Radiata pine 4x12 with Celestion Blues

[Geeze]

I've been lusting after yet another foolish cab that I suspect zero people are interested in - a B style 4x12 for Celestion Blues made with Radiata pine. Most of my amps are 35 watt and higher and I want the wattage cushion and I want to test the Radiata pine in this form factor as it has yielded several articulate and lively 1x12 cabs. A forum member trolled a 16Ω Blue long enuff that I had to have it and needed to collect one more for a quad - ordered.

The primary amps will be a Satellite Atom [AC30ish], Satellite Barracuda [JTM45ish] and a JTM45 clone. Possibly a 1987 or a Rockerverb MKIII. The Satellites tend to be voiced for single coil / P90s.

I have a couple of 1960Bs built with African mahogany which is a bit more open or looser grained than pine.

The questions -

Anyone have experience with a Blue 4x12?
A traditional 1960 cab is 30"x30" and 14" deep - would this be a good fit or would 12" depth be better?
Open or closed back? I'm thinking closed back as everything I own - including a combo - is closed back.
Yes this is a foolish quest but it keeps me engaged in my fortress of solitude.

Russ

[Geeze]

Plowing on with 14" depth. I'm also going to attempt edge glued baffle and back to save my last piece of Russian BB. Hopefully Pootie will give it up so sanctions will be lifted.

Well got off my dead ass - the first cut is the hardest for me, then it's all about fixing the first cut artfully - and chopped up some radiata. I thoroughly enjoy being able to swing a 120" board around from the rack to the saw and NOT hit anything



Chopped up. I'll need to split half of these to under 6" wide to form the 14" deep sides.



Russ

[Phil_S]

Nice wood. No pith. Looking forward to seeing the result.

[pdf64]

Oh dear, I can't see imgur stuff.
Just to note that a cranked 1987 might put out 90W!!!

[Geeze]

Nice wood. No pith. Looking forward to seeing the result.

I expect the cab to be on the plain side - I wrestled with adding a walnut baffle ring for a bit of contrast and will settle for walnut piping.

Oh dear, I can't see imgur stuff.
Just to note that a cranked 1987 might put out 90W!!!

I don't plan to crank the 1987... much. The 30 & 36 watters may see more time with this cab as it's designed to run with those. If I'm smart - and lucky - I'll try to build this to match the baffle size on one of my other 1960Bs so I can swap out the loaded baffle to stick in GB's and V30's.

Unfortunately I'm loading direct to imgur so no pics available at this time. I'll post some as the cab starts to take shape.

One of the planks had some twist so I ripped them in half on a bandsaw then trimmed the sides parallel on the table saw. While it would be nice to trust that the sides on 4S [sanded on all 4 sides] wood is parallel always best to check to see what kind of remedial work is required to fix it. These are square lines [to each side].



Glue up has commenced on the first two bits for each side.



Water break and probably more yard work while its a balmy 84°.

Russ

[telentubes]

What do you mean by "edge glued baffle"?
As opposed to backing cleats, or dado?

[Phil_S]

Russ, sometime you might look at trying pine stair treads, 11" wide, made from 4 pieces of glued up pine and covered with a pine veneer. They are true 1" thick. Come in 36" and 48" long. The ones I've seen look to be dead flat. At about $14 (36" or $17 (48") they are priced similar to Radiata pine and look pretty good. You still have 10" after you cut off the bull nose.

[Geeze]

Russ, sometime you might look at trying pine stair treads, 11" wide, made from 4 pieces of glued up pine and covered with a pine veneer. They are true 1" thick. Come in 36" and 48" long. The ones I've seen look to be dead flat. At about $14 (36" or $17 (48") they are priced similar to Radiata pine and look pretty good. You still have 10" after you cut off the bull nose.

Hi Phil,

Damn that would be a heavy cab. How thick is the veneer?

What do you mean by "edge glued baffle"?
As opposed to backing cleats, or dado?

Just as it sounds the edges glued with no other structural bits. I end glued [the 'weakest joint'] this head shell for a 2203 that has been to numerous shows in different parts of the country [humidity swings] and lugged about by the handle with out issues for the last three years. I listened to an older wood worker at at a jury selection show in 2023 on how that won't stay together. Still together. Hide glue probably not. Titebond II or III no problem. I got turned on to TB by a buddy who built acoustic guitars. The first 'A' cab I did with TB I glued the angled baffle supports at the wrong angle. Figured it out the next morning and thought 'I'll bash them out and redo. Block of wood and rubber mallet - no. Block of wood + 32oz framing hammer - nope. I'm a believer. Thank God for shoulder planes.

If the baffle or back panel split I'll sacrifice some of my BB ply.



Russ

[Colossal]

Anyone have experience with a Blue 4x12?
A traditional 1960 cab is 30"x30" and 14" deep - would this be a good fit or would 12" depth be better?
Open or closed back? I'm thinking closed back as everything I own - including a combo - is closed back.
Yes this is a foolish quest but it keeps me engaged in my fortress of solitude.

Russ

I don't think it is foolish at all. I spoke at length with another member here about the exact same concept some years back. I think this could be spectacular, especially with the aforementioned amps. I would be very interested to hear more if you do move ahead with this. I've been playing a pair of Forte style 2x12s in stereo for years and it's a great sound. I use one Fane Alnico and one Ceramic in each cab. But always loved the idea of 4x Blues though and two of those would probably be pretty amazing.

[Geeze]

I don't think it is foolish at all. I spoke at length with another member here about the exact same concept some years back. I think this could be spectacular, especially with the aforementioned amps. I would be very interested to hear more if you do move ahead with this. I've been playing a pair of Forte style 2x12s in stereo for years and it's a great sound. I use one Fane Alnico and one Ceramic in each cab. But always loved the idea of 4x Blues though and two of those would probably be pretty amazing.

Doing it!

I'd be tempted to load the Fortes one with the Alnicos and one with the ceramics to see what the brings to the sonic table.

Busy day - wacked down lots of big weeds, sprayed an acre with a one gallon hand sprayer, moved stuff around for the hail storm [it wasn't supposed to rain today] and got to finger joint the sides. All 72 of them. Also posted a reel about said finger joints to insta that they decided to turn 90°. Mumble...





For those who have put up with me you know I am physically incapable of making plain looking wood projects. This one is no exception.

Drilled the corners.



Cut the corners.



And will fit the Peruvian walnut blocks into the notches like this.



Still debating on doing the baffle rim in Peruvian walnut too. It makes an interesting pattern like this.



Russ

[Phil_S]

Russ, sometime you might look at trying pine stair treads, 11" wide, made from 4 pieces of glued up pine and covered with a pine veneer. They are true 1" thick. Come in 36" and 48" long. The ones I've seen look to be dead flat. At about $14 (36" or $17 (48") they are priced similar to Radiata pine and look pretty good. You still have 10" after you cut off the bull nose.

Hi Phil,

Damn that would be a heavy cab. How thick is the veneer?

Veneer is thin. Best I can see on the rule is less than 1/16" and more than 1/32". LOL, lets call is 3/64". Weight per board foot is about the same as Radiata pine, so I'd figure the Radiata is about 75% the weight of the stair treads. Weight is always a legit consideration. The small (10") sections I've got are dead flat. I don't know if the weight is a decent tradeoff to deal with possible twist or bow. I was focused on the flatness of the product.

[Geeze]

I don't know if the weight is a decent tradeoff to deal with possible twist or bow. I was focused on the flatness of the product.

Flatness at the end is important. I typically buy 4/4 or 5/4 wood [1" or 1.25" thick] not 4S [3/4"] to give some room for dealing with the possible unhappiness of warp, cup, etc also so I can remove any possible tearout on the finger joints. The unhappiness can be milled out in many such cases. I started resawing the thicker bits so I was about 7/8" at the start of the project. The cutoffs get used for other projects vs being converted to sawdust.

Russ

[telentubes]

Can we see your finger joint set up? I can't seem to make them without a certain amount of blow out. Your cuts are very clean.

[Colossal]

Can we see your finger joint set up? I can't seem to make them without a certain amount of blow out. Your cuts are very clean.

Sacrificial ply on both sides?

[Geeze]

Can we see your finger joint set up? I can't seem to make them without a certain amount of blow out. Your cuts are very clean.

It's a combination of things a good jig -



A sacrificial board as @Colossal mentioned and clamps - I love the Krieg 8" Automax as they [generally] adapt to the gap and hold the plank still I use two to control both sides of the plank. Also I push the jig to the left [it works and I'm not going to fix it] and run it slow. The sad thing even with everything dialed in and a fresh back board you may still get some tear out. I've run painters tape on the back side of the cut and not sure if it does much. The interaction of the wide ass blade stack and the winter and summer growth of the wood + figure all contribute to the fun.

I prefer to start with 4/4 which is 7/8"-15/16" thick, mill it flat as gaps between the board and the backer = blow out then I run the planks through the secret weapon to get to 3/4" which removes the majority of tear out. The more figured the wood the bigger the challenge.



The drum sander is one of the must have tools for me in addition t0 a table saw, bandsaw, drill press and random orbital sanders plus the hand tools and nine million clamps...

Today is glue up. After years of trying to hold small blocks of wood to glue finger joints [I cut them about .020" proud] I noticed a jig I made for a really foolish project and made a couple more to glue up the last side.



Also cut the walnut corner blocks and started to round them to fit.

Russ