Newbie gogin for Tuba 30

[robmorin]

Hello all, Rob here from Montreal, Canada

I am new to this site so pleas excuse me if i step on anyone's toes..

About me;
I am 47 years old, I do not do many gigs a year, 4 or 5, I DJ as a hobby, for free to friends and family, lots of sweet 16 and turning 40th & 50th birthday parties, some at small halls and some at houses or backyards, but mostly between 30 and 100 people max.
If anything fro payment i get bottles of wine or Scotch.... i am ok with that ..

I did not spend a lot of money on my equipment, some stuff i had some i bought new. So far i have done about 25
parties or so, with many compliments on the sound & lights. However i know that i am no where near as good anyone on this forum. I built my own DJ booth and also use this booth for storage of my equipment.

I use a HP dual core PC with 2 monitors as my playing device, this PC holds many 100's of many different genres of music, all stored as MP3s at a min of 192k and above. I use a piece of software called Mixmiester Pro to mix it all together.
My amp is a mere 225 watts RMS, some China thing named Technical Pro, model LX-3100 i bought online.
My main speakers are Cerwin Vega AT-10s and i use a Paradigm sub-woofer i borrow from my home theater setup.
I connect everything together with a Tapco Mix 60 mixer and use a creative labs XMOD to smooth out the sound from
my PC before it hits the amp.

I have a mirror ball, mushroom, fog machine, laser light effects(micro Galaxian) and a Dual Gem led moonflower and strobe.
with all that mentioned above the sound is ok, most people i play for would not notice the difference between that and $10,000 setup.

But recently i found i need more bass, so i did not want to abuse my $600 paradigm sub, so i figure i would build something myself. After much research i opted to build a Tuba 30 with an Eminence Delta 12 LFac driver and a BASH 300w plate amp.
It all fit into my budget of next to nothing... Hehehehe...

With all that said, on to my questions.....

I was reading through as many posts as i could with respect to the Tuba 30 plans and what drivers are used and how to build the cabinet, I opted with Eminence Delta 12 LFAC driver and a BASH 300 watt plate amp.
So i have a few questions, with respect to the terminology used in the plans and other stuff..

1) The first couple pages of the Tuba 30 plans talk about 27 inches, but yet the plans are for 30 inch cabs. If i want to do the 27 inch version do i simply remove 3 inches off all the specs? 3 inches is not big deal for me as 30 inches will still fit through a door standard door is 32 inches. or when you say 27 inches it actually means the over all size of 30 inches.

2) With respect to the braces, can this simply be made out of 1x8 stock(MDF? Oak?), as the plans do not state what they are, unless they are scarps of the plywood??

3) The plans refer to brace numbers as 5/6, 3/5 and so on, what does that mean? is it simply the brace reference number? As its kind of confusing to a newbie.

4) What does the reference "1x" or "2x" refer to?? does this mean if you are using 1 or 2 drivers in the cab? Just want to confirm.

5) I was reading up on some posts that say if one uses a plate amp that maybe the vibration of the working speaker might actually damage the plate amp after a while... so should i mount the plate amp in a separate enclosure then?

6) What forum do i post build help questions about the Tuba 30 to? "Introduce yourself and your projects" or "Build threads"
or "Tuba and Titan Pro-Sound Woofers"??

Thats it for now...

Thanks to all in advance...

Have a great day

[Frederic Gelinas]

Hello all, Rob here from Montreal, Canada

Hello! Good to see someone from my own place! I kinda feel lonely at times in here.

1) The first couple pages of the Tuba 30 plans talk about 27 inches, but yet the plans are for 30 inch cabs. If i want to do the 27 inch version do i simply remove 3 inches off all the specs? 3 inches is not big deal for me as 30 inches will still fit through a door standard door is 32 inches. or when you say 27 inches it actually means the over all size of 30 inches.

27" refers to the width of the cab. The cab is 30"x30"xYouPickTheWidth.

2) With respect to the braces, can this simply be made out of 1x8 stock(MDF? Oak?), as the plans do not state what they are, unless they are scarps of the plywood??

I use scraps of 1/2 plywood, but other material are ok too.

3) The plans refer to brace numbers as 5/6, 3/5 and so on, what does that mean? is it simply the brace reference number? As its kind of confusing to a newbie.

5/6 would be connecting panel 5 and 6 together, 3/5 panels 3 and 5. The 2 numbers relate to the panels they are glued on.

4) What does the reference "1x" or "2x" refer to?? does this mean if you are using 1 or 2 drivers in the cab? Just want to confirm.

1x has one speaker, 2x has 2. Generally, you're better off building 2 singles than a double cab for greater portability.

5) I was reading up on some posts that say if one uses a plate amp that maybe the vibration of the working speaker might actually damage the plate amp after a while... so should i mount the plate amp in a separate enclosure then?

Separate enclosure. You will eventually want to upgrade the amp, but you will still want to keep the Tuba cab.

6) What forum do i post build help questions about the Tuba 30 to? "Introduce yourself and your projects" or "Build threads"
or "Tuba and Titan Pro-Sound Woofers"??

[robmorin]

Thanks for the reply Frederic... It's nice to have someone local on the boards...

Thanks for clearing up those points for me, it helps....

So with respect to width, it does not matter 30" or 27"? I thought these cabs were precisely tuned a certain way to specific dimensions? But anyways i may as well do the 30 so i can just follow the plans... what are the benefits or pit falls of doing a 30 vs 27?

As for the amp i decided i will leave it out of the Tuba and just make a simple box for it or incorporate it into my DJ booth some how...

Can't wait to get the build going...

And for more build questions do i post them here or in the Tuba section or in the build section, as i do not want to annoy anyone..



Thanks and have a good one!

[Frederic Gelinas]

So with respect to width, it does not matter 30" or 27"? I thought these cabs were precisely tuned a certain way to specific dimensions? But anyways i may as well do the 30 so i can just follow the plans... what are the benefits or pit falls of doing a 30 vs 27?

From the plan :"The T30 may be built in a range of widths from 16 to 30 inches." The second paragraph tells you how you pick the width (Depends on your driver choice and pack space). The Delta 12 range is 24 to 30 inches. The wider you go, the best performance you will get.

And for more build questions do i post them here or in the Tuba section or in the build section, as i do not want to annoy anyone..

Tuba section is the place to ask questions. The build section is more like a place to show off your build pictures, etc.

[robmorin]

Thanks Frederic, i just received my Eminence Delta 12 LFac driver today, its very cool...

I will start to get the wood supplies today, hopefully the amp will come this week sometime...


Thanks again & have a great day!

[Tom Smit]

In this thread you can see how the bottom end improves when the cab is built wider. You can also see how performance improves when adding cabs. http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... f=12&t=550

[safebet]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the great introduction! I'm in a similar situation, using my gear mostly for friend and family functions and to support some local charities. It is fun though, isn't it?

I also have a Tuba 30 pair and they're great! I wanted deep bass and I got it. In the Tuba 30, the recommended minimum width for the Delta 12LF is 24" where as little as 16" is okay for the 3012LF. My were built 23" wide but I use the 3012LF driver which today is a bit costly and even a bit scarce. But I also have a pair of Delta12LF on hand, a quite excellent driver, and I thought I would push the size large enough where I might actually get by using them in the same boxes someday if wanted. Otherwise I probably would have gone with 18" wide or so as has Donny and some other Tuba builders. Size matters from both perspectives, big and small.

The point is to be careful not to go larger than you need to. If you find you want more bass, the overwhelming bang-for-the-buck comes with building a second box and v-coupling them. Beyond that you begin to experience the law of diminishing returns and, I don't know about you, but I ain't made of money.

The simple math, and these are of course approximations:

0 boxes = NO bass
1 box = Very nice bass, thank you Bill
2 boxes v-coupled = 8 to 9dB more bass than "Very nice bass"
4 boxes = +6dB than had with 2 boxes
8 boxes = +12dB than had with 2 boxes

By the way, a 3dB change is only slightly noticeable, but 10dB subjectively sounds about "twice" as loud.

Just wanted to throw you that perspective.

Good luck and have fun!
Tom

[Mikey]

So with respect to width, it does not matter 30" or 27"?

27" will be easier to get through smaller doorways ... 30" may be a squeeze for some.