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Building My First Cabinet, Please Advise!

Started by Frankwashere, February 10, 2016, 12:12:41 PM

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Frankwashere

Hey all!

    This is my first time building an amp and my first time on this forum so if a come across as a totally noob, I apologize in advance. My knowledge on electronics is amateur at best, but on the plus side I am very familiar with a soldering iron! :tu:

    Okay so here's a little back story. I picked up these two awesome solid wood 2 X 10 speaker cabinets from the dump. They were completely gutted, but once I got all that gross dump stank off them they were looking real nice and shiny. I can upload some picture of them later if someone would like to check them out. Each cabinet has two 10" speaker holes. The one on top is at a 45 degree angle pointing down and the bottom one is at a 45 degree angle pointing up.

    I'm sure installing the speakers would be no issue. I'm also positive I can find info on this site about how to do so. That's not really what I need help with, although any tips or tricks are very welcomed. What I want to know is if the Speakers and SS amp head I plan to use are compatible. Or if there is a better alternative. Should I just buy a SS combo amp? Should I just buy a Marshall Half Stack W/ Amp head?

    These Are the materials I intend to purchase with my next paycheck:

  • 2 Carvin PS10 Pro Series 10" Guitar Loudspeaker 200 watts 8 ohms, $50 + Shipping
  • Orange Crush CR120H - 120-Watt Head Orange, $500 + Shipping

I want to buy the first 2 speakers and install them into the first cabinet. Then wait for my next paycheck to get the other 2 and install them into the second cabinet. If I do this, can I use the first cabinet with the orange amp head while I wait for the other two speakers? or will the speakers blow? I assume they wouldn't because they are 200 Watts, while the amp is 120. But like I said, I kinda don't really even know. I know the number of ohms a speaker have is very important, But I don't  quite know why.....

Do you think this will be a good combo? Do you think I'd get a better bang for my buck with different materials? What other items may I need for installation?

Thanks again for any feedback! :dbtu:
~Frankwashere

tonyharker

Never heard of a speaker pointing up in the air. Are you sure you haven't got them on their side so that they would point right and left??

Frankwashere

#2
I'm about 90% sure. They look a little weird when I put them sideways. Because of the way the plywood sides are cut, the fronts have a slight curve to them. I guess I will upload some pictures when I get the chance tonight.. It's totally possible though. I could put them next to each other or stack them.  they're something like 14"X28" each. They currently make great end tables but I think they have slightly more potential than that... haha  xP

DrGonz78

Seen Gibson type amps with tilted speaker thing. I think we are going to love to see these pictures  <3)

I bought some 10" bass speakers from Carvin for a GK combo amplifier a while back. Even the lower end types like these sounded great and you can't beat the prices for new speakers(free shipping). 200 watts per speaker on a 120 watt head is just fine. Two 8 ohm speaker wire in series will give you 16 ohms and two 8 ohm's wired in parallel will yield a 4 ohm load. Just match the load to the amp which ever way you wire it up.  :dbtu: Do a google search for two 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel or series.
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

Frankwashere

#4
   Thanks for the tip Doc, I had a feeling the wiring wouldn't be too confusing. What's the main difference between wiring parallel or in a series? How will the wiring effect my sound, if it even will?

   They're really nice cabinets. I mean I wouldn't pick something up from the dump unless I knew it was in good shape, not infested and stuff. In other words, I don't typically bring things home from the dump, but I couldn't help myself with these. They're made out of nicely polished 3/4 pieces of maple ply. Obviously someone salvaged the speakers and trashed the cabs...
   
    I also should have noted that they aren't guitar cabs (which I don't think matters). These are totally for a surround sound system or something. Once I saw the price on those Carvin speakers I kind of realized I could turn this dream into a reality! Haha. :tu: I just wanted to make sure I wasn't screwing myself over and that I might actually end up with an at least average sounding, unique piece of equipment.

Vitrolin

i have seen angled speakers in a fender bass cab it was a long time ago, i think it was 4x12" and they were all angled towards the center.
the were placed like a cross top speaker pointing down, bottom pointing up, left pointing right, and yes right speaker pointing left.

DrGonz78

#6
Quote from: Frankwashere on February 10, 2016, 04:42:40 PM
   Thanks for the tip Doc, I had a feeling the wiring wouldn't be too confusing. What's the main difference between wiring parallel or in a series? How will the wiring effect my sound, if it even will?

Looking at that Orange amp it show two 16 ohm speaker output connections. So wiring up your two 8 ohm speakers in series will create 16 ohm load and that will match the impedance for that particular amp. Essentially, the amp accepts an 8 ohm minimum speaker load. The two 16 ohm jacks are wired up in parallel and if you connected two separate 16 ohm cabs then the amp would see that as an 8 ohm load.

Edit: To answer the question better... The 8 ohm load will maximize how much the amplifier pushes total wattage. So at 8 ohms it will be full intended power (max) of what the amp can handle. With just a 16 ohm load connected it will be about half the power output.
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

Frankwashere

#7
From First To Last:

  • Front
  • Right Side
  • Back
  • Left Side
  • 90 degree angle inside the front.
  • Top

   There's a hole in the top. I assume that it's for holding a speaker on a pole in place. I probably wont be using that part haha....
   I kind of decided after realizing a CR120H will eat up my entire paycheck to set this project up into two sections.

Part one:

  • Buy two of the Carvin speakers I've previously listed.
  • Buy a cheapish amp head from Guitar Center with one 8 or 16 ohm speaker output (suggestions?)
  • Install the two Carvin speakers in series into the first cabinet.

Part two (one month later):

  • Buy 2 more of those Carvin Speakers.
  • Return the cheaper amp head to Guitar Center/Buy the Orange CR120H
  • Install the new Carvins in series into second cabinet.
  • Bam, now I got a sweet setup! haha :D

    I mean I wish I could just drop 800 bucks and get it all done with first time around but I ain't no CEO. Spending that much money in one paychecks gunna put me on welfare, haha..
   Anyway, what do you all think? Is this a reasonable concept or am I digging myself a hole?

mexicanyella

#8
Where are  you located? I'm  in the St. Louis, MO area and I have a pair of 10" 8-ohm 50-watt Crate speakers you can have for the cost of shipping. Barely used. Given to me a few years ago by an ex-Crate employee and I didn't end up keeping the cabinet I intended to put them in. That would be a cheap way to get one of the boxes up and running and see how it sounds...

I used to play in a band with a guy who had an old Sunn Beta Lead 200 head and cabinet, and the cabinet was a 6 x 10" affair with each stack of three 10s on an angled baffle board like that. Unfortunately all six 10s were blown so I never got to try it. But that's no reason you shouldn't.

Those boxes you found would look pretty wild once they were decked out with handles, feet and some imaginative grille cloth or grillework. But I think you could go a lot farther on this junkyard found-object thing you seem to be on and still end up with something giggable. Look on Craigslist for used musical instrument and pro audio speakers. I see take-out Peavey Sheffields for cheap all the time, and occasionally some 10" Peavey Scorpions. Recently saw a pair of Celestion G10S-50s but they didn't stick around long.

Also, I'd  be looking at used solid-state heads on Craigslist, pawnshops, etc. Something I've seen on CL recently that caught my eye was a Peavey Deltabass head (physically pretty compact, lots of watts and EQ for guitar purposes and presumably lots of headroom) for under $100. I've seen solid-state Peavey, Crate and Marshall Valvestate heads for cheap too. Saw a $150 Randall RG head in a pawnshop a year or two ago...that might be cool if you like that kind of distortion.

Anyway, I'm always in favor of finding interesting combinations of stuff used and cheap (with an eye towards reliable operation) and seeing what it sounds like...before dumping cash on new stuff. Many many interesting combinations of unwanted used things out there for cheap!

J M Fahey

>U$500 (or U$600 "free shipping" at MF) for an SS Chinese made generic amplifier?

That sounds like a $199 amp with a $400 orange tolexing and white paint job.
Not worth that at all.

Try to get a *killer*  Crate/Peavey/Laney SS head , used of course, you'll get a much better amp for way less money.

Don't blow your paycheck.

In case you don't know why I write this: Orange and Hiwatt were the Royalty of British amps ... way back in the late 60's and *early* 70's , and were known by some like the "rich guy's Marshalls" (which would be what middle class people could buy).

Part of the very good sound was that they were built with no expense spared, specially expensive and very very good Partridge transformers (Jim Marshall said he only used 2 of them in his entire life, a couple which was sent for free for evaluation and of course were very expensive for his cost scheme) , and incredibly loud and punchy Fane speakers (first speaker with true 100W RMS capability, fiberglass voice coil formers and true 101dB efficiency ... way higher than any Celestion of that era) , so Orange and Hiwatt were used by the best and richest,  we all know who they were.

But both companies broke and disappeared LONG ago, earlier owners are dead and buried, and **investment**  companies bought the brand names and registered looks and legally apply them to *anything* .

So they have anything manufactured by generic OEM in China, with killer *looks* .

They care more about expensive Tube stuff, but on SS, anything goes.

I have schematics where you see circuits are cheesy "anybody makes that" designs and signed in Chinese by "Hung Liu Mfg, Ltd." or similar sounding names.

I'd much prefer earlier but real American or English made stuff.

FWIW you can check this comment which was posted right here in SS Guitar by an Orange Crush user:

QuotePicked up a broken Orange Crush 15R off ebay for cheap.  I asked Orange about schematics and got no reply.  Also on their un-official amp site the guys said that the SS ones made in China are like red-haired step children, they don't really support them - I guess they are viewed as throw away as they are so cheap.
http://www.ssguitar.com/index.php?topic=1998.0

So IF you can get them for cheap (say U$150/200) , fine, you get a reasonable amp (like any other)  for what you paid for .... but U$500/600?  :trouble .... crazy !!!!  :duh