4x8" speaker cab - anyone tried/built one?

[Geeze]

Poked around guitar part sites [yes, I know, very dangerous] and looked at Weber's 8" series of speakers. The 4x10 setup is popular with bass players and guitarists so I got to thinking about a 4x8 slant cab. I know there would be a thin bottom end but the benefits of small lightweight and [lets face it] cool look of a mini slant cab are intriguing.

Before I commit to $200 worth of speakers does anyone have experience, strength, hope or horror to share?

[Cantplay]

If you look at cone are, 2 12" circles are bigger than 4 8" circles.

Based on t hat, a 2x12 might be a better choice.

John

[Mark]

I would listen to as many 8" speakers as possible and make sure you like sound of them. 10" speakers do have a certain charm over 12" speakers in some people's opinions, perhaps 8" speakers might be similar.

Something to consider with 8" speakers is the amps they were used in. Fender Champs don't have a good bass response so this colours people's opinions on the bass response of a 8" speaker.

As stated before do you homework and if money is an issue don't buy them. Better the devil you know.

[Geeze]

This is one of those leap before you look as I don't have a ready supply of 8" speakers on hand. I leapt with 10"s and have been very pleased with two in a 15" cube. The lure of a small slant cab could overcome fiscal wisdom. Add the rationale of furthering guitar cab knowledge and this may prove to be irresistible. I have years of experience leaping off cliffs real and theoretical.

[rp]

Search the harp forums for info on 4x8 cabs, they are into that stuff. IME with guitars I would avoid 8"s, at least the modern ones unless you have some dough to throw around. Not enough selection, the few I tried were too dark for a champ, the older jensens or oxfords were voiced brighter I think. Left it w/ a blue pup as I decided to stop spending on them, if I was going to try one more it would be the WGS 8. If you insist on 4x8 I would buy the cheap Weber signatures everyone uses, you can prolly sell them off pretty quick if you don't like them - put all 4 as a package on ebay to balance the shipping. That's the problem with 8", not much use to have extras around but it's nice to have various 10s and 12s around.

[Geeze]

Thank you for the WGS nod. I'd forgotten them. I'll post on their forum to see if anyone has done this. Having thought more on the subject I'd probably run 2 in detuned config.

[ER]

4x8's fit in a slightly oversize 1x12" cabinet, like an old tweed fender combo size. So you want something roughly 20" square with sides ~10" deep, you can go a little smaller than this in practice, especially with a closed back or ported, but plain old open back is hard to beat for tone. Home depot pine shelving works great with a 1/2" or 5/8" birch ply baffle, light and resonant is where it's at. Go with a flat baffle and if it doesn't sound like you hoped make a new baffle for a 12".

8" speakers can sound great, I have a pair that sound like the best old celestions you've ever heard. Stay away from woofer style modern speakers, you want old funky full-range alnico and paper goodness with little wimpy voice coils.

You want at least 40" total baffle width (20"+10"+10") to have a 1/4 wave length at 82 Hz, the fundamental of your low E string (provided the speakers have an equivalent Fs to get there), no magic needed, just physics. A speaker with a higher Qts (closer to 1) will be happier with the open back.

Sound travels at 13397.2441 inch per second, at 82 cycles per second each wave will travel 163.3810 inches a quarter wavelength (90 degrees) will give you 40.8453 inches needed to support that frequency.

[img:930:670]http://fullrangedriver.com/singledriver ... s-freq.gif[/img]

Good luck, ER

[Blackburn]

I was thinking about a cab like this just the other day. I like that it wouldn't need to be too big and am pretty sure it would be badass. Are Weber's Signature series all that nice sounding?

[rp]

I was thinking about a cab like this just the other day. I like that it wouldn't need to be too big and am pretty sure it would be badass. Are Weber's Signature series all that nice sounding?

I gave up before trying one, got sick of buying 8s. Fender used some version of the sig in it's Custom Shop handwired tweed Champ from the picts I've seen. Weber seems to sell a ton and webword seems very positive. They are up to $30-$40 w/o ship now and while Weber also offers many more interesting 8s they start to cost as much as 10s or 12s. Here's an other option, again there's the price. How bad do you want a 4x8?

http://w.mawebcenters.com/midwestspeake ... eaker.html

Don't ever try one of these in a Champ, I should have known better. It's now my bench speaker:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... er=290-401

BTW I could see using the low sensitivity of a 4x8 cab to hit a sweet spot with an amp you couldn't get otherwise in this era of high-efficiency speakers. If I had a wood shop and $150-$300 to blow on 8s I would try it for kicks. DIY on the cab, do a nice job, sell the rig on ebay if you don't like it, someone will buy it and you might not loose too much.

[statorvane]

Sure you can't live with 2 x 10" vs. 4 x 8"? I would think 2 x 10" will weigh less than 4 x 8" and take about the same room. I think you'll like the sound of the 10's much better..

[jon]

I had a Traynor Studio Mate that was a 4X8" and it really kicked out some nice sounds. The bass was tight and if the cab is sized properly it will be quite deep sounding. I say go for it, what do you have to loose but some time and wood.

[brewdude]

4x8's fit in a slightly oversize 1x12" cabinet, like an old tweed fender combo size. So you want something roughly 20" square with sides ~10" deep, you can go a little smaller than this in practice, especially with a closed back or ported, but plain old open back is hard to beat for tone. Home depot pine shelving works great with a 1/2" or 5/8" birch ply baffle, light and resonant is where it's at. Go with a flat baffle and if it doesn't sound like you hoped make a new baffle for a 12".

8" speakers can sound great, I have a pair that sound like the best old celestions you've ever heard. Stay away from woofer style modern speakers, you want old funky full-range alnico and paper goodness with little wimpy voice coils.

You want at least 40" total baffle width (20"+10"+10") to have a 1/4 wave length at 82 Hz, the fundamental of your low E string (provided the speakers have an equivalent Fs to get there), no magic needed, just physics. A speaker with a higher Qts (closer to 1) will be happier with the open back.

Sound travels at 13397.2441 inch per second, at 82 cycles per second each wave will travel 163.3810 inches a quarter wavelength (90 degrees) will give you 40.8453 inches needed to support that frequency.

[img:930:670]http://fullrangedriver.com/singledriver ... s-freq.gif[/img]

Good luck, ER

So, the total baffle must be the width plus the depth of each side? Is this for a single speaker of for a pair side by side or does it matter? What if the cabinet used a vertical speaker arrangement?

Also, is the graph for a specific speaker's response, or is it representative of the response of any cabinet regardless of speaker compliment?

[Cantplay]

The graph is not a response of any speaker or cabinet.

It is a plot of length of quarter standing wavelength vs frequency.

John

[ER]

Hey brewdude, I'm just "over the hill" from you. Yeah like can'tplay said this is just waves.

You can go a little under in practice because you pick up some support from the floor. With a vertical cab you loose a little, but it cuts better and puts one of the speakers closer to your ear, that's why a lot of guys go that route.

And as long as you have the width to put out that fundamental you're good for bottom end, the cabinet isn't going to add anything the guitar isn't putting out there unless you're playing detuned, 7 string, using an octaver or some other nonsense. It all comes down to how effectively you cancel out the 180 phase signal coming off the back of the speaker and at what point.

With that said you don't want a single 12" right in the middle of the baffle, you want it a little lower so all the frequency lemmings aren't jumping off the cliff at once.

[jhaas]

FYI, Eminence has come out with an 8" driver for guitar, I think within the past year.

http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speake ... model=820H