# Guitar speaker cabinet wood choices?



## tra (Dec 27, 2009)

I'm still a newb, but I'm learning more with every thread that I read. My next project is to build a speaker cabinet to house a 12" guitar speaker. There are a few plans that I've found to give me proper volume, but I'm stuck on what wood to use. 

Store bought guitar speaker cabinets are made from heavy plywood or MDF and then covered in tolex. I want exposed wood, but I don't want to spend a small fortune on an exotic wood since I'm still a newb and may screw it up. 

Since I'm not really knowledgeable on which woods are good for what I'm hoping someone can give me a little advice on which woods I should be looking at. Also, how should I join the wood? I'm not good with dovetails yet, but I can do box joints and then roundover the edges.


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## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

Being a former high end speaker builder and business owner, I struggled with many of the common precepts of guitar speakers, and live music speakers in general....there are several opposing philosophies because there are different objectives. High end home "Hi Fi" is looking for as little coloration to the sound as possible in order to reproduce the original sound track, while live music production is looking to make the original sound, so a sound signature of some sort is often desirable.

What sounds best is always subjective, but the bottom line, pine...old pine is actually the preferred material by many guitarists and musicians for the warm sound, while MDF and high quality plywoods (no voids) are preferred for home speakers for neutrality and inertness.


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## tra (Dec 27, 2009)

Awesome. For some unknown reason I was discounting pine in my head. A trip to home depot may be in order.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Pine butcher block?*

Somewhere I remember seeing this already glued and flat.. I donno where? It may be too thick for your purpose and possibly not the look you want. But you'll have a hard time finding boards wide enough without a glue line somewhere. Maybe the Forestry guys here might know? :blink: bill


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## silver8ack (Mar 19, 2010)

I built my 1x12 cab out of pine and I love it.

I plan on redoing it though once I get better woodworking skills because I just used basic box joints and stuff.


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## Colt W. Knight (Nov 29, 2009)

As a guitar builder and musician, let me add on to what knottscott mentioned. 

There are two main concerns with amp building
1. Tone
2. Weight

While most people use MDF and BirchPly, those who prefer natural wood finish often opt for pine or other light weight woods that have "Mojo". Its all about Mojo in the world of custom guitars. Some people's mojo differ, and you'll see amps built from old barn wood, figured maple, knotty pine, and beautiful and exotic tone woods. The general concensus among guitar people is "older" is better, so aged wood is often hailed as a greater custom feature. When dealing with guitar folk, you have to cater to tradition, myth, flat out falsehoods, vintage finatics, and still carve your niche with some originality and speciality. 

Tone is too subjective to quantify, and people hear what they want to hear when it comes to custom and boutique guitar gear. So what you really need to consider is what looks good aesthetically to you, and how heavy is too heavy. Woods like pine are light weight but scratch and dent easily, woods like Maple, walnut, cherry, and oak are beautiful but weigh a ton. Especially when you throw that mother board and speaker in there. That's just a solid state amp, you have even more weight and worries with a tube amp.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

I think I'd probably go with a Mahogany box, or possibly basswood, if it were my amp. The mahogany would wear a lot better, but I actually like the tone of the basswood in the guitars I've built with it. Or you could do an interesting combination of different woods to get a variation of tones... options are limitless. 

As a beginning woodworker, build it with something cheap and play it. If it sounds good, keep it. If you don't like the sound as much rebuild it with different materials once you have more skill.


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