Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Other Stuff => Cabinets-Speakers => Topic started by: scstill on April 03, 2025, 11:11:36 am
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Just finished this speaker cabinet The Popl408.
It sounds awesome being played through Lizzily (5881 PP Head)
Very musical with surprising strong low end. Especially for these inexpensive and lightweight speakers
Made from a scrap 4'x10" piece of poplar wood.
Plank was ripped to 5" to have enough for the cab. Its thin but sounds really good.
Removed the rubber feet as its thinness seemed too wobbly.
Tested both closed and open back with open back clear winner.
Was thinking of finishing in black stain with oxblood grill to match the speaker backs,
but I kind of like the raw look.
What do you think?
Some links of the builds
https://stillampd.com/pop-408
https://stillampd.com/lizzily
Thinking this build (wood, size, glued mitre corners) would never be a consideration of the speaker guy aficionado. For me it Kind of puts to bed the detailed technical discussions of speaker cabinet construction.
Make it, play it, love it.
Now having said that my ears are not what they used to be :-)
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Nice! that's a fine piece of furniture in my world.
does it have enough weight to keep it down when the power cords hit it hard?
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Thats nice, I like those Celestion Super 8 speakers, I've got an old Vox Pathfinder 4x8 cab that I loaded with a pair of those Super 8s and a pair of the old early 90's Blue label Fender speakers from a small 2x8 'Sidekick 20' combo amp,
Its got authentic grille cloth stains and smells a bit funny, great running it with the Rob Robinette 2 watt Marshall, fits it perfectly for a mini stack look, but now looking at yours I'm thinking about making a spare open back panel for it
I like the raw look, but maybe a dark brown stain to contrast and highlight the black speakers a little,
I've just done a 1x18" monster cab with dark stain and thick laquer, old warped wood from a kids plywood playhouse, the sides, top and bottom are 1" thick scrap wood!!!
Brass corners so it looks like an old treasure chest! But I cant get it down the stairs on my own now! With all the reinforcement inside its about 30+ kg, I have to take the driver out every time I move it :laugh:
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Appreciate the encouragement
this was my first time using a table saw, built a small sled to cut the mitre edge.
Those edges took a few pratice pieces but now i feel confident
Also first time using a router. Cut the speaker holes and back with it and a circle jig. Clean cuts.
Feelin more and more like a wood craftsman :-)
Shooter - The cab is pretty thin so it could get knocked over.
mostly will be house bound but maybe I should consider some extensions for stage support
could build a stand that would give it some back tilt which I like on stage.
Rontone - I like that 408 speaker combo. And that nameplate is awesome. Like your corner, I have gotten to a Amp Room haha...
I remember some time ago getting my 4 pack for a very good price. They sounded really bad when I tried them free standing, so they sat in my closet, But became magic in the cabinet. wonder if its from the 1/2" Baltic Sound Board or just cause they are mounted.
The thing about stain is once you start there is no going back to raw. The Problem I see with this poplar wood is that it has a green hue. So even the dark stain samples (ebony and walnut) tend to be greenish. wonder if Pre Stain help with that? Or maybe just oil and wax.
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poplar wood is that it has a green hue
put it out in the fine CA sunshine for about a week, should "take out" the green hue and leave you with a nice light "Carmel" hue
was thinking more about the cab "walking around" as you play some "dance to the music" at volume
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They sounded really bad when I tried them free standing, so they sat in my closet, But became magic in the cabinet. wonder if its from the 1/2" Baltic Sound Board or just cause they are mounted.
Unmounted speakers always sound bad because the front wave cancels the back wave and the back wave cancels the front wave coming off the speaker cone. There opposite phase so they cancel each other.
They have to have a baffle, sound board to stop that from happening. In an open back cab, the larger that baffle the less cancellation there is.
And that's part of why closed back cabs sound different than open back cabs.
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I might try the sun idea.
I'd have to turn it up a lot to get the thing to walk around.
In my limited test, closed back seems directional and "confined". I tend to like the "full" and surround sound affect of open back. In this build I started with full back to try it both ways. It also seems that the "partial" open back that I landed on works really good (and looks good too). I've read that stage players prefer that closed back directional affect. May be why some of them close their amps inside plexiglass, to tame the stage volume.