Building a homemade Iso Cabinet for $150

...and how to do so...
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This is my friend's current project. He has spent about $150 (minus speaker) so far, which includes all parts and gas (everything from local stores), buying all the wood, parts (gooseneck/base/mic clip and mount, xlr connectors, and 1/4 inch connector), and electronics needed. 1/2 inch birch ply, not particle board. Saved a little money by taking apart soldering the male mic port for the outside mic connection.

He had his choice of unused speakers from prior cabinets, which inlcluded vintage 30s, GT75s, and a speaker from an old Fender Bandmaster cab, and the stock speaker in his Brunetti MC2 combo but he went with some vintage Marshall Rola Celestion "Bass" speaker, which there was hardly any info on, all that is marked on the speaker is what is shown, and that they go down to 55 Hz, and say 15 ohm, and a short serial number. He believes they are close to an early GT75 or greenback speaker. Anyone know any info on the speaker used? It sounds great though.

It is functional right now, but he plans to add sound reinforcement/dampening and insulation, with possibly some of the generic sound insulation (found at Home Depot/hardware store) in the pic plus some thinner rubber/vinyl coating. Or he wants to get some custom cut Aurelex foam. He is unsure of what to do for this step, although cheaper the better if it works. Any suggestions?

And finally when the inside is all done, he is going to tolex the outside of it and make it look nice and professional.

He are the pics so far from a few hours of work. Right click "View Image" to enlarge/zoom.

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can we move this to the diy forum? It looks awesome :)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Hink wrote:can we move this to the diy forum? It looks awesome :)
:dog:
Yes, mods can this be moved?

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thank you to the mod who moved this as I slept :)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Anyone have any ideas for the sound insulation/dampening material?

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I think tbh the box should be smaller (it might be boomy) but also the walls should be thicker. I modded my cab with auralex like foam from a company called foam by mail and saved a fortune, but I went with 1" pyramid foam because that's all space would allow. There is so much space in that cab he might want to go with 2" and experiment with corner traps. I was going to use velcro to hold my foam in place but the foam seems to stay in place fine I guess because of their insulation...even the top stays in place.

He might want to find a way to hold his foam in place in ways so he can switch things around to "tune" the cab. I also found that stuffing below the speaker with extra foam helped with the tone. I got 48 sq ft for 40 dollars so I have to put it somewhere :hihi:

An iso cab wont kill all the sound but it can do a good job of being a room within a room so people outside of the studio wont hear it nor will you get much outside noise in. However I think the walls should be at least 1 1/2" thick, if I were to build one I would probably go even thicker with three layers of 3/4".

He should also add wiring for at least one more mic but I would go with two even though I have found that three is too much in my cab having the capability for the future doesn't hurt.

just my thoughts :)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFxH9sVe3Ls

this guy has fantastic layering inside the iso cab.

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I made one similar to this in 1986 using 5/8" Baltic Birch plywood, and the only difference is that I added baffles to the area around where the mics are so only one mic was getting sound directly. I had 3 mic podium flanges inside.

One in front of the speaker near the cone, one behind the speaker facing away towards the corner and one in front of the speaker also facing away towards the corner.
These were the days when I only had Radio Shack mics. Ouch!

The baffles should be at angles for best reflection eeffect. I only used a small amount of foam near the corners. Even as small as these are, they replicate some cabinet tones fairly well.

I painted it boring white, but loaned it to a friend for a few weeks. It came back with some flames and skulls drawn all over it in black sharpie.
:oops:

Dang, now I want to build one again just for fun.
"All generalizations are false".
"Don't quantize me bro"!

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