Cabs

[radrobgray]

i know this isnt directly related to guitar building but i have a few questions. have any of you made your own cabnets? if so what wood, tools, and construction techniques did you use? any links and/or info would be appreciated.

thanks

[unclej]

rob..asking about speaker cabinet specs is kinda like asking about which is the best pickup or tone wood..everyone has an opinion and they're all right in one way or the other..and there are a lot of variables..plywood or solid wood..baffles or no baffles. each effects the sound..the best thing to do is to google "diy speaker cabinets." you'll find a large amount of information available. do some reading and decide which sound you want out of yours.

good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[scott from _actual time_]

everyone has an opinion and they're all right in one way or the other..

very true!

baffles or no baffles.

in a speaker cab, the baffle is the board that holds the speaker. so every cab must have a baffle, or there's nothing to bolt the speaker onto.

if you mean internal dividing partitions inside the cab, yes there are some cabs with and many without. another often-debated issue is whether it sounds better to mount the speakers to the rear of the baffle (a rear-loaded cab) or to mount them to the front of the baffle (front loaded). and there's open back vs closed back.

i've built half a dozen speaker cabs. i've done open back and closed, plywood and solid pine, front loaded and rear loaded. i think the best way to develop a design is to get a good look at the type of commercial cab you want to emulate. note the dimensions, what it's made of, front loaded vs rear, and what i think is the most important tonal quality--open back vs closed. then you can plan your own cab based on that.

for construction methods, use whatever you feel comfortable with. i've made cabs with glue and woodscrew joints, and also glued dados and rabets. i've covered them with fuzzy carpet, tolex, and just black spray paint. i've used those big recessed handles and the little spring-loaded ones. they all work well, so pick whatever you like and plan it into your design.

Edited March 16, 2006 by scott from _actual time_

[radrobgray]

thanks for the info...