Best wood for guitar amp?

M

musikman316

New member
What is (in your opinion) the best wood for a guitar amp/cab? Is there a better wood for a 1x12 and then a better wood for a 4x12? Thanks in advance...
 
If you are talking about for a speaker cab for a gtr amp, you should use MDF, not real wood. Natural wood has its on resonance and can do nasty unpredictable things.
 
uhhhh, doesn't MDF stand for multi density fibreboard?...or something?...which is, after all, a fancy name for plywood, eh?......at least I think I'm right about that.....so really no solid wood is usually used for amp cabs....gibs
 
I had my Mesa Boogie Mark III custom done for me in 1989. The guy in Mesa hooked me up and recommended I waited a few extra weeks for some special wood. I did. I don't know what it is, my understanding was Brasilian Rosewood. Either way, needless to say, it kicks but.

Definitely do at least Plywood. Fiberboard will not have the sound, and will fall apart with the slightest adverse treatment.
 
Aren't cheaper cabs made of particle board, which is a different animal from fibreboard, but a first cousin of plywood????...teach me, I'd like to know.....

Particle board, that is often used for cheap flooring in manufactured homes (read trailers), tends to turn into shredded wheat when exposed to heavy moisture.....

Braz Rosewood seems like overkill for cab construction, but if you got the bucks, more power to you.......I'd rather have it as a fretboard..........gibs
 
MDF - Medium Density Fibreboard is fairly popular in the home stereo world. The difference between fibre board and particle board are pretty large.

Both use glue and the similarity stops there.

While plywood takes essentially thin layers and glues them together, fibre board takes a wood pulp mixture and presses it into a board.

We all know that glue is not really a desirable quality in anything that resonates sound, but the tradeoff with fibreboard is that you get a constant density across the piece of wood which equates to predictable acoustic characteristics. Plywood on the other hand is more of a crap shoot in terms of the tightness of the grain and the number of defects in the wood like Bdgr said.

Also, fibreboard is not particle board. Particle board is pretty much wood chips pressed together and that would be the last thing you want in a speaker cabinet.

Fibreboard is cost effective, sounds great, and doesn't expose you to the elitest trying to design a speaker cabinet like a Les Paul.
 
Use something cheap, light and strong. Chipboard,, plywood or block board. For PA speakers people use high weight high density boards (eg 13 ply 18mm birch ply)because of the frequency ranges and pressures. Guitar speakers don't require it (unless we're talking bass guitar). I dont like MDF for cabinets its basically compressed cardboard and can swell up if it gets wet, its also harder to joint, you need special screws, it fixes on the sides but not so well on the end
 
Here's some useful links:

"While MDF is an excellent wood for cabinet construction it should "never" be used for your baffle board. This is a big no-no in guitarland. Your speaker will eventually pull away and break through the baffle board. Insist on 13-ply "Baltic Birch" baffle boards otherwise you may have a dysfunctional amp or cabinet you can do nothing with."

- http://www.johnson-amp.com/cabinets.htm

However, Celestion has an opposite viewpoint, recommending MDF for the baffle board. This link also includes some decent design considerations:

- http://www.celestion.com/pro/cabinet.htm
 
When I built my cabinet I used oak veneer plywood from Menards. I also used 1x furing strips for angle supports. It is a 4 x 12 cabinet. I threw an eletrical junction box in the back and let her rip. Sounds pretty nice with the vintage 30's and greenbacks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top