companion speaker for coffe-can SRO?

[Luthierwnc]

Hi All,

I think the last winter project will be a matching cab for this one. It is sort of like a Forte 3D but different dimensions. The head is a 2nd gen hybrid. Dialed in as stock, it sounds like one.

The cab has a reconed EV SRO. I plan to make the second cab identical except for cups on the top to fit the feet of this one. I'm not sure I want to get another SRO since it would be nice to have something different for single-cab spaces.

Thoughts on what speaker you would put in the new cab?

Thanks, Skip

[Structo]

I love the look of that!

Sonic blue?

Can we see the details of the speaker cab?

[David Root]

Since the coffee can SRO is Alnico, I would choose a ceramic magnet.

I would look at a Fane Studio 12L, it is their EV12L but has a smoother top end.

Otherwise the Celestion G12-65 or Lead 80 would be more different, both great speakers to my ears.

[Blackburn]

I just did a thread on my old EV 12Ls I recently purchased that I put in an oval back 2x12. I'm really digging these things. I find the top end very present, but not overbearing. You can find them reasonably priced on eBay. My vote for a mate is an old 12L. Ugly, but they sound great.

[Luthierwnc]

Thanks Blackburn. I had a 12L in a Thiele. It worked well but not with the SRO. I've heard that elsewhere too. Too much in the upper mids I thought but to each his own.

Maybe the Fane version would help. I like the WGS G12C/S in another cab and I've got a G12-65 with a Scumback H55 in my 2X12. That's the dedicated cab for the 102 hybrid. The Austin 70 has its admirers.

Not sure when I'll get to this with April 15 looming but it is on the short list of GAS.

[Luthierwnc]

Tom -- missed your answer. It is called Carolina Blue. Mojo has it and you can get it on Ebay too. Not the right rig for an NC State frat party. I loaned it to a friend and if asked in this state, we agreed it would be "Long Island Teal" for the occasion. Sonic Blue as the fallback.

Here's a picture I did for the above friend after he heard mine. The blue one is in 19mm Baltic birch. With the SRO it is heavier than the 2X12. This one is Home Depot #2 pine. I got the straightest ones they had and set the seam directly on the inside port line. That way, I could cut the rest of the port on the bandsaw instead of remembering where I put the router jig. This one was built to the width of a BF Bandmaster head but a bit shorter than the blue one.

I've made a lot of pine boxes over time and use 1/4 finger joints with Gorilla glue. I made a sled for the router table with a matching cleat that fits the previous cut. It usually takes a couple trials to get the tablesaw fence perfect but then I can knock out all the fingers in about 15 minutes.

You can't see it in this shot but I set a 1" router bit on the table for the width of some heavy mahogany veneer and made light cuts about 2" in from the ends of the side pieces on both sides. Then I glued the veneer cross-grained into the dado. Probably not needed but if there is a weak spot in the box, that would be it. For the next one, I'm thinking I'll rip the side, on-end on-center, about 2" down and fit a matching shim before I cut the fingers. Sort of an internal bridle joint.

Lesson learned the hard way: make the port deflectors modular and put them in AFTER you staple the grille cloth down.

Keep those speaker ideas coming in! Thanks, Skip

[jelle]

The Fane Studio 12L is a fun speaker. Lots of bottom end.

[Luthierwnc]

Thanks Jelle and David,

Where can you get a Fane 12L? The US dealers on their website seem to have dropped the line. Tonic Amps still has Fane listed but no models.

Jelle, your comment about the SRO in a bigger open-back (2nd gen thread) widens the discussion. Maybe the ceramic in the current cab and an open-back as the new SRO home.

I poked around at Fane and they seem to have a new guitar speaker page. The 12L is a PA driver and it stayed at the old site but the new line is here:

http://www.fane-acoustics.com/

They look a lot like the ASW products.

More study necessary,

sh

[Blackburn]

I bought a Fane AlNiCo AXA 12" a couple years back and it had terrible cone cry. I was extremely disappointed that this happened with a $300+ speaker. Makes me wonder about their other products and their quality control. I know these things can happen and be isolated incidents, but I returned it and wasn't planning on going back. I will say that the tone was really gnarly and I was pretty happy with the grind of that speaker. Luthierwnc, you mentioned ASW... I have their Elegante model and dig it very much, but it can occasionally be trying in the high end. I think I recall the Fane being less strident on the top, with a similar grind, and it makes me wonder if I could get a flawless one whether I'd try that again. 100w and they are a sweet blue!

[Structo]

I always thought the Forte cabs were cool.

Never played through one but I thought it was a interesting design.

Did you do the weight saving dados on the inside?

[Luthierwnc]

I didn't. I haven't got a CNC router. It could be done with the right jigs and a hand router. Either of them would certainly burn the s#&t out of the bits in Baltic birch. It is hard wood and you'd be cutting through at least 11 layers of formaldehyde glue.

I did use lock miter joints. Absolutely the best way to do plywood corners. It takes a few passes to get the bit right but then it almost assembles itself and only needs clamping pressure in one direction. I always check them for square but haven't ever needed to diagonal clamp it to get equal corner-to-corner measurements.

Just out of habit I always make the tops and bottoms out of the pieces with horizontal tongues -- the sides in the illustration. With Gorilla glue they are really solid but I still like a mechanical bond in the direction of lift if the glue joint fails.

The baffle and back cleats are dadoed in about 1/8" deep so they ain't going anywhere either. The long ones go in during assembly and the short ones are added after it's dry.

[hywelg]

Interesting construction. Should be way quicker than dovetails which I've always used up to now.

Some of the cabs I've built have handles on the side as well so I would have to consider some lock dowels I think, but having that tooling would allow for some deep pine cabs (Its very difficult to get good quality pine in wider than 275mm here) 350mm or so deep.

How much tweaking with the router cutter depth do you have to do to get the joints to mate correctly aligned?

Will investigate the cutters, I already have a decent router (2300w) and table so it should be straight forward.

[Luthierwnc]

Not that much trouble, really. The issue is that you make a vertical and a horizontal pass at the same setting. Even with a clean bit and a good router (must be in a table), hogging through 19mm BB in a single pass is smelly, nerve-wracking work.

I reduce that by clamping a shop-made auxiliary fence that is just two pieces of 19mm BB about 3" by 24" long with scrap spacers at intervals. Once the bit is right on scrap tests, I un-clamp the fence and slip a 1/8" tileboard shim between the real fence and the plywood one and run the stock through. Re-clamp without the shim and clean-up the cuts.

Not shown is a jig that holds the vertical stock so you can keep pressure into the cut without getting your fingers close. Also not shown is a 2X3 aluminum downspout elbow mounted in the center gap that connects to a shop-vac. Between the router and the vac it is noisy as get-out but it is better than getting covered with sawdust and Russian glue.

I use dovetails for solid wood. This cab also has quick and dirty side handles. They are just Forstner holes overlapped with a little filing and a roundover -- just remember to round them over on the inside before assembly. Trying to lift this bugger on a cab with the top handle is asking for back pain. It also helps vent the heat. sh

[Luthierwnc]

Anybody know where to get one? Thanks, sh

[ODwan]

I use a Wgs Blackhawk HP (which is said to be a Sro clone) with a Wgs ET65 in a D-Style 2x12". Killer combi with lotsa chewy mids. It fits very nicely in the mix.
Cheers, Timo