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Author Topic:  My new tt-12 speaker cabinet. A conversation piece
Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 14 Jan 2019 8:57 pm    
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So I made yet another cabinet. I used it Saturday on steel with a country band and it sounded great. I'll use it on jazz bass next weekend with a piano trio. It's my Travis Toy TT-12 in a 12" dia. x 13" high concrete form tube. It weighs about 12 lbs. It's closed back, there's no cabinet vibration because it's a cylinder, and I aim it at the ceiling with an adjustable reflector so it's almost omnidirectional (not beamey) and the indirect sound takes the edge off the mids a bit. The best part was that the drummer thought the sound guy was micing a wastebasket.

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Chris Reesor

 

From:
British Columbia, Canada
Post  Posted 14 Jan 2019 10:40 pm    
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Hope nobody mistakes it for a porta potty, Glenn. Winking
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Georg Sørtun


From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
Post  Posted 14 Jan 2019 10:57 pm    
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How about standing waves /resonance frequencies?
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 5:54 am    
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I have a thick cardboard divider inside running vertically to cut the cylinder into 2 "half-pipes" to break up the horizontal modes. Because of the speaker cone and the fact that the pipe dia is about the same, there are no parallel surfaces in the vertical direction except for the narrow speaker mounting ring. The volume is stuffed with long fiber wool. The volume looks small, but it's actually tuned for max flat according to TS, and the stuffing moves the tuning in the lower q direction.
Good question George
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 5:56 am    
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Chris, I'm more worried about somebody tossing their cookies
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Bill A. Moore


From:
Silver City, New Mexico, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 7:44 am    
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I saw this design years ago in Speaker Builder magazine. Their cab had a down firing speaker, and a cone on top to distribute the sound 360 degrees, (it was also intended for bass).
I never got around to building one, thanks for the post!
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J Fletcher

 

From:
London,Ont,Canada
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 10:49 am    
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Thinking outside of the box , indeed. I would be interested in the build specs . Length of the tube? ... Jerry
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George Kimery

 

From:
Limestone, TN, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 12:39 pm     My new TT-12 speaker. A conversation piece
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I'm with you on the cabinet construction, but I don't understand what that hinged disc sticking up is.I assume it's a pressure zone mic of some sort. Looks like the top of a trash can.
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Tom Gorr

 

From:
Three Hills, Alberta
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 1:24 pm    
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Looks like a beam reflector thst doubles as a speaker protector
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 1:26 pm    
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Bill - wow! I wrote an article for Speaker Builder magazine where I build a pair of transmission lines for Bass with 18" speakers. They looked like hot water heaters. It was: "Cylindrical Symmetric Guitar TLs", Glenn DeMichele, Speaker Builder, 1/90

This speaker is just a closed box design and not a transmission line like my article. I used tubes again because they are really light and ultra-rigid because in a cylinder, there are no walls to bow. This is why they make fire hoses round instead of square.
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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...


Last edited by Glenn Demichele on 15 Jan 2019 1:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 1:30 pm    
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Hi George: Yeah it's just a reflector to bounce the sound out rather than let it go straight up. It's just a piece of 3/16" plywood with an adjustable bracket. The bracket is just screwed to the grille and a bit flimsy. I might refine that part of it a bit.
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 1:42 pm    
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Jerry:
You can buy a 4' length of 12" dia. "Sonotube" or "Quickrete" concrete forms at Home Depot for about $12.
I used 13" of it. The actual cabinet volume you need will depend on the speaker you use, and how low in bass you want to go. They have a wax coating on the inside, and you have to sand that off wherever you want to try and glue. I also put a reinforcing backing board inside under the handle. A 3/8 piece of plywood is the bottom, and a ring of it glued to the inside of the top mounts the speaker.
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Roman Sonnleitner


From:
Vienna, Austria
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 2:06 pm    
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Very cool - like an Acoustic Image Upshot.
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Bill A. Moore


From:
Silver City, New Mexico, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 3:21 pm    
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Glenn, I guess you've been doing this a while then!
As I am recalling now, the speaker was down firing, but mounted at the top with a flat plate above the magnet to force horizonal dispersion.
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Len Amaral

 

From:
Rehoboth,MA 02769
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 3:37 pm    
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Wow, I admire your creativity. 👍
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 5:58 pm    
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I wish more of my audience members would say that.
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George Kimery

 

From:
Limestone, TN, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 6:43 pm     My new TT-12 speaker. A conversation piece
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Is the end of the tube open or closed? How does it sound when placed in a normal speaker position facing the audience? Have you tried placing it on the floor with a V block to tilt it up? How about turning an amp stand sideways and laying it on that? This would be so simple and cheap to make, it's scary. Spray it with truck bed liner or cover it with tolex, put a round metal grill front on it, and you would have a sharp, contemporary looking cabinet. This design intrigues me. I may make up one. The worst that could happen is I could use it for practice if nothing else.

Thanks for sharing this.
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 7:04 pm    
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Hi George:
Its closed. You could build this in a bucket if you wanted, but you'd probably have to reinforce the bottom because that's a flat surface.
You can set it in the floor without a reflector facing the audience too, but it's a bit beamy. My buddy said it looked like a fan he uses drying out flooded carpets. I took a piece of the extra tube material and a wood square and made a little curved stand so I could angle it up toward me at about 45 degrees. That worked OK, but the stand was another piece to bring to the gig. You could even use tom-tom hardware to angle it if you want. All that mounting stuff though is external to the kernal of the speaker, which is a closed cylinder which is really light because it's cardboard, and super rigid and uncolored because its a cylinder.
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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 7:18 pm    
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Bill made me nostalgic, and I re-read my bass cabinet article in Speaker Builder magazine from 1990. I was single, playing a lot, had a great-fitting tux, and had no idea that I would someday become obsessed with PSG. Here's a pic of the first page. I'm more than happy to send you a .pdf of the full article if you PM me your email address.


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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jan 2019 7:36 pm    
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I had to laugh when I re-read it. Technology changes!
Here are some quotes:
"They had to fit in my car"
"Wrap continuous form computer paper tightly around the tube ... to cut it square" Good luck finding that paper nowadays.
"Look in the Yellow pages for Fibre Drums"
"The completed woofer cabinets weigh only 60 lbs. each"

But, the laws of physics haven't changed, and they were 18" speakers.
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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2019 8:15 pm    
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I ripped out the steel grid, and used the ring with a wood insert I made. I got a "friction hinge" or "position hinge" from Amazon to use instead of the bulky metal lid positioner I was using. It really looks like an "elf toilet" now. Works great though. I used it on bass last night. The TT-12 really got a great fretless sound with my piezo pickup. I will use it in its current form on my first steel gig on Thursday. In my basement, the speaker sounds really omnidirectional and seems to come from everywhere.


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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...
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Jim Pitman

 

From:
Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA
Post  Posted 21 Jan 2019 8:23 pm    
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Glenn thanks so much for sharing this with us.
What brand/model speaker did you put in it?
That's got to be the least expensive speaker cab ever.
A great example of re-purposing a mass produced commodity item.
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 21 Jan 2019 9:44 pm    
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It's a Travis toy tt-12.
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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...
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Glenn Demichele


From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 27 Jan 2019 12:37 pm    
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I made some revisions, including a friction hinge and Velcro for the top, a sparser grille, and a strap so I can carry it like a bucket. Here's more pics so you can build one. It sounded great on the gig Friday. My sound was everywhere, not just in front of the cab.



_________________
Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5, homemade buffer/overdrive, Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x BAM200 for stereo. 2x GW8003 8" driver in homemade closed-box. Also NV400 etc. etc...
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Stu Schulman


From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2019 5:51 am    
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Extremely Awesome!
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