Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

[Scatterwound]

Hi all,

Last weekend I was jamming with a buddy of mine who recently bought a Mesa DC-5 with an extension cabinet.....He told me he got the deal used for $500 CDN....I thought he was full of it but that is another point... The cabinet was basically a box with a 12" in it (Made by Mesa)....He demonstrated the sound with and without the cabinet and I was impressed....Now I would like to have a cabinet for my combo amps..I think it would be pretty easy to build one but I have a few questions...

1. Would it basically be a 12" speaker in a box connected by a +/- wire to a female 1/4" jack?

2. Can any 12" speaker work....I know that most guitar speakers are 8 ohms and most stereo ones are 4 ohms...So can I use any 8ohm speaker? Or must it be something specific for guitar?

3. Any one know of any links for tips on making one?

 

[RW James]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

Want to do a little research? Check out these sites:

Celestion and Avatar Speakers

There's a lot of information there that should answer a lot of your questions.

I've built a few speaker cabs - with mixed results in terms of overall performance. The not-so-good experiences were largely due to not knowing what I was doing.

But yeah, you have to be very careful about matching ohms - and be sure to give yourself enough watts to do the job. But beyond that is the frequency response of the different speakers and how it fits into your style of music.

As for the cabinets themselves - I build them out of birch plywood and I get pretty good results with that.

 

[muttonchopsrule]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

if you're experienced with woodworking and know what you're doing, then maybe. it is pretty much just a box with a speaker and a 1/4" jack, not really much else to it.

unless you're really good, you aren't going to get the same build quality of a decent cabinet that you could buy, and you'll definitely want to put a decent speaker in there. speakers are a pretty big part of what makes your guitar tone, so you're going to want one that's made for guitar.

if you're thinking about building it yourself to save money, i'd check out www.avatarspeakers.com . their cabinets are built well, sold for cheap, and come with quality speakers of your choice.


edit: ^^^beat me to the avatar link!

 

[greco]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

http://www.londonpower.com

This is a site that offers a good book on cabinet design/construction and books on amp building, etc.
Also has some electronics supplies available.

Now located in Thunder Bay, ON (He was in London, ON)

Good Luck

Dave

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

It's easy to make ANYTHING, as long as you don't care about how good it is.

 

[More-Gear-Than-Skill]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

and there's usually some maths involved. Get a proper guitar speaker.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

Mojo makes a pretty decent cab. Here's a link to the 1x12 ext cab they sell. I think it has a generic fender look to it, but they'll put whatever tolex and grill on it that you want.

http://www.mojomusicalsupply.com/cgi-bin/mojotone/MOJOEXT.html

 

[BG00]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

I have made 2 cabs myself and am very happy with them. It saved me a lot of money and wasn't all that difficult if you are patient. The hardest part is doing the tolex and cutting the corners correctly. And yes use good speakers, I recommend Eminence speakers. Plenty of variety and good prices.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Is making a Guitar Extension Cabinet Easy?

for the cost and time alone I would but one...add to that the construction and buying a goo cab is a no brainer...