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Acoustics - Bass Traps

The plan for the East wall.

Bass traps improve the sound of a room like ours. Lots of web sites tell you that they "tighten up" the low end sound in a room. We think this means that it helps to make similar sounds distinct from one another. If you can keep with the jargon then, a loose sounding room would make it hard to distinguish between two different bass notes. We think.

Anyway, we relied on two sources for plans to build these traps. The first is Ethan Winer's RealTraps site. The plans that we used almost exactly are on [ this page ]. I don't imagine that he'll ever read this, but if he does, thank you Ethan.

The corner ones were a bit trickier. We started with plans found in F. Alton Everest's Master Handbook of Acoustics. Although the book is great, the plans require some interpreting. Rather than post a copy of his (copywritten) plans, we've included how we did it over to the right. Note that this does not show the finished product, which will also have a cloth cover and painted wood trim.

You can download a .pdf of the plan for the east wall and a copy of materials that we made to keep the construction straight.

East wall progress by mid-July, 2005.

Corner Bass Trap Construction

Step 1: Secure the bottom "cap holders" (made from 2x2s and 1/8" board) to the wall with drywall anchors


Step 2: Screw 2X4s to 2X6s to create side brackets for insulation and oustide 1/8" facing.


Step 3: Use more anchors to fasten the brackets to the wall. (Note hammer for scale.)


Step 4: Caulk the hell out of everything.


Step 5: Create top "cap holders" as in Step 1.


Step 6: Attach insulation to inside of bracket (the 2x4). Caulk.


Step 7: Attach 1/8" facing to outside. Caulk.


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