Do guitar amp boxes follow the same principles as stereo speakers?

[m00n]

Just curious to know if guitar amp boxes need to be made of thicker material such as 3/4" ply or MDF, or can they get away with being made from thinner materials? I'm not referring to Bass cabs, rather 6 string electric guitar amp cabs.

And if so, how (refresh me here) why does a thicker material matter?

[colterphoto1]

many guitar amp/speaker combos are open backed for various reasons and the structure of the cabinet is not as important as in a close box or properly tuned vented enclosure. They are made of various materials. particle board or MDF have been used, but this makes them heavier and more prone to damage during touring. The joints just don't hold up as well.

that being said, today many manufacturers do give credence to T/S parameters, particularly in bass cabinets. therefore tuning and structure are important.

[m00n]

Hey Colter...

Mine is a closed back. I have a 4x12 cabinet. Meaning it's got 4 12" drivers in it. The entire cab is actually extremely light. Hell I think my amp head weighs more than the cab. I can't tell what the motorboard looks like due to the grill cloth. I could open up the back and find out. Just have'nt yet.

As far as touring and joints? Hmmm... I would argue with the cab design team then... they could brace up those joints. So again... Given a closed back cab. Would it sound better with beefier construction given the frequencies that a 6 string electric guitar plays?

[Ricci]

Many guitar cabs are 5/8's particle board or a good plywood if you are lucky. The good ones will be 3/4" ply material and have some light bracing. Usually there is nothing more than a center pillar brace from front to back and that's about it. There is an emphasis on light weight and cheap production costs since they are packed around alot. Many also have little to no bracing in them. This isn't that big of a concern because guitar cabs aren't made or needed to be extremely accurate. You are going to try to get your own tone out of it anyway so they can have colorations and don't need a flat FR. You'll be adding distortion, effects, tone and EQ wildly all over the place, usually through a tube based amp, so out of the box accuracy doesn't matter as much as with a HiFi speaker. If I was DIYing a guitar cab it would be built significantly better than what you can buy, but also a lot heavier too.

[m00n]

I figured as much about the tone, but... Lets say I took my existing cab's internal dimensions to keep the inside accurate, if I rebuilt it with 3/4" MDF or PLY, would this increase for the better, the sound of the cab, or would I just be wasting my time?

[colterphoto1]

If you're out for the signature tone that a particular cabinet delivers, I would not monkey with the drivers or cabinet. There would be no point in taking the 4x12" speakers from a perfectly good Marshall slant cabinet and putting them in a stouter box.

Leave it alone if it aint broke. If it breaks, rebuild it as it was. If it's a used cabinet, you might poke around inside to see if you have matching drivers in there and that the wiring is sufficient(expect 18 ga and it's ok). Magnets will be hideously small compared to what you're used to seeing in sound REproduction equipment.

[johnyholiday]

Waste of time.....but Cab material does play into Cab synergy +/-....good tone we seek....... Line 6 capture some cabinet breakups on

certain cabinet emulations a lot of the cabs modeled were used vintage gear ,the sound engineers captured all of these types of

natural artifacts ,cone material affects the tone of the speaker,flexing of the cone material yields a softer more controllable

distortion that can be silky or harsher based on the speaker's cone

material, suspension (free air), and magnet/voice coil structure, a mix of different drives.......Cab modeling is split in two: one end before the FX loop and one end combined with mic modeling your a drift in a sea too finding your tone

[m00n]

I have a line6 POD x3. I was shown how to take the output of the POD and plug it right into the return on the amp head's effects loop.

Love it. Only thing it doesn't do that I wish it did was have a loop station. I've been eyeballing the BossRC-2. As far as tone goes.. I guess I'm just more concerned about how the box itself performs. Its not so much about tone, as much as could the cab simply sound better if it was more solid. I was very suprised at how light it is. Also it does not sound like it has any damping material in it. But, maybe amp cabs shouldn't. I may poke around, take the back off and put some damping material in there just to see what kind of a difference it makes.

[DrWho]

I look at "amp" design like the design of any instrument...every choice should be made in light of the final timbre that you're aiming for. I don't think a perfectly inert cabinet is going to be the most musical sounding.

[Islander]

Also it does not sound like it has any damping material in it. But, maybe amp cabs shouldn't. I may poke around, take the back off and put some damping material in there just to see what kind of a difference it makes.

If it sounds different and you like it, that could be the m00n tone.

Was it Ike Turner who accidentally tore a speaker cone and liked the way it sounded? It was pretty distorted, but he was producing music, not reproducing it.