[Enclosures] [FAQ]

[Previous Message] [Next Message]

Date: July 03, 2008 at 23:40:08
From: billybythelake
Subject: Re: Me too


Actually MDF is both denser and solider than ply which has small voids and air pockets in it no matter how well made the plywood. Some of the history on amps states that use of MDF was to prevent those mystery rattles and give a better tonal quality by reducing odd resonances that are sometimes inherent in plywood parts.
MDF can be a useful structural material but not standing on its own because of the susceptabillity for puncture or shattering when struck and Yes it can be affected by moisture in sufficient quantities but so can plywood unless it is marine grade and even that eventually goes bad or there would be a hell of a lot of PT boats and landing craft around from the second world war still in use.

Solid wood has both advantages and disadvantages depending on the density resonant frequency and how many pieces were put together to make a standard board of a particular width since there are not many old growth trees around for those really wide boards anymore.
A lot has been said about why particular types of wood may have been chosen for tone in guitar bodies but primarilly they were going for reduced weight and choosing woods that had certain densities that complimneted the stringed instrument. CAb woods can be almost any kind and the same considerations need to be taken into account when choosing the wood of choice. what looks great as a finished wood cab might be overkill for a covered one and how the wood resonates which is only one consideration in a cab others being internal dimensions which can compliment or adversely affect how the sound moves around inside of the box and what it does to the speaker or how it projects from openings and so forth.
Some of the best studio cabs were very carefully designed as systemic boxes with specific sopeakers and dimensions determined and designed to achieve a particular sound quality while some of the best guitar amp cabs were convenient accidents where the makers were just fitting the cab to the speakers they intended to use rather than scientifically determining the cabinet dimensions for use with the chosen speaker/ speakers/ horns or whatever.

I think a lot of the early stuff was lucky or unlucky choice when putting together something to project the sound of the instrument and whatever worked best was kept while what did not was dedone in a different way whne more thought was put into design and execution.

Of course all of this was also dependent on what was available and at what cost so when one thing became too expensive they treid something different that was less expensive to keep the line flowing and the money flowing back in the other direction.

b


  • View the previous message in this thread
  • Go to the top of this thread
  • View entire thread
    		•

    [Previous Message] [Next Message]



    Follow Ups:

    [Enclosures] [FAQ]