Cabinet material - pine vs birch

[Jsnwhite619]

A friend asked if I could build a 2x12 extension cab to use with his Marshall DSL 100. I've never owned a Marshall, don't know that I've ever played one - 100% Fender guy here. I've built a lot of cabinets over the past several years, but I've always used pine and always using a Fender-type design, Tweed through Blackface years.

I would rather build it out of pine, he would appreciate the weight savings of it. But, I have no idea if pine & Marshall works well, or if part of the sound has to be the birch ply cabinets. He'll probably be putting Vintage 30's or Eminence Governor's inside.

So, any experience & advice in this department would be appreciated.

 

[Axis29]

Plywood will definitely be a little tighter. Maybe more focused, punchy? Lotta differences, though, open back vs. closed back, etc. Closed back might have more effect?

But, at the same time, I love pine for my 5f8-a and 5f6-a amps, which are kinda the basis for Marshall, yeah?

I am no. engineer, or cab designer, so take everything I say with a huge grain of salt... But, I have built cabs out of both. I like what pine does for speaker cabinets, but I'm a loose goose kinda guy, who doesn't mind a little less focus, a little less tight. I also don't really care for closed back cabinets as much, either.

 

[Jsnwhite619]

Plywood will definitely be a little tighter. Maybe more focused, punchy? Lotta differences, though, open back vs. closed back, etc. Closed back might have more effect?

But, at the same time, I love pine for my 5f8-a and 5f6-a amps, which are kinda the basis for Marshall, yeah?

I am no. engineer, or cab designer, so take everything I say with a huge grain of salt... But, I have built cabs out of both. I like what pine does for speaker cabinets, but I'm a loose goose kinda guy, who doesn't mind a little less focus, a little less tight. I also don't really care for closed back cabinets as much, either.

I'm not an closed back fan either. No matter what it is made from, I like to do 2-3 piece rear panels for versatility. Even if it's just utilizing it for room volume.

 

[Billy3]

I'm not an closed back fan either. No matter what it is made from, I like to do 2-3 piece rear panels for versatility. Even if it's just utilizing it for room volume.

As long as the wood is good and cabinet is constructed well, you should be good to go. I think the construction is more important. Once you start turning up the volume the material won't be so much an issue. Good wood with sh...t construction, no good. An average wood with good construction is better. Just make sure it is not heavy or has bad tone. Ha ha .!ok !! Keep on pickin!!!

 

[Kevin Wolfe]

Many, many high end bass cabinet’s are built from birch plywood. Check out the fEarless/fEarful blogosphere.

 

[Nickfl]

A friend asked if I could build a 2x12 extension cab to use with his Marshall DSL 100. I've never owned a Marshall, don't know that I've ever played one - 100% Fender guy here. I've built a lot of cabinets over the past several years, but I've always used pine and always using a Fender-type design, Tweed through Blackface years.

I would rather build it out of pine, he would appreciate the weight savings of it. But, I have no idea if pine & Marshall works well, or if part of the sound has to be the birch ply cabinets. He'll probably be putting Vintage 30's or Eminence Governor's inside.

So, any experience & advice in this department would be appreciated.

What does he want the cabinet to sound like? Building an open back fender type of cabinet when he is expecting a closed back Marshall type sound would be a bigger issue than wood selection by itself.

As far as the sound I don't think it has anything to do with birch plywood per se (nor does pine have any special sound quality) but there is a difference between plywood and solid wood, if only due to the fact that plywood is a lot stiffer and in a given cabinet with a given material thickness will be less resonant than solid wood. Tonewood debates aside this is definitely a thing, as you may know hi-fi speaker builders like to use thick, dense materials so as to make the most dead neutral cabinets possible and will often use 3/4 MDF, sometimes even laminated together to inch and a half thickness, for that reason.

I would assume part of the reason Marshall originally used birch plywood was that they were building big 4x12 cabinets which made the use of solid wood impractical for a number of reasons. If you made a cabinet like that out of half inch pine (or more likely something like beech in Europe), it might not even survive on the road. Baltic birch plywood is cheaper and also way stronger than something like pine, that probably had more to do with it than anything originally.

The cabinet size is a big factor too. 3/4 Baltic Birch ply in a 4x12 cabinet might be more resonant than a half inch pine champ cabinet.

I have the general impression that if you're making a closed back cabinet you want a less resonant box and 3/4 baltic birch plywood is certainly going to be less resonant than half inch pine but it's also going to be less of an issue in a 2x12 than a 4x12 cabinet.

I think either material will be fine for a 2x12 cab but if the guy is really looking for a classic Marshall sound I think classic Marshall materials and construction are your safest bet. If he's open to something more like a Tweed twin cabinet though, we can say with certainty that combination of materials and design is a winner as well, but they definitely arent going to sound identical.

 

[otterhound]

No void Marine 11 -13 ply 3/4" Baltic Birch has been the industry standard for decades from instrument cabinets to professional sound reenforcement cabinets . Since only Fender can build a Fender cabinet and only Marshall can build a Marshall cabinet , I say use what you want because you can only copy Fender or Marshall .

 

[Whatizitman]

The one and only cab I made was with cheap home depot pine boards. Open back. Baffle with ply. Cheap birch. Very light weight with a somewhat bright resonance. I used it with my DSL20 combo until I got the bassman. It sounded far better than the combo by itself - bigger and livelier. The combo couldn't take a greenback. WAY too boxy, But my homemade cab did with love.

 

[Blue Bill]

Plywood works fine, there's no serious downside to it. Pine is actually stiffer than plywood. Anyone that has made a bookshelf from plywood knows it tends to sag a bit if the span is more that a couple feet. IME the choice of speaker makes much more difference in the sound than the cabinet materials.

 

[schmee]

I dont think you will hear much difference. Maybe at low volume if it had no tolex. A bigger difference is open vs closed back by far. I used to use an old particle board Fender cab that I cut the baffle to fit a 15" EV speaker. It barely fit in the cab. Great tone from that thing even though it was particle board and technically too small for that speaker. It probably worked well because PB has a lot of mass and this cab was small for that super heavy EV speaker. Soaking up some of the vibrations that a thinner ply cab may not have done.