Insulating cabs? has anyone done it or do it?

BowynMadley

I've been told that insulating a boxy sounding cab can help make the cab sound a bit more full and less boxy. Is this correct or is it just Bollocks? The cab is a small vintage zilla 2x12 housing a 70s celestion g12-100 and a modern g12K-100.

Ta

Bo

welshboyo

My 1x12 Bogner Shiva cab is insulated and that thing almost sounds as huge as a 412......the porting helps too...

My OS212 Bogner cab is not however but being OS'd I would imagine the need to do so is pointless anyway?

ecc83

Oooo! Careful! You are straying into "hi fi" areas here and will incur the ire of ICBM!

Putting sound absorbent material inside a guitar cab should indeed help kill major "boxy" resonances (IF they are cabinet resonances caused by standing waves. It will do Jack to fix actual drive unit problems or panel resonance.)

But, such fillings will attenuate the whole output of the cab and make it significantly less sensitive so, as with attenuators, some loss of dynamics and "liveliness " will probably ensue.

In the hi fi world the precise placing of what material and the density of same is a complete other(not very exact!) science. For guitar cabs I would leave it alone, they are what they are!  In any case it goes against best practice to "lag" a reflex cabinet but such cabs are a nonsense for guitar speakers IMHO anyway!

Dave.

timmysoft

I've done it in a few cabs, mixed results, it's all about trial and error regarding material and placement! I once decked out a Framus 212 with a couple of layers of foam camping mat on the back panel that sounded huge and very warm, but I did the same to a Marshall 1936 and it sounded shit!

John_A

The harley benton cabs are insulated and sound pretty awful IMO

Nerine

My Bogner OS 2x12 has a load of white insulating material in it. It's not full of it, but it's in there.