Truck Bed Liner for Speaker Cab Finish

[Zaphod B]

Update!

I have built the box and cut the speaker baffle board. The box is ready for finish.

Except the back - I haven't decided on how I want to do it. I'm going to start with an open-backed configuration. I could go the easy route and just cut two pieces, one each for the top and bottom of the backside and leave the middle portion empty. Or i could cut a full-sized piece with a nice pretty oval hole in the middle. Wonder how big that oval should be?

My bed liner finish should be on my porch this afternoon. I decided to order some new speakers so I have a couple of Webers (alnico Blue dog and alnico Silver Bell) on order. Also all the miscellaneous bits and pieces are on the way.

It's coming along nicely.

 

[Zaphod B]

Update #2!

After I got back from vacation I cut the back (one-piece with a large oval opening), sanded everything down, and applied the truck bed liner to the box and the back (not the speaker baffle).

The roll-on bed liner is a force with which to be reckoned. The solvent is xylene, a wonderfully inflammatory and aromatic substance. Application is easy, though, and even though 2 coats are required it sets up fairly quickly (dry to the touch in an hour in my 80-degree-F garage). It's pretty knobbly stuff but looks good on the box in a practical sort of way.

The bed liner dried enough in 5 hours for me to be able to install the corners, handles, and feet. Tonight I'll staple in the piping. The speakers are supposed to arrive tomorrow and I'll get the mounting holes drilled and T-nuts installed on the baffle board, and maybe get the grill cloth on and the baffle board installed.

With luck I'll do a test drive Wednesday or Thursday.

 

[Zaphod B]

FedEx came by to deliver the speakers today but wouldn't leave 'em as no one was home, and the shipper had specified signature required - even though I left a note requesting they leave it anyway.

Oh well, I'll pick 'em up tomorrow at the hub. I need to predrill holes in the back and baffle board anyway so I'll do that tonight.

 

[Zaphod B]

Finished!

I got the cab finished and had time for a short sound check last night.

The cab looks good - black with white piping and black grillcloth, black corners and recessed handles, and I put grillcloth behind the back panel opening to give it a polished look back there, too.

I used a plug-and-play jackplate from Antique Electronics Supply that is prewired, with spade connectors for the speaker terminals. It has three jacks - one 16-ohm for the two 8-ohm speakers in series, a 4-ohm parallel jack, and a jack for running two cabs in parallel. It took all of about one minute to hook up. Brilliant.

The sound really surprised me. It's a very big sound from a smallish box. I have two different speakers in there, a combination that is said to be very effective: one Weber alnico Blue Dog and a Weber alnico Silver Bell. The Blue Dog is Weber's Celestion Alnico Blue clone, and the Silver Bell is, I think, their alnico take on the speakers used in early Marshall stacks. So the Blue Dog has that nice midrange thing and sweet top end, while the Silver Bell has a big bottom end and aggressive sound. Together they seem to cover the whole range nicely. There is a surprising amount of low-mid there (particularly coming from an open-back cab) but there is plenty of high end on tap as well. I'm looking forward to hearing them after they've broken in.

I'm going to have to re-EQ my whole rack setup because I had some kind of strange settings to get my other cab to sound full.

Good project. Pics soon, sound clips when I get some time!

 

[moresound]

Hey Zaphod.... great to see that this project is near completion and can't wait to see the pics.
how is the finish on your hands?

 

[Zaphod B]

Hey Zaphod.... great to see that this project is near completion and can't wait to see the pics.
how is the finish on your hands?

It's a bit rougher than I would like. It's not that there are sharp edges, but the rubber granules are large enough that the surface is pretty knobbly.

Let's just say I wouldn't want to have sex on top of the thing.

 

[Zaphod B]

Let's just say I wouldn't want to have sex on top of the thing.

OTOH, at my age I'll take it any way I can get it. But if it were to be on top of that speaker cab, someone other than me would be on the bottom.