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Post by chptunes on Nov 25, 2010 9:04:03 GMT -5
I wonder if anyone has experience and opinions about solid pine versus plywood cabinets... I've had several of each, and I have to say that those solid pine Tone Tubby cabinets are very high quality. They sound good and smell good too.  I guess the older school-of-thought says that solid pine is better, but there's lots of debate about a "good" speaker cabinet needing to be "as dead as possible".. which does tip the scale toward some modern methods, like tightly joined CNC'd plywood... ..thoughts anyone? |
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markT
Junior Member
Posts: 184
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Post by markT on Nov 25, 2010 22:43:52 GMT -5
I prefer solid pine myself. It's lighter, more resonant...also more expensive. That said...my Dr Z cabs sound great....though, if pine.....IMO, would sound better... ...and be easier on my back.  |
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Post by scottatsvva on Nov 28, 2010 13:03:17 GMT -5
Tone is is the ears of the beholder and there is an application where just about anything will work. There are sonic differences between the choice of cabinet wood.
Pine is a more resonant wood and tends to provide a more open, airy and resonant tone.
Baltic Birch Ply, Italian Poplar Ply, or any other marine-grade plywood tends to provide a much less resonant cabinet with a stiffer sound.
You don't even need a speaker to hear the difference, just take your knuckles and tap on a solid pine cabinet and you'll hear the wood resonate. Then tap on the side of a plywood cabinet and you hear more of a "thunk", with less resonance.
Again, both can be good choices, just depends on your playing style and the sound you want from the cabinet.
Scott
SVVA
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Post by Forte on Dec 2, 2010 17:22:53 GMT -5
Pine can be wonderful. I think it's a significant part of what makes a tweed Deluxe sound the way it does, for instance. The trouble with pine, or any other material that resonates a lot, is that it's going to accentuate certain frequencies and it's tough to predict which ones before the cabinet is built. It can make speaker selection tough too. Nothing worse than loading a cabinet with your favorite speaker only to find that they do not work well together. I've built a couple of my 1x12 cabinets, which are normally Baltic birch, out of pine for Thaddeus Hogarth. The pine cabinets had a lot of upper bass/lower mids compared to the Baltic birch, right in the 200-400Hz range. I felt they sounded a little "boxy" and one-dimensional. To Thaddeus they sound warm and "alive", so what do I know? There's no right or wrong in my opinion. If it sounds good it IS good. |
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Post by chptunes on Dec 2, 2010 21:09:39 GMT -5
Scott and Dave.. great insight. It's great that both of you express the "ear of the beholder"/"if it sounds good" perspective. Great response, from two experts, on a very common question from us tone-seekers. |
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Post by scottatsvva on Dec 7, 2010 17:36:58 GMT -5
Italian Poplar Ply (IPP) is becoming more popular, but still probably isn't as well known as the Baltic Birch Ply (BBP). Like BBP, IPP is a marine grade plywood, BUT it is lighter than BBP (nice if you have to lug around a 4x12"!), is slightly more resonant and is a nicer looking board than BBP.
If you are into ply, you should check out IPP!
Scott
SVVA
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