The Amp Garage

I would like to build a Fender Bassman cabinet with 4 x 10" speakers.
Keep to the original dimensions, but would prefer to use OSB boards (Beaver puke) instead of pine. (these very coarse chipboards e.g. https://www.obi.de/p/5799762/osb-3-verl ... -x-62-5-cm )

Does anyone here have sound experience with this material or any general comments on this material?

How thick and what kind of joints do you plan to use?

Sound is greatly dependent of the wood used... OSB IMO is too dead material..once i had cab from mediapan in guitar cabinet.. the sound was awful.

Bartel is taking too much care for the cabs... (i dont know if this is marketing for price boosting or real has some effect.. but..)
https://bartelamps.com/about/

I planned to use 18mm thick.
the joints are glued and screwed together with a triangular strip inside as reinforcement

I agree with bepone about this being a dead sounding material. But if you're wanting a neutral cabinet it might be a good choice.

Your joint selection should be good. Personally I wouldn't even try nor trust finger joints or dovetails in this material.

I've made stereo speakers from plywood and MDF with good luck. Old school Tweeter/Midrange/woofer type.

IMO the OSB won't contribute much to the sound like a solid wood or high quality plywood would. It may be more of a hifi speaker than guitar cabinet. My opinion not based on any personal experience. That said I love my Thiele TS806 1x12 which is basically a tuned port (HIFI-ish)speaker with a EVM12L.

I think OSB material will be rough to deal with in the future. It might go together ok, but once it starts vibrating or being moved around, it will tend to shed material until it's fragile enough to break like granola. It doesn't like to glue up because even if it sticks, the material is likely to shed the glued part with any torsion or shear force.

MDF is maybe a minimum density for a manufactured material. The stability is many times that of the OSB.

I would stay away from OSB. Marshall used it for some time but the cabinets are desintegrating with vibration over time (keep a vacuum cleaner handy)

MDF is heavy as lead and does not withstand stress on the edges very well

almost everybody uses 18mm/1/2" plywood today, if reinforced, you might get away with 15mm
usually people use birch plywood, there is a lighter variety made of poplar which can be hard to obtain in certain regions and is pricy
poplar needs reinforcement in any case as it is less strong than birch

thank you all for your thoughts.
I think I will not use OSB, the possible desintegration because of use/vibration really seems to be an issue…

chaccmgr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 1:35 pm ...
almost everybody uses 18mm/1/2" plywood today, if reinforced, you might get away with 15mm
...

Just to note that rather than 1/2", I think the imperial equivalent of 18mm is 3/4"

The local mall carries a nice clear SPF from New Zealand.
No knots, good grain, makes good cabinets.

SOB as i like to call it. Does not hold fasteners. It doesn't glue well. It doesn't take joinery. I can't imagine any reason to use it for anything but sheathing on a house.
MDF is a better choice but it's heavy.
I've used 15mm Birch ply to build a 2x12 cab you could throw that thing out of the back of a moving truck

cbass wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 12:27 pm .... I can't imagine any reason to use it for anything but sheathing on a house....

I got a lot of it for free

That's pretty much its value.