I have used that same plywood from homedepot on three of my previous boxes and its not that bad!! All my boxes have came out Extremely strong and rigid. They were also very musical and loud as hell. This stuff just sucks to sand. I would like to see two of the exact same boxes one made of this birch and mdf to see if random people could tell the difference. That would be the true test. I will also agree that the real birch is better then either mdf or fake birch plywood but the ply is cheap and light.