What is a Guitar Cabinet?

Music has always become a reflection of its era: each period in art has its own styles and instruments. The creativity of musicians was never limited only to writing melodies: in pursuit of a unique and beautiful sound, people came up with various adaptations for instruments that could make them literally unrecognizable.

It's hard to keep track of who came up with the idea to name an electric guitar amplifier that looks like a colored cube with speakers, a guitar cabinet, but that's how it turned out historically. With the advent of the very first "shiny pans" - aluminum guitars - in the 1930s, scientists immediately began looking for ways to make the sound louder and more spacious. They needed a versatile method that would allow pickups to take on electrical current to produce far more impressive tones. The invention of the guitar cabinet revolutionized the world of music.

Over time, a great variety of them began to appear: musicians around the world experimented, trying to surpass each other perfectly.

This device consists of speakers and a box in which they are located. Initially, the cabinet came with an amplifier, but from the point of view of physics it turned out to be much more profitable to separate these two elements: now the "head" is additionally connected to the box, which provides it with better sound transmission.The main task of this device is to cut out sound "garbage" at high frequencies, so the average range for them is from 20 to 8000 Hz.

The constant search for the best option has resulted in a wide variety of guitar cabinets.

Now we can distinguish many devices that differ from each other, taking into account different criteria.

Speakers are the central part of the design of the entire cabinet, not only in terms of location, but also ideologically: it is they who convert the signal received from the amplifier into sound waves. They can be 6, 8, 10 and 12 inches in size. The volume and depth of sound directly depend on their number, therefore, for example, for a small garage or rehearsals in a small house, a cabinet with one speaker is enough. With two speakers, the volume is enough for a chamber concert, but an amplifier with four can be safely taken with you to a rock festival.

There are several types of guitar cabinet enclosures. The closed type is characterized by the fact that it has a rear wall that completely covers the rear of the speaker. The sound in such a situation goes exclusively forward, and the musician can hear himself very well while playing with the group.

An open wall will allow you to record sound from the cabinet, both from the front and rear sides, but there is a great risk that it will gradually fade out due to the peculiarities of the room.

Another characteristic is the shape of the cabinet: "beveled" are used to make the sound radius larger, straight lines are suitable for conservatives and quiet people.

Guitar cabinets can often be bought off-hand if you don't want to overpay, but the speakers there can be quiet, the acoustic properties are poor, and the materials from which the amplifier is made are of poor quality. Making one of these yourself will be both cheaper and more enjoyable.

There are a great many drawings on the network, but for convenience, you can take the parameters of ready-made 1x12 cabinets: height 50 cm, width 45 cm, depth - 30 cm.

Pros recommend using birch as wood for the body - the thickness of the sheets should not be less than 15 mm. From the inside, the sides of the box should be fastened not only with glue or screws, but also with wooden beams: to strengthen all the walls, it is enough to use a 30 cm length. Once all the elements are glued, sanding the wood and corners is the next step in creating the perfect cabinet.

On a sheet of the front wall, you need to draw and cut a hole for the diffuser and speaker: it should not be located exactly in the center, otherwise the sound waves passing through it will be reflected from the walls of the cabinet and muffle each other.

After the box is completely assembled (without the back wall) and is painted inside with a dark color, you need to cover it with leatherette: the fabric does not matter, but leatherette is distinguished by good wear resistance and versatility, therefore this option is most suitable for a guitar cabinet.

The speaker is mounted in front, not inside: this way the sound will not only be brighter and clearer, but it will be even easier to remove it with a microphone. Then you need to cover them with a protective mesh, which can be easily found on the automotive market.

The final touch: mounting the back wall, and the guitar cabinet is ready!

The choice of cabinet should be based solely on the individual characteristics of the guitar and the desired effect: the overall volume should be determined taking into account the place where the rehearsals take place, the size and mobility - from the possibility of transportation. The best speakers are the 12-inch ones: they are the ones with the best sound distribution. It is possible to determine which company best suits the customer's requirements only in the store itself: Celestion, Jensen, Eminence, Monacor and Fane are popular speaker manufacturers in the music industry market.

Design is an important characteristic of the box, and since they are very diverse, there really is plenty to choose from.

It is worth paying attention to the presence of a phase inverter: this element will add volume and bass even to the weakest impulses.

How to make a guitar cabinet, see the video below.