Once again, to insulate or not, 4X12 cabinets?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Markedman
  • Start date Start date
Markedman

Markedman

Well-known member
https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/i-removed-the-batting-from-my-bogner-cab.168883/
It's been debated here before but I'd like to know what you guitarist think? Back insulation only? What type of insulation? The best research I could find leads me to doing the work myself to see what I think because I'm sure volume has more to do with my decision than what other opinions are, but I still would like hear what other think, just to add my reasoning for adding insulation or not.

Why do I wonder? That mythical tone type thing, that last .00001% that might make my tone 100% better, I know, I'm obsessed.
 
All depends on the sounds you're after...you already know this man
 
All the best cabs I’ve owned had no insulation at all. I haven’t tried every 4x12 out there, but why fix it if it ain’t broken?
 
I’d question many other things first if I wasnt happy with my tone, but if it’s keeping you up at night wondering you just gotta do it
 
I know Testament was doing it at one point. For that tone it makes sense.
 
Last edited:
Markedman said:
doing the work myself to see what I think
Click to expand...
This.
Unfortunately there's not one blanket answer for this. There's more factors at play; speakers, cab dimensions, cab material, open or closed back etc. Then you need to determine how much batting and where to put it. About the only thing you can say for sure is the batting will affect how the sound waves move around inside the cab. And because of the different types of batting you can't even really make a good blanket statement on which frequencies will be affected and by how much. There's no practical way to determine what adding or removing batting from a cab will do to the overall sound without just doing it and hearing for yourself. Then you have to decide if you like how it sounds.

The good news is that it's easy to do and shouldn't cost you much if you have to buy some batting. It just takes some time and a little trial and error.

FYI, The big rolls of fish filters make for some decent batting. I had extra from what I bought for my pond filter and tried out. It has dense and loose batting connected together. On the fish side it's labeled as course and fine filtration mix. I put it in a 2x12 cab I built that sounded too woofy. Really helped it out, now it sounds how I want.
 
Just hit a hobby store and buy some batting-or pillow stuffing is made from the same material. Put it on the back panel first and try it. Should add some more detail to the tone. But, the cab might get a little quieter. You can always buy lamp cord and rewire it too….if you like it you can add more to the sides.
See if you like it…you can always take it out.
 
mhenson42 said:
Yeah. It's easy to add some poly-fiber batting from the local hobby store.

It's great if you want to suck the life out of your tone!
Click to expand...
😂
Yeah, it makes the cab less resonant for sure. I tried it long ago, liked it for awhile then took it out. Left the thicker lamp cord in of course.
I do believe that does help a bit.
 
I tried it for a while in one of my cabs. I went for the Bogner approach and just put it on the back panel. I think it was like 1.5” or 2”. At first I liked it. It made the cab a little darker. It seemed a little tighter in some frequencies too. However, I noticed this came at the expensive of some projection and some of that open mid range knock. I ended up pulling it out and have no desire to go back.
 
Markedman said:
https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/i-removed-the-batting-from-my-bogner-cab.168883/
It's been debated here before but I'd like to know what you guitarist think? Back insulation only? What type of insulation? The best research I could find leads me to doing the work myself to see what I think because I'm sure volume has more to do with my decision than what other opinions are, but I still would like hear what other think, just to add my reasoning for adding insulation or not.

Why do I wonder? That mythical tone type thing, that last .00001% that might make my tone 100% better, I know, I'm obsessed.
Click to expand...
I think it's great for Metal and studio and solo practice, and for cabs that are too small for the speakers. Mesa OS? Nope. Trad size? Try it! If you play drop tuned stuff and are getting weird bass flub, it will tighten that up. Kind of addictive for solo practice, clearer mids (no crashing phase stuff from the back) and deep, tight bass. I put some on the back of my FL trad cab and it's rad.
 
I have an old Laney 4x12 with Celestion 70s. The most hated speaker ever. This box has a giant wad of Foam batting in it.

I run it in stereo with an early 90s 1960AV

The pair really soars.

The Laney box by itself is quite dark.

Maybe use the material on the top half? Bottom? Left?
 
LP Freak said:
I took it out of my Bogner 4x12 and it sounds really similar to my ‘72 Marshall 1960 now
Click to expand...
This is really tempting to try. I have Scumback loaded Bogner but never tried put insolation out. The cab is tight enough for everything I play but little more ‘wood’ doesnt’t hurt.
 
I wonder if the difference between slant and straight matters? With slants the top speakers and bottom speakers 'interfere' with each other more. Johan Segeborn has videos where you can clearly hear the differences between the top and bottom speakers. Maybe just batting the top half or bottom half of the back would be better than the whole thing.
 
bubucci said:
This is really tempting to try. I have Scumback loaded Bogner but never tried put insolation out. The cab is tight enough for everything I play but little more ‘wood’ doesnt’t hurt.
Click to expand...
You can always put it right back if it doesn’t work out
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top