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I am going to be building a copy of a fender piggyback cabinet. It
would really help me out if people could send pictures of key parts
or share their experiences of building with me. I don't want to mess
up or ruin the tolex or grill cloth.
Picture requests
How the piggy back system works?
How the tolex is covered? Is each panel covered and then cab
assembled or is it like wrapping a gift?
And how the grille cloth is attached to the baffle board.
Thank you for any help.
Hi Jacob,
Building a cab is not that difficult. I just build a repro '64 Bassman
cab myself.
I took pictures of an existing original Bassman cab and copied it.
First you need to build the cab and shape it (round of the edges, glue
in the parts on which youcan attach the baffle and back)
Tolex is put on afterwards. Fender used a "finger joint" system for it's
cabs, I din't have the machinery to to this so I used an alternative,
which also worked. But a Finger jointed cab will be better, not for the
sound but for it's strenght.
I still have the pictures of the Bassman cab I photographed. I can send
you these. Also the DIY Amp section of "Fenderforum.com" was very
helpful with this project.
I only build the cab because I could built it cheap and didn't need
tolex covering right away. I found some vintage alnico 12" Eminence
speakers to go with it and the whole cab costed me only 150. A vintage
cab in the same conditions goes up to 350 here, so that was the only
reason I build my own cab. I steel need grill cloth and I will probably
Tolex it one day. But so far I worked out really well and the sound is
very good. I used birch plywood for the speaker Baffle and back (since
it's a closed back cab) and I used an African wood for the cab itself
(since it was available and has the same densety as pine as was used for
the original Fender cabs)
-jerry S.
-----Original Message-----
From: jacobdobner [mailto:]
Sent: dinsdag 27 juli 2004 3:07
To:
Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Piggy Back Cabinet Help
I am going to be building a copy of a fender piggyback cabinet. It
would really help me out if people could send pictures of key parts
or share their experiences of building with me. I don't want to mess
up or ruin the tolex or grill cloth.
Picture requests
How the piggy back system works?
How the tolex is covered? Is each panel covered and then cab
assembled or is it like wrapping a gift?
And how the grille cloth is attached to the baffle board.
Thank you for any help.
.
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bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
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Hey, two cents more from this side of the ocean.
- actually, opinions seem to differ on how important finger-joints
are in regard to the sound. I didn't use 'em either. nor did i use
the correct wood. As a matter of fact i used multiplex, mainly
because I wanted to experiment with stiffening more or less with bars
on the inside. They were built for speakers I already had, that's
why. If it should be an exact replica, Jerry's way is the way to go
for sure, but you'd have to find the right speakers.
- Well, a confession: I experiment with everything, yet know jack
shit. I do know that 'weird stuff' can happen with speakers and
cabinets though, things like standing waves inside the cab that damp
certain frequencies. Again, I really don't know enough about it to
really work with it, so in my case I'd always stay as close to the
original (wood, joints, measurements, inside bracing etc) or leave
room for experiment.
- I disagree with Jerry about the economics, at least in Europe. If
you want to do it cosmetically right, with hardware, tolex and
grillcloth, buying an empty cab is about the same or less, (if you
have the time to search ebay). All that stuff is at least half the
price of the cab. check ampwares.com for the prices (I have to say
though that my experiences with ampwares are not great), do the math
and figure out for yourself what is cheapest.
- I apllied tolex with Bison-tix, a jelly glue you but on both the
tolex and the cab, and then you have about 15 minutes to attach it.
If you want to go ahead post again and I'll send you a detailed
account of how i did tolex and cloth... it worked out pretty neat, my
banmates thought i'd bought the cabs.
my 2 cents
wannes
--- In , "Jerry" <jerry.soetewey@b...>
wrote:
> Hi Jacob,
>
> Building a cab is not that difficult. I just build a repro '64
Bassman
> cab myself.
> I took pictures of an existing original Bassman cab and copied it.
>
> First you need to build the cab and shape it (round of the edges,
glue
> in the parts on which youcan attach the baffle and back)
> Tolex is put on afterwards. Fender used a "finger joint" system for
it's
> cabs, I din't have the machinery to to this so I used an
alternative,
> which also worked. But a Finger jointed cab will be better, not for
the
> sound but for it's strenght.
>
> I still have the pictures of the Bassman cab I photographed. I can
send
> you these. Also the DIY Amp section of "Fenderforum.com" was very
> helpful with this project.
>
> I only build the cab because I could built it cheap and didn't need
> tolex covering right away. I found some vintage alnico 12" Eminence
> speakers to go with it and the whole cab costed me only 150. A
vintage
> cab in the same conditions goes up to 350 here, so that was the
only
> reason I build my own cab. I steel need grill cloth and I will
probably
> Tolex it one day. But so far I worked out really well and the sound
is
> very good. I used birch plywood for the speaker Baffle and back
(since
> it's a closed back cab) and I used an African wood for the cab
itself
> (since it was available and has the same densety as pine as was
used for
> the original Fender cabs)
>
> -jerry S.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jacobdobner [mailto:jacobdobner@y...]
> Sent: dinsdag 27 juli 2004 3:07
> To:
> Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Piggy Back Cabinet Help
>
>
> I am going to be building a copy of a fender piggyback cabinet. It
> would really help me out if people could send pictures of key parts
> or share their experiences of building with me. I don't want to
mess
> up or ruin the tolex or grill cloth.
>
> Picture requests
> How the piggy back system works?
> How the tolex is covered? Is each panel covered and then cab
> assembled or is it like wrapping a gift?
> And how the grille cloth is attached to the baffle board.
>
> Thank you for any help.
>
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for archived
messages,
> bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
For the cabinet parts, go to mojotone.com, Antique
Electronics (www.tubesandmore.com), or
hoffmanamps.com. Look for piggyback slide bars; these
attach to the bottom of the head, and the thumb screws
and receptacles go on the speaker cab.
For tolexing, start with Casey4s tolex tutorial, it's
quite helpful.
As mentioned before, you may or may not actually save
money by building it yourself. Wood isn't cheap, tools
aren't cheap, and tolex and grill cloth can be
rediculous, so add it all up before you dive in and
compare it to Mojo's cabinet prices. That said, I
still like to build my own cabinets, I even did finger
joints on the last one (not looking forward to doing
them again), but I haven't made anything too big yet
either.
Good luck!
Ric
--- jacobdobner <> wrote:
> I am going to be building a copy of a fender
> piggyback cabinet. It
> would really help me out if people could send
> pictures of key parts
> or share their experiences of building with me. I
> don't want to mess
> up or ruin the tolex or grill cloth.
>
> Picture requests
> How the piggy back system works?
> How the tolex is covered? Is each panel covered and
> then cab
> assembled or is it like wrapping a gift?
> And how the grille cloth is attached to the baffle
> board.
>
> Thank you for any help.
>
>
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
Thanks for all that detailed help. Could you send any pictures to my
e-mail. Or even just upload it to the surf guitar 101 gallery for
other peoples use.
