Guitar amp cabinet...

[Travis Edwards]

I play guitar and I woodwork. So I figured I would combine the two. This is the second and third cabinets I have made, Let me know what you think...

The main cabinet is Cuban Mahogany, and the front is maple. Both cabs are done with box joints on the Incra TS/LS system. It's all finished in tung oil.
The amp is a Dumble clone. All hand wired. And the speaker is a EVM-12L I believe.

[Halgeir Wold]

OOhh- nice cabs! But somewhat more prone to dings and dents than the standard tolex version... 50W Overdrive special ?????

[Julie Moriarty]

Very cool! Did you do all the electrical stuff too?

[Eric DeSilva]

Seems odd to me to see the tubes hanging upside down--is that SOP for guitar amps? Any reason they do that instead of flipping them around? (Having said that, the tubes in my VT-100s are sideways).

I keep thinking about building a little tube-based headphone guitar amp with a nice little box. Maybe some day I'll graduate to something like what you've done...

[Halgeir Wold]

Upside down is most common in combo amps.....

[Travis Edwards]

I built it as more of a piece for the house. Might be gigged a few times. I only did the woodwork on it. The electronics are a bit out of my reach at the moment.

[Travis Edwards]

Here is my next cabinet or I should say cabinets. They are made from mahogany with Cuban mahogany racing stipe. Gonna be 2 bass cabinets. This is the smaller one of the two at 24x16". It will be sealed with 2 10" woofers and a 1" horn. I am using the electronics from a G&K cabinet. The larger one will be 24x24" and house 4 10" woofers and will be ported. I will add pics as I go.
281689

[John Coloccia]

re: tubes upside down

Ever notice that if the controls go left to right in the head version of an amp, they usually go right to left in the combo version? Think about that, and you'll know why tubes point the way they do :)

[Halgeir Wold]

That's most probably because the major amp makers of those days didn't bother to make a new layout, so they just flipped the head cab and put it a combo, - or vice versa.... :-)

Travis - another very nice looking cab..... I've promised my son to build him an amp or two, and I've been concidering farily similar layouts....

[Eric DeSilva]

That's most probably because the major amp makers of those days didn't bother to make a new layout, so they just flipped the head cab and put it a combo, - or vice versa.... :-)

Travis - another very nice looking cab..... I've promised my son to build him an amp or two, and I've been concidering farily similar layouts....

But this layout is more like a head amp, so wouldn't the norm be the other way? I still don't get it. After digging around, the consensus seems to be upside down for combo amps to conserve space, but that implies you couldn't just lengthen the wires and put it right side up on the bottom...

[John Coloccia]

It's not a hard and fast rule. Fender and Marshall do it that way. Some others just always mount them one way or the other, and that's usually tube/transformers facing down because that works best in combos and is not too important for heads. Dumble and clones are always tube down. Mesa Boogie goes back and forth at random, I think. It's really pretty irrelevant to the tubes. They often have retainers, but even if they don't if they're loose enough to wiggle free on their own, even through rough handling, you've got bigger problems and you can bet that you'll soon let some of the smoke out when the pins start arcing.

[Shawn Pixley]

John's right. Some are tube up, some tube down, and Ampeg made a flip-top version. Transport tube down, and play tube up. If there is enough ventilation, any method will work.

[Halgeir Wold]

Tubes upside down or vice versa, soesn't really matter - as such, - as 'john points out , there are retainers to keep the tubes in place. It really boils down to looks, and to where do you like your controls to be. 3-4 inches down on the front plate on a combo, looks somewhat weird - at least to me. Longer leads to the controls is not a good idea in higher impedance cicuits like tube amps, for reasons of stability and crosstalk. A main concern with tube amps is heat, and how to get rid of it - traditional heat sinks doesn't work with tubes, and fans are usually not wanted. These are problems related to combos, - mainly.
One of the great classics, the Vox AC30, have the controls at the top rear. and the output tubes on a shelf inwards in the cab, thus creating a heat trap - of sorts.... one of the more common problems with the AC30.......

[Shawn Pixley]

Nice work! Out of curiousity, why did you chose to make an open back for the speaker cabinet?

[Taylor Jones]

Here is my next cabinet or I should say cabinets. They are made from mahogany with Cuban mahogany racing stipe. Gonna be 2 bass cabinets. This is the smaller one of the two at 24x16". It will be sealed with 2 10" woofers and a 1" horn. I am using the electronics from a G&K cabinet. The larger one will be 24x24" and house 4 10" woofers and will be ported. I will add pics as I go.
281689

I already like the look of this mate! Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Travis Edwards]

The open back cabs have a more organic sound. And the guy I built it for wanted it open.

I have had heads that are both ways. Some with the tubes down and some with the tubes up.

[Shawn Pixley]

Travis,

I'm not sure I agree with you there. Sometimes in the studio, I'll triple mic a open backed amp/cabinet. I stand the amp ~3' from a corner and close mic off center on a cone. A second will be behind the open back at the corner. The third will be about 10' from the amp. Other times, I'll use a closed back cabinet with 2 mics. One close mic offcenter on a cone. The other out in the room. I don't have a big preference but think that the sounds created are different. That said, my favorite amp for recording is a 1955 Fender Champ.

For live sound, I think the closed back are easier to isolate and keep the stage volume down. I wasn't trying to critique your choice of a open backed cabinet, but wanted to understand why you did what you did.

[Travis Edwards]

Shawn,

The first cabinet I built was an open back with a single Eminence 12". Not sure of the exact model but it was a replacement for a Crate Blue Voodoo cab. We did a bunch of side by side comparisons at one of the music shops not far from my home. We tested everything they had in there. The manager had his favorite picked out before I got there, which was a closed back Egnater single 12". It matched the tweaker line of amps. He couldn't get over the extra tones you could hear from the open back I had built. That is kinda why I went with the open back. Just watching him switch between cabinets like a little kid was priceless! Made me feel real good to see someone have so much joy from something I built with my own hands.

I am sure it was the Cuban Mahogany that made the difference.

Most cabinets and combos you buy will be made out of ply or worse yet, MDF.

I guess it it all comes down to personal preference. They all have their place in a musicians arsenal.

For me, even if they didn't sound good, the looks would make up for it.

Travis