This is how I go about knocking out a 1-15 Katcher Kab. For guitar I make them 11 1/2" deep and for bass 14" or 15" deep. These work really well and I have built them both in closed back and 1/3 area open back.

This will yield a cabinet 19 1/2 x 30"

Head out to Home Depot. Buy a sheet of their "3/4" Sandply. Have the guy rip the 4 x 8 sheet twice. Once at 11 1/2" (cabinet depth for guitar), and then a second time at 17 7/8" (speaker baffle width). Pine is really neat but too hard to keep flat. The sandply does a great job. I built one and only one out of annoying pine. I have enough trouble dealing with my own stupidity to have to put up with raw materials that are giving me a case of the ass. I staple the cabinet together using epoxy or Elmer's cabinet wood glue and a butt joint. To date I've never had a joint failure. As these are home built and not vintage cabs, I have opted to apply the "KISS" principal.

Take the narrow sheet and cut off 2 pieces 18" long. Now cut the long piece in half. Ta Dah, four pieces for the sides.

Now cut off two pieces of the wider panel off to fit inside the box that will measure approximately 19 1/2" wide and 30" long. Allow about 1/8" for the tolex and grill cloth. I cut each piece from an end to ensure a right angle that I use to square the cabinet while the glue is wet.

Put it all together and keep it square, add the internal framing, run around all sides with a 3/8" radius router bit and have fun.

Do remember to run a strip of thin wood around the outside edge of the speaker baffle to keep the grill cloth from vibrating against the baffle and I take time to radius the outside of the speaker hole cutout so that a bump against it would not tear the grill on any sharp edges. I use T-nuts for all speaker screws and epoxy them into the baffle. I also pre drill all holes where the speaker baffle will be screwed into the cabinet and put them at a very shallow angle driving them with an extended bit and my handy battery powered drill.

It's really a lot of fun!

I can shoot pix of them if you are interested.

reverbs!

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

wow thanks for taking the time to post all of that i love to see pics if u got them it might help with puting the words into context

I think if you make a cab too narrow they can become more directional, especially if it's closed back. The wider they are, the more spread they seem to have.

There are some tone ring cab plans on the web somewhere. I looked into it once, saw the plans and changed my mind. I built an open back cab in a similar vein to Eddie's with an EVM 15" and it sounds great. It can handle huge volumes.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

Here are a few pix of the 1-15 Katcher Guitar cabs. My rig in the studio with the Bandmaster head, a rear view of the 1/3 area open back and Mako's setup with the Showman head.

Construction details in the next post.........

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

What a great thread

Eddie, on what does the depth of your bass cabs depend? Is it just somewhere in the ballpark of 14-15", or do you choose the depth depending on the speaker, or particular tonal qualities you'd like to achieve?

Of course it's alive, you cannot make music with dead Muppahones! -- Marvin Suggs

eddiekatcher wrote:

The one in the pix I am working on is 14. I just went down and measured it.

I just measured the one you made for me - 15" deep, same as the Ampzilla 2x15 mega-cab. It's THE best-sounding 1x15 bass cabinet I've ever played through, including the pair of Mesa Powerhouses that I have. The 4 ohm E-V 15BX bass speaker in the Katcher Kab is a big plus, too.

The Dual Showman cab that you recovered for me back in the '90's will soon return to guitar duty. The 15BX's that are in there now will be replaced by a matched pair of D-130F's once I have them reconed. The E-V's will end up in the Mesa cabs. No other bass speakers I've ever played through in the past 42 years of playing bass can match those 15BX's for their tone and anvil-like reliability.

Jack Booth
(aka WoodyJ)

The Mariners (1964-68, 1996-2005)
The Hula Hounds (1996-current)
The X-Rays (1997-2004)
The Surge! (2004, 2011-2012)
Various non-surf bands that actually made money (1978-1990)

Last edited: Feb 13, 2015 13:16:53

wow thanks everyone for taking the time to write in this thread, was going to buy i can but now reading about what everyones opinion is on dimensions i can do it myself, thanks again! one last thing why wod you use a tone ring or what is its purpose

what kind of glue do you use for the tolex?

eddiekatcher wrote:

Here are a few pix of the 1-15 Katcher Guitar cabs. My rig in the studio with the Bandmaster head, a rear view of the 1/3 area open back and Mako's setup with the Showman head.

Construction details in the next post.........

ed

The most "correct" way is to use Hide Glue, but it may be more tricky to work with.
Good luck,

Ran

The Scimitars

Last edited: Mar 11, 2021 11:41:29