Speaker cab diagram for DIY (Mesa)

[::XeS::]

They look only at profit. The first marshall cab was 4 pieces of wood glued together, without a single project....

 

[Wolfeman]

I'm still not convinced. Those companies you're talking about are probably not building cabs for metal or any other brutal music. I'm pretty sure plywood and hardwood sound or react to sound differently. I have no experience or samples to back this up but I'd imagine hardwood adds warmth to a clean or crunchy sound that would be inappropriate for high-gain stuff. Again, I'm not sure, it's all guesswork until we have some scientific tests and those won't come cheap so we might never know.

Well crank cabs aren't bad for metal, at least the ones I've heard with V30's in them... But the portinguke:

My cab I'm building will be all hardwood except for the baffle and back(see the trend here, I'm using plywood for the front and back because it will be cheaper for me and less work).

So we will see if it sounds bad or good.

 

[abt]

Well I think the difference between ply and hardwood would be noticeable but whose to say what is better (based on absolutely no experience haha!). If Wolfe says use hardwood then use hardwood. Let's face it, the guy knows amps.

 

[arvoitus]

Solid hardwood is the way to go guys. It really doesn't cost much more than ply. Just use the ply for the baffle and rear.

Quality plywood has most of the time 13 layers of wood. Those 13 layers are all placed with the woodgrain in a different direction, and because of that, plywood is much stronger then regular hardwood.

Ofcourse hardwood "looks better" marketing wise ... It sounds different, but is different better?

Good quality 13-layer birch plywood would be my choice for cabinets.

 

[Wolfeman]

Quality plywood has most of the time 13 layers of wood. Those 13 layers are all placed with the woodgrain in a different direction, and because of that, plywood is much stronger then regular hardwood.

Ofcourse hardwood "looks better" marketing wise ... It sounds different, but is different better?

Good quality 13-layer birch plywood would be my choice for cabinets.

You are 100% correct on the strength part. Although a properly built hardwood cab should be just as strong.

The reason I advocate the hard woods is because of jointing reasons. Also, pure hardwood is 100% void-less, and I'm just not a fan of scraps of wood being glued and pressed together. That's probably where the tonal difference comes into play.

Now that I think of it, its pretty dumb for me to argue about it. If some one wants to build with ply, that's perfectly fine. If someone wants to build with boards, that's fine too.

P.S.- Buy one of my cabs.

 

[the_drip]

You are 100% correct on the strength part. Although a properly built hardwood cab should be just as strong.

The reason I advocate the hard woods is because of jointing reasons. Also, pure hardwood is 100% void-less, and I'm just not a fan of scraps of wood being glued and pressed together. That's probably where the tonal difference comes into play.

Now that I think of it, its pretty dumb for me to argue about it. If some one wants to build with ply, that's perfectly fine. If someone wants to build with boards, that's fine too.

P.S.- Buy one of my cabs.

So are you planning on gluing your planks together with a shit ton of biscut joints?? And what type of hard wood are you talking about?

 

[arvoitus]

You are 100% correct on the strength part. Although a properly built hardwood cab should be just as strong.

The reason I advocate the hard woods is because of jointing reasons. Also, pure hardwood is 100% void-less, and I'm just not a fan of scraps of wood being glued and pressed together. That's probably where the tonal difference comes into play.

Now that I think of it, its pretty dumb for me to argue about it. If some one wants to build with ply, that's perfectly fine. If someone wants to build with boards, that's fine too.

P.S.- Buy one of my cabs.

What type of joint connection do you use? I have seen some good stuff with dovetail connections.

Btw: Extremely detailed description of the Marshall 4x12 Slanted Cabinet:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3822426/1960A-Slant-Cab_rev1.pdf

 

[everybody's x]

fuck MDF

ever heard a Basson B810B?

 

[Executioner213]

Somewhat on topic...

Since Shane (the drip) and I were talking about it last night, maybe we can get some insight from the group. His Mesa OS cab has the speakers mounted from the inside, and he really likes the tone of it. I have Carvin Legacy's, which have the speakers mounted on the outside of the baffle, and I feel that they are ok...but lacking something/seem to be shrilly. We had discussed this attribute about my cabs before, so I brought up the question of whether it would be doable to swap the orientation of the speakers from front-mounted to internal?

Before I just go and do it, I'd like some input on it. Can you typically just do that? Will it really change the overall tone of my cabinet, hopefully making it a bit tighter than it already is?....or is it really just that I have Vintage 30's and thats what I get?

I've kinda been in a level of ignorance concerning the intricacies of speaker voicing: it's either been 'they are garbage' or 'they are good'. Something I'd like to explore, since we're on the topic of cabinets. I'm also wanting to know because if Shane pulls off building a cab that is really badass, I will probably want to try my hand at it too (maybe with his help though ).

 

[Ltdguy]

Rear loading the speakers might take away some of the shrill.

 

[Mago]

Very cool!