A 10" speaker and some plywood.

[itu]

Starting point

I happened to have a 10" Volt in my garage. It was floating in free air, so I decided to put it to a box. I think this helps with the bass response...

First steps

I went to a shop that cuts wood. They cut the 15 mm plywood to pieces and I started tinkering. The wood parts are 300 x 400, 300 x 450, and 400 x 450 mm. A sharp eye may see, that this will not be a neat box, but I will come back to this later on. I needed a Speakon, some wire, glue, and quite a lot of screws. There is a good way to build a cabinet with strips of wood in the corners to seal the seams but I decided to use lots of glue & iron... not so wise from the weight point of view.

Help needed

The element looks good, but how about the specs? Mr. Nichamin from Volt was very helpful and sent the data sheet. T/S and everything else. A good friend of mine loaned me four long clamps.

Building process

The work was somewhat slow. Main reason: the soft glue was sticky for hours. So I did one phase at a time in the evenings.

There are two threaded rods through the cab to make it even stronger. Overkill, maybe. So are the metal corners inside the box. There are quite a few bolts and nyloc nuts, there. Every attachment is asymmetric more or less. This was intentional although the panels will not resonate that much, but just decided to make things different.

As said earlier, all parts do not fit exactly, and the smallest wood panels needed some work: the backside was simply cut shorter to fit. Front is slightly slanted. This way the element is not protruding from the cabinet and offers some extra protection. A piece of metal mesh is in front of the element.

I opened the hole for the element with a router. It is one practical tool. All functional corners were rounded or chamfered.

The filling is foam and polyester. The reflex ports are now 50 mm in diameter and 30 mm long according to Volt's recommendation for this volume (around 40 - 50 dm³).

As everybody can see, the case is not finished, yet. The extra glue has to be removed. It needs some paint or wood oil. And lots of filing.

Conclusions

The weight is decent. My amp is at the rehearsal place in the other side of the town, so first test will happen within few days (no files will be added). The next cab will/could be made from thin plywood and lots of braces. Much harder to build, but the result is also substantially lighter.

Edited December 10, 2020 by itu

[itu]

Yes, I know. Here we go:

 

[stewblack]

I too have a 10 incher not getting any use. I admire you for getting stuck in. I've never summoned the energy. 

Look forward to hearing how you get on with it 

[itu]

The big thing in doing the box was to get the wood sides cut to measure. They weren't exact, but close enough. I don't have a big saw, table etc. so this obstacle was bypassed by the shop personnel and their heavy equipment.

[itu]

Some background

The element was the other of two from a Glockenklang Soul combo. Because of an incident in a gig, the other speaker was hit, and became perforated. This happened after the last set. Later I bought new elements from the company. Their customer service was very good.

The box is slightly larger than the half of the Soul cabinet. A larger volume relates to lower frequency, or better efficiency. My speakers are the Soul, an alusonic, and now this small box. I will probably use it with my electric double bass, a 5-string Clevinger.

The building took around a month. Costs were reasonable, although a new cab would be easily in the same ballpark, well under £200. Remember that I had the element already. There was no reason to do this myself except for the fun. Now I do know what I should do differently, how much faster this could be done... the work has taught me quite a lot.

For those thinking about similar work I can support the idea. A box is after all a straightforward work compared to a bass neck or body. A cabinet will be the ugly duckling, down on the floor, that has to withstand some kicking and hitting. Components are cheap, tools simple. If something goes wrong, a wood panel is easy to replace.

Sound is another story. Bass cabinet has to be tight and sturdy. The sound can be tailored with careful calculations, that affect the shape and measurements. How well the cabinet works with my amp, no one knows. I will not say mine is excellent, but seems to be one functional and fun trial: I really do respect the people of Glockenklang that designed and produced my excellent sounding Soul. Mine sure isn't that good, but decent is now enough for me. And there's one less speaker floating free.

[Chienmortbb]

Well done. I am sure you hae learnt a lot from the build and would do some things better next time. However it looks a lot better than my first cabinet.

[itu]

An update: (First of all, sorry, I have no sound samples.) Our rehearsal place was opened few days ago (it was closed because of the quarantine) and I took the cab there. Plugged to my Glockenklang Soul amp. Sounds surprisingly good, far better than I thought. Goes down low and is relatively loud. We were only 5 today, so the level was more than adequate.

Now I would like to find an SWR Interstellar Overdrive for home use with the cab. Before I find one, I think I have plenty of time to paint the cabinet...