Custom Cabinet Project

HNB

Since it is related to my VHT Special 6 head, I thought this was the best place for this project. At the moment, I have it plugged in to my Gallien Krueger 4 x 12 cabinet. It sounds good, but it is too loud for at home practice. I decided I wanted to look into a smaller box. VHT sells a matching 12 cab for around $169. I talked to the AV teacher at the school where I worked and he mentioned he had some parts and speakers I could have.

DSC02947 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

I decided to put together a speaker cabinet. Be gentle, it is my first.

DSC02941 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

I made it a little deeper than it needs to be. It is eighteen inches deep and eighteen inches tall. I slanted the front slightly to angle the speakers up. It is 3/4 inch plywood. Glued and screwed.

DSC02943 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

Speakers will be front mounted with grill covers. I have it open on the back similar to how I have seen some amps set up. The lone rectangles are four inches tall each giving about ten inches of open space on the back.

DSC02945 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

I had a couple screws strip so I put a good screw in next to it and used my dremel to grind the bad one down. Since I plan to paint it, I wasn't too worried about it.

DSC02948 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

The inside of the angled piece that will go on the front. I was working out where to put the speakers and then had to measure about a half inch in from the outer circle to get the size of the holes I need to make. (I outlined it in pro red crayon.) Going to pick up a saw to cut this out tomorrow.

DSC02949 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

The free grills for the speakers. I will probably paint them black or something. The red is a little much for my tastes.

So far $30 down. Not bad.

Richie

The first thing I noticed was that you've screwed the cab together. Most cabinet builders would throw a fit if they saw that.

My advice would be to look up some online guides or even buys some books/ go to a couple of classes on basic carpentry and joining, and learn how to put together dovetail joints. Dovetails maximise the contact surfaces between the pieces of wood with no need for screws so once you've got some glue between them and let it set, it might as well just be one big piece of wood once it's finished, which really, REALLY helps in terms of resonance. Think about it, the best guitar bodies are made of as few pieces of wood as possible, bonded together as effectively as possible, and the same is true of a speaker cabinet; you wouldn't want a guitar with one half of the body screwed to the other. Plus generally it's just a lot stronger than pretty much any other way of joining two pieces of wood at a 90º angle. The other advantage to dovetails is the presentation, 'cause there isn't an obvious gap in the joint, and like I say there's no screws which makes it much easier to round off your corners and things like that.

Other than that the design in terms of the actual shape of the thing is pretty quirky and could be interesting. Looks like a big old ported cab with that kind of depth to it so you would have a lot of bass, but then with an open back you'll lose a lot of that while probably gaining a lot of volume. If you're after building a quieter cab for home practise I would've gone with a closed back myself. Or you could always make yourself a removable back panel and have it both ways.

Good luck with the rest of the build anyways.

HNB

Richie said:
The first thing I noticed was that you've screwed the cab together. Most cabinet builders would throw a fit if they saw that.
My advice would be to look up some online guides or even buys some books/ go to a couple of classes on basic carpentry and joining, and learn how to put together dovetail joints. Dovetails maximise the contact surfaces between the pieces of wood with no need for screws so once you've got some glue between them and let it set, it might as well just be one big piece of wood once it's finished, which really, REALLY helps in terms of resonance. Think about it, the best guitar bodies are made of as few pieces of wood as possible, bonded together as effectively as possible, and the same is true of a speaker cabinet; you wouldn't want a guitar with one half of the body screwed to the other. Plus generally it's just a lot stronger than pretty much any other way of joining two pieces of wood at a 90º angle. The other advantage to dovetails is the presentation, 'cause there isn't an obvious gap in the joint, and like I say there's no screws which makes it much easier to round off your corners and things like that.
Other than that the design in terms of the actual shape of the thing is pretty quirky and could be interesting. Looks like a big old ported cab with that kind of depth to it so you would have a lot of bass, but then with an open back you'll lose a lot of that while probably gaining a lot of volume. If you're after building a quieter cab for home practise I would've gone with a closed back myself. Or you could always make yourself a removable back panel and have it both ways.
Good luck with the rest of the build anyways.

Thanks for the tips. 😀 My first build of this type. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I will do a sound clip when I am done.

HNB

Got the front on and holes drilled. Also put wood filler on seams and some chipped parts. I will sand it more level later today.

DSC02958 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

DSC02961 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

HNB

Got paint on most of it. Will do a second coat before I flip it over and do the bottom of the box.

DSC03077 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

DSC03078 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

HNB

Got speakers in and wired up. I should be able to try it out in a bit. Still need to get a few more screws in the corner protectors and put on the speaker covers, but it is looking good. 😀

DSC03088 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

DSC03089 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

HNB

Sorry for crap audio. I used my camera to record and it doesn't sound near as nice through the camera mic as in person. LOL