Newbie from Virginia...

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OldDominionIron
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Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:25 am
Location: Hampton, VA

Newbie from Virginia...

#1 Post by OldDominionIron »

I just started playing bass guitar several months ago, am doing reasonably well (so far), and find myself wanting to build a bigger speaker cabinet to go with a Hartke HA3000 amp I got a great deal on. I was looking at the Jack 210, but a co-worker (whose opinion I value) recommended a single 15 over the dual 10's. The 15 will definitely handle the 300 watts the amp is supposed to put out, and what I've been reading is that it is also more economical than the 210.

Some personal info, I'm married with a 17-year old daughter, work at the local nuclear power plant, and some of my other interests include home brewing, target shooting, and I've restored a 1966 M35A2 army deuce-and-a-half cargo truck.

I've built some woodworking projects in the past that have turned out rather well (I think, at least) so I'm hoping that this project will be completed with very little trouble.

Any recommendations or comments on my choice of cabinet, or advice on how to outfit it will be welcome. I understand the plans will come with recommendations on hardware, and I intend to follow those recommendations.

Cheers!
Dave

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Tom Smit
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Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:24 pm
Location: Sarnia, Ont. Canada

Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#2 Post by Tom Smit »

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

May I suggest a pair of Jack12 cabs loaded with Beta12 drivers (higher power drivers won't take advantage of your amp). These cabs will go a lot lower than conventional cabs, regardless of the driver size, and can be very clean sounding. They can even do double duty as PA cabs.
TomS

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Bas Gooiker
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 5:05 pm

Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#3 Post by Bas Gooiker »

Welcome to the forum.

A lot of people here use one or multiple "small" driver jacks for bass. If you feel you must use a 15" driver the Jack and Omni 15 would be good cabs, but definedly not small or light
Life is just a game, don't take it to seriously!

OldDominionIron
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:25 am
Location: Hampton, VA

Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#4 Post by OldDominionIron »

So if I decide to eventually go with a pair of Jack 112's, do the plans have any tips on planning/building the first one to accommodate adding a second one later? Such as using two speaker jacks on the cabinets to allow daisy-chaining. Also, is it required to have tweeters in both or none, or can I have them in one but not the other. I'll probably be ordering plans within the next few days, I just want to be confident I'm ordering the most appropriate set. Also, what is the opinion on the 112's vs. 212's?

Grant Bunter
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Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#5 Post by Grant Bunter »

G'day and welcome to the forum :)

Yes, it's simple to build one cab and allow for the connection of another cab later, ie daisy chaining.
How you achieve that is decided when you build your cab, and if you have any problem achieving it, just ask :)

If you want to dual purpose your cabs, say, to play bass, but also to play some music through at a home party etc, you can build your cabs with the piezo wiring in this thread from Harley:
http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... ff#p207174

This wiring allows you select the amount of high frequency used while playing bass, but lets you have full high frequency playing music etc...
Built:
DR 250: x 2 melded array, 2x CD horn, March 2012 plans.
T39's: 4 x 20" KL3010LF , 2 x 28" 3012LF.
WH8: x 6 with melded array wired series/parallel.
Bunter's Audio and Lighting "like"s would be most appreciated...

OldDominionIron
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:25 am
Location: Hampton, VA

Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#6 Post by OldDominionIron »

Ordered and received the Jack 12 plans, and have been going over them multiple times as time allows (luckily my night shifts have been slow), and have a pretty good picture in my head of how these go together. Of course, studying the plans always brings up questions, some of which have been answered on this forum, others from different websites.

Right now it looks as if I'll be going with a single Jack 12, with the upgraded driver, a melded 8 piezo array, pre-built crossover, a pair of speakon-1/4" input jacks (for expansion to two cabinets later on), as well as top hats top and bottom (for later).

I see there is a front folding leg available from Leland, and I'll probably go with that as well.

The next step is to build some jigs, buy a jigsaw, and find a source of good plywood in this area. I've got emails into some real lumberyards, waiting on responses...

A couple of ideas I didn't see addressed in other places...(1) How important is it to drill for the top hats prior to installing the panels in the port ducts? It seems that as long as I keep in mind where the baffle is, finding the CG then drilling for the top hats would be better. While not wanting to second guess the plans, it would be hard to align the hole in the bottom of the cabinet with the hole in the port duct without drilling them simultaneously. (2) Where do most people locate the DPDT for the tweeter selector. My plan is to locate the input jacks on both sides of the cabinet to allow for removal of the back without worrying about pulling wires out. Last question (for this post), would there be any issue with running /connecting the wires from the input jacks to two terminal boards (one (+), one (-)) and then connection these to the crossover and then on to the driver/piezos. I think this would make a neater appearance than just twisting the wires together into a bundle (I know no one will see this but me, but I'm slightly anal about stuff like this)

Anyway, thanks for all the information, when I finally start building this another thread will be started on the Build forum, along with lots of pictures.

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doncolga
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Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#7 Post by doncolga »

Welcome man. Good luck and have fun with your build. Gold mine of a resource you've found here.
Donny Collins
Built:
Two 18" Tuba 30's 3012 LF
Two 26" Tuba 30's Lab 12
Two OmniTop 12's DL 2512 (Melded Array)
Presonus Studio One DAW
Harrison Consoles MixBus 32C DAW

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Tom Smit
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Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#8 Post by Tom Smit »

OldDominionIron wrote:) Where do most people locate the DPDT for the tweeter selector.
I've put them between the input jacks.
OldDominionIron wrote:My plan is to locate the input jacks on both sides of the cabinet to allow for removal of the back without worrying about pulling wires out. Last question (for this post), would there be any issue with running /connecting the wires from the input jacks to two terminal boards (one (+), one (-)) and then connection these to the crossover and then on to the driver/piezos. I think this would make a neater appearance than just twisting the wires together into a bundle (I know no one will see this but me, but I'm slightly anal about stuff like this)

Anyway, thanks for all the information, when I finally start building this another thread will be started on the Build forum, along with lots of pictures.
Should be no problem if you use one board for the woofer, and one board for the tweets.


PS: since you are planning for future possibilities, why not go for a full array rather than just 8?
TomS

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jswingchun
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Re: Newbie from Virginia...

#9 Post by jswingchun »

I usually post this when someone starts talking about adding a switch for the tweets when building Jacks for bass guitar. Realize that the switch is not at all a necessary part of using Jacks for bass guitar. You can easily just EQ out a bit of highs on your amp and do the same thing. I'm not telling you not to do add the switch, just that you don't need to it.

I know because this is my bass rig. I only have tweets in the top cab, but I don't use a tweeter switch.

Image

This was also an excuse to post a pic if my rig again, which I haven't done for a while.

:mrgreen:
Omni 10
Omni 10.5
OmniTop 12 x 4
Wedgehorn 8 x 3
XF212
T39 @ 18" x 2
T39 @ 20" x 2
T39 @ 28" x 2
Jack 110 x 5
Jack Lite 12
XF210
XF210 (Slant only, no crossfire)

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