If you have been following for awhile, or even followed me here from Frequency Theater, you know that I love to do a lot of my own projects. It usually happens for a couple of reasons… first, just because I am a creative person. I am also almost always short on resources, which means I get to “use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without”. I also really enjoy stuff that is exclusive, unique, singular.
I have a pretty strong belief that I was created as a unique soul, designed to be creative, like my creator. Even if you aren’t down with the whole “God” thing, you’ve got to admit that humans are pretty darn innovative. It’s amazing, when you peel back the layers of history to when things weren’t pre-packaged, ready-to-buy, you discover such an amazing wealth of creativity! Necessity really is the mother of invention. When we don’t “need”, we don’t create, it’s that simple.
So, the story of my guitar cabinet in a nutshell: I couldn’t afford a decent one. Actually, at first I couldn’t afford anything, so I used an old combo amp that was broken as my guitar cabinet. It had a really cool, old speaker from the late 50’s that I really liked the sound of. Eventually I found a similar speaker made by the same company, from about the same era on E-Bay for $35. So I snagged it up, spent about $20 on plywood and built the cabinet. For a total investment of $55 I had a nice 2X12 guitar cabinet.
One problem though, the speakers were exposed, and as I began to do more and more shows, the speakers were starting to get a little beat up. I needed to get the speakers covered! I found an old burlap feed bag and some steel screen in my garage ($0), bought some new screws, a jack-plate (for where the speaker plugs in), rubber feet, and some staples for about $10. Total investment into the guitar cabinet now stands at $65.
Follow the pictures to see what it looks like now. -Nate