New builder on an old project, a Mini Snail

[devodave]

I'm Dave from Western NY and have wanted to play bass for sometime. I do not plan on performing, but just playing for my own enjoyment. I work as a QA engineer and am always trying to put my mechanical engineering training to "good" use (read FUN) . I have been planing on building an acoustic bass guitar for about the last year now and have purchased a cheap one to practice with until it is built. This year for Christmas, I received a copy of "The best of Make" from Makezine and their cracker box amp has morphed into a bass amp project that I am now working on, including the amp (Gainclone) and preamp (Kreuzer) . The cabinet has been the tough part. I didn't want to build a huge cabinet and since I will only playing for myself, it does not have to be loud. But I do want to reproduce the low bass notes of 30 Hz for 5 string or even lower.

I found this site after I had ordered Bill's "Loudspeakers for Musicians" and with that in hand, will atempt my first build. I know this site is mainly focused on the advertised products, but I have a question that maybe someone has attempted in the past. The Mini Snail seems to be the best project for my needs at this time. It is however, suited for higher bass response than I wanted. If I make the throat opening in the baffle the same ID as the driver, as is done in the Snail, will the bass response improve (go lower)? I know it only has an 8" driver and the tweeter(s) I could just as well leave out, but that was the major difference that I could see. I also have looked at using a 10" driver instead, but that increases the size of the cabinet. A reduced size Snail (10' driver) could also be an option, but with small children in the house, I know I would find all manner of things dropped inside.

The products shown on this site really look cool and I may want to move up at some later point or add some of the non PA items, but for now, the Mini Snail seems to make the most sense for me. Thanks.

[Frankenspeakers]

Welcome aboard!
I remember the Snail & the Snai lII from the Speakerbuilder days. The designs have advanced over the years, and have morphed into the Tuba and DR designs. You are welcome to continue with the Snail build, but you might want to consider one of the newer designs to try. The direct descendent (I believe) is the DR 250. A smaller alternative would be the O10 or O10.5.

Someone (probably Bill hisself) will correct me if I am wrong, but it's not the size of the throat that determines the bottom end but the length and mouth area. The throat has more to do with the upper frequencies. A smaller throat increases the compression, and the high end cutoff. Like the good 'ol NASCAR boys will tell ya: there ain't no replacement for displacement. There are a couple of 8" designs that go down to 30 Hz. First is the TT (Table Tuba) I have one in my HT system and it goes as low as I want it to. The T18 or AT will if it is in a corner of a room. Outside they drop like a rock above 50Hz. This is OK for practise, but not for performance. These are not designed primarily as bass guitar speakers though.

Since you are building your own amp also, I would suggest that you start with a O10 "Airhead" (an O10 with a space above to house an amp.)

[Chris_Allen]

A quick word of warning Dave.

Building speakers is very addictive and can become obsessive very quickly

Chris.

[Mikey]

It would be well worth your money to buy the most recent plans of whichever design you end up deciding to build. There have been a LOT of improvements over the years, not only in the cabinets' performance, but in better and easier building procedures.

You don't need 30hz extension. Although the B string is at ~31hz, there's hardly any of that content leaving your bass. What you actually hear is the second harmonic, at ~62hz.

If you're dead-set on bass extension,and your rig is strictly for home use, go with a TableTuba and a DR200. The combination will give you full frequency range of "audiophile" quality sound, while being very inexpensive to build.

If you're not looking for massive volume and you'd like a single, reasonably sized cabinet, take a look at the Omni12. It has full range capability and it'll handle your B string with authority.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

for now, the Mini Snail seems to make the most sense for me. Thanks.

No. The MiniSnail is four design generations old and is hugely outperformed by the DR200, Omni 10.5 or OTop 12.

[Tim A]

for now, the Mini Snail seems to make the most sense for me. Thanks.

No. The MiniSnail is four design generations old and is hugely outperformed by the DR200, Omni 10.5 or OTop 12.

Bears repeating:

The MiniSnail is...hugely outperformed by the DR200, Omni 10.5 or OTop 12.



Read it a couple of times!

[devodave]

Thanks for the input. The replies were really fast. Looks like I struck a nerve, wanting to use the old Snail design, but I guess that is what the forrum is for. Based on this advice, I will order the Omni 10 and the DR250 plans. How does the PayPal account work here? I am used to using it with Ebay. Do I just sned an email request and get and email back with PayPal instructions? Not sure how to proceed at this point.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Thanks for the input. The replies were really fast. Looks like I struck a nerve, wanting to use the old Snail design, but I guess that is what the forrum is for. Based on this advice, I will order the Omni 10 and the DR250 plans. How does the PayPal account work here? I am used to using it with Ebay. Do I just sned an email request and get and email back with PayPal instructions? Not sure how to proceed at this point.

Logon to Paypal, send payment to the email address on the website, in notes state the plans desired.

[Tim A]

Looks like I struck a nerve, wanting to use the old Snail design,

I don't think you struck a nerve, Bill's just trying to save you from wasting your time. When Bill says one of his old designs is obsolete, I listen.

[AntonZ]

For backup purposes, I use a GMail account for Bill to send my plans to. I leave them there, plenty of storage space available. Have an offline copy to work with, change paper size, change fonts, add notes/headers/footers, whatever makes me happy. If my computer's HDD screws up, I just build another pc, log on to my gmail account and still have a copy of the plans available.

The GMail account is used for paypal, just asked Bill in my paypal request to send the plans to my gmail address.

[WB]

For backup purposes, I use a GMail account

That's a great idea, never thought of that. Thanks for the tip.