Oak as tonewood for a cabinet...

[Jazz Rock]

What do you think?

[MrBump]

Dunno - but I build a guitar out of an old oak kitchen unit once - I called it "Ikea".

Feck, it was heavy!!!

[Jazz Rock]

I bet it was. You probably should have made a hollow or semi hollow body. What did it sound like?

I was thinking, for a cab, because is quite a strong wood, you could probably get away with using finer boards... Having said that, I realised that most cabs these days are made of ply, so it probably isn't the case... ???

[MrBump]

This is it:

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13725.0

Sounded OK...  Had a ToneRider pickup in it, which was nice enough.  Learnt a lot, and I'd do wuote a few things different.

One thing - oak is very hard to work with.  Broke a few saw blades on mine...

Mark.

[WezV]

its also very heavy.  as a guitar it is overly bright for my tastes - brian may can disagree if he wants

[Philly Q]

its also very heavy.  as a guitar it is overly bright for my tastes - brian may can disagree if he wants

Brian May's guitar has a couple of hollow chambers, doesn't it?  I don't know if that was for weight-reduction, or to change the tone, or just a happy accident.

It also has an oak fingerboard, so oak must be pretty tough stuff!

[JacksonRR]

Yes, the weight may be a problem for you. You did say in another thread that the weight difference between a 10 and 12 inch speaker was substantial enough for you to stick with a 10, so maybe Oak wouldn't be the first on the list. I've only played one cab made out of a solid hardwood and that was a Krank Revolution cab made out of Poplar, which is lighter than Oak by a lot. It did sound really great. Just going by the properties of Oak, I think the same cab would have more "dead" sound to it. Oak is very stiff and very heavy, two properties that, IMO, would reduce cab resonance a whole lot. Thickness of the stock, construction, open/partial/closed back, sealed/ported, the volume of the box, the speaker .... these are things that are as important as the choice of lumber IMO.

[Jazz Rock]

Indeed! I wanted to know about oak as tone wood though, because you don't hear about it; which I guess should be seen as a telling argument, but it is such a nice wood to use for construction. And I know guys that work with oak on a daily basis so I guess I was building up this wee fantasy of an oak cabinet... If left untreated and uncovered, it would be a beautiful piece of furniture :)

So what would be the best wood for a cabinet? If stifness is not sought after, I am surprised to see that most cabs are made of ply, which is really a way to increase the strength and stability of cheap wood.

[HTH AMPS]

I know that Cornford used to swear by pine as a cab material - not sure if they make their 4x12s with pine, but I seem to recall their combos were and likely their 2x12s.

The problem with pine is getting it in large enough sheets without any knots.

[WezV]

ply isnt just used for economic reasons

decent ply has many benefits for speaker cab design, and it isnt actually that cheap 

[Elliot]

I think cabinet wood contributes very little to the tone of the amp, so long as the wood has the requisite density to hold the speaker in place and 'cabinet tonewood' is another guitar myth for high end manufacturers to sell cabs at a mark up.

I once heard a comparison of the same Hot Rod Deluxe in the stock MDF cabinet, a pine cabinet and a birch cabinent and it sounded the same in all three.

[jpfamps]

A jointed ply cabinet is probably the best option in most cases for durability as much as anything.

As Wez points out decent ply wood is NOT a cheap option.

Regardless of cabinet material all speaker baffles in cabinets with any aspiration to quality will be made from ply for strength.

For a cabinet to contribute to the sound it needs to be resonant (at the opposite end of the spectrum hi-fi cabinets should be as non-resonant as possible, so MDF which is relatively dense is a good choice), which is why various manfacturers claim their cabinets sound better etc etc etc

In my view, the dimensions of the cab and whether it's open or closed back in my view has a greater bearing on the sound that the wood used in it's construction.

If you are going to hear a difference in cabinet wood, then this will be most apparent in an uncovered extention cabinet.

My guess is that covering the cabinet in Tolex and then bolting an amplifier into the back of it probably doesn't enhance what ever resonant properties the cabinet may have had......

[Telerocker]

+1. I think the speakers make a way bigger difference then the cabinetwood.