Cabs and insulation/foam

[troublehead]

I have owned 2 Avatar Vinatge oversize cabs in the past. With both of them I had a problem with them sounding "boomy" and "hollow". Earlier this week I received a Mojo Bluesbreaker 2x12 (very similar to Avatar Vintage) and quickly noticed the same issues. Not extremely bad, but enough to bug me.

So I went to Lowes and spent $12 on thick fiberglass insulation and a piece of wood for a center brace. I applied the insulation on the interior back of the rear panel with spray on glue. I was simply amazed at the difference even before I put in the center brace. The cab is so much fuller in the mids and the bass stays extremely defined. I highly recommend this to those who own an Avatar Vintage or similar cab. I know it is hard to believe, but this cab sounds better than my Bogner OS that I recently sold..............albeit different speakers.

This is one of the few cab tweaks I have heard about where I can actually tell a big difference. And it is definately a good one. This is the best sounding cab I have ever owned and that includes the Bogner, Fatbottom, Engl, etc........I am going to try out the insulation on the back of my Splawn cab tonight just for kicks

 

[JackBootedThug]

pink fiberglass isulation? r11, r19? thats pretty interesting.

 

[troublehead]

pink fiberglass isulation? r11, r19? thats pretty interesting.

No........it was white and said "acoustical insulation" on the roll. I threw the package out in this mornings trash or I could give the exact name of the stuff. It comes in a small compact roll about 5' x 2'.

 

[blackba]

Interesting. I tried acoustic foam in some 112 and 212 cabs I built and in every case it seemed to take the life out of the cab. I put it on all walls but the baffle and it was that egg crate foam. It did make the bass tight. Maybe just putting it on the back wall is the trick....

BTW great looking cab, I like the brown, kind of reminds me of the brown era Fenders from the early 60's. Doesn't Mojotone actually make some cabs for Avatar?

 

[JackBootedThug]

pink fiberglass isulation? r11, r19? thats pretty interesting.

No........it was white and said "acoustical insulation" on the roll. I threw the package out in this mornings trash or I could give the exact name of the stuff. It comes in a small compact roll about 5' x 2'.

thanx dude.

 

[troublehead]

Interesting. I tried acoustic foam in some 112 and 212 cabs I built and in every case it seemed to take the life out of the cab. I put it on all walls but the baffle and it was that egg crate foam. It did make the bass tight. Maybe just putting it on the back wall is the trick....

BTW great looking cab, I like the brown, kind of reminds me of the brown era Fenders from the early 60's. Doesn't Mojotone actually make some cabs for Avatar?

I'm pretty sure that Mojo makes the Avatar Vintage cabs, I can't tell them apart actually. I'm having a custom amp being built by Morris Amps in Canada and the head will match the cosmetics of this cab

 

[fek]

I have an old Music Man cab that is front loaded and the back is permanent. You can't take it off. It has insulation type material in it that was standard. It has been my main cab for about 10 years. Sounds killer albeit a little dark. I also have an old Horizon stereo 2X12 that has some batting in it also. Sounds great too. Then again, the TM2X12 I just picked up sounds great too. Hell, I don't know. Just play the things.

 

[jonny toetags]

I'm pretty sure that Mojo makes the Avatar Vintage cabs, I can't tell them apart actually. I'm having a custom amp being built by Morris Amps in Canada and the head will match the cosmetics of this cab

Shhhhh..no mentioning of Morris, Bryan. Keep him a secret

I'm going to get a matching 2x12 from Glen (mojo) as well.
It's way cheaper ordering from him as opposed to direct from Mojo, And besides, I want the logo

I might try this insulation trick.

 

[stephen sawall]

I staple some carpet insulation on the back wall of all my cabs .... you can put in different sizes in there to tune the effect. To much well kill the high end life .... too little and bottom is not tight as it can be. I never cover the whole back.

 

[eternal_idol]

its kinda fun to experiment with insulation and or acoustic foam in cabs...

each wall sounds diffrently covered.

i've never seen a baffle covered.

but if you cover the side walls and leave the back wall bare. makes the cab project more..


I don't however like dampening in oversized cabs.. makes them muddy to me

ALOT of PA boxs are dampened like this.

Brae

 

[SuperStratSlinger]

I swear by the insulation in my Bogner 112.

Check out these clips... the Bogner 112 has insulation and the Egnater 112 does not.
Egnater Rebel with Bogner 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8532519-e2e
Tiny Terror with Egnater 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8532415-18d
Egnater Rebel with matching 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7961952-d16
Tiny Terror with Bogner 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7961839-c9f

I'd be curious to hear how insulation sounds in a 2x12 or 4x12. Giving me more ideas to spend $ on... thanks OP At least it's only $12 but the time it takes to unscrew every screw on the back of a 4x12...

 

[Nigel]

My Zinky 2x12 is 29.5"x15"x12"

It's almost exactly half the volume of a Bogner OS 2x12.

Completely filled with dacron batting polyfill insulation (meta meta tag tag shala-shala-bing-bang!), like 20 Oz or so.

Without it, it feels choked, mids are harsh, sucks. With it, joy. My .02 cents.

 

[thegame]

I took it out of my Bogner 4x12 & didn't notice anything detrimental without it. Though I did it at the same time as a complete speaker swap.

 

[MGSchindel]

I swear by the insulation in my Bogner 112.

Check out these clips... the Bogner 112 has insulation and the Egnater 112 does not.
Egnater Rebel with Bogner 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8532519-e2e
Tiny Terror with Egnater 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8532415-18d
Egnater Rebel with matching 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7961952-d16
Tiny Terror with Bogner 112:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7961839-c9f

I'd be curious to hear how insulation sounds in a 2x12 or 4x12. Giving me more ideas to spend $ on... thanks OP At least it's only $12 but the time it takes to unscrew every screw on the back of a 4x12...

The polyfill sound insulation in both the Bogner 1x12 and Bogner 4x12s works wonders. Keeps it tigher on the lows, smoother on the highs, to my ear. An audible effect you can also feel. On the boggy 4x12s, just the backpanel gets a 2" thick sheet of polyfill at the factory. It works!