, ported vs sealed and matching the characteristics of your amp to your cabinet are all critical.
This probably isn't the response you were hoping for but it comes from experience. Buying 8 10' or 12" quality bass speakers at retail will probably be more expensive than a good used amp and cabinet ready to go.
Good luck whatever you decide and let me know.
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