Barefaced and the Holy Grail of Bassdom

rpsands · #1 07-27-2011, 07:06 PM

Barefaced Bass - '69er

Seems like someone took up the challenge of making a well-designed take on the SVT 8x10. I can't quite get what the cab actually is yet, from the link, but I'm sure Alex will be by to talk about it. Looks really interesting.

anonymous02282011 · #2 07-27-2011, 07:14 PM

it's a 6x10

lookiel · #3 07-27-2011, 07:26 PM

Cool! Finally!
and 65 pounds!

will33 · #4 07-27-2011, 08:12 PM

Me likey!

Man, it's nice to see this level of design.....and real valid product descriptions instead of the usual teenage wanker guitar magazine stuff.

billfitzmaurice · #5 07-27-2011, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpsands

Barefaced Bass - '69er

I can't quite get what the cab actually is yet, from the link,

I don't have to see it to know what it is. Five standard tens and one guitar ten. The guitar ten in a small sealed sub-enclosure, high-pass filtered at perhaps 200Hz. The remaining tens in two vertical lines, two of them below the guitar ten. The other three tens are low-pass filtered, in the vicinity of 800-1kHz, to eliminate any comb filtering and to maximize midrange horizontal dispersion. Nothing about this is either new or radical, as usual Alex is just employing proper acoustical engineering concepts that have been around for decades, but curiously ignored by the mainstream electric bass cab industry. OTOH you can't see good engineering, and it costs a few bucks more, and so...

Kudos to Alex for caring enough to get it right.

GregC · #6 07-27-2011, 09:01 PM

Sounds pretty cool! Props to Alex for actually trying this, I've been wondering when someone would.

chuck norriss · #7 07-27-2011, 09:05 PM

i thought b15 was holy grail

knucklehead G · #8 07-27-2011, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

I don't have to see it to know what it is. Five standard tens and one guitar ten. The guitar ten in a small sealed sub-enclosure, high-pass filtered at perhaps 200Hz. The remaining tens in two vertical lines, two of them below the guitar ten. The other three tens are low-pass filtered, in the vicinity of 800-1kHz, to eliminate any comb filtering and to maximize midrange horizontal dispersion. Nothing about this is either new or radical, as usual Alex is just employing proper acoustical engineering concepts that have been around for decades, but curiously ignored by the mainstream electric bass cab industry. OTOH you can't see good engineering, and it costs a few bucks more, and so...

Kudos to Alex for caring enough to get it right.

This kind of nod from BFM is huge, I wish I could find a Barefaced anything to play with now.

JimmyM · #9 07-27-2011, 09:59 PM

Almost makes me want to move to England. Almost.

rpsands · #10 07-27-2011, 10:47 PM

Ah, I get it now. The mid-bass woofers are standard bass woofers and there's a guitar 10 in there. Cool stuff.

Thanks Bill. I snatched a second to read this earlier and didn't get to spend a lot of time thinking about it, just got excited

Looking forward to some reviews.

With the sensitivity Alex suggests (102db) it's going to be likely close to as loud as a modern SVT 8x10, if not a little louder, and take some serious pounding.

**cheezewiz** · #11 07-27-2011, 10:49 PM

Whoa. Me wants.

will33 · #12 07-27-2011, 11:23 PM

Yeah, I was imagining it off his description. The highpassed guitar driver would be on top obviously and a cluster of 10's on the bottom isn't so bad if they're lowpassed and tightly packed. It's in the middle and upper frequencies is where the problem is. I guess the 5th driver is beside the highpassed guitar driver. You can't stagger that many drivers and come in at his height.

All in all with driver spl and current drive vs. voltage drive (my latest "oh" moment) it makes a whole lotta sense and likely sounds badass.

**mikeddd** · #13 07-27-2011, 11:35 PM

Barefaced never has many pics on their website. I like to see the product. Just an observation. I think what Alex is doing is incredible. I was considering a Super12 for a time there.

Derek Kiernan · #14 07-27-2011, 11:49 PM

I've been hoping to see a review of this pop up. Sounds like it could be an incredible innovation for the people into fridges. 65 lbs is a couple over Bergantino's AE410

I want to hear one very badly!

rodl2005 · #15 07-27-2011, 11:55 PM

Sounds like it will sound great!

Bass FreeLee · #16 07-28-2011, 12:06 AM

If it " Sounds like a sealed 810" , and is Just as Loud at 65lbs... I'm Sold :-D

jnewmark · #17 07-28-2011, 05:47 AM

Unless I'm not reading correctly, it's for tube heads ?

KJung · #18 07-28-2011, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpsands

Ah, I get it now. The mid-bass woofers are standard bass woofers and there's a guitar 10 in there. Cool stuff.

Thanks Bill. I snatched a second to read this earlier and didn't get to spend a lot of time thinking about it, just got excited

Looking forward to some reviews.

With the sensitivity Alex suggests (102db) it's going to be likely close to as loud as a modern SVT 8x10, if not a little louder, and take some serious pounding.

If you read his description, it looks like he is doing a typical side by side multi 10 design, but lo passing the 10's on one side to remove the upper midrange interaction, and then adding a heavy duty 'mid driver' to achieve some of the break-up characteristics of the original.

Quite cool. The array of 10's will all be pumping out the low end, half of the 10's will also cover quite a bit of the midrange, and then that midrange type driver will add the grit that many loved with the original up top. I assume the addition of that midrange driver will also allow him to use 'better' bass drivers that put out more low end, etc., since they don't have to cover the very top of the frequency spectrum.

Very cool. Also, the improvement Alex has made on his finish, etc. is really nice.

First rate stuff!

KJung · #19 07-28-2011, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jnewmark

Unless I'm not reading correctly, it's for tube heads ?

The tube head optimization he seems to be talking about has to do with getting the nominal impedance more accurately defined, since tube heads require specific impedance levels to work optimally.

This would in no way preclude you from using a solid state power section with this cab, but would make the cab, at least in this one respect, nicely matched to a tube power section.

KJung · #20 07-28-2011, 06:42 AM

So Alex, here is a guess. The cab will look like a standard 610, with three lo passed 10's on one side, two full range 10's on the other side in the lower two positions, and then the more 'guitar like' 10 at the top of the full range 10's, and next to the top lo passed 10.

Brilliant! Of course, just guessing!