How To Build A Guitar Speaker Box Or Build Two For Your Stereo.

I wanted a new guitar speaker to go with the tube amp I'm building. The speaker will stay out in my shop so it doesn't need to be anything too special. Tolex covering might be too easily damaged so I just sprayed the outside black after a light sanding. I found a great "cheap" grille cloth material. I can't wait to try it out on my new amp that's about finished. It sounded great when I tried it out on my shop radio.

The WARNING!

Before we get too far into this let me say this, I'm not trying to teach a complete course in woodworking or include all of the steps needed to complete this project. I'm not going to warn you of all of the dangers of working with tools. You will have to fill in some gaps here and there or maybe huge gaps in some places. I don't take any responsibility for any loss either financial, physical, mental etc. either real or imagined.

If you don't agree to this please look at another instructable. If you do then I hope you have as much fun building yours as I did building mine.

Step 1 Materials and Tools Needed

Materials needed.

One half sheet 3/4" MDF or cabinet grade plywood. ( MDF is better for this than particle board)
Alternate material: 1 x 12 pine or poplar boards would make great side and top pieces. It would eliminate some long cuts and the front and back would be perfectly parallel. The downside is that good 1 x 12 boards are more expensive.
Wood glue
1 1/2" wood screws. I used black sheetrock screws
2" finish nails if not making biscuit joints
4 plastic feet or small casters
A handle of your choice
1/4" jack
Speaker wire
Speaker of your choice
Mounting bolts to fit the speaker and long enough to pass through the MDF.
Grille cloth if you want to protect you speaker and have a more finished box



Tools you must have

Eye protection
Ear protection if using power tools
Saw to make a straight cut
Saw to make an inside curved cut. May be a coping saw, saber saw etc.
Screw driver (to fit the screws of course)
Measuring instruments
Marking instruments
A square of some sort (something as simple as a heavy index card would be useable)
Compass to draw your speaker circle
Heavy duty stapler


Tools it would be nice to have

Circular saw and guide for long cuts better yet a table saw
Electric drill with drill for pilot holes and screw bit for power screwing
Router with 3/4" flat bit and circle guide
1/4" round over bit for Router
Rotozip saw with circle guide or saber saw with circle guide
Biscuit cutter and size #20 biscuits
Several different sized bar clamps
8" square
Random Orbital Sander and pads
Power stapler
An air conditioned and heated workshop

Comments

[daftsupernova]

In all, how much did this cost?

[Re-design]

Not much.

I didn't have to buy any tools.

I had the wood in my stash.  If bought new probably $20 worth of wood.

The speaker was a unit I bought surplus from Radio Shack Outlet store for $8 or so.

It would really sound better with a better speaker but it sounds good enough for a practice amp.

There are some reasonable speakers for less than $50.

[CROmakers]

that looks like glass wool

[Re-design]

It's fiberglass insulation, often called "glass wool".

[zourza]

 does this have to be plugged into an amp to work? or could i plug my guitar straight in?

[Re-design]

You need an amp.  For practice you can build a small half watt amp.  LINK The 2 watt tube amp I built sounds pretty good on it.  Not nearly loud enough for stage but plenty of sound for practice.

Parts for the amp in the link can be gotten at Radio Shack.  They stock all the parts standard.  There are refinements that people have made to it like tone controls etc.

Good luck.

[Re-design]

There's gonna be a guitar competition (maybe(!
http://www.instructables.com/community/Guitar-solo-competition/?comments=all#CQJB2CTFYG862D7

[learntodostuff]

what guitar is that ?

[Re-design]

It's a Torres Kit that copies the Les Paul. I built it earlier in the year. Speaking of Les Paul, he passed on today. That's sad.

[Parts-Express]

Nice design and overall look. You should submit it to the Parts Express project showcase: http://www.parts-express.com/projectshowcase/projectindex.cfm

[moduleinst]

Very reasonable design and quality info. Thanks.

[moduleinst]

Very reasonable design and quality into. Thanks.

[bigredlevy]

Fantastic design mate, this speaker box would make an awesome practice guitar amplifier. i made something similar with a noisy cricket 1/2 watt amp circuit. Easy to solder up, works like a charm, and is much louder than you would think.

Noisy cricket:
http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/NoisyCricket/

[Re-design]

Thanks. I really like you site and the instruction page for you cricket looks great.

[pfred2]

I never much cared for LM386s myself. I've built a few of these and they're not much more complicated than that 386 circuit you link to and I'd say probably a bit nicer:

http://www.redcircuits.com/Page1.htm

You can get a solid 10 watts or so out of it. About as loud as a practice amp. Biased right I get smooth feedback.

The circuit is pretty liberal for parts substitution depending on what you have on hand. You can add a couple extra pots to the preamp op amp for some nice overdrive too. One thing I always need to do is add some voltage regulators as I never have high voltage op amps on hand. I built one of these with a vintage scavenged JRC4558 and it is sweet!

One of these days I'll have to post an Instructable about it I suppose. That, and this wicked overdrive schematic I found online. I swear that box does it all!

I can't find the original page today but I think I cite it in this:

ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/projects/overdrive.zip

Anyways happy soldering.

[Skyfinity]

Great schematics, but the noisy cricket is all available at Radioshack. That's super convenient for people like me that try to avoid ordering things. I like yours though anyway. :)

[pfred2]

As I mentioned in my previous post the circuit is flexible enough to allow a wide range of substitution parts. I've never built it with the exact parts. Just similar ones. Substituting is a worthwhile skill for a hobbyist to cultivate. For instance I can't honestly say I've ever quite seen a 22V dual tap transformer in my life. Even though I've several hundred pounds of salvaged transformers lying around! So yeah try to build one, what is the worst thing that could happen? It could blow up? Makes for a great story when it does! Did I ever tell you the story of when I built a 78XX power supply and used an incorrect pin out from the back of a Rat Shack blister package .... Let me tell you them puppies blow up like M-80s! Almost makes you not want to do initial circuit power ups at 3 AM, nah, when it is done it goes under the gun.

[dudejetfighter]

nice Ible. i love your les paul, nice color

[Re-design]

Thanks for the complement. It was a torres kit. I sprayed it with Stewmac paint the put 10 coats of acrylic on it. Some day I'll get a real Les Paul (maybe).

[Yerboogieman]

Very nice box, i like the idea of the grill cloth, i hate it when people always push in the center of speakers.

[Skyfinity]

I had to think a while to figure out what you meant, but now I get it. I agree, that aggravates me tremendously. Some people just take joy out of permanently ruining things. These people need to learn how to contribute something to society.

[Yerboogieman]

Rather than destroy it.

[pfred2]

If it wasn't for destruction none of us would be here! We are star stuff.

[Yerboogieman]

There is useful destruction, then there is useless and stupid destruction.

[Skyfinity]

Nice try. :) I agree destruction is nature, but waste is not. Nothing is ever wasted in nature.

[Skyfinity]

Exactly.

[Yerboogieman]

No kidding.

[Skyfinity]

For those of you who have experienced such a tragedy and came to instructables for help, you can apparently un-dent speaker cones with various types of<a rel="nofollow" href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060916065553AARKAqi">vacuum cleaners.</a> Others have used masking tape and (for metal) the sub-zero liquid that comes out of a air-blaster canister when turned upside down. A vacuum seems the safest though.<br/>

[Xamith]

You have no idea how much it bothers me to walk through stores and see speaker cones pushed in.

[Yerboogieman]

Especially, because you can't hear if they are to your liking in good condition before you buy them.

[pfred2]

The center dome in a speaker is called the "dustcap" It is only there to keep dust out of the voice coil, not to contribute to the sound.

[Yerboogieman]

if you push it far enough, you can damage the voice coil.

[pfred2]

Unlikely as the voice coil in most speakers is a wire wrapped paper tube surrounded by steel. You must have a big red S on your chest if you can push it in that hard!

[Skyfinity]

Very true. :) Regardless, it's ascetically unpleasant and weakens the cap's dome shape, making it easier to rip and become a vibrating piece of rubbish. If that doesn't ruin it, they'll find a way. They always find a way.

[Yerboogieman]

Also, it makes one compare it to feces.

[Skyfinity]

Didn't exactly think of that one... but, whatever...

[pfred2]

Same stuff they use for brains :)

[Farewell88s]

I was thinking of doing the same thing, but with 2 twelve inch speakers, covering the amp with tolex, Marshall style side handles.... But I don't think the insulation is really necessary, most guitar cabinets are just empty.

[pfred2]

Fiberglass is great for destroying the voice coil of the speaker. Those little bits of glass get in there and just saw back and forth to the beat!

[Re-design]

In a closed box system it does make some difference. You an always try both ways and stay with the one you like best if you use screws.