Help for building a custom shelf

[sensei]

Hi,

New to the forum, and also building shelves. I'd like to build a custom shelf for a bunch of music instruments I have. I made a rough sketch of how it will be made and what instruments will be on it. Does anyone have any suggestions, please? I'm mulling different ways of building it, but not sure what would be a typical way. I'm looking to do this on a small budget. I was thinking:

(see picture link first!)
- Getting 1" thick wood boards for all the wood (any suggestion on type? Looking for cheap and sturdy, don't care much what it looks like)
- Just using wood screws to attach all the shelves and pieces together - no fancy adjustable shelves as I'll be set with the sizes. Just drilling in from the other side of the attaching board
- If you note the bottom, I figure I'll put two more legs for added weight support, just drill in from the top of the bottom horizontal board.
- I might think of staining it - does anyone have any idea what I should get to stain it? Or if it's even worth it for small budget, basement location.

As far as weight, I don't know, I'm guessing everything together may weigh 200-250 pounds. While the speaker cabinet looks big, it's only about 20-25 pounds, if that. The shelf above that may be the only one I'm worried about wood sag...the Accordion is probably 25-30 pounds, the bass amp is 16 pounds and the Meinl is about 5, but that shelf is only about 2 feet or so wide.

So, any ideas for a newbie? Thanks everyone!

[FrankC]

Smallest budget calls for 3/4" MDF, larger budget 3/4" ply, cheapest decent sheets you can find, popular, shop grade birch.

If you are worried about span on top right side you could put an upright in the bottom section where leg is now, just space it to accommodate what has to go in there. Added advantage to this is it would also prevent items from falling over if some of them are removed in that section.

Assemble with glue and wood screws, a backer of thin material on even just some of the sections will make it a lot more stable.