cab building: figured maple source?

[ruger9]

I wasn't sure where to put this- I'm looking to build my own cab out of some kind of figured maple, and even tho it's an AMP application, most cabs are COVERED, so I figured the "luthiers" might have a better idea of where to get the stuff than the amp guys would, so I posted in both forums.

Basically, I'm going to build an amp, but I think I'm going to do a fancy maple cab, like Mountain Amps, but have no idea where to get the stuff?

http://www.amazingtone.com/generic.html?pid=1

[aznrambo481]

flame maple veneer?

[JohnnyCrash]

Man, I only used pine and birch ply thusfar... I've always tolex'ed... Home Depot was where I went HAHAHA

I'll help you Google around, maybe we can find a place... if so I might give an amp the flamed maple treatment too.

I'm sure the fingerjoint routing is going to need some serious scabs used to avoid chipping :)

[maestrovert]

figured Sycamore just might be easier to come by....

[BrianF]

What does one need to do to make a pine cabinet? I have a plunge router. Can I make finger joints with it?

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by BrianF

What does one need to do to make a pine cabinet? I have a plunge router. Can I make finger joints with it?

I use a router and a fingerjoining jig. A crappy plastic Sear's Crapsman jig that sucks really bad, at that.

I barely have any tools... and as you can see from my gallery I somehow MacGuyver cabs together well enough to last. I'm surprised I can even do that :(

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally Posted by BrianF

What does one need to do to make a pine cabinet? I have a plunge router. Can I make finger joints with it?

Yeah, you can do finger joints but I prefer half blind dovetails and 3/4" solid pine. Here's how I build cabs - frettech.com/rfc/cab - dovetails provide a super strong locking joint that don't even need to be glued, though I throw a dab of aliphatic resin glue (yellow glue) into each dovetailed slot before joining panels.

I have a router dedicated just for dovetailing, an old and ancient 1hp Sears Craftsman my dad used for cabinet making many decades ago. It does a great job for dovetailing and I've probably built nearly 70 cabs with the little bugger. I retrofitted the base plate to accept the proper bit collar for the PC dovetail jig. It takes some 'sperimentin' to dial in the right bit depth for yer board stock, and once ya find it, lock that sucker in and don't mess with it! I always use carbide bits, too.

Most dovetail jigs require a specific schedule for the dovetailing process, here's mine for the Porter-Cable jig ...



Besides getting down the router/jig settings and process, buying good wood is super important - you want straight boards with as little cupping as possible. I regularly pass up really nice looking boards because they're just too warped on the width (cupped). Knots don't hafta be an issue, they can add some rustic character to a cab, and a shot of super glue wicked into a knot (after finishing!) will make it hard and a permanent part of the cab.

I don't cover the cabs, just stain 'em and clear coat with polyU - lots more wood resonance, particluarly with light white or sugar pine. Using solid hardwoods can make for tougher cab building when sanding out the dovetails and sides, and routing the corner rounds. Finding thin maple veneer over a softwood (pine) would be the way to go, if ya can find that stuff. Doug Stalter at Vintone makes gorgeous hardwood cabs - www.vintone.com Don't forget, a hardwood cab can easily weigh 2 to 4 times what a pine cab will weigh!

[guitarbuilder]

I've purchased some nice flamed maple boards from A&M specialty woods in Ontario, Canada.

[ruger9]

Great info guys! Thanks!

[Big Mike Simpson]

Ebay!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Curly-Maple-4-4x...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Curly-Maple-4-4x...QQcmdZViewItem

I have found some at home depot... gotta look through the wood..

[ruger9]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

Don't forget, a hardwood cab can easily weigh 2 to 4 times what a pine cab will weigh!

That'd be alright- all I'm looking to do is maybe re-house my DA5, and if I like it, maybe do the same thing to a 5F2A I'm planning to build.

[cheeseman]

i make em outa poplar. it's light, is essentially a 'tonewood', if such a thing exists in the amp cabinet world, it comes in nice wide widths so you probably won't need to edge glue pieces together, it's easy to find knot free boards, it has a nice straight even grain, it machines better than pine and it's inexpensive. i build the baffles outa 3/8" baltic birch ply, and any other cab parts also get built outa that.

i'm definitely with mr. stephano about half blind dovetails. being a furniture builder i prefer them for looks and strength, but with a little practice they can be cut with a saw and a chisel! it's not as hard as you may think. through dovetails are even easier to hand cut, and if you are covering with tolex then getting them 'cabinet grade' tight isn't really that important. surprisingly, once you get a handle on cutting them by hand it's actually FASTER than using a router and jig! there is lots of reference material available on woodworking sites and magazines.

i also think that using rabbeted joints, although not as strong as dovetails is an option. if the amp sustains the kind of forces needed to break a good rabbeted joint then the damage to the cabinet is the least of your worries! i kinda apply the crumple zone thinking here - if the cabinet absorbs the energy of the impact then whatever is inside doesn't hatfa. i readily admit though i am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, these are just a couple of ideas i float around.

box joints are great too. they can also be cut quickly by hand with a saw and a chisel and here too practice makes perfect. there is a common misconception that hand tools are slower or more inefficient. that may be true SOME of the time but certainly not ALL of the time. if you factor in the time it takes to set up and adjust power tools then you may discover that hand tools do have some advantages. they are also safer, and as my mentor charles schifflett taught me "it takes a LOT longer to make mistakes with hand tools!"

here's a pic of my latest, a princeton clone with hammond iron and protective baffle with a built in beam blocker sorta thingy. i call it 'dauntless'.

[ruger9]

That is one sharp cab! I'd pay for it! Just curious- how many hours did it take you?

[cheeseman]

thanks!

the actual construction was about four or five hours, but i buy my wood rough and mill it to my needs so that takes a while. i usually buy more than i need, mill it all up and then i have some left over for my stock and for setting up tools and stuff. i made a bunch of jigs for this cabinet too, so i guess in total, milling, jig building, cabinet assembly, 10 to 12 hours.

this one is 3/4" box jointed poplar with a 3/8" baffle and was made for a specifc buyer. i haven't added finish yet or installed handles and such until he gets a chance to see it and play with it a bit. after that we'll discuss the final steps. i suspect he'll want it finished with varnish, (cause he's a bit of a wood guy). i put speaker cloth behind the front grill baffle and my logo goes in the space above the front baffle. he's also asked for a road case with castors to fit.

electrics-wise it's pretty straight forward - a priceton 5f2-a circuit with some slightly different cap values, hammond transformers and 8" eminence speaker. i like this little beauty, and it loves my tele!

[ruger9]

AAuuugghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A 5F2A???? That's what I'm going to build! But I'm going to use a 10" speaker, and a couple of circuit "additions." I was going to just buy a Weber cab (along with the Weber kit), but maybe I'll have a go at cab construction. Actually, the construction part I know I can do (I'm a contractor), but the covering is what I'm worried about. Never attempted any kind of covering.

[Rob DiStefano]

Nah, leave the wood bare 'n' bold and forget the covering - the cab will be so much more lively and resonant. IMO, what I find true for guitars is true for combo amps and speaker cabs as well - stain and lightly finish, no grain filling.

I'm so jaded with the fat tone of large speakers these dayze. Even with all my low wattage tube amps I don't use anything less than 12". I love that deep, round low end.

Here's a Champster 5F1 running with a JJ 6L6 getting tested via a pine cab loaded with a well used Weber 12F150 ...