Speaker Cab Material

[Andre S]

Does it negatively affect tone to use plywood over solid wood for a speaker cabinet?

 

I was thinking of building one because the cost to ship a heavy cab to me will be too high.

Since I would be building it by hand, using a sheet of 1/4 " ply would be a lot easier to cut than solid wood.

 

would the material affect tone?

[AXE®]

It will to a degree.

 

Use birch if available. And use solid bracing.

[Artie Owl]

Yes, I would say that it does, though at what volumes you're playing at and the level it would affect are different questions all together.

 

I'm no Scientitian but looking at the materials and thinking about the way sound bounces off stuff, I'd say plywood would probably have more sound dampening than regular boards, thanks to the plied layers. Wood boards might carry the sound better for the opposite reason (more porous) I don't think we'll ever see a plywood guitar that sells (well).

 

It may be worth the extra cost but who knows, I could be completely off the mark on this one, let's see what everyone else thinks.

 

edit I found this graph online for the amount of reflection of noise off of materials, 5mm thick plywood actually has a fairly high reflection ratio compared to solid wood doors, go figure

 

http://www.sae.edu/reference_material/pages/Coefficient%20Chart.htm

 

hopefully that helped some.

[flyingarmadillo]

Does it negatively affect tone to use plywood over solid wood for a speaker cabinet?

 

I was thinking of building one because the cost to ship a heavy cab to me will be too high.

Since I would be building it by hand, using a sheet of 1/4 " ply would be a lot easier to cut than solid wood.

 

would the material affect tone?

 

 

1/4" plywood is too thin - you need at least 3/8" or better - furniture grade (fewer voids) - my bass cab is 3/4". Particle board is not a bad choice because it's very dead acoustically so all you get is the speaker sound without any coloration from the cab. Some of it depends on design too - if you're going open back you can go thinner than for sealed or ported enclosures.

 

Material affects tone - for a speaker cab you want something dead so you only get the sound from the speaker and not a lot of coloration from the cab.

[Artie Owl]

I've got it backwards of course, the more dense the material the more is reflected back, the more porous the less it reflects and absorbs! Sorry I got up early today :(

 

3/8" plywood should do just fine.

[Mr. Natural]

I'm not an acoustics engineer (and, no, I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night), but I would think that of course the cabinet material would effect the tone. If you consider two extremes, suspending a wired speaker in mid-air outdoors and, say, building a cabinet out of half inch thick steel plate, the tone has to be effected. If I were so inclined to build my own speaker cab, I would do a lot of research and find out what materials and construction techniques Fender, Marshall, Orange, etc. use.

 

Of course, just by virtue of the fact that you've asked this question in an open forum, you have just started this research. So, pay attention to those who have posted before me and to those will post after me (but don't necessarily pay attention to me, because, like I said, I'm not an acoustics engineer).

[Andre S]

Made a mistake, its actually 1/2" thick.

 

Would pine bracing be ok?

 

Because I have some old wooden draws made of pine that I can use? about 1" thick.

[Andre S]

I'm not an acoustics engineer (and, no, I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night), but I would think that of course the cabinet material would effect the tone. If you consider two extremes, suspending a wired speaker in mid-air outdoors and, say, building a cabinet out of half inch thick steel plate, the tone has to be effected. If I were so inclined to build my own speaker cab, I would do a lot of research and find out what materials and construction techniques Fender, Marshall, Orange, etc. use.

 

Of course, just by virtue of the fact that you've asked this question in an open forum, you have just started this research. So, pay attention to those who have posted before me and to those will post after me (but don't necessarily pay attention to me, because, like I said, I'm not an acoustics engineer).

 

I had started a month ago, but I only made it as far as the method used to joint the sides. Except I can't because I don't have a router, but I saw another site where the person simply glued the sides together with no dovetail joints.

[Dub-T-123]

If it were me I would definately do the dovetail joints. I like to sit on my amps and stuff and I would just want to know that the joints are really sturdy.

[TommyK]

As with guitars, speaker cabinet material is very important to tone. I do think you will be quite disappointed with the thin plywood. Believe it or not, a good quality particle board is probably one of the better materials, due to it's consistency and lack of voids. If you must use plywood, I'd go 3-4" minimum for the back and sides. However, the best cabs are made with dense woods like Rosewood, if you can get it and afford it, maple, birch and poplar aren't bad either. If solid wood is too had for you to saw, borrow a power saw or chop saw. You'll be glad you did.

[Dub-T-123]

I don't think we'll ever see a plywood guitar that sells (well).

 

How about the es-335? That's plywood. There are many guitars made of multiple layers of wood that sell very well and sound amazing.

 

I know what you mean. I just had to throw that out there.

[PartsPvt]

Over the years we (we being a good friend..engineer and me) have built many cabinets..manly because I could not get what I wanted commercially.

 

I have used two 3/4" plywood cabs..with D140F 15" and an Altec folded horn for stage monitors. We packed the cabs densely with fiberglass and kapock. The attempt was to get the speaker to project forward without cab resonance. I used these especially with my 355 stereo or my LP custom with heavy mods (active). These had custom made crossovers (not that difficult) to reference the hi/low response.

I have quite often utilized D 140Fs which with the right head produced incredible response.

The outcome was very nice..as each had deep and shrill coming from one cab. The bass side was very deep yet crisp. The treble side could cut meat.

 

On bass cabs we would use the same plywood construction but with a 3" or 4" PVC tube mounted low and forward. The high pressures for the bass was relieved by the porting and seemed to give us better lows with less roll over. The speaker was crisper in reflect/rebound and projected much better than the commercial cabs we had. We also had better speaker life.

 

In studio we tended to make small tight cabs to reduce resonance as close Mic'ing would pick up that resonance as roll over. All our studio amps were mod'd to reduce hiss by altering the tone circuits. We'd combine DI with close mic to blend to get more life than DI only.

 

We experimented with Aluminum T6066 cabs with compressed board front and back. These seemed to work OK..but the cost and work to get the cabs made in shape was excessive. I still have one of those cabs..naked now though.

I also kept one of the 15"s with horn cabs.

 

At the DBs we needed for live the cabs theory FOR US was projection. Reflection from materials was unwanted. The sound Re enforcement guys liked the lack of unwanted secondary harmonics and roll over rumbles from reflection (as they be-atched about constantly !)

On stage..slants for monitors..or cans (when possible) was what I heard.

 

In smaller venues the Cabs with 15" and folded horns..could slice and dice..

 

Remember 3/4" cabs with D140s and horns are heavy..if that's a concern

 

Not being an engineer..I tried most everything..YMMV..

 

How's this for wierd.

We tried "vertical sticks" 2X15s in a sep tight cabs..then next up the pole was 2 12s mounted vertical..then four tens (2 per tight cab vertical..with a horn (tight cab'ed) on top. This was about 8" tall. The reenforcement guys tried to use a delay to run the sound quickly UP the towers. We actually seemed to get the crowd to stand as the sound ran UP..

Just too much complexity..but we did use this for the complete mix in deep..

Hey..it was the 70s..!

 

 

 

Got the sound I liked..not much cost really considering the options.

 

All this was 25+ years ago..so I might just be crazy old guy..probably..

 

Just do it..and find what you like.

[badbluesplayer]

Birch plywwod is a common material. Pine boards are also common. Plywood has a darker sound than pine. Pine is brighter. Most modern cabs use birch plywood.

 

Three eights or half inch plywood is plenty strong enough. Pine boards should be 3/4" thick. The baffle should be 3/8" or 1/2" plywood.

 

Dovetail joints are a little stronger for solid wood, but with plywood, dovetail or finger joints are not very strong. You can use butt joints but you will need to use cleats (1" x 1" pieces of pine or another soft wood) to brace the corners. Use wood glue with screws spaced at about 8" maximum.

 

Open back cab - Fender Wide Panel style - pine with finger joints:

 

 

Closed back cab - Birch Plywood with reinforced butt joints and ported baffle (Egnater Rebel clone):

[Andre S]

As with guitars, speaker cabinet material is very important to tone. I do think you will be quite disappointed with the thin plywood. Believe it or not, a good quality particle board is probably one of the better materials, due to it's consistency and lack of voids. If you must use plywood, I'd go 3-4" minimum for the back and sides. However, the best cabs are made with dense woods like Rosewood, if you can get it and afford it, maple, birch and poplar aren't bad either. If solid wood is too had for you to saw, borrow a power saw or chop saw. You'll be glad you did.

 

I would be able to get someone to cut it for me.

 

So far though, I have seen that lots of cabs appear to be made of birch ply., Of course the wonderful person at the hardware store didn't know if it were birchply.

 

......I will see if I can get pine.

 

What thickness of pine should I try to get?

I don't really know how thick they sell the solid wood sheets. 1/2 "?

[Andre S]

Jeez this is retarded.

 

The hardware sells the pine wood 12 feet by 12 inches.

 

Am I right in thinking that those dimensions are basically useless for a cab?

 

Except for bracing etc.?

[badbluesplayer]

Jeez this is retarded.

 

The hardware sells the pine wood 12 feet by 12 inches.

 

Am I right in thinking that those dimensions are basically useless for a cab?

 

Except for bracing etc.?

 

You can use a pine board that's 12 inches wide. Most cabs are abut 12 inches deep from front to back, so that'll work.

[Andre S]

Awesome!

 

And Pine will sound great! (I hope)

Thanks a lot!

But I will just wait till after my next NGD....so the cost of material won't delay it.

 

[Bender 4 Life]

My ancient Univox 105w fullstack was heard clearly at a distance of 3/4 mile......

it sounded great.......

I opened it up a while back, and was surprised to find.......

 

 

5/8" pine plywood and Japanese generic squarebacks.

 

go figure