MarkBass or SWR Cabinet Material?

You know I havent even looked in my Cab to see. Guess I could take a peak at it and let you know.

I have the SWR Goliath IV 4X10 and it is definately lighter/smaller than the old stuff.

 

I have SWR Triad and it's...umm.... light....at 90lb..?? ::
sounds awsome though

 

I think he is taking about the new stuff.

 

Markbass uses some sort of Italian birch that is very hard and very sturdy. Don't know what SWR uses.

 

I hope to re-animate this thread rather than start another, because I'm curious as well.

I have a MB CMD151P (Jeff Berln) combo. I was also under the impression that the light weight was due in part to the lighter speaker, but also in part to the lighter construction. Jimmy above referred to a sturdy birch being used.

I guess I'm wondering how sturdy?

People want to sit on my cab, put heavy things on my cab, and last gig, my lead singer jumped up on the cab. I missed a note and nearly crapped my pants.

I know everyone takes this for granted, but I feel like I should err on the side of caution and discourage this behavior, even at the risk of appearing anal retentive.

I've had sturdy speaker cabs become compromised, and it's a bitch (and an expense) to locate and fix the problem when they display that tell-tale buzz from a crack or a loose seam.

Thoughts, preferably from those with more experience, knowledge, and wisdom?

 

Evening bump

 

No offense, Jimmy, but I have read that Markbass uses poplar, but laminated (which says plywood to me). I just read today somewhere that their Club series uses a thinner version of the same. Sorry, I don't remember the source. It was a sales site I've never been on before. Actually, I want to say that I've read "poplar" on the MB site, but can't swear to it. Not sure about that. In either case, birch or poplar, it's the number of plies and glue used that interests me more. Besides, that usually only means that that wood is just the outer lamination, the finish, that is. What's under it could be the same. I work with plywood every day as a museum exhibit builder and have used lots of birch. Five-ply is common, but more is often better. It just depends. Anyway, they all usually say it's "premium" plywood, so hopefully, it is.

The MB Club series is astonishingly lightweight! Almost worries me, lol. Some of those cabs cost more than the Standard series, too. It also has Tolex. Yay!

 

I can't comment on specific cabs, but lightweight doesn't necessarily mean flimsy, nor does heavy mean strong. A well constructed lightweight cab uses extensive internal cross-bracing to give a stiff non-resonant structure, and that also means very strong. The best engineered cabs typically are made of 1/2" plywood. 3/4" plywood used to be a bragging point, but it isn't used because it's better, but because it's cheaper to build a thick walled heavy cab that can be assembled in fifteen minutes than a thin walled well braced cab that takes an hour. By the same token Baltic Birch is heavy, so it needs less bracing but the end result is a much heavier cab than well braced Italian Poplar.

 

Right-on to all that, Bill. I'm a witness. Some of that may be why the MB Club series seems more expensive--? More bracing = more work.

 

Very interesting.

So, and I realize this is purely speculative, but my 150 pound front man jumping up on my MB CMD151P cab is probably not an issue to worry about?