Cherry Cabinets to Trainwreck Specifications

[dreric]

I've done a lot of wood working and made about 15 guitars, truthfully I have a lot more experience in that arena than I do with amps. Seeing that I am about to start on my first Trainwreck build (right RJ?) it has made me reflect on the cabinet issue.

Unless I am grossly wrong as to the wood type, the original Trainwrecks I have seen all have been rather benign cherry. Pretty much all cherry is bland. Figured cherry is exceptionally rare. Good color, darkens slowly with age, tight pore structure, machines well, finishes easy, relatively cheap, available,and mild movement with temperature and humidity changes. For these reasons reasons cherry became the new oak in cabinetry in the mid 90's.

I always assumed that Ken choose cherry for all these reasons. In terms of the joints the originals with the long miters are (no offense) but amature and a poor choice. In wooodworking there is an assuptioon that all wood jionts fail due to seasonal movement of the wood. Finish is no solution, ever notice how your guitar is uniformly a half or whole step out tune from week to week, wood moves. It make take a thousand years but all wood joints fail. Ken either liked miters or his cadbinet maker didn't have the router/table saw jigs (which have beeen around since the 1940's). During the time frame that the originals were made the big saw in a lot of shops was a radial arm saw which makes a good miter if the saw is set up well.

Because dovetails are angled in relationship to the straight grain they are prone to opening and lumping as the wood shifts. IMO, finger joints are the most stable for this kind of box, especially if your are going to load it with hot tubes, ask Leo!

Just my .02

Eric

[Distortion]

I've done a lot of wood working and made about 15 guitars, truthfully I have a lot more experience in that arena than I do with amps. Seeing that I am about to start on my first Trainwreck build (right RJ?) it has made me reflect on the cabinet issue.

Unless I am grossly wrong as to the wood type, the original Trainwrecks I have seen all have been rather benign cherry. Pretty much all cherry is bland. Figured cherry is exceptionally rare. Good color, darkens slowly with age, tight pore structure, machines well, finishes easy, relatively cheap, available,and mild movement with temperature and humidity changes. For these reasons reasons cherry became the new oak in cabinetry in the mid 90's.

I always assumed that Ken choose cherry for all these reasons. In terms of the joints the originals with the long miters are (no offense) but amature and a poor choice. In wooodworking there is an assuptioon that all wood jionts fail due to seasonal movement of the wood. Finish is no solution, ever notice how your guitar is uniformly a half or whole step out tune from week to week, wood moves. It make take a thousand years but all wood joints fail. Ken either liked miters or his cadbinet maker didn't have the router/table saw jigs (which have beeen around since the 1940's). During the time frame that the originals were made the big saw in a lot of shops was a radial arm saw which makes a good miter if the saw is set up well.

Because dovetails are angled in relationship to the straight grain they are prone to opening and lumping as the wood shifts. IMO, finger joints are the most stable for this kind of box, especially if your are going to load it with hot tubes, ask Leo!

Just my .02

Eric

Although I agree with many of your comments I must humbly disagree with your last statement. In my opinion the best joint to use for amp cabinets is not a finger joint.. it is a half blind dovetail. If properly cut this dovetail fits amazingly tight, has more surface area for glue, is more stable and is also more attractive than finger joints.
The problem is neither of these joinery methods is routinely seen in the traditional Wreck cab.
Every cab I build, with the exception of Wreck style cabs is done using half blind dovetails. The Wreck cabs I build are done using mitered joints in combination with 17 bisquits. This type construction gives the cab a very nice transition of the wood grain flowing up one side of the cabinet, across the top and down the other side. Finger joints would not allow this flow. If this is not important to you that is totally your call, but I look for not only a strong cabinet, but also a visually pleasing one. Mitered joints allow me to achieve this goal.

Although Leo Fender used finger joints, that did not mean they were the best joints for his cabinets. They were used because of the ease in which finger joints can be constructed plus they were covered with tolex so you had no idea what type of joinery was used.

If your goal is to build a cabinet and cover it with tolex it makes no difference which joinery method you use. If on the other hand you wish for the grain and figuring of your cabinet to show through my opinion is go with something other than finger joints..

In the end it really depends on what you like.. so when you complete your cab post some pictures. I would like to see what you come up with...

[dreric]

Distortion

I've seen some of your cabinets and they are very impressive. In the context of this of my past posting I was referring to RJ's prototype which shows a full or exposed dovetail . As you are doing half blinds that does a great job of creating a very strong joint while maintaining the traditions Trainwreck appearance. Great woodworking.

My understanding of Fenders construction techniques is that they were using a shaper with jig to make the finger joints. I'm going to maintain that and exposed finger joint with a machined round over is a better choice that a full dove tail. I've had two Boogies with full dove fail on me. Finger joints fail to, but are much easier to repair. As you said it's personal choice.

In terms of appearance the dovetail always wins. My step father was a finish carpenter. His job interview for new employees was for them the made a dovetail by hand, it's the grail of western joints. Dovetails are used in drawers because when the glue aspect of the joint fails due to shift in wood and shrinkage it will still hold due to mechanics of the joint.

just my .02

Eric

[dano-rator]

The peace-maker:

[Bruciep07]

The peace-maker:

I can't even imagine how to make this joint, thats a lot of hand carving!