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Stevie’s 12” FRFR Cab Build Thread (Basschat Cab v3)


funkle

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18 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Got my stuff from blue aran to make speaker 011 (which I picked up today), Got the speaker and the tuf paint, and the handle.  One of these parts doesn't seem quite right though...

IMG_5907.jpg.2b34dbf83b656fbe852a920f9c27bfca.jpg

No that looks like the correct bowl but the handle is wrong.

IMG_1840.JPG

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52 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

The padding stuff, is it like ebay item 162935948623? It misses out the word cotton, but looks the same

Yes, that's it. In the selection box, click Black needled felt 2 1/2 oz. Then 1mtr length. £4.99.

I wish sellers wouldn't keep changing their Ebay ads!

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So braces glued in and drying, handle support likewise. As I got excited and ordered everything early before Stevie did the screw list I’ve ended up with too many bolts and t-nuts ... so horn, handle, feet are going to all use t-nuts as ild rather use them than go buy more stuff. 

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On 08/10/2019 at 21:19, stevie said:

I'd like to point out a couple of minor niggles with the kit.

First, the CNC machine forgot to rebate the back panel to take the input panel. The idea of the rebate is that it allows you to push the input panel into the rebate and simply glue it in. Fortunately, it's not a dealbreaker and here's what I suggest you do

IMG_4412 (Small).jpeg

 

I got back from screwfix after getting the spray glue and the PVC pipe. I cut the pipe and then I thought I had some black spray under a unit in the shed. I reached in and pulled out.. a full can of spray glue, yay! Oh well, not going to be short of that.

Anyway, after cutting the pipe I was looking at this piece, as one of the first things to do, and after much deliberation of the "you know if you get the router out you WILL mess it up" type, I once again overruled my common sense and decided that I didn't like the option of just glueing it, so I used the open brace as a half template, and in two cuts, did a recess around the hole. And didn't mess it up.

IMG_5908.jpg.cab6db628aef2b65123efa582c26b8e4.jpg

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Just now, Woodinblack said:

 

I got back from screwfix after getting the spray glue and the PVC pipe. I cut the pipe and then I thought I had some black spray under a unit in the shed. I reached in and pulled out.. a full can of spray glue, yay! Oh well, not going to be short of that.

Anyway, after cutting the pipe I was looking at this piece, as one of the first things to do, and after much deliberation of the "you know if you get the router out you WILL mess it up" type, I once again overruled my common sense and decided that I didn't like the option of just glueing it, so I used the open brace as a half template, and in two cuts, did a recess around the hole. And didn't mess it up.

IMG_5908.jpg.cab6db628aef2b65123efa582c26b8e4.jpg

Looks good! I should have done that too. 
I was trying to work out how I could inset the handle slightly but decided the risk of total router distraction was too high! 

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2 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Looks good! I should have done that too. 
I was trying to work out how I could inset the handle slightly but decided the risk of total router distraction was too high! 

Ooh - now you got me thinking. When I was looking at my minirouter to do this, i found a thing that clamped onto it with a roller that was for doing furniture arms, basically just an adjustable thing to run along a solid surface. That would do the handle inset nicely, the only downside is that it makes the wood thinner where you want the strength to be. Not sure how much of an impact that would have if you are only taking it down a few mm.

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28 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Ooh - now you got me thinking. When I was looking at my minirouter to do this, i found a thing that clamped onto it with a roller that was for doing furniture arms, basically just an adjustable thing to run along a solid surface. That would do the handle inset nicely, the only downside is that it makes the wood thinner where you want the strength to be. Not sure how much of an impact that would have if you are only taking it down a few mm.

You’ve got 30mm of ply there, into t-nuts in my case so there’s enough wood - the reason not to do it is more the fact that you’re only going to get it about 1-1.5mm down before the edges of the handle start curving in-but you’re also going to need to factor in the thickness of a layer of paint. 
I’ve used my router enough to feel the risks aren’t worth the benefit - it’s almost at the poiny that a scalpel and a chisel would be a better method to do it. As it is it is not like there’s anything wrong with it as it is. 

Plus I should be painting skirting - not building cabs!

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I routed the hole for the handle on my MK2 cab and regretted it. It just does not look right. Yes I routed  the recess slightly too wide but as mentioned,  the round over on the handle looks better when the handle is mounted on top in my opinion. 

Edited by Chienmortbb
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You  make sure that primer on the skirting is good and dry before you put the top coat on 😂
Another tip, put the port in the freezer before fitting. It will contract and go in the hole easily. Then, as it rises to room temp, it will expand to fit the hole tightly. 

Edited by Chienmortbb
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3 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

You  make sure that primer on the skirting is good and dry before you put the top coat on 😂
Another tip, put the port in the freezer before fitting. It will contract and go in the hole easily. Then, as it rises to room temp, it will expand to fit the hold tightly. 

good tip. As you can see in my pic the freezer is about 20cm away! :D 

It's a "knackered at end of day, lets glue a 
panel for 20 min" - whereas painting yards of skirting, and clean up takes longer... plus my wife seems to think the smell of paint might kill us or something* so doing it in the evenings with the door open letting the heat out isn't fun. 



*for the record I am using low VOC modern paint from the trade centre. 

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Yes, moderate volume jazz. Piano and sax. Well within capabilities of cab. Set the amp flat and used controls on bass/hand position to manage tone. Killed it. 
 

Edit: of course the real test is with a drummer. Not yet for me though...

Edited by funkle
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I’ve been gigging different variations of this cab for a while. The standout feature for me is that I can make out the pitch of every note I play even when I’m right in front of the cab. That’s always been a problem for me with compact cabs in pub-type venues.


With the amp flat, the overall sound seems balanced top to bottom  – just the right amount of bottom-end fatness and top-end detail, but without the emphasis on string noise you get from a lot of tweetered cabs. In fact, you can't tell it has a tweeter - it just sounds like bass guitar.


Subjectively, I feel more relaxed when playing through this cab. I play in a fairly loud band with the kick drum through the PA but have never felt that I’ve pushed it close to its limits.

 

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8 hours ago, stevie said:

Subjectively, I feel more relaxed when playing through this cab. I play in a fairly loud band with the kick drum through the PA but have never felt that I’ve pushed it close to its limits.

This is how I felt too when I started using a Fearless F112. You're not stuck with the sound of the cab, you can make it sound like just about anything you like. Using a HX Stomp with the F112 is like heaven :)

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20 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

This evening I focused on my satin coat.

81802FF4-89A6-4204-8F75-16B15E82F913.jpeg.ea79cd6be67d1548d9754b29181d1b5b.jpeg

 

btw - 4 clamps is a minimum you need. Six would be better. 

You're not wrong, although there's nothing wrong with using screws, especially if, as @Chienmortbb pointed out, you use them in the corners where the metal corners will go. They're also easy to camouflage on the front baffle.

Pre-drill first, of course.

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13 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

You  make sure that primer on the skirting is good and dry before you put the top coat on 😂
Another tip, put the port in the freezer before fitting. It will contract and go in the hole easily. Then, as it rises to room temp, it will expand to fit the hole tightly. 

I read that second sentence and thought "no, you don't chill port, that's just white wine". Oh dear.

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So the only think I don't think I have ordered yet is the grille. There doesn't seem to be anything like you have on ebay, the only one that SGS metals have is an aluminium one with holes, which looks similar to the speaker grille that blue arran sell.

Did everyone get theirs when they were available?

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I bought some expanded metal grill material and cut it to size. Unfortunately, it took me hours, as I only had an angle grinder. The end result was fine and I sold the few that I made to the first few Basschatters who claimed them, but I came to the conclusion that making metal grilles is not really a DIY job.

SGS metals on Ebay offer a cutting service for their punched materials.I gave them the size (384 x 567) and they cut me an aluminium grille to fit the cab. They charged £15 including delivery. The grille looks great, is perfectly sturdy and very light. The downside is that you need to use an etch primer before you paint it, and that increases the cost.

This is the kind of thing you need: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=etch+primer&rh=n%3A1938797031&ref=nb_sb_noss

The black etch primer at £10.50 delivered gets good reviews elsewhere and quite possibly won't need a topcoat. I must stress that I haven't used it myself, however. I used the Autotek etch primer (further down on the same page) and found that it wouldn't adhere properly. So I'd advise against using that. (I managed to touch it up with some galvanised garage door primer I had in the garage). Plastikote also do an etch primer that sells on Amazon for £7.60 delivered. As I've always found that company's products excellent, that one is probably a good buy.

If you're going to apply a top coat to the grille, you need one of the tougher acrylic paints for metal from Hammerite, Plastikote, Simoniz or the German supermarket discounters (when they're on sale). These are the ones that say you can apply them directly to metal. Don't use a cellulose spray paint because it'll chip.

If you want the aluminium grille and have to buy the paint for it, it's going to cost you £30. If you're more concerned about keeping the cost down than the weight, get the same grille in 1mm mild steel from SGS for £8.95 delivered and use an acrylic spray to paint it.

I'd be interested to hear builders' experiences with etch primers - which work and which don't.

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