What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

Honestly they arent horrible speakers, they are celestion g12l 35 speakers, the low wattage is nice because im able to crank my amp really loud... they dont quite have the bass for metal, but they have a nice smooth top end, and good mid range crunch, pretty marshally, I think its a decent platform for a homemade cab...hopefully if i build the cab to mesa oversized dimensions i can get slightly more low end.
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

You can build the cab out of anything.....including Hardwood and Pine.
Most Hi-Fi speakers are some type of MDF.....but they do not normally get moved around very often.
You just do not want a material that is going to move, vibrate or resonate on its own.
good luck
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

I'd be leery about doing a large Pine 4x12 cabinet. It will resonate funny. Pine can work great for smaller combo amps though.
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

there is a lot of work that goes into building a good cab. baltic birch is the standard. solid woods are fine too but color the tone. if you are occasionally detuning to C id get a good 3/4 plywood and build the cab from that if you are gonna do it. everyone is right when they say buy a used cab. itll cost about the same once youre done and youll save yourself a TON of work
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

Think this is like the 4th time I mentioned this, I want to build it for fun, my drummer likes building stuff and I do too and we have the equipment to build it, we want something to do over the summer as a fun DIY project! Its decently cheap to get wood in Canada and finding used stuff on kijiji is cheap, if I buy used on ebay the import taxes can go up past 20% so I end up saving by just building a cabinet. The cheapest used marshall cab in my area last I checked was 500$, Mesa's are always more expensive in my area...
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

Then why are you asking about ......."The best cheap wood".......?
If wood is Inexpensive where You are..... and used cabs are Expensive, and you are doing this for fun.....build it out of whatever you want.
If in your shoes.....I would go hard-wood, and clear.
 
Last edited:
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

You could always try to find some scrap wood from shipping crates used for large industrial size printers or other such equipment. I used to take some of them apart and they were made of such woods a mahogany and teak, if you can believe it.
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

just use baltic birch. if you build it right then youll have a great cab
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

MDF doesn't suck, it is just different. It is like a blank-canvas for guitar speakers - all of the tone comes from the speakers. You would just want to approach speaker selection differently than you would a plywood cabinet. If you have a "blank-canvas", you'd probably want to mix and match different speakers that compliment each other rather than say, 4 V30s.
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

most MDF I have seen dissolves in water

my buddy left his Peavey monitors in a shed out back
some time later when he went to retrieve them
they collapsed to a pile of tolex and speaker
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

I have an MDF 4x12 that sounds real good. So much so that I did some work to fix it up after swapping the speakers over to an Avatar 4x12 and realizing that the MDF cab was a keeper ... as if I needed two 4x12's let alone one.
To be fair, it's got a ply back panel because the panel was missing when I got it and now it has a plywood baffle as well. So only the shell is still MDF. But the comparison was made when it had the MDF baffle. At any rate, I still have less than $100 into the cabinet.

That said, I would NOT build one from scratch out of MDF. Doesn't like water or moisture, heavy, probably more formaldehyde than plywood. Doesn't stand up to abuse so well so a good impact on an edge could crack the MDF where it would probably just dent plywood. Basically, a bad choice for a large cabinet, especially if it's going to be gigged. That's just my opinion anyway.
 
Re: What is the best cheap wood to use for a speaker cab

Chazzy said:
Ive decided i will embark on a building journey... to build a 412 cabinet, I just dont have the money to buy a marshall or mesa cab and really enjoy building, I figure i can put the celestions in a cab i build myself after the dimensions of a mesa oversized. What is the sturdiest and cheapest wood I can use to make the cab?
Click to expand...

First Marshall stack I made was 100% MDF-its cheap. A straight and a slant.
find a Marshall box you can look inside to see how the baffle is centre supported
how the thick front appearence is acheived or if you can find a diagram even better.
The biggest thing is getting speakers, I searched out an old hammond organ tech who had
tons of old 12 inch organ quality15-20w full range drivers for 10-15 cheap.
for example if 1 speaker can handle 15 watts you could probably safely get 50 out of a 4x12
so when you double it to 8 you can get a pretty loud and safe 80-100 watts stack-
which is very loud, very loud indeed, so loud that it is uncomfortable to be close by it when playing
unless you are deaf or drunk...at the time I prefered the latter, now it is my misfortune due to ignorance and age
to suffer the former.
Look inside a marshall box to see how its constructed.
I covered it in tolex and vintage basket weave-looked stunning.
Once and awhile the side handles can be had used cheap too-I found some to finish it off.
In the end the thing cost most was the tolex.
It was serious fun building it.
MDF is the key as I never knew if I would finish it or not, If I used baltic ply or something
It would have cost a fortune.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

blakejcan
how do you make the heel of a Les Paul Jr neck?
Replies
17
Views
122
blakejcan
blakejcan
Mincer
There is no good way to direct wood-mount pickups
2
Replies
29
Views
237
Mincer
Mincer
T
Best pickups to put in a Les Paul for metal?
2
Replies
26
Views
659
AdrianSD
A
Rex_Rocker
What model(s) to use on my HX Stomp for a Punk sound?
2
Replies
27
Views
572
Aceman
Aceman
GuitarGuy503
Want to use 1x12 extension cab with Roland Cube 60…
Replies
11
Views
409
Securb
Securb
Back
Top