Tweed Deluxe Cab Construction ?

[el_stu]

I'm almost ready to get started on my 5e3 cab construction.  I've got the amp up and working, thanks to a beautiful layout from bnwit, and currently have it perched atop, and wired into the speaker of, an old music man 1x12.  I have a jensen p12q ready to go and it's time to give it a new home.

I have the often recommended cabinet plans from scott cole, but have a question about the baffel mounting.  I've searched quite a bit, and have found my question posed but never answered.  I understand that the floating baffel is attached to the amp via 4 screws, with 2 each in the top and bottom facia board.  My question is, how do the facia boards attach to the rest of the amp.  I can certianly come up with a number of creative ways to do it, but I wanted to know if anyone has an insight into the way mr. cole proposes it.  The facia appears to mount in a 3/8"x3/8" grove cut into the top and bottom pieces, between the vertical side boards.  I have seen cab pics on other sites where the facia board extends over the sides, which are notched the width and depth of the board, but I would perfer to only groove the top and bottom as in the plans.  I've read that the baffle will move significantly with the amp cranked, is this .375x.375 groove on the top and bottom enough surface contact to hold the facia boards in the face of baffle movement?  Are the facia boards only glued in place, or are there fasteners used as well?  This is the last peice of the puzzle, so thanks in advance.

On a side note, anybody built a tweed deluxe cab out of cypress?  I plan to finish the wood instead of covering in tweed.

[triode]

Ok, I have done it plenty of ways. You can cut a groove in the top/bottom. You can just edge glue it on there with nothing else
(if you plane it with your smooth plane first, and the top/bottom are smooth, the wood will break before that edge to edge
grain glue joint breaks). I have also dado'd them into the sides for fun. None have ever failed. I have never seen the baffle
move "significantly". I think if you cut a groove and glued it in there, even a 1/4", it would never fail. Again, I have amps out
there going on 7 years with edge grain gluing only.

I will say this, the actual original fender tweed deluxe has a very thin strip of wood there. I make them about 1/8" larger.
I re-tweeded an original for a customer once (the original owner took the tweed off... smooth move) and man those front strips
were thin. I looked at every inch of that amp, I did not see them being grooved into the top/bottom. Maybe they were,
or maybe they were on others, but I am almost certain this one was not.

As for cypress, I have built plenty of deluxe sized cabs from cypress... light, nice sounding, easy to work. If you are going to
dovetail them don't use a machine (jig + router) due to the tearout (or you have to use backer boards in all directions. I used
to hand cut them to avoid this, now I mostly finger join them.

Here are two extension cabs, the exact dimensions of a tweed deluxe (but the "strips" at the top/bottom
are not as tall as the original), and with no amp or cutout for an amp.

http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x1.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x2.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x3.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x4.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x5.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x6.jpg

I used to have a number of deluxe cab pics, I seem to have misplaced them.

HTH.

[el_stu]

Thanks for the design reassurance, full steam ahead!

Beautiful work by the way.

[Casey4s]

Ok, I have done it plenty of ways. You can cut a groove in the top/bottom. You can just edge glue it on there with nothing else
(if you plane it with your smooth plane first, and the top/bottom are smooth, the wood will break before that edge to edge
grain glue joint breaks). I have also dado'd them into the sides for fun. None have ever failed. I have never seen the baffle
move "significantly". I think if you cut a groove and glued it in there, even a 1/4", it would never fail. Again, I have amps out
there going on 7 years with edge grain gluing only.

I will say this, the actual original fender tweed deluxe has a very thin strip of wood there. I make them about 1/8" larger.
I re-tweeded an original for a customer once (the original owner took the tweed off... smooth move) and man those front strips
were thin. I looked at every inch of that amp, I did not see them being grooved into the top/bottom. Maybe they were,
or maybe they were on others, but I am almost certain this one was not.

As for cypress, I have built plenty of deluxe sized cabs from cypress... light, nice sounding, easy to work. If you are going to
dovetail them don't use a machine (jig + router) due to the tearout (or you have to use backer boards in all directions. I used
to hand cut them to avoid this, now I mostly finger join them.

Here are two extension cabs, the exact dimensions of a tweed deluxe (but the "strips" at the top/bottom
are not as tall as the original), and with no amp or cutout for an amp.

http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x1.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x2.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x3.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x4.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x5.jpg
http://www.theairtightgarage.com/gallery/112x6.jpg

I used to have a number of deluxe cab pics, I seem to have misplaced them.HTH.

That's a really nice looking cabinet.  There isn't any Cypress around here but I like the look because it is so heavily grained.

[drumslinger2000]

Nice looking cab Triode.