Help with this 2x12" cab

[Clydesdale]

I bought two of these 2 x 12" cabs for $100.. They came with PA speakers in them. I ripped out the PAs and put these greenbacks in them. To my surprise the cabs were full of this fluffy shit in them. I've seen other cabs with a small amount of fluff in them but not this much.

Anyway my question is, whats all this fluff for and should I rip some of it out?

The cab sounds pretty cool as is, running it with my epi jr. But im sure all the fluff is dampening the sound.

 

[SpaceTrucker]

Leave it, and call it the hot box.

[VOLVO)))]

Polyfill. Designed to emulate a huge cabinet in a small cabinet. It's so porous that the sound has so much shit to bounce off of, replicating a huge surface area.

Fuck it, I hate anything that can catch on fire in cabs.

[Lumpy]

Fiberfill is more typical in bass cabs. Maybe pull some out in a controlled fashion, if you think the cab sounds too bassy (experiment with removing some, leaving some). Cab might sound more resonant and lively without it, but what do I know. That's not a bad guess though.

[Clydesdale]

Yeah Im thinking I'll take that big strip out through the middle and go from there.

What might exactly catch on fire here? Is it around the terminals?

[Lumpy]

That fiberfill stuff is usually flame retardant, unless it was home-made cab, then it might be flame retarded. Cabs don't catch on fire, anyway. Worst that can happen is that the voice coil inside the speaker melts or whatever, because you sent a jillion gigawatts through your cab. Don't worry about a fire.

[Hemisaurus]

The only thing it's doing is dampening unwanted reflections in the cab. It helps stop your cab squeaking and rattling, and allows your speakers to produce a clearer tone.

The only negative impact is that it reduces the total cab internal volume, which will make the cab less bassy, leave it be, someone did a beatiful job of it, and did you a major favour. Especially in such a small cab.

[Jake]

I have an old Ampeg V2 4x12 cabinet that had speaker baffling/padding stuff on the inside. Honestly, it made a huge difference when I yanked it out. Sounded much much better afterward. The stuff totally killed the bass. It is a ported cab, though, so YMMV.

[Lumpy]

A quick Google search says that fiber is the best material for this - acoustic foam can be too reflective. The fibers essentially create more internal volume in the cab, by creating a zillion nooks and crevices for the sound waves to pass through. This increases the bass response.

First thing would be to narrow down exactly what is the specific sound problem you're trying to solve with this cab. What is it that you don't like about the sound. In the original post, he says it sounds good. "If it sounds good, it is good." (Duke Ellington). The reason the padding is probably in there is if the speakers were used as PA cabs as originally stated, then they would need more bass response than a guitar cab. If it sounds fine as-is, I would either leave it alone, or experiment on one cab only, and compare them.

[apekillman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4nFl1bzuJs

[spookstrickland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4nFl1bzuJs

That was cool

[Clydesdale]

Thanks for all the feedback..

I had to take the greenbacks out and give them back to a friend. I replaced the greenbacks with some old "93" eminence speakers.
I have taken a small amount of the fiber stuff out, mainly down the middle and around the speaker itself. I've tested the new speakers with slightly less fiber and it still sounds pretty good. I dont know much about these old eminence speakers but they dont seem to bad either (my first experience with eminence)
Having said all this I was only using my Epi Jr head. I'll give it a good run with my Soundcity 120 and my Eminar 100 watt head and see how it sounds then before i start ripping out anymore fiber.