Wood choice for cabinets

[spaivxx]

Hi all. I am looking to convert a Mark IV combo into a head and cab. I want it to look really good, but more importantly, sound the best that it can. I have a friend who is an extremely talneted wood worker, who will do build it with finger joints, dowls, etc... for relatively cheap.

What wood might i use that A) contribute to a full, robust sound B)will look really nice and C)is sturdy but wont weigh a ton.

These priorities are listed in order, so if A and B mean no C, thats cool.

I have been looking online for Imbuya, Bubinga, etc... and it seems it is difficult to find sheets of the stuff. I went to VintageBoogie.com, on the page their is a pic of a Boogie head and cab in some dark wood and wicker, this is exactly what i am going for.

Any ideas on what wood to use, and why, are greatly appreciated. Oak, Cherry mahogany, Imbuya, Bubinga, Koa and Walnut are up for consideration. Thanx in advance for any help with my choice.

 

[Nick_cor]

Hi

I know if your guitar is made out of bubinga it's suspose to sound bright in the midrange with a well defined thick bottom end. It's heavy as well but sustains for days, supposidly

Koa has a warm sound to it, it sounds simliar to mahogany but with a little more brigthenss,

and that's all i know

 

[PRSKILLER]

You can wrap the chassis with metal and it will not affect the tone. The head shell has nothing to do with the tone of your amp. It is basically just a housing, lol :lol:

 

[spaivxx]

PRSKiller;

Thanx for stating the obvious... i know that. i am thinking of the wood affecting the cabinet tone. the head will be made from matching wood for aesthetic purposes.

 

[Boogiewan Kenobi]

I don't think that the tone of the cabinet is changed much by what type of hardwood you use.

I think that there is a major difference with open and closed back and tune with front ports.

I have many and they are very similar. Plywood versus Bubinga versus Mahogany etc.

BWK

 

[Bruce Dickenson]

If you are looking for sheets of the wood; 1 good luck & 2 you're going to break the bank. I'm splitting my Mk III combo and I'm using bubinga. My neighbor is helping me as well and said it's going to be easy. We looked at some examples on MB's website and he said with out a doubt the wood was glued together to get the width. He also said that the glued pieces of wood actually have a stronger bond then the actual wood grain. Up here in Seattle I'm probably looking $7 a board foot in varying widths.

Also I ordered my parts like speaker junction box, handles, boogie logo plate, and chassis screws from MB a few days ago. Good luck and I hope your Mk IV turns out great.

Ryan

 

[spaivxx]

Bruce,

I just talked to the guy doing the work tonight and he said the same thing. He thought I was crazy talking about trying to find 3/4" 8'X4' Mahogany or Koa. He said even if I do find it, it will be very expensive and likely need planed. He suggested laminate, but I dont think the laminate path is for me. In my bosses studio we have some really nice Voice of the Theater monitors, he told me that they are plywood wih a laminate, I was surprised..

I am thinking the bonded boards, as you suggest, are likely the best choice.

Kenobi, perhaps you are correct in that the wood may not factor in as much in a cabinets overall sound as much as other factors, including those which you mentinoned. But, hard, heavy, dense wood does not resonate as much as lighter, less dense wood. The energy of the speakers resonating is shared by the wood. The less the wood resonates, the more the speaker does. I am thinking a solid, heavy cab would force the strongest speaker resonations.

In the past I had 4 of the old steel grilled Boogie 4x12 cabs, the ones with 2 sealed EV and 2 open Celestions. On all 4 I ordered the panel from Boogie to close them, and it made a huge differnce in my tone. Back then I played metal and ran either a Studio pe with a 50/50 or a Mark IV. Eventually i went down to a Mark IV and single sealed 4x12 Boogie cab, which still would peel ones face off. I do not know what kind of wood Mesa uses in their "stock" cabs, I assume birch, but I am just guessing, a lot of cabs are made of birch.

Tomorrow I am going to draw up the plans for the head and cab. I toyed with the idea of integrating a 2 or 4 space rack into the head design, but, that would completely defeat the purpose of splitting the combo. So I am going to just draw up a typical head design, probably copy the Mark IV shorthead as far as shape and size are concerned.

I know absolutely nthing of speaker cabinet design, though I would assume that there are some principles involving ratios of numbers that are designed to enhance various frequences or whatnot. I have often wondered if the width and depth of a cab were mathematically calculated so that a specific volume of air was enclosed or so that a specific distance between a given point in the speaker is maintained. I will look into that tomorrow too.

Depending on the overall cost, availability of materials, and my bufddies ability to make time for the work, I would like to have a head, a 2x12,a 4x12, 1x12 and a 6 or 8 space rack, all made of matching materials, decorative hardwood cabinets and cane of wicker grills. That would be sweet, a rig for all occasions, same amp, cabs to suite the venue. The effects/utility rack would ideally have a hinged door that matched the grills of the cabs, that would look sweet, not to mention keep fingers out off of my rack stuff.

Anyhow, I am not going to start dumping cash into this until after December, get clear of the holidatys, got kids needing laptops and XBox 360s and crap, cuts into gear budget.

 

[PRSKILLER]

Having all those custom matching cabinets and head will certainly look awesome and it will sure cost a fortune. As far as tone goes for the cabinets the construction would affect the tone more than the choice of wood. I mean you see all these different cabinet makers using the same choice of wood which is marine grade birch yet you hear so many different reviews how this cab is better than this cab. Definitely the build and size will determine tone. Wood choice will just be icing on the cake, imo

 

[RR]

I was going to comment but you guys sure took the words out of my mouth since I'm a woodworker.

Summary:
Hardwood is expensive!
Hardwood -vs- say baltic plywood, or 13+ply plywood, the tone is so subtle, seems like just some amp tweaking would compensate.
I would only recommend a project if you do it yourself.

But it is interesting seeing some of us members with hardwood cabinets.