Thanks for the replies all, I really appreciated. I had to get my order in today....so I pondered the choice last night along with some additional research and came up with the following choice:
Bubinga Hardwood cabinet. I chose a hardwood over the ply because deep down, I wanted a hardwood amp. I've owned many mark IVs before, and once had a maple cab Mark IV, and liked it better than the others. I didn't keep it because at the time I was gigging in alot of venues where the cab would get beat up. I am not doing those types of gigs anymore.......I only play in church type venues.
I also went deep into the research mode as I wanted to select the most durable and stable hardwood, while at the sametime not contributing to the Rainforest's deforestation. Bubinga is plentiful in Africa, and is one of the most stable, naturally resistant to termites, wood boring insects and decay. It is also harder than maple, and teak.
After hours of research, I found some PDFs from the U.S Dept of Forestry... and got the following info:
Bubinga:
Origin:
Central Africa
Appearance:
A beautiful, dense hardwood with a lustrous appearance, bubinga has a rose-colored background with darker purple striping. This wood is usually very uniform in graining and color, and the texture is fine and even. When quarter-sawn, the figure of bubinga shows considerable "flame," while it exhibits attractive rosewood graining when flat-sawn. When fully aged, bubinga has a rich burgundy red color.
Heartwood Color
The heartwood is medium red-brown or red to reddish-brown in color, with lighter red to purple veins. Upon exposure, the wood becomes yellow or medium brown with a reddish tint, and the veining becomes less conspicuous.
Movement in Service
The timber is reported to be dimensionally stable, and retains its shape well after manufacture.
Natural Durability
The heartwood is reported to be naturally resistant to decay, attack by termites and most xylophagous beetles.
Cutting Resistance
Bubinga is hard and heavy, but it is reported to saw slowly but readily.
Hardness: 1980
Bubinga is a hard and durable wood species. It is ninety-eight percent harder than teak, about fifty-three percent harder than hard maple, roughly fourteen percent harder than African padauk, a little over eight percent harder than hickory or pecan, almost identical in hardness to jarrah (under one percent), and ninety percent as hard as santos mahogany's ranking of 2200.
As the above data suggests, warping is not likely with this wood and is more durable than plywood (I also did some research on the durability of plywood and the glue compounds used to put them together.....but I won't bore anyone with that data -- it's too long), heck it is stronger than teak.
I considered a croc skin cab, but IMO, the price isn't justified given the amount of leather being used in the small cab I am ordering (narrow MK IV Combo). The price diff between the leather croc and hardwood was less than $50. And consider this, the hardwood can be easily repaired (sanded re-finished) for alot less than leather tolex
Sorry for the long post, but I had a hard time finding out alot of this info, and found very little on this board, so hopefully my research can help another member searching for similar answers.
Thanks everyone. :wink:
