The 5x5 Baltic Birch is what I had found, and thought it to be the best of my local options. Interesting about the warmer sound with the paint. Another question.. Any ideas on feet that might stack well? I have been using tie-down straps to hold the equipment together lately.

belmont wrote:Interesting about the warmer sound with the paint.

You realize of course that I'm just fucking with you about the paint, right? I mean the low end thing - I still think flat black is the best color for cabinets and for cars built in the 1970s.

belmont wrote:Any ideas on feet that might stack well? I have been using tie-down straps to hold the equipment together lately.

Get some good rubber feet that have metal washers in them (otherwise they will rip off in a few dozen shows). I think we got ours at Rockler, but Antique Electronic Supply (http://tubesandmore.com/) or Stewart-MacDonald will have a whole pile to choose from.

Good luck - they're fun projects,

Dan

Dan

Yeah I thought that was funny, but it also made me think about oils penetrating the wood and adding density; black of course being the densest of all tones.

It's like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none, none more black.

I prefer pastel black for my cabinets.

i actually painted my cabs that i built out of 13 ply 3/4 marine birch bright pink. i did this because of the most recent scientific studies showing that pink is actually 1.643 times more dense than black and sustains longer than black.

i made a couple out of 19mm mdf board last year. they look kinda junky but sound great. i couldn't justify triple the expense for fancy ply...

MDF works just fine, and i have strong dobts about the baltic birch having any reasonably detectable tonal qualities. Our old Dietz (real one) was an odd one, birch with epoxy paint, no metal edges or even corners. most that I've seen are like Badcomrade's.

My main concern with building out of MDF, or particle board, would be the corners. I know ours take a hell of a beating on the road, and MDF flakes and chips like crazy. The Dietz' have that epoxy paint and the aluminum valences all the way around to prevent this....

When i build them for folks i use baltic birch for the 'exterior' because it'll take a beating, can be routered nicely and is lighter than MDF. I use regular 3/4 birch for the back and baffle (unless asked otherwise), because it's lighter, less expensive, and isn't subject to the same damage. I paint them w/ a flat black industrial primer, which stands up better than paint.

drbass cabs cover their cabs in truck bed liner.

holds up well.

Great thread, soaking all this up so I can build an educated Dietz replica of my own.