Thiele TL806 Guitar Cabinet Build

[DBraz]

After having bought countless guitar cabs over the years from 1x12's to 4x12's as a Rock guitarist I have come to the following conclusions:-

4x12's sound best live. They really do. Nothing quite beats the punch that they deliver, but a well built 4x12 - especially in the case of my Carvin 412t- weigh a LOT.

However, as far as a mic is concerned, there is very little difference in sound between a Thiele 1x12 and a 4x12.

The Thiele (Tee-lee) was designed by ElectroVoice to replicate the mic'd sound of a good 4x12, with porting, and was designed around the legendary EV12L speaker. Consequently it is perfect for this speaker and produces amazing results. Mesa Boogie used to sell this design but have since modified the dimensions of the cabinet to suit Celestion speakers they have and, in my opinion, never sounded as good since. A modern Mesa Thiele cab sounds boomy and mushy in comparison to big with clarity like the old ones.

Recently I thought "what the hell, I can build this myself. In fact I'll build 2 so I can run my AXE 2 set-up in W-D-W." So off I went to the local DIY place, bought an 8' x 4'' sheet of fine 13ply marine birch Plywood and then got my trusty friend to cut the pieces millimetre perfect according to the cabinet build instructions (freely available on a Google search). I kept an eye out on ebay for the speakers. The older the better providing condition was good as these speakers are 200w and take a bit of breaking in. Until they are broken in they can sound a bit harsh. Luckily I bought 2, one for £60 and another £50 in an old amp. I sold the remainder of the amp for £30 (it had a reverb unit in it). In the UK a second hand good condition Celestion Mesa Thiele is about £260. I planned to build 2 of these myself, with EVM12l's, and love, for £200. The wood cost me £40, Glue I already had, ditto screws. Cabinet feet £5.50, wiring £13, tolex £40 (I have enough for re-tolexing my 4x12 as well), Mesa leather cabinet corners £18 (a luxury), leather mesa cabinet handles with fixing £17.50, Salt & Pepper grill cloth & gold piping £27. Grand total:- £241. Over budget but I have plenty of leftover tolex and grill cloth/piping for other cabinets- at least 1 4x12 or 2 more Thiele's...

What follows is a picture journey of what I have done. Unlike others I have used screws to make a solid join when gluing the pieces of wood together, and filled the tops flush afterwards. Whilst it looks a bit like overkill I can assure you that it was helpful. I also used clamps but on harder to access areas screws really helped when making sure everything lined up as intended - especially the ported design pieces.

[DBraz]

Not a perfect circle, but the speaker baffle will cover it... And it is my first!

[DBraz]

To be continued...

[django49]

Ya dun good, pilgrim!

Those plans are easily available and it is a precise, but not difficult project.

I did the same thing with one twist. A sometimes limitation of the Thiele cabs is they are so small (but HEAVY) that they may not work well if you want to use a single one with a longer head. (Use two-----400 watts power handling!)

So, I built one to the exact specs. The second one has longer sides so it WILL hold a "normal" head when it sits horizontally.....The interior is exactly the same, so the critical sound shaping design is intact. In essence, it just has a "wing" that adds some physical dimension. So, I have the flexibility of using 1 cab or two, though they are mismatched, size-wise. If I was doing it over, I would probably make them both in the larger size.....For MY purposes.

In your case, a stereo setup, it sounds like the two matching cabs meets your needs perfectly. Great work!

[dragan]

looks lik a fun & useful project !

[velorush]

Great job!

Curious: what does the end product weigh? The EV web site gives a weight of the speaker, alone, of 16 lbs.

Could the cabinet be constructed of pine to reduce weight?

[DBraz]

Great job!

Curious: what does the end product weigh? The EV web site gives a weight of the speaker, alone, of 16 lbs.

Could the cabinet be constructed of pine to reduce weight?

I haven't weighed it yet. I haven't even added the speaker/wired it up! The cab is already pretty heavy.

I have heard of people using pine inn cabs but they resonate differently and pine is not as hard wearing. A little bang can equal a big dent...

When it's finished I'll weigh it although lightness wasn't my priority. Size was.

[ZR]

YOu said Tee Lee? Is that how's it's pronounced? I just always said it like it looks; theel...

[Bobby Marshall]

Man that is cool.

[DBraz]

YOu said Tee Lee? Is that how's it's pronounced? I just always said it like it looks; theel...

I was corrected once in a guitar shop. Never forgot. The dude could have been wrong though...

[veatch]

The man in the store was correct, but this is one of those, "Do you want to be correct, or have people know what yer talking about" things. Kinda like piezo and pho (yes, the soup... I was hungry when i wrote this...)

[ZR]

OK, makes sense.

It's like (I believe) the proper pronunciation for Porsche is Por-sha as that's what the guys name was...Ferdinand Porsche. So, I hate when people call it Porsh. If I'm wrong I apologize and please correct me!

It's kind of like how Walther guns (which I own) are pronounced like you think it should be Wal-Ther but the correct pronunciation is Val-ter because there's no TH sound in German (at least that's what I've been told). But, everyone's Americanized it and calls it Wal-ther...even me. Not sure why the Por-sha thing bothers me so much!

[velorush]

OK, makes sense.

It's like (I believe) the proper pronunciation for Porsche is Por-sha as that's what the guys name was...Ferdinand Porsche. So, I hate when people call it Porsh. If I'm wrong I apologize and please correct me!

It's kind of like how Walther guns (which I own) are pronounced like you think it should be Wal-Ther but the correct pronunciation is Val-ter because there's no TH sound in German (at least that's what I've been told). But, everyone's Americanized it and calls it Wal-ther...even me. Not sure why the Por-sha thing bothers me so much!

Now see, I thought Porsche was "Porsh" and was only pronounced "Por-sha" by pretentious hacks who had it confused with the Italian name Porcia or alternately, Portia.

The guys on Top Gear (BBC America) seem to use both pronunciations, but you never know when Jeremy (who typically throws rocks and garbage at Porsche) is having a dig at James (the Porschephile); this would be just the sort of thing Jeremy would do.

Would one of our German friends help a brotha out? I really would like to know and this seems a great opportunity!

ETA: just checked Wikipedia and they say "por-sha." It would appear I am the hack! It will take a good bit of conditioning to get me to add that second syllable as I've held this disposition for years. I think what I need to do is buy that Cayman sitting on the lot in the town in which I work. That way I could practice saying it as I drove it to work every day!

They don't provide a pronunciation for Thiele.

[DBraz]

Wow, this thread is turning into an English lesson - or perhaps a German one

[velorush]

Apologies. Sorry about that.

The carpentry work on the Thiele (regardless of how it is pronounced) looks phenomenal. I have wanted to try a true Thiele cabinet with my Mesa Subway Blues for all the time I've owned it, but issues discussed above (new ones are said to be not as "good" as the old ones, weight, etc.) have always prevented me from pulling the trigger.

Your build has me thinking about perhaps building my own. That was the reason for my questions on possibly lightening it up. I do like the idea of finding an EV that is well broken in for reasons of economy as well as tone.

[DBraz]

Apologies. Sorry about that.

The carpentry work on the Thiele (regardless of how it is pronounced) looks phenomenal. I have wanted to try a true Thiele cabinet with my Mesa Subway Blues for all the time I've owned it, but issues discussed above (new ones are said to be not as "good" as the old ones, weight, etc.) have always prevented me from pulling the trigger.

Your build has me thinking about perhaps building my own. That was the reason for my questions on possibly lightening it up. I do like the idea of finding an EV that is well broken in for reasons of economy as well as tone.

Honestly this is not hard to build. The hardest thing to date has been the speaker baffle. I did it with a router but next time I would probably do a few cuts and use a jigsaw. I have also started building my own guitar and details of that will also follow in another thread once I have made more meaningful progress...

From what I have learned, and the few mistakes I have made along the way, to secret to any build is to be patient and not rush.

Sometimes you are in the mood. And sometimes you aren't. When I am I do something.

[ZR]

OK, back on target. The work you did on the cab is top notch - you could sell these things!

Also, I wish I kept my EV but needed (probably just wanted) the money at the time.

[DBraz]

OK, back on target. The work you did on the cab is top notch - you could sell these things!

Also, I wish I kept my EV but needed (probably just wanted) the money at the time.

You are very kind. It should look pretty good when it's all done.but my second one will be even better. You always learn lessons and all that...

[DBraz]

Well, it's now finished.

Speaker mounted (the Ev does look old ), feet fitted (I used small rubber feet from evil bay), and leather mesa corners added (secured by black rivet pins), wiring sorted and speaker grill secured.

One problem I encountered when fixing the speaker grill was that the speaker mounts prevented the grill from being seated correctly. Out it came, a bit of routing with a dremel mini-routing piece, and back it went perfectly. Also, when adding the Mesa leather corners (which were rock hard) I soaked them in water for an hour. This made them easy to manipulate and secure. When they dried they shrunk slightly to fit the corners of the cabinet perfectly as if they were made to order. Happy days

I have plugged it into my rig and it sounds brilliant. The only thing I haven't done, which was suggested in the Ev build instructions, was to add some fibreglass insulation (without blocking the port). I have some tucked away somewhere which I will add tonight but was in such a hurry to see how it sounded when it was built that I thought I'd save that job until the following day.

Pictures to follow, hopefully tomorrow.

[dragan]

I usually like guitar cabs without insul ,better mids honk ( sealed cabs ) itll be interesting to hear your opinion post insul on this ported cab

[DBraz]

More pictures:

The Evm12l looks pretty old inside the new cabinet.

Rear jack plug secured by two black scratch plate screws.

The completed article. Complete with grill, leather corners and rubber feet.

Close up of the leather corners. These were originally flat triangle shaped pieces of hard black leather and came with the fixing nails. First thing to do is soak the leather pieces in water for an hour to soften them up and make them expand slightly. Then, nail them into place. Once fixed they then shrink as the water dries out to leave a perfect flush fitting leather corner looking like it was made to perfection.

[RichRS6]

Very nice job.

I always wondered what the deal was with the MB Theile cabs that made them more money than the open backed 1x12's and now I know.

[veatch]

Very nice job!

[velorush]

That looks fantastic! Definitely a very professional job.

The most important thing, though: how does it sound?

[DBraz]

It sounds great. Better than my old Mesa Thiele with the Celestion speaker. I have not added the fibreglass yet. This is supposed to change the sound characteristics, as is adding a covering to the centre port. I will experiment further and report back.

[Jimbilly]

Very nice, and inspiring!

I've been a member of the Porsche club for nearly 20 years, I've never heard anything but Por-shu, a lot of these people visit the factory do other fancy stuff.

the Walther comment reminds me of a joke told in my extended family: Sven was walking down the street and saw a guy carrying a long pole coming towards him, Sven asked the man; "are you a pole-vaulter?" the other guy answered "no, I'm a Svede, but how did you know my name vas Valter?"