Head Cab Construction

[Bruciep07]

I know it's been touched on here and there, but I wanted to get some opinions on cab construction for wrecks. It looks like most of the true TW cabs I've seen are butt joints (with biscuits I assume) with a face frame that's mitered to hide the end grain, but I thought I saw one (may be Wreckboys express?) that was all mitered with no face frame. I just picked up a really nice piece of figured cherry (very figured ) from a local yard for my express and am torn as to which way to do it... I would really like to do half-blind dovetails but I'm afraid after I round over the corners that the joint may show through too much, on the other hand it might look cool that way. I don't really like the way basic butt joints look but would look best after rounded over. Mitered corners with no "face frame" is probably the easiest way to do it and have it come out looking nice, ahh, I don't know, any suggestions?

[M Fowler]

Hey that cab probably is 45 degree mitered and with biscuits and the TW files section has all the info.

Mark

[CapnCrunch]

Go with the mitre. With any of the modern glues you don't even need biscuits. There is no magic to the butt joint and in fact there is more surface area in a mitre so it makes a stronger glue joint. There will be several guys pipe up and disagree with me because that's the way they have always done it, but trust me, I have many, many boxes that are simple mitres without biscuits. They have held up for years in applications that are more demanding then a head box.

Joints that experience racking i.e. torque (you know, like the joints in a chair experience when someone sits or leans), typically need some type of mechanical reinforcement. Unless you are going to stand, jump, or surf on your head cab, it is not going to experience racking. Hence the beauty of the simple mitre. Don't make it more complicated then it needs to be. The key to a strong glue joint is to not starve your joints of glue which is easy to do on end grain, i.e. the end grain soaks up a lot of glue leaving a dry joint. This is easily remedied by applying Tite bond or Elmers or any other type of Alyphatic Resin glue to the mitre and allowing it to sit for 10 or so minutes. Then re-apply fresh glue and clamp up your pieces. I've never had one of these joints fail in any non racking application.

Of course, if you have a biscuit joiner or can borrow one, there is absolutely no reason not to add a little insurance. If you can't access one easily, however, don't fret about it. If you follow the above advice, I'd be willing to bet your cab will out-live you (if you don't lend it to a thrash band or use it as an anvil. On second thought, it might out-live the thrash band........

[mcrracer]

I use PL Premium Polyurethane adhesive. Apply a bead along the entire joint ( I use Butt you use whatever you want) clamp or screw. Scrape off excess squeeze out at the joint and let dry. You really don't need the screws after it dries. The joint will not fail. The wood will break before the joint does. I have built bass cabs, guitar cabs and subwoofer cabs out of 1/2 plywood. I have never had a joint failure.

[Bruciep07]

Thanks for the replies...

Mark, I'm basing my cab off of those plans, just trying to get an idea of what others are doing...

CapnCrunch, Thanks for the insight, I'm not planning on letting anyone stand on the cab so it shouldn't experience much "racking"...

Mcrracer, do you use the PL Premium Poly "Construction adhesive"? That seems too thick for a clean wood joint, does it compress well? What about poly glue foaming out, I imagine it's hard to scrape out and sand on a inside corner...

I have the ability to make biscuits, miters and dovetails(half-blind). I thought the dovetails may look cool, but the miters probably look cleaner, so I'm leaning towards mitered corners with biscuits, and then pocket hole screws on the face board to the sides and top. Seems that's probably the easiest way to do it...

[mcrracer]

When you clamp or screw it the excess squeezes out. This is easily wiped up while still wet. It does sand easy enough but an inside corner would be harder to do. It has never been an issue for me as some adhesive showing on the inside was added insurance that it was there. If you don't want to see it at all then maybe something else would suit you better. I just offered this up as something that will hold, come hell or high water.

[M Fowler]

I think any method above is good just get good bonding and clamping time is all.

I miter, biscuit, use tite bond and eight corner clamps sit over night.
But I am no cabinet maker just a DIYer having fun. All of my other cabinets such as tolexed head cabs or speaker cabs I use butt joint and screws counter sunk then filled, sanded and painted. But now I will use the bedliner or equivlent from now on. PA cab get a lot of abuse unlike a head cab.

Have fun building that head cab and take your time so it looks good.

Mark

[Bruciep07]

I've used that construction adhesive before for other things and it really is no joke, I would consider using it if I was gonna paint/tolex something but I'm a little afraid it will show through with a finished wood cab. Think I'm gonna go with mitered corners w/ biscuits and good old fashioned yellow wood glue, we'll see how it goes, pictures to follow (someday )...

[CapnCrunch]

What kind of wood are you using for your cab? If it is anything other then a handful of tropical hardwoods like Cocobolo, Ipe, Teak and a few other really hard oily woods, then you are better off using a yellow "wood" glue. In some applications epoxy or hide glue is superior to good old yellow glue, but none of those apply here. For example glue joints under constant stress will "creep" so epoxy or hide glue are superior as they don't creep. Hide glue is also "un-doable" with steam. These are concerns if you are attaching a guitar neck to a body, but not a concern here.

Also, unless you plan to play outdoor venues in the rain a lot, Polyurethane glue is not your best choice. It's water proof, but it is not as strong as good old yellow glue. It's also much more difficult to clean off when it comes time to finish. The Gorilla glue commercials may lead you to believe otherwise, but do a little research and you'll find that it is hard to beat alyphatic resin i.e. good old yellow wood glue.

Like Mr. Fowler said above, clamp each corner front and back. I usually use two "band clamps" which have a metal corner for each corner of your box. Each band comes with four metal corners so you need two band clamps to clamp the front and back. Once I have the clamps on, I slide the box into a jig that is square. This way I tweak my box into square, and use a wood clamp to clamp the box in place so that it dries square.

If this is your first box, I'd build it with Miters. It's easy, it looks good and it is a strong joint especially if you use biscuits or splines. Do dovetails on your next box. I'm actually kind of surprised that more people don't exercise their creativity with splines, dovetails etc. Unless you are trying to create an exact clone, there are many frontiers in head box building to be explored that aren't seen here yet...... Have fun with it.

[M Fowler]

Just to clarify something I do not use construction adhesive I use yellow and white wood glue.

I was thinking that I had bought a Tite bond II brand white glue bottle? But maybe not, anyhoo I use white or yellow wood glue.

Mark

[Bruciep07]

This isn't my first cab, only my first TW style cab. I was kind of just trying to get an idea of what others were doing. I've built some hardwood furniture over the years and the cherry cabinets in my moms old house, and a marshall style head cab for a friend but that got tolexed...

[CapnCrunch]

Hey Brucie

You obviously have wood working tools and experience, so sorry for the "tutorial". I'm not a professional woodworker, but it has been a very serious hobby for a long time. Like I was saying above, I'm kind of surprised that people here aren't being more creative with their cabinets. Unless your goal is an exact clone, or you just want to tip your hat to KF, then push your own envelope a little. I think a Wreck cab with through dovetails would be cool. Also, I love American Cherry. In fact, it's my favorite wood both to work and to look at. However, I think that "plain" Cherry head cabs are a little boring, and I think there is a lot of room to inject some creativity.

For instance, I'm working on a cab for a Rocket that has a black face plate. Cherry looks good with black but I'm thinking of going with the idea that, like the AC30, she has two characters. On the one side she is sweet and clean, but push her and she get can get rude and mean. She's a little like Two Face from Batman. With that in mind, I'm building a cab out of Zebra wood. It has simple miters but will have Ebony keys or splines. It also will have something similar to piping around the front panel (also Macasar Ebony).

If it doesn't come out like I want it to. I will probably try the same thing with Maple and Ebony. The idea being I want the cab to match the dual personality of the amp, (like black and white). The Zebra wood cab looks cool, I just don't know yet if I'm gonna get the amount of contrast I want between it and the Ebony.

Anyway, make some chips and dust and put together something that you think looks great. I personally would love to see some more creative head cab designs. When I get around to my Express, I'm going to do the entire head cab out of Aluminum. My next door neighbor is a retired machinist and has a CNC machine so we're already talking about some of the wild possibilities. We're currently working on how to isolate the head cab from potential high voltage current. That will be fun too.

[Bruciep07]

No, thanks for the "tutorial", that's what I was hoping for... I just wanted to see what what others were doing. I e-mailed distortions to get an idea of what his cabs cost and he sent me a link to some pics of work, he's done (he does some really really nice work) but I decided to build one myself... If I don't like the way it comes out I'll save my pennies and order one from him...
As for the cherry, the piece I found is very nice, it was a good score... The yard I got it from has a lot of really nice exotic woods, zebrawood looks cool, think the right piece would look good with ebony. I dig the way KF's songwriter 30 (inger) looks with the maple and walnut look... I think if I do another, I'm gonna try padauk, has a nice color to it and I saw some nice grains on some big boards at that yard.
After seeing how clean gahult's cabs came out with the bedliner coating I decided to get off my butt and get something done...

[M Fowler]

Bruciep07,

I hope you don't mind me attaching these photos of Distortions work on my Asteroid cabinet he just finished.

Mark

[CapnCrunch]

Now that's what I'm talking about!