Guitar amplifier cabinet

The non-electronic aspects of a project can also be quite daunting. I was confident I could build a decent cabinet for my guitar amplifier project but it was still quite a job.

The materials

I went to a local DIY store, selected a sheet of 18mm plywood, took it to the sawing workshop and went home with a pile of boards cut to size. That was the easy part.

I had found some vinyl covering material (“Tolex”), glossy, black snakeskin pattern. That would be the material to cover the cabinet. I did some research on the glue to use and found out that many people still recommend old-fashioned rubber cement (“Bisonkit”) for this kind of job. This would be a challenging job: this type of cement requires fast work. The 3/4 l tin of cement cost me more than the Tolex sheet.

I also bought screws and glue and set off.

Building the cabinet

I borrowed a router to make the grooves for the joints between the boards and to make a circular opening in the baffle board. Using white wood glue I glued and screwed together the cabinet and used the baffle board to make the cabinet perpendicular.

Then I used the router again to round all edges of the cabinet to give a smoother appearance and ease the job of applying the Tolex sheet. I also made a few ventilation holes in the shelf where I was to mount the amplifier chassis. And finally, I used a power jigsaw to cut the window for the control panel.

I sanded the cabinet and looked a the result.

I opened the tin of rubber cement and practiced a bit on the two small back panels. This went well. Then I cut a large piece of Tolex, wetted it with cement, wetted the cabinet and waited till they dried. With some assistance I was able to stick the sheet of Tolex to the case and manoeuvre it round the corners and the control panel window. Not bad. Only thing was the corners. The Tolex sheet wasn't flexible enough to stretch it and force it into place, so I had to cut it and piece it together. I added some corner pieces later on to hide that.

Finally, I mounted the speaker on the baffle board, I mounted the chassis on its carrier board and tightened the screws. This definitely looked like a guitar combo, complete but not completely finished yet.

We put it upright, turned on the power and tried it. It really sounded quite good.

Still some finishing points. I would have to mount speaker fabric on the baffle, attach a handle on top, add supports, finish the inside with black paint. And add a logo.