Even if the 90's gig doesn't work out I'm still going to whore myself out to start playing gigs and thus teh kitty needs a box. I can tolex it myself, and shit I could probably put it together myself, I just don't have the tools to cut the wood. Who can cut 6 pieces of wood for me?

May be easier to take some plans to a local carpentry company and get them to cut you some stuff?

/possibly unhelpful post

its a possibility, but I don't really trust the craftsmanship, but i did put out an ad in a local forum

plus I like the people here more, so why not give someone a chance to make a little money?

I actually made one myself for a bass head. It was real simple, but didn't Dev have his bassman cab up for sale? That might be the best bet if the kitty would fit. I was thinking of buying a headshell for the Bogner for gigs that I didn't want to lug that 80 lbs of 1x12 combo. I'm not that good with wood to say I could build one for you.

The way i build them, you might never get the pieces together. My technique is laborious and purposely somewhat imprecise. Not usually what folks aim for with this stuff.

An excellent way to go about it for pretty cheap though, is to take precise measurements of the chassis, and have a custom drawer made from a place like this: http://www.woodcraft.com/Family/2001991 ... awers.aspx

They are nice hardwood boxes with nice tight dovetail joints. Basically, you would build it, leave out the "drawer bottom" and you would just need front and back panels for it to be used as an amp shell.

That is definitely the cheapest way to get the box made. Should work out to be about $40-60 for a smallish head i think?

The way most carpenters work, for a one-off, you are not likely to get a cheaper option from anyone. If you needed ten made, you could probably get a deal with a local woodshop, but for a decent shop doing a one off, it might get a bit more pricy.

The other route is to go 130% ghetto, and just buy a board that is wide enough, and just measure carefully, and cut with a handsaw. Then just bolt it together quick/ugly with exposed woodscrews. I actually just did this with my Crate GX15R because i have not been using the shitty vox cab i had it in because it sounds so terrible. I needed it to take up less space in my room to make more space for the 1x12 cab i use with it instead, so i made this yesterday out of garbage and spraypaint:



I didn't want it nice, just FAST, so i did it the fastest easiest way possible. The upside to this technique is that you could do it without a saw even if you buy the right size board and have a place like Home Depot around that will do like three or four free cuts on their saw for you. The doods that usually get stuck operating the saw are not always 100% competent, so if you go that way, you might want to go in with measurements for a box with like an inch of oversize in both directions, but it could work as a quick-and-cheap.

I didn't even use my router to do the edges, just sandpaper, which is easy to see, but if your amp just needs a house, you could do it, and it could work.

I actually like how that looks

I pretty much maintain that hammerite paint makes everything okay, in a general sense.

The only things i like more than hammerite paint would be coffee and blue tape, which i suppose i would have to consider tied for first place at this point.

Just out of curiosity, please explain...



This seems very doable and it just might come out quite nice. If the chassis is 19"x9" (x7" to the top of the power tubes) and the joints are 9/16" each side, I would get the 9 to 10-7/8" with dimenstions of 20-1/8" x 9-1/8" right? The drawe bottom becomes the temporary front panel

I cut box joints by hand rather than using a router jig. So in order to get everything fit together requires extraextra attention and filing/sanding. And because of the way i work, the dimensions are not generally more accurate than maybe 1/16th of an inch on a good day. Which if it goes 1/16th the wrong way means that a box made tight to a chassis dimension, might not fit that chassis once it is glued together.



In figuring dimensions you need to account for the thickness of the wood used. This is especially important for the front-to-back dimension.

For instance: Your chassis is 19" wide, 7" tall (counting tube height) and 9" deep.

A. You need at least 8" tall clearance so that tubes can be removed without removing the chassis from the box.

B. The wood they build the drawers with is 5/8" thick.

C. I believe that the size that you order from them will be the outside dimensions of the drawer.

D. You need to add 10/8"(=1.25) to the chassis depth to allow for 5/8" front and back panels. Then you will need some 5/8" thick wood to make those panels. I don't know if the drawer bottom will be in the best spot for a front or back panel. you can see the groove they rout for it in those photoes. Might work for you, might not.

So i would say that you would need to get a drawer made that is at least:

1. 21.5" inches long (19" + 5/8" + 5/8")
2. 9.5" wide (8" + 5/8" + 5/8")
3. 10.5" high/deep (9" + 5/8" + 5/8")

So you could maybe go with a minimum of their ' 9" to 10 7/8" ' size: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200199 ... -Inch.aspx Which would cover the 9" depth of the chassis plus a front panel and a back panel made out of 5/8" thick wood. You might want to specify that full 10 7/8" dimension to give yourself a bit of wiggle room there. (Note that: You can work with a little too big, but if it comes out too small, you are shit out of luck.)

I might also be inclined to also go a bit bigger on the other dimensions as well, just to give yourself some room to make things fit without huge headaches.

So maybe 22" x 10" or so?

The chassis you have, how does it mount? Doers it have "ears" on it or does it use inset screws into its edge? If it has ears that stick out you will need to make sure you use those as your chassis width measurement!

Also worth noting, they have a minimum dimension charge of 50 inches for that drawer size.

So even though 22"x10"x10 7/8" would *seem* to be 32" x $1.00 = $32... It would actually be like $50, as it says there. I guess they would email you and tell you what the extra charge would be.

Still cheaper than most any other option i know of though.

Ah, I didn't put into account wood thickness but isn't joint thickness important too? Or maybe I'm just over thinking it... I'll email them when I get home see what they say about price(and even more importantly shipping -_-).

Edit: scrolled down and got the dreaded "•This product can only ship in the lower 48 states."



edit:edit: Chassis has the mounts on the inside, two on each side

Ah motherfuck, i didn't see that lower 48 shizz. I wonder if they would get pissy if you asked them to make an exception. They might just refuse to though, on account of the shipping expense and difficulty of dealing with a potential return on something that requires such accurate measurements from the customer, and such accurate execution from them.

As for joint thickness, i would leave it out of the equation, the main thing is that you account for that extra 5/8" that needs to wrap around the chassis on all sides. As far as the inside/outside dimensions are concerned, the way they do the boxes, the joint depth isn't so much a concern because the longest dimensions of the top and sides are going to be the same whether the joints are hidden dovetails like they have there or full visible dovetail or box joints. The only thing that changes is how much wood is missing from the inside of each joint. And you can leave out the inside of the joint if you are dealing with the finished outside dimensions of the box.

If you were building he box yourself from scratch, you would have to do more math to account for the joint type and depth, but not the way they have it set up.

It doesn't hurt to ask but I don't have too much faith from past experiences. Google might turn provide me with a similar option with favorable shipping options. (I'll check when I get home)

For how much would you be able to build me the cab including the front panel? Larger dimensions so you wouldn't have to worry too much on exactness?

There is a simple electric hand jig saw at home, but I know nothing on making solid wood joints. I might still be able to make it myself.

Aw man, i don't know, but i can't imagine it would be cheaper than it would cost you to have a local cabinet builder make something up. Basically, i would feel bad about what it would wind up costing you if i did it for you.

For instance, 22"x11"x10", even un-assembled pieces, is going to be a big-ass, heavy, expensive, shipped box, from here to there. The shipping box would be minimum of 24"x13"x6" and probably 15lbs with padding and shit in it to protect it from the mail thugs. USPS calculator to Puerto Rico calls that $37... just for the shipping. And that is before i even buy any wood, or measure anything, or cut anything, or spend any time making the joints fit together correctly.

If you were closer i would say why not, but where you are, and where i am, it would just wind up being so much money for what would still just be my punkrock style building quality.

Ah so my real option is to make it myself or get someone local because either way shipping is going to be a hassle...

Making it myself is slowly becoming a more viable option. What kind of joints would I be able to make with a jig saw and maybe a router? I think I'm going to have to get creative... What kind of woods can I use? I think I'm going to spy and see how much wood cost around here. Something like a 5/8"x11-12"x60" piece should do right?

If you buy a board that is 5/8" thick and 11" wide, you will need about 108" (a.k.a. nine feet) of it.

What you would really need of it would be more like:

1. 66" of the 5/8" thick 11" wide board, and then...

2. About 44" of 5/8" thick 8.25" wide board for the front and back panels. If you only go for a front panel, you would only need 22" of that.

Those are just super rough measurements too. All of those boards would need to be trimmed to correct dimensions.

Also, the way i am figuring those inches is like this:

1. Chassis+tubes results in outer box dimensions of= 21.5 x 10.5 x 9.5

2. Top and bottom pieces are therefore (minimum) 21.5 x 10.5 and there are two of them.

3. Side pieces are (minimum) 9.5 x 10.5 and there are two of them.

4. Front and back panels are (minimum, and based on a board thickness of 5/8" for the cabinet walls) 20.25 x 8.25 and there are two of them.

As for how to build the box, and what from, i would say that if you are going to tolex it, you could use just about anything. Poplar is a good choice. Pine is very easy to work with and lightweight, but can be easily destroyed in a gigging environment. Tolex could help with that though, the old Fender cabs were pine and later, pine plywood.

I would probably suggest building it very simply like my Crate head there. You can see that i just used two pieces that are as wide as the chassis for the top and bottom, and two pieces that are as tall as the chassis(plus transformer/tube height) plus board thickness x2, for the sides.

Then i just predrilled(always predrill everything with a smaller bit than the screws you are going to use, keeps things from splitting and pissing you off) and countersunk woodscrews on the sides to attach them to the tops as you can see here:



My head is tiny, so only two screws per edge, is fine for it. I didn't even glue the joints when i put it together, as the thing is so small and light it would be major overkill.

For your head, you could do maybe three or four screws per edge and woodglue the joints before you assembled and it would be solid. If you countersink the screws, you could tolex over them and they wouldn't show or anything.

If you use a router to roundover the edges of the box, make SURE that it is not going to tag the screws as it removes the wood from the corners. Whoever owns the router will murder you if it does.

Thanks a lot Chris! Now I have to figure out whats available around here. I'll stop by a few places throughout the week.

So if you did choose to make the box yourself an in the fashion that i made my Crate cab, you would want:

(for a tight fit around the chassis, like my Cratebox is)

19" + 5/8"(x2) = 20.25" wide.

9" + 5/8"(x2) = 10.25" deep.

7" + 5/8"(x2) 8.25" tall.


So you need:

1. Two pieces that are 20.25" x 10.25". (top and bottom)

2. Two pieces that are 9.25" x 10.25". (sides)

3. One or two pieces that are 19" x 8". (front/back panels)

4. Small scraps to use for mounting the front/back panels(like four of them 5/8" x 5/8" x 4" would be good for both panel mountings)

5. A bunch of screws. Make sure they aren't too long. You want them to be 5/8" at least, but less than 1.25"! Otherwise they will poke through the front panel when you screw them in!

And those are all minimum dimensions. You could go bigger if you wanted, as long as you are careful and make ALL of them big enough to match the others.