How to Make Guitar Cabinets

Building your own speaker cabinet for guitar can be a fun, rewarding experience. By making a custom guitar cabinet, you can save yourself money and you can customize it to your tastes. Many guitarists are bound by the configurations made by cabinet manufacturers, but making your own can help you find your own sound.

Things You'll Need

• 3/4-inch plywood
• Jigsaw
• Wood glue
• Nails
• Hammer
• Speaker jack
• Speakers
• Speaker wire
• Tolex or paint

Instructions

1. Consider the configuration you will use for your cabinet. The two most popular configurations are the 4-by-12-inch and the 2-by-12-inch cabinet. Since these configurations are very similar, you can use the same materials and tools regardless of which you choose.

2. Cut the front and back of the guitar cabinet to 28-by-28 inches. This will accommodate four 12-inch speakers. This is a very common rock music configuration and was popularized by Marshall Amplification in the 1960s.

3. Cut the sides, top and bottom to 28-by-14 inches. Make a box out of these pieces that you will attach the front and back to when it is complete. Use small nails and glue to make sure that the pieces are secure.

4. Route for four speaker holes in the front piece of wood. Make them one-half inch less that the size of the speaker for mounting. You want the speakers to be equidistant from one another so that the cabinet looks professional and uniform.

5. Route a hole in the back wood piece for the speaker jack plate. This can vary in size, but is often about 2-by-2 inches. This is where you will plug your amplifier in to hear your guitar.

6. Attach the front and back pieces to the box you created earlier. You can nail the front and back to the framed box and use epoxy to fill any gaps in the wood. Paint the cabinet or cover it with Tolex at this point.

7. Attach the speaker wires to the speaker jack and screw the jack in making sure that the wires are inside of the guitar cabinet. Make them long enough so that they reach the front of the cabinet to attach to each individual speaker.

8. Attach the speakers to the front of the cabinet wiring each right before installing with at least four screws per speaker. You do want them to rattle when you turn up your amp. Make sure that you use the correct wiring as there will be eight different wires present, there should be one white and one red per speaker.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you have your speakers wired correctly to the manufacturers specifications or you may damage your amplifier.

References

• Building A Speaker Cabinet
• Speaker Cabinets