good speaker cabinet for 18W head

[zakk64]

Hello all, I'm new to amp making so I'm in the researching stage at the moment. I think I'm going to go with building a PP18W Plexi head from amp maker, question is what kind of speaker cab should I go for? I play in a blues band, and at the moment I use a 15W Blackheart handsome Devil that I've modded with Valve rectification. It's pretty loud and does nice bluesy crunch, problem is a 18W Plexi will probably do it better, especially if I've built it! I'm not thinking of building a cab at the moment, just want to buy one, and of course I'm on a tight budget, so about £200 max. Peter Green, Bluesbreaker Clapton, Freddie King is where I'm at.

Cheers!

[JMPGuitars]

Hello all, I'm new to amp making so I'm in the researching stage at the moment. I think I'm going to go with building a PP18W Plexi head from amp maker, question is what kind of speaker cab should I go for? I play in a blues band, and at the moment I use a 15W Blackheart handsome Devil that I've modded with Valve rectification. It's pretty loud and does nice bluesy crunch, problem is a 18W Plexi will probably do it better, especially if I've built it! I'm not thinking of building a cab at the moment, just want to buy one, and of course I'm on a tight budget, so about £200 max. Peter Green, Bluesbreaker Clapton, Freddie King is where I'm at.

Cheers!

That's a question that you might need to answer for yourself after building your amp head. If you're looking for a cabinet that comes with speakers, you should bring the completed amp head with you to a store that you can actually test some cabs out with the head.

Do you already have a speaker choice and you just need a cab? Or do you need a cab and speaker(s)?

Other things to think about are where you will be using this setup- at home? Gigging? Size of venues?

Speaker choice gets even more personal taste specific than cabinets.

[zakk64]

I know I'm getting way ahead of my self, I haven't even built the amp yet, so the whole speaker/cab issue is another subject in itself. I suppose I'm aiming for a good compromise, that would suit the amp I'm going to build. I'm thinking of a gigging amp, it won't have a master volume, and we play small clubs and pubs, I want to be able to crank it but we're not mega loud. I haven't thought about building cabs and putting speakers in, maybe I should? should I be looking for low output speakers, and whats the big difference with open and closed back cabs?

thanks for your help!

[JMPGuitars]

I know I'm getting way ahead of my self, I haven't even built the amp yet, so the whole speaker/cab issue is another subject in itself. I suppose I'm aiming for a good compromise, that would suit the amp I'm going to build. I'm thinking of a gigging amp, it won't have a master volume, and we play small clubs and pubs, I want to be able to crank it but we're not mega loud. I haven't thought about building cabs and putting speakers in, maybe I should? should I be looking for low output speakers, and whats the big difference with open and closed back cabs?

thanks for your help!

If you have woodworking skills, build one! But build an open-back. If you don't like woodworking projects, you can buy cabinets with or without speakers. The reason you would only want to build an open-back as your first cabinet, is because closed-back cabinets need to be tuned, and that can be pretty tricky, even when working with plans.

The sound differences (also depend on speaker(s), physical location, and how the cab is actually designed) - open-back has a looser bass response, maybe more sparkly higher end- be careful on speaker selection because 18 Watt amps are trebly in nature, and if you pick a bright speaker, and put it in an open-back cab it might sound harsh. The closed back should have a tighter, punchier bass sound, and be more directional, but the cabinet moves less air, so speaker selection here is important to make sure that the speaker is sensitive enough to move with less air and still sound good. You'd have to research which speakers work better in each situation, and then listen to them to form your own opinion. There are tons of youtube demos of speakers...but to get an idea, look for speaker demos comparing speakers with the same amp/guitars so you actually get an idea of the tonal differences.

As a gigging musician, I would say get an open back cab, 1x12, 2x12 or 2x10 (you need to play a few and see what you like). Why open back? Because it sounds great and you can shove cables and stuff in there too.