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I just pulled the trigger on a quad of Eminence Gov's, While I wait patiently for those things to arrive I was wondering...
Is there anything you can do to improve a 4x12?
I've heard about sealing cabs with caulking, putting foam in them, using heavey assed gauge speaker wire, etc etc
Any of this stuff have merit?

General fucking around with your cabs discussion too

What exact 4x12 are talking about? Ampeg V4 cabs have extra bracing behind the speaker baffle in a cross pattern plus bracing from there to the back panel. They are put together very well using dado joints so no need for caulk but they did come with fiber insulation. These are slightly smaller cabs compared to most 4x12 yet they feel heavier and way more solid. They are loud as hell and put out great low end depending on choice of speaker.

Edit: As for speaker wire, I remember someone telling me of a guitar magazine doing a blind tone test/poll with all kinds of speaker wire. Winner? If I remember correctly it was plain 16awg lamp cord. Brown lamp cord to be exact.

Edit Numero Dos: last summer I bought an old 1960B Marshall 4x12. Previously badly re-covered and beat to shit. I re-covered it in green 'Matamp' tolex. The post from the baffle to the back panel was missing so I'm planning on adding V4 style bracing to it and maybe staple some foam to the sides/back panel too.

ShimaTetsuo wrote:What exact 4x12 are talking about? Ampeg V4 cabs have extra bracing behind the speaker baffle in a cross pattern plus bracing from there to the back panel. They are put together very well using dado joints so no need for caulk but they did come with fiber insulation. These are slightly smaller cabs compared to most 4x12 yet they feel heavier and way more solid. They are loud as hell and put out great low end depending on choice of speaker.

Edit: As for speaker wire, I remember someone telling me of a guitar magazine doing a blind tone test/poll with all kinds of speaker wire. Winner? If I remember correctly it was plain 16awg lamp cord. Brown lamp cord to be exact.

Edit Numero Dos: last summer I bought an old 1960B Marshall 4x12. Previously badly re-covered and beat to shit. I re-covered it in green 'Matamp' tolex. The post from the baffle to the back panel was missing so I'm planning on adding V4 style bracing to it and maybe staple some foam to the sides/back panel too.

Its my trusty Epiphone Triggerman straight cab. Love the thing, maybe I'll brace so it will survive tour better

Yeah I read about that blind test. It was Monster cable which was supposed to be the top shelf. And everyone chose the lamp cord.
That said I used high end expensive hi/fi speaker cable (had some left over from a home cinema install ) to make a speaker cable for my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I'd like to think it sounded better but really who knows. When I get around to it I'll do my Marshall with it as well. I say do it just for the fuck of it. As for the rest of your mods why not. If adding some bracing with make it stronger for gigging durability, then it can't hurt. I'm sure the adding of the insulation to the cab will reduce buzzing at high volumes so yeah do it all. Can't hurt.

KaosCill8r wrote:Yeah I read about that blind test. It was Monster cable which was supposed to be the top shelf. And everyone chose the lamp cord.
That said I used high end expensive hi/fi speaker cable (had some left over from a home cinema install ) to make a speaker cable for my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I'd like to think it sounded better but really who knows. When I get around to it I'll do my Marshall with it as well. I say do it just for the fuck of it. As for the rest of your mods why not. If adding some bracing with make it stronger for gigging durability, then it can't hurt. I'm sure the adding of the insulation to the cab will reduce buzzing at high volumes so yeah do it all. Can't hurt.

I ganked some 12g solid core wire from work and put wired it up with that... Couldn't hear a difference
Won't throwing a bunch of insulation in it affect the tone?

making sure any new cab is solid is never a bad idea. I dilute wood glue with hot water and seep it into all the glued joins. Every thing that is screwed together I ensure is not stripped and repair if needed. If a cab is to boomy some insulation can help but I wouldn't throw it in there on principle alone.

Basically just reinforce everything. The difference can be dramatic on a cab that has been beat up or just jarred wrong at some point.

A decent gauge speaker wire is almost always better than oe wire. Especially if you are loading it with speakers that handle more power in anticipation of a major head, it's worth it to rewire everything, clean the contact points in the jacks, bend them in a hair if they need it.

do all that and it'll be good for a few years barring drops and shit.

I've resided my cabs with thicker wire, sometimes even lamp cord. More for durability and reliability than actually being able to hear a difference. I've also replaced the mdf back on a few Marshall 1960 cabs with a good Baltic birch panel, which I think helps a little and is worth the 12 bucks for the lumber. The rest of the cab is well made with good materials so that's an easy upgrade. The brace does have to be cut down just a hair cause the mdf has a bunch of flex to it and needs a longer brace to brace it tight. The plywood is totally rigid so the brace has to accommodate that.

i've only modified cabs when there were vibration, or hardware issues. solid jacks & wiring is, of course, very important.
i've lined the insides with insulation tape (the 2" wide, and 1/4" thick black tape), and also added bracing between the baffle & the back panel.

Putting fresh wire would be fine if the old stuff is getting beat, but won't really make a sound difference
Based on the way copper conducts I think stranded would be better than solid core though

I have modded cabs with calk a time or two mostly older cabs if I could isolate a buzz and seal it off I would.
Not a great sound difference though

One thing that might be fun is to add a removable back panel so you can make it a semi open back if desired.

I have a 70's ampeg 4x10 combo cab that I've been seriously contemplating turning into a 2x10/2x12, and wiring separate jacks so you could run just the 10's or just the 12's if you wanted. The head is dead and the cab is beat, stripped, and exclusively for home use, which means low-to-moderate volume jams only. It's also the same size and construction as a V4 cab, so I know there's room...

So, I'm thinking,
Put a brace in it.
Annd thats it.
Speakers come in today!
Fuggin stoked

WORMDIRT wrote:So, I'm thinking,
Put a bird on it.
Annd thats it.
Speakers come in today!
Fuggin stoked

Very cool
have fun

Adding insulation seems like more of a bass cab thing. Somehow makes the box seem bigger (dampens the reflections, something like that) which improves bass frequencies. Seems like insulation would "deaden" the box, and for guitar you want the cab to be somewhat resonant, IMO. Unless you're downtuning to Z or something. I think the average guitar player wants a resonant cab (?) for "good tone" - however that might not apply to people playing extreme music, etc.

Put a bird on it indeed.

ShimaTetsuo wrote:What exact 4x12 are talking about? Ampeg V4 cabs have extra bracing behind the speaker baffle in a cross pattern plus bracing from there to the back panel. They are put together very well using dado joints so no need for caulk but they did come with fiber insulation. These are slightly smaller cabs compared to most 4x12 yet they feel heavier and way more solid. They are loud as hell and put out great low end depending on choice of speaker.

Edit: As for speaker wire, I remember someone telling me of a guitar magazine doing a blind tone test/poll with all kinds of speaker wire. Winner? If I remember correctly it was plain 16awg lamp cord. Brown lamp cord to be exact.

Edit Numero Dos: last summer I bought an old 1960B Marshall 4x12. Previously badly re-covered and beat to shit. I re-covered it in green 'Matamp' tolex. The post from the baffle to the back panel was missing so I'm planning on adding V4 style bracing to it and maybe staple some foam to the sides/back panel too.

I'm assuming you mean the 70s V4 cabs, not the newer ones?