Cabinet wood

[matchless]

sportster4eva - that looks very, very nice! I think poplar with amber might be the way to go!.

I'm very grateful for all the replies, guys. I'll post pictures in a few months when the cab is finished, and (most likely) more questions as problems creep up along the way.

Thanks,
Lowell

[Satamax]

Satamax - no, I've never heard of it. A friend of mine has a strat with an ash body - it's very nice. If memory serves me correct, it's quite heavy with a lot of high end sparkle. Have you any experience with it?

Yep, this for example.



Bye.

Max.

[sportster4eva]

That's PRETTY!! I wouldn't have guessed that was ash.

[pbreyfogle]

how about doug fir?

Doug fir is kind of like pine and a fair bit harder. Anybody ever used it? Too glassy maybe?

[tbryanh]

Well, while were on the subject of wood.

I am finishing up my first cabinet project, an isolation cabinet.

It is 3' by 1.5' by 1.5', and has a baffle in the middle to hold the speaker. It has a microphone inside and a lid on the top.

I made it out of pine. The raw planks were about 3/4" thick, 9 1/2" wide, and 12' long.

I notice when I hit it with a hammer, it rings. If it was a PA cabinet, not a guitar cabinet, I might want to line the interior with egg-crate foam to try to get rid of the ring.

From this discussion, it sounds like the ringing sound can be desirable in a guitar speaker cabinet. Is this correct?

[scole]

thank you, im glad my drawings are being used, that was what i wanted.
heres a 5f4 done in red oak, it has a thick warm tone
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/scole90/...60762403469959
thanks again
scott cole
scott amplification
pitman nj

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Is that a cathode biased 5F4?

[scole]

i guess that big cement block gave it away, its also wired for el34's

[scole]

heres the new link to my pics thanks to yahoo's new photo policy
http://www.flickr.com/gp/10451485@N02/4cwyfu

[justinbelshe]

I notice when I hit it with a hammer, it rings. If it was a PA cabinet, not a guitar cabinet, I might want to line the interior with egg-crate foam to try to get rid of the ring.

From this discussion, it sounds like the ringing sound can be desirable in a guitar speaker cabinet. Is this correct?

It makes sense to me that an amp cab should be made from tonewood, which is why I'm going to try western red cedar on a project soon.

So where do I find these drawings, anyway?

[scole]

cab drawings

heres my page, scroll down on the left side youll see 5e3 cab drawings
http://home.att.net/~scole90/index.html

[justinbelshe]

heres my page, scroll down on the left side youll see 5e3 cab drawings
http://home.att.net/~scole90/index.html

Thanks, man!

[Marvino]

Hi Lowell,
Our Marvino Amps are all dovetailed hardwood cabs. We use a quality jig with (unfortunately expensive) quality router bits. We have used mesquite, walnut, both with poplar, red leaf and silver leaf maple. The best wood for width (11"), workability, lower cost, clean cutting, is the red or silver leaf maple.
We carefully dry fit all sides. Our joint tolerance is kept tight for an atractive rounded over appearance. It's best not to try glue up/final assembly alone.
If you are going to stain finish hardwood, don't sand any finer than 200 grit. If you over sand, various stains will penetrate wierd and irregular. We now use allinine dye for best stain appearance, followed with a liberal vinyl wash coat and begin applying pre-catalyzed laquer while the vinyl is still tacky. You need low humidity for spraying the pre-cat laquer. It dries quickly and just needs a fine scuff between coats, 3 to 4. You'll have a beautiful instrument cabinet to last generations. Our speaker cabs are of the "dipole type" a back with a "semi tuned opening" in the back. Experiment with a pience of plywood. With hardwood cabs, I have experimented and achieved great sound using thin close knap carpeting applied in the interior sides, top, bottom and back. Of course trimmed back from the back board cutout.
If you lay up hardwood pieces for the back, you may want to glue and brad stiffiner ribs vertical inside the back board, if SPL levels are high with your speakers.
"Your're amplifier is a musical instrument too!"
Best of luck,
Marvino

[pbreyfogle]

doug fir for cab

I just finished my first amp last month and I made the cab out of doug fir, which is a tonewood of sorts: A conifer, but stffer and brighter than spruce or cedar. Sounds great and is beautiful.

Also, nice quarter sawn fir is readily available as it is often used for trim in houses.

I put on a coat of amber shellac and then about three brushed on coats of Varythane. I didn't even bother sanding that but buffed it out.

See some pics @
http://instruments.breyfogle.org/Gallery/amps.html

[Satamax]

Nice one mate!

I wish i had a comb for doing finger and dovetail joints, but i don't despite my well equiped shop