Building A Cab.

[Blake]

I have 2 10'' Eminence speakers that I want to build 2 different boxes for. This is mostly for recording and home use. Should I use wood that's flexible and will resonate or should I use thick hard wood? I've even thought particle board may have an actual sound to it vs. the hard durable wood other cabs are made of.

Secondly, should I stuff it with foam or insulation or should I leave it bare? I've seen guitar cabs and PA boxes go both ways.

I actually have an idea of what I want to do, I'm just throwing it out there to see what I get.

thanksabunch

 

[benjaturner]

Re: Building A Cab.

Secondly, should I stuff it with foam or insulation or should I leave it bare? I've seen guitar cabs and PA boxes go both ways.

Are you intending to make the open or closed back? Obviously, if open back then you don't need to put anything in them (duh... except speakers!) but as far as closed back speakers go I've always thought you needed to fill them with something.

It's all to do with standing waves, but it sounds like you know about that already. don't think it matters what you fill the cabs with as long as it absorbs as much sound as possible.

Should I use wood that's flexible and will resonate or should I use thick hard wood? I've even thought particle board may have an actual sound to it vs. the hard durable wood other cabs are made of.

As far as I know top range cabs are usually built from pine. But I'm no carpenter and I know nothing about the effects of wood used on a cabinet.

 

[mnbaseball91]

Re: Building A Cab.

^I was under the impression that birch was more popular. Regardless, building a guitar cab is nothing like building a cab for bass or full-range. With guitars, you can get away with almost anything and still have it sound good.

 

[benjaturner]

Re: Building A Cab.

^I was under the impression that birch was more popular. Regardless, building a guitar cab is nothing like building a cab for bass or full-range. With guitars, you can get away with almost anything and still have it sound good.

I think you're right. There does seem to be a lot more cabs made from birch-faced ply around. But I think this is because it's cheaper (?) and much easier to work with as well as being far more consistant. Hopefully someone who knows a bit more than me will chime in and correct my mistakes on the subject.

-Benja

 

[krankguitarist]

Re: Building A Cab.

As far as I know top range cabs are usually built from pine. But I'm no carpenter and I know nothing about the effects of wood used on a cabinet.

I could be wrong, but it seems a little strange to me for a guitar cab to be built out of pine. It just seems like wayy too soft of a wood to be seeing any kind of gigging action...

I'd say go for some nice birch plywood. Particle board sounds like A$$ when you use it in a guitar cab.

 

[Blake]

Re: Building A Cab.

Yeah, baltic birch is what I've found a lot of cabs to be made of. I guess what I was getting at is do they make them from birch because it's strong and road ready, or would it actually sound better to have a cab that's made of highly flexible wood like particle board?
Oh and I understand what you mean about standing waves, but my 412 Mesa doesn't have any insulation, if I remember correctly, and it sounds great. Most full range or any other kind of PA box I've seen has the insulation. What gives?

 

[theodie]

Re: Building A Cab.

Birch is the standard! I have wondered what a cab made out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) would be like?

 

[RiffRaff]

Re: Building A Cab.

Here's a good website to check out -

Weber

Frankly, Pine is great for building cabinets with, it's cheap, light, easy to work with and for the most part is sonically neutral - what you don't want is wood adding it's own resonance in with the vibration of the speakers - that results in buzzing and rattling. Marshall built all of his early cabs out of butt jointed pine and they're considered to be the holy grail of cabinets. Hardwood may seem like the "natural" choice for a sturdy cabinet but it's very heavy and harder to work with - the same goes for mdf. For a small cabinet 1/2 hardwood ply makes a good soundboard - for larger cabs 3/4 baltic birch ply is recommended. Again, primarily to eliminate buzzes and ratting and to eliminate flexing in the soundboard that can damage speakers. Internal dimensions on a closed back cabinet are questionable - for serious audio applications there are formulas used to calculate the enclosure size - but for a guitar cabinet there doesn't seem to be any rule of thumb size for a closed back cabinet. I've built several open and closed back 2x12 cabinets using furniture grade (yellow) pine (1x12's) and birch plywood and they sound great - it's easy!

 

[D-EJ915]

Re: Building A Cab.

One website I was reading said that they use plywood because it "resonates and adds to the natural sound of the guitar"

They just wanted their cheap-ass practice to be validified by something, MDF would sound great but be heavy as crap.

 

[SIXX]

Re: Building A Cab.

Go too Steel Sound.com, they have empty cabs for sale. Example: 4X12 $ 130.00, 2X12 $ 73.00 etc. Check em out.