Guitar isocab for cheapskates and amateurs.

  • Thread starter Thread starter grimtraveller
  • Start date Start date
Greg_L said:
Lol. Yeah, I think I get what you're doing. You wanna use the pit to potentially cut down the loudness projecting out into the rest of the world, but you wanna isolate the speaker/mic from the horrible sound of the pit. Is that right?

If that's the case, and I know you already started this, but I'd suggest you make that cab as big as you can while still being practical.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's pretty much it!
Thanks Greg.
I'm not ignoring your advice but this is being made out of left over cupboard sides and scraps, so the size is predetermined. (27"x18"x18").

I'm keeping in the back of my mind that it might suck though, and if it does I'll spend money on a mkii and do some proper research into dimensions and materials.
 
Nah, think nothing of it. I've never built an iso cab, I only think I know something from what I've seen and heard. I think they're a great idea that only sometimes works out well. They tend to sound boxy, big surprise, unless they're designed well. There's a lot that goes into speaker enclosure design, and I know pretty much none of it. So I'll be following your build along. I'm interested.

I can't do an iso cab for my glorious stacks of awesomeness, but I do try to get them the fuck away from me sometimes. I roll my cabs out into the hallway with a long speaker cable if the roar becomes a problem when recording. But my dining room is right next to me as well, separated by a single wall. I'm thinking of cutting a small secret gloryhole down in the corner or something so the wife won't see it. I could put the cabs in there and run the speaker cables and mic cables through the gloryhole. Win! Until I get caught. :(
 
Greg_L said:
Nah, think nothing of it. I've never built an iso cab, I only think I know something from what I've seen and heard. I think they're a great idea that only sometimes works out well. They tend to sound boxy, big surprise, unless they're designed well. There's a lot that goes into speaker enclosure design, and I know pretty much none of it. So I'll be following your build along. I'm interested.

I can't do an iso cab for my glorious stacks of awesomeness, but I do try to get them the fuck away from me sometimes. I roll my cabs out into the hallway with a long speaker cable if the roar becomes a problem when recording. But my dining room is right next to me as well, separated by a single wall. I'm thinking of cutting a small secret gloryhole down in the corner or something so the wife won't see it. I could put the cabs in there and run the speaker cables and mic cables through the gloryhole. Win! Until I get caught. :(
Click to expand...

That's a good plan about the wiring hole.
I love how Greg's isolation attempt is a full blown room or hallway. :)

I don't know anything about this either, other than it is a delicate enough thing.
I built a sub box for the boot (trunk<sigh>) of my car once which completely sucked ass. Then I built another slightly smaller one. It was tight as a drum.


To this thing in perspective, my 1watt transistor amp with 8" speaker is about as loud as I can go in here without pissing people off.
I used to have a marshall 80watt combo but it always balanced on the absolute minimum possible volume which, obviously, sounded like ass.

If I can get this new 65watt amp up to about half way without annoying people and get a better sound than ^^, I'll be happy.
 
Steenamaroo said:
That's a good plan about the wiring hole.
I love how Greg's isolation attempt is a full blown room or hallway. :)
Click to expand...
Ha, it's all relative. Being quiet isn't my concern. It's just sometimes being right next to blaring amp results in too much feedback. I love feedback, but not all the time. I don't want every single sustaining sound to burst into feedback. So sometimes the cabs gotta go outside.

To this thing in perspective, my 1watt transistor amp with 8" speaker is about as loud as I can go in here without pissing people off.
I used to have a marshall 80watt combo but it always balanced on the absolute minimum possible volume which, obviously, sounded like ass.

If I can get this new 65watt amp up to about half way without annoying people and get a better sound than ^^, I'll be happy.
Click to expand...

65 watts of tube Fender is loud. You could use an attenuator as well. An attenuator and an iso cab might be able to get you into the sweet spot of that amp without pissing anyone off.
 
Greg_L said:
65 watts of tube Fender is loud. You could use an attenuator as well. An attenuator and an iso cab might be able to get you into the sweet spot of that amp without pissing anyone off.
Click to expand...

You're not kidding! It just arrived and I tested it. Damn...this is going to be interesting!
 
Cabinet tip

Just an aside tip if you try one of these boxes. I use a Kreg pocket hole jig for my cabinet work. Makes my boxes look better and I can usually assemble them by my lonesome. A little wood glue and no clamps needed. It made my homemade cajon bulletproof for even the heavest drummer!
 
ronhar said:
Just an aside tip if you try one of these boxes. I use a Kreg pocket hole jig for my cabinet work. Makes my boxes look better and I can usually assemble them by my lonesome. A little wood glue and no clamps needed. It made my homemade cajon bulletproof for even the heavest drummer!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. As soon as you used the word cabinet you out-classed me, but thanks none the less.


I got the box built yesterday folks. It's doing its job....just.
It doesn't rattle or buzz which is a good start and it certainly takes the edge off.
I hit it with silicone last night which will help a bit and I'm going to order up some insulation batts soon.
I had them ordered up but, unfortunately, the place cancelled the order due to unexpected high shipping costs.
I'll just pick some up at the local hardware store.

I think once it's insulated and interred, it should be pretty useful.
If I can get it I'm going to have 4-5" batts on the inside of every surface.
If anyone has a better suggestion, now's the time. ;)

On a plus note, I'm really liking the sound of this fender amp into the celestion speaker. :)
The amp needs all the pots replaced; They're in the mail.
 
Awesome dude. Take some pics. I'm curious as to what this pit looks like.
 
It's carpetted over so I'll only be opening it up with everythings 100% finished.
I'll take pics though, for sure. :)

Such a handy thing to have. Switched out a gearbox (transmission?) in it once.
 
I'm afraid not. I just have an el-cheapo Princeton 112 plus.
I don't know much about the Fender range but I know it's nothing special.
Still, probably better than anything I've ever owned. It'll do for a little bit of pop crunch or whatever.
 
Hi guys. Sorry if this has been answered already, I tried looking through the 10 pages, but I'm a returning lurker on the site and this thread came up in my "new posts". I've been considering building an isocab, but I read elsewhere that it's not a good idea to put a combo amp in an isocab due to the fact that it could damage the amp from overheating being in a closed in "airtight" box. Is that concern valid? If it's ok to put a combo amp (particularly a tube amp) I might start the planning process to build one this summer.

Thanks.
 
The iso box is essentially a sealed speaker cab. You don't put the whole amp in there. You disengage the speaker from the combo and run a speaker cable to the iso box. Your combo then basically becomes a head unit, and the iso box is your cab.
 
So is that difference between an isolation box and an isolation cabinet? From the looks of the pics in the OP that one was built to hold the entire combo amp. Unless I'm missing something?
 
Xcaliber said:
So is that difference between an isolation box and an isolation cabinet? From the looks of the pics in the OP that one was built to hold the entire combo amp. Unless I'm missing something?
Click to expand...

I think Grim (the OP) did put the whole amp in there, but it's generally not what people do.
The main reason is safety/heat, but being able to have your amp controls at your finger tips is another one.
Plus, if you have several amps or heads, changing over is as simple as switching out a cable.

Either put a 1x12 cab in a box, or build a 12" speaker into a box.
That way, assuming you get the mic placement right, you'll never have to open it. :)

The better ones, as Greg pointed out to me, seem to be double skinned with an insulated cavity.
 
Yeah don't put the whole amp in there. I suppose you could if you built a big enough box, but wtf is the point? As Steen said, it's gonna get hot in there and you can't fiddle the dials.
 
Thanks guys. I think my VHT tube amp has the ability to use an external speaker cab. Now that we're talking about it I might look into just buying a speaker and mounting it in the isocab itself. Though I'm sure there are loads of other considerations to think about then since I'm essentially building a speaker cabinet and not just a box.

The other idea is to get a 1x12 cab as Steen suggested to put inside the box.
 
Sorry folks, I didn't get many super exciting pictures. Here's what I have anyway.

There was a bit of a wait because I ordered insulation and the company cancelled over prohibitive postage fees.
Right now there's no insulation but it's still doing a reasonable job.
I'll get some and fit it soon.

The last pic is just to satisfy Greg's curiosity about the pit! :p
It's not very good. Sorry about that.

cab1.webp

cab2.webp

cab3.webp

pit.webp

PS. I see the image uploader is still a pain in the hole.
35 clicks for a simple task. It's almost like I'm running windows.

Still, at least some of the forums got moved around or whatever. That's super important.


I'm waiting for my new computer to arrive right now, but when I get it I'll post a video showing how loud/quiet the cab in to people in the room.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top