Russ said:
1).If woods are not important then why are guitars built from specific woods?
2).If plywood was the best wood for instruments then the old Harmony plywood Les Paul copies would have been the best and most sought after guitars. This goes for cabinets as well.
3).I don't think that the industry could support the extra care involved in dealing with truckloads of hardwood cabinets for the major bands touring. The amount of care would certainly make the load in/setup/tear down/load out times unbearable. The cost is also a major concern.
4).If all cabs were made of hardwoods then most players would never get to experience what is perceived to be good tone. For the most part people achieve a common good tone with plywood cabs.
5).It is just those that spend the little extra for hardwood cabs that really know the difference.
6).I am a carpenter by trade and a musician at heart. I know from using different woods that there is definitely a resonant quality to all woods.
7).When I nail hardwood I hear a distinct crack. When I nail plywood it is a thud.
8. If you ever get a chance, try smacking the hickory handle of a hammer on concrete then try a piece of plywood. You'll definitely hear a difference. This difference is you are hearing is from a percussive sound and is not even complex soundwaves as would be from a strung instrument.
9).There isn't much tone in whacking something but it prooves a point.
10).I would think that the tolex would serve to soften the surface resonance also even though it is not something thought about much whereas a varnish or even an oil finish would certainly let more sound come through the skin of the cabinet. If you don't believe sound is coming through the skin of your cab try playing through a cab that has big flappy shreds of tolex on it and listen to the flaps buzz.
11).From my experience Maple is a very hard hardwood. It only makes sense that it likes to bite. Koa on the other hand is not nearly as tight so it will not sound as tight either. The cellular structure of the wood will tell you about how it will resonate. The tighter the cells the thighter the sounds. The looser the cells the looser the sound as well. This can also be seen in grain patterns. A hard rock maple with a loose grain pattern will sound different than a hard rock maple with very tight grain structure. Mainly it is the voids created in the cells and in the grain that ultimately determine the end tone once compared in similar finishes.
1).No one ever said wood wasn't important in guitars or speaker cabs but lets not confuse the two, they are apples & oranges.
2).There you go again comparing apples & oranges, cab wood and guitar wood have little or nothing to do with each other.
3).There's no need to. Hardwood cabs are IMO furniture to be kept at home.
4).I'm confused, you're completely contradicing yourself here.
5).Total nonsensical elitist thinking. That is one of the more rediculous things I've read lately.
6).I am a retired carpenter by trade and a musician at heart who has spent an entire career working with hard (finish) woods. I also know from using different woods that there is definitely a resonant quality to all woods. I also know that these choices are important in choosing woods for my guitars, but I also know that I DO NOT want these woods in my speaker cabs. I want 13 ply Baltic Birch cabs.
7).What does that have to do with speaker cabs. Besides anytime we used select hardwoods for cabs there wasn't a hammer or nail in site. Either glue with nail guns or glue with predrilled screws. NO hammer and nails.
8.Here you go with the beating and whacking again, this has nothing to do with speaker cabs.
9).There's no point in whacking something, it proves nothing.
10).I don't know about surface resonance, but as for big flappy shreds of tolex I know of no cabs that suffer from that malady, I'm certain none of mine do.
11).Once again I find these things important in the instruments, not the speaker cabs. I don't want the speaker cabs to play that big a role in coloring my sound, that's what my guitar is for. I want well constructed 13 ply Baltic Birch cabs that impart as little of there own character as possible, and to hell with this nonsensical "better then thou" mentality that some people have with hardwood cabs. Believe me I have the money to buy or build the best cabs in the world and solely based on my ears I choose Baltic Birch over any hardwood.
