Cabinet Plans

[agedhorse]

26 minutes ago, djk said:

Bill, according to the Eminence web site these were "Recommended for professional audio and bass guitar applications as a woofer/mid-bass or midrange in vented monitors, satellites and multi-way enclosures."

 

I'm guessing that they were trying to cover all the bases (no pun intended) by implying they could be employed for a wide range of purposes.

 

As a bass guitar driver, it’s very limited. Some of this can be overcome by using multiples of this driver (410 and 810 for example)

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

16 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

As a bass guitar driver, it’s very limited. Some of this can be overcome by using multiples of this driver (410 and 810 for example)

+1. The original SVT had drivers with 1mm xmax. That's why it took sixteen of them to handle the SVT head. You can find ads from 1969 showing the SVT head with two SVT 810 cabs. As driver technology improved the need for that many drivers lessened. Today you can find tens that are the equal of eight of the original SVT drivers. 

[Downunderwonder]

On 26/06/2025 at 16:11, Downunderwonder said:

This.^

 

If it is shelf ported you could run it through the centre, slap new sides on and call it good.

 

That would only work for a tall skinny 210 as opposed to one that is squat with diagonally mounted drivers.

 

You want to maintain the cross sectional area amd length of the ports, half the area for each cabinet. Half the original cab volume each.

 

I don't know why this wasn't clear enough.

[Phil Starr]

14 hours ago, djk said:

A further bit update.

 

I got an email back from Ashdown and they appear to be quite helpful. Rather than email anything they are going to give me a call, hopefully next week. For a company that is not getting anything, revenue wise, from this I'm really impressed.

 

My background is as an electronics engineer before I retired, I stared off in comms and ended up in IT, so I understand that you can't just throw a speaker into any size of box and expect it to perform well. So off to do some research I went. Now I know that "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing" but I had a go.

 

Assuming that, as many think, these are Eminence Beta 10-B's, or a derivative of them, I checked the enclosure specs for them on the Eminence website, copy attached.

 

Although the enclosure size and that of the BC110T are close, there is a difference in port numbers and size.

 

I hate to ask for help, but can someone comment on these differences.

 

Could I continue to use the port specified in the BC110T or should I go for the ones recommended in the attached.

 

One further point. Initially I am just going to install the driver, and not the horn. My plan is to go step by step and assess performance one change at a time. Thats the engineer in me.

 

Thanks again

 

P.S. This is as much a project as something to use in anger. I have a couple of decent rig's I can use if I had the opportunity to play in a larger venue. Being retired I need something to occupy my time. I'm also building a VOX Phantom Tribute bass, converting a child's six string acoustic into a UBass and recently bought a Dan Armstrong body blank which will be grafted to a short scale neck I have lying around.

 

 

Sorry but that is the wrong set of plans, there are plans for the Beta 10 and Beta 10B on the Eminence web site so if you want to assume that your speaker is one of those then that's the way to go. I did think of pointing you in that direction but you'd still be guessing as to which of the two speakers you might have or if Ashdown specified any changes other than the colour of the cone. What I suggest you do is build the cab but make the baffle/front panel removable. As you say this is a project and if the baffle is screwed but not glued then you can make changes to the cab more easily as you experiment.

 

So the simple answer would be to build the BC110 30litre cab which is tuned fairly close to the original Ashdown cab. One 30l cab is much the same as any other and the only advantage of the BC110 is that it was designed to be easy to build and that makes is a good basis for building and experimenting within  a project. in this case it's almost finished so no point in changing tack now. It'll work and do the job you have planned for it. You can then modify it if you think it has shortcomings you can fix.

 

As an engineer you probably can glimpse the theory behind the design and probably want to start to get to grips with it. I'm sure we'd all enjoy discussing that with you but that'sa whole other thread

[djk]

Well, the first cabinet is finished(ish). It just needs covering and tidying up.

 

With a large degree of trepidation I tried it for the first time tonight. I was a little concerned as the amp output is rated for a 4 ohm cabinet and the speaker is 16 ohm. Having spent the whole of my working career in electronics I knew it was safe, as the load was higher which meant the output would be considerably less. But what would it sound like as I'd used a different speaker than the cabinet was designed for.

 

Well it sounds great.

 

With all the EQ controls on the TC Electronic amp set at 12 o/c  I had a huge range of tonal control just using the guitars tone control, and as for volume it's all I wanted, enough for my jam sessions and more than enough for small venue gigs or open mic's. 

 

I decided to omit the horn on this one, I am thinking of using the tweeter that came out of the damaged Ashdown cabinet in the second build. If it doesn't work I've enough ply left over to make several more front baffles. 

 

I didn't extend the port, I used it as it came at 120mm, so perhaps some tweaking there at a later date, but to be honest I don't think it needs it. When I turned it up in the dinning room it rattled the light fitting in the ceiling.

 

I've bought some 4 way stretch camper van carpet and spray glue to cover it, in red to match the amp.

 

Thank you so much to Phil, Bill and everyone involved in the original design and in supporting me during the build.

Edited August 14 by djk
spelling

[djk]

The second cabinet is now mostly structurally complete, will add a photograph later.

 

Moving on there are a couple of further things I'd like to do.

 

Firstly, I'd like to put the tweeter that came out of the Ashdown cabinet into one of the 2x10's but will it work? The Eminence 2x10 was 8 ohm, 2 16 ohm speakers in parallel. Will it still be OK to use it in one of the 1x10's?

 

I also have a Celestion 15" speaker, It's in a  box at the back of the garage so not sure of model and impedance. I was thinking of cutting down the old Ashdown 2x10 cabinet with a new baffle to use. Am I being stupid?

As I've said before my playing now is mainly jam sessions and the odd open mic night. I have the luxury of having a small music room/studio at home so the 1x15 would be used there where volume is not a priority. Also I just like making/repairing/repurposing things and this appeared to be an interesting project to combine two unused items into one unused item 😒

 

Ayy thoughts 

Edited 16 hours ago by djk
Spelling

[David Morison]

Hi,

It would be possible to make the tweeter work, but you may need to do more work than simply cutting the hole & wiring it in. Did you ever play the Ashdown cab as-is before starting your project? If so, did you find the tweeter level about right in either of the 2 switch positions & if so, which one? If you were happy with the tweeter level with the "high" switch setting, then you'll be fine - just make sure that you transfer over all of the tweeter's associated crossover, level adjusting resistors etc to the new cab.

If you preferred the sound of the tweeter at the "low" setting, then you may find it too bright when used with just one 10", so you'd likely need to calculate values and source resistors for an L-Pad with more attenuation.

 

Re repurposing the main body of your Ashdown cab for your 15" driver, it's certainly possible, but as ever in Audio, It Depends.

In this case, it depends on the particular model of 15" you have, its Thiele Small parameters, the net internal volume of the Ashdown box and the internal dimensions of its port(s). All of those would need to be known before any credible advice could be given.

 

HTH,

David.

[Phil Starr]

As above ^

 

The thing is that the crossover does two things, it shares the bass and treble frequencies between the woofer and tweeter and it matches the output so that they are equal in volume. The horn may be much louder than the single speaker or even quieter. You'll need to transfer the crossover as well because passing bass through the horn will destroy it! Having said that crossover design in bass speakers is pretty crudely done for the most and is often only one or two components to protect the tweeter, if so they are easy to hack.

 

Post a photograph of the crossover and we can advise

 

Let us know which 15" Celestion you have and we can see if your cab will do the job for you.