Mesa Lone Star 19 112 Clone Build Thread

[Iron1]

As mentioned here:

After getting my Mesa Lonestar 19 cab, I decided I wanted a second one. But, after looking they're ridiculously expensive for a 12" cab (got mine for $200 - haven't seen another for less than $425...). My father-in-law builds cabinets so he and I got to chatting, watching some YT vids, and talking to a local guitar cabinet builder and figure we can build a nice one for a fraction of the price of buying another Mesa.

The Mesa is open back and I think I'm going to do a closed back for the new cab, just to have a little variety for running them solo.



Stumbled onto a Peavey Blue Marvel 12" 8 ohm for $20 and grabbed it just to have a speaker as a baseline speaker. I can't imagine it's going to be the best speaker in the world, but all the comp videos I've seen it sounds fairly similar to the V30 and it's made by Eminence. So, for $20 how wrong can I go?

Next up, my FIL and I are going to take all the measurements and start buying materials. There's a pretty cool woodworking store here called Rocklers (I think they're a national chain, but not positive) where we can get marine grade, void free Baltic Birch for the build.

Materials List:

Speaker - check
Marine grade, void free Baltic Birch
8 cab corners
4 cab feet
Speaker jack/plate
Wiring
Grill cloth
Tolex

I'll also need to grab a Palmer Cab Merger when the time comes in order to drive 2-8 ohm speaker cabs with my JCA22H. But, that's later on...

Would really love to get a little plastic logo badge to put on it too, one with my company logo. So, maybe if I can find someone with a 3d printer, or scour Etsy I might come across something like that.

I think I'll skip the piping on the grill since that seems to be an area rife with opportunity to screw it up.

Before we really dig in, anyone have advice, parts source recommendations or the like?

[Chris]

I love these threads!

[Tony]

Can't wait. Love a good build thread. Also from experience & knowing a few cab builders marine grade is completely unnecessary.

It's just a checkbox to win internet rep points.

Just regular ass birch or hardwood ply will sound identical.

And with regards to tolex look up leatherette on ebay. Same stuff just without the 'guitar' premium

[Leon]

Go for the piping. Do a couple of tests on scrap wood, get the feel for it, and bang it out on what's going to be a sweet cab you'll have for a long time

[Iron1]

And with regards to tolex look up leatherette on ebay. Same stuff just without the 'guitar' premium

I actually found some Tolex on Amazon pretty cheap. Like $12-ish for what seemed like enough for the whole cab. If not, $24... One of the local cab builders has an upholstery guy who does it professionally, but wants a whole lot more, so me and my spray glue are gonna get it done.

--

Anyone have a good recommendation for where to buy the jack/plate, corners and feet? Could probably find the corners & feet at any hardware store, but if there's a place people use that's better, I'd love to hear it.

[Chris]

FWIW I used to be the guy that installed/built all my friends' car audio shit, and I've had super good luck in the past with stretchable vinyl when making ultra clean looking boxes. I don't think stretchable tolex is a thing but if you lightly hit it with a heat gun you should be able to give it an extra bit of tug to make things look perfecto.

[Iron1]

FWIW I used to be the guy that installed/built all my friends' car audio shit, and I've had super good luck in the past with stretchable vinyl when making ultra clean looking boxes. I don't think stretchable tolex is a thing but if you lightly hit it with a heat gun you should be able to give it an extra bit of tug to make things look perfecto.

That's definitely a good tip! Thx!

[Tony]

I actually found some Tolex on Amazon pretty cheap. Like $12-ish for what seemed like enough for the whole cab. If not, $24... One of the local cab builders has an upholstery guy who does it professionally, but wants a whole lot more, so me and my spray glue are gonna get it done.

--

Anyone have a good recommendation for where to buy the jack/plate, corners and feet? Could probably find the corners & feet at any hardware store, but if there's a place people use that's better, I'd love to hear it.

Where are you based? Ebay is usually a good shout for corners etc. The jack plate im assuming you just need a single jack so again ebay. I actually used a flatmount circular guitar jack plate on my cab and it turned out great.

[Iron1]

Where are you based? Ebay is usually a good shout for corners etc. The jack plate im assuming you just need a single jack so again ebay. I actually used a flatmount circular guitar jack plate on my cab and it turned out great.

I'm in the Twin Cities. Figured if all else failed eBay would have stuff, just didn't know if there was a solid option everyone uses, aside from the Stew Macs of the world.

[Tony]

I'm in the Twin Cities. Figured if all else failed eBay would have stuff, just didn't know if there was a solid option everyone uses, aside from the Stew Macs of the world.

There's a few places that should have what you need

https://www.tubesandmore.com/

https://hoffmanamps.com/

[Leon]

I've got a nice pack of amp/cab feet, but I think I got lucky on a Reverb sale

[Chris]

I've got a nice pack of amp/cab feet, but I think I got lucky on a Reverb sale

**Rex Ryan likes this

[Mike]

**Rex Ryan likes this

[Greg McCoy]

I just buy all my shit for that kind of stuff through Amazon/Amazon Merchants. Got both of these a while ago, both ended up being quite good.



I would go for something else for feet than the standard plastic ones. The cheesy plastic feet you find on every cab ever are the cheapest shit you can find. I always just take them off it it's a caster cab. If you have Mesa tracklocks they serve no purpose anyways, because the feet are about the same profile.

If you are marking it from scratch I would go for heavier duty metal standoff discs or bars on the bottom. Something like this. The plastic/rubber standoffs suck. I remove and replace them on home AV shit too. On heavier/bigger things like cabs the plastic/rubber ones usually wear down unevenly with time too.

[Leon]

**Rex Ryan likes this

[Chris]

I'm just glad someone got it. Thanks, Mike!

https://www.espn.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5946852

[DonBot]

...extra bit of tug

[Iron1]

Ordered stuff update:

Speaker - check
Marine grade, void free Baltic Birch
8 cab corners - check
4 cab feet - check
Speaker jack/plate - check
Wiring - check
Grill cloth
Tolex - check


As for the grill cloth, I'm actually thinking I may go the route of my old Carvin 412s or Mesa 412s and get the steel grill material.



And, if I dig it enough when done, I may build a second one and sell the Mesa, so I have 2 identical cabs... but that's cart - > horse right now.

[bigdave]

I like the metal grill look, had one for years, but it doesnt keep dust and crap off the speakers. If I was gonna take it around gigs etc the metal grill does protect pretty good but if its for home maybe go cloth?

[Greg McCoy]

Metal grills rule. That Mesa is weird, has the Carvin side handles. I have a heavily modified 80s Carvin with the metal grill.

Instead of piping you can just go for edging/moulding if you have a miter saw. That's what I did for mine, haven't attached it yet though, it's hassle taking the speakers out everytime to make a modification. It's all cut and joined though. Just an actual frame of wood for the piping style accents.

Flat front is all simple 45 degree cuts, slanted front cabs are slightly more complex, but it's still an angle you can do with any miter, don't know exactly what it is though. I'm assuming a 112 won't have any wonky angles. You don't have to do 45/45 obviously, but that's the easiest mathematically.

The ones you want are like shoe moulding or half round. You can do crown moulding if you really want I guess, but it's a bit pretentious. I used some funky quarter round style shit on mine with a weird d profile.





Moulding/edging is just piping with wood. What you want is this bit. You can get nice stuff pretty cheap. Most cabinetry (cabinet as in fixtures) places probably have a ton laying around as scrap they will give you. Paint it whatever color you want, leave it natural, etc. A bunch of ways of doing it look cool.

[Iron1]

Metal grills rule. That Mesa is weird, has the Carvin side handles. I have a heavily modified 80s Carvin with the metal grill.

Instead of piping you can just go for edging/moulding if you have a miter saw. That's what I did for mine, haven't attached it yet though, it's hassle taking the speakers out everytime to make a modification. It's all cut and joined though. Just an actual frame of wood for the piping style accents.

That's a really cool idea. Thx! And thanks for suggesting Amazon. Duh, I should have checked there first - ended up spending a bit more than I needed to on the cab corners, but no biggie.

Oh how I miss my 80s Carvins with the metal grill...

[Leah]

https://www.speakerhardware.com/

[Iron1]

Parts are starting to roll in. Have the handle, cab corners and feet now. Should have the jack plate later this week.

There was a bit of a snafu with the speaker, so had to order another and stumbled onto a deal on another Black Shadow along with an Eminence Alpha. Not super sure about the Alpha as Eminence lists it as a PA speaker, but found a lot of guitar players saying it works great for gain soaked guitars, and it was crazy cheap, so I figure worst case I’ll just resell it.

Bought the other Black Shadow thinking if this first cab works out, I’ll make a second one, put the Shadow in it, then sell the Mesa.

Went out Saturday and found some nice birch. Haven’t found the metal grill I’m looking for, so I’m considering using expanded metal sheets. Problem there is the opening is 14” tall, but the sheets are only 12” tall. Figure I can trim in an inch at the top and bottom, worst case, but will continue looking for now.

[Iron1]

Just a few more things and we'll be ready to start assembly. Speaker & Tolex should arrive today.

Materials List:

Speaker -
Marine grade, void free Baltic Birch
8 cab corners check
4 cab feet check
Speaker jack/plate check
Wiring check
Grill cloth
Tolex

[Iron1]

Picked up the birch wood yesterday - $60 >ouch<, and went with the expanded metal grill piece. I was still a little on the fence about the grill, but my FIL told me a buddy of his just used a bunch of it to make cabinet door shaker inserts for his workshop. Painted 'em black and they look great. So, I decided to grab some for this.



We now have everything and will start the actual build in a week or so once the FIL finishes another project he's working on.

P.s. out of curiosity we went and looked at the price of 2x4s at Lowes while there. $10.70 each. I used 12 2x4s and a 4x8 sheet of plywood to build a speaker rack wall in Moose's studio years ago, cost me less than $25 for everything. The price of lumber is ridiculous right now.