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I'm about to order timber for a pair of these. What's the argument for using ply over MDF? The Dietz examples are usually MDF, right? Either way they'll be finished with waterproof epoxy floor paint and have metal corners, I'm thinking MDF is going to be easier to route for handles/speaker cutout/rounding over edges etc. but a lot of you seem to be using ply...

I think it's a weight and durability issue. W/ epoxy paint, mdf will probably hold up to moisture. They big Q's are weight (ply is lighter, generally) and how they will stand up to the road.

I would guess MDF is gonna chip/crumble when dropped/smashed/kicked into place in the back of a van. The paint will certainly help. On the other hand, it is much easier to work with, and way cheaper.

Thanks, I think I'll just go for ply. I'm going to make a couple of 4x10s later this year that I was going to do in ply anyway so maybe I'll just get all the wood in one go and make the boxes up now.

Chris, didn't you make the last ones out of birch? or someone else here made them out of birch?

I've used Baltic Birch for fussy customers, and cabinet grade maple/birch for myself and regular folks who don't wanna spend extra.

For the 1x12 i glued up thin strips left over from other jobs and that worked fine too.

Baltic Birch is the best bet. make sure it's void free. I would use 5/8" if you are using the internal corner braces. otherwise 3/4 inch would be fine if you use a finger-joint or run a rabbit on corners.

MDF is heavy and disintegrates upon modest impact...

if you want to go for a more dead sound you could use 3/4" MDF for the back panel.

Hey Viggy,

I was inspecting the driver in the cab you gave me and it's pretty clear that the douche that reconed this installed the spider upside-down, not allowing the cone full travel.

Hey, Mr. Milford. Which of the eminence speakers are the closest equivalent to the EVM15Ls?

I hope this is the right topic to post this question. Which speakers are closest to the ones Ampeg puts in their "classic" line cabs. Eminence?

Mose - I'll research the Eminence/EVM thing.

Narangtor - Ampeg uses OEM Eminence. What model?