Author Topic: Speaker Cab made from MDF? (Read 2403 times)

psy · « **on:** March 20, 2007, 03:43:54 PM »

Would MDF be an ok material to build a speaker cab from? Does the wood have any effect on the sound? I'm thinking about making two compact 1x12" cab's for my girlfriend & a mate has some spare MDF I can have for nowt.

Cheers,

Simon

dave_mc · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2007, 04:37:29 PM »

th wood of the cab affects the tone, yeah. I'm guessing if you're getting the MDF for free you might as well try it to see what it's like, but generally ply or solid wood (depending on the tone you're after) is considered to be better.

ToneMonkey · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2007, 05:09:13 PM »

I think that it's generally Baltic Birch plywood that's used.

There's a programme around somewhere for designing speaker cabinets, I'll see if I can find it.

ToneMonkey · « **Reply #3 on:** March 20, 2007, 05:18:56 PM »

Lot's of info and some plans here: http://www.18watt.com/

Couldn't find anyting else I'm afraid

psy · « **Reply #4 on:** March 20, 2007, 10:37:44 PM »

Thank's for the links. I'll check them out.

Alex · « **Reply #5 on:** March 21, 2007, 12:13:28 AM »

The speaker wood affects the tone quite a lot. Even the Tolex and the handles do! Otherwise, every cab would sound the same with the same speaker.

As a general guideline, you'd want the heaviest and strongest wood for the speakerbaffle, so that it vibrates the least. The speaker back is a prime candidate for lighter wood, to let the cab more resonate and the sides are logically in between.

This is just a very rough guideline, different cab builders have different views on this. For example, Mesa/Boogie and especially ENGL build cabs like tanks. There's nothing loose or resonating there. Marshall cabs are a bit more loose and the Fender Bassman cab is famous for very light wood.

More vibration/resonating cab means: more wooden tone, less effect pf the EQ. Good for cleans and crunch, bad for death metal.
Heavy cab with not much vibration/resonance: bigger effect of the amp's EQ, less wooden tone. Not so good for clean, great for a lot of gain and bass (aka metal).