fEARful 1212/6/1 - Anchak Audio Works build

[makohund]

OK, so I've had my new cab for almost a month now... been meaning to do a review. So here it is.



Design: fEARful 1212/6/1 by greenboy
Website: Be seeing you

Builder: Ron Anchak, Anchak Audioworks
Website: Home.Anchak Audio Works


I'm going to ramble for a bit, but I can summarize it thusly:
1. Yes, the fEARfuls are everything they are cracked up to be.
2. The 1212/6 version may not be the most common choice, but it's a great one, that hits some sweet spots.
3. Ron Anchak is fantastic to work with, and builds one heck of a speaker.


CHOOSING THE CAB, GETTING IT BUILT

I recently decided to replace my old cabs, an Avatar B115 and B210. It's been a good stack, and served me well for 10 years or so. But now I needed to get more volume out of less size. A special combination of gig/rehearsal/babysitter locations meant I'd get a HUGE benefit from being able to get my whole family and my rig into a single vehicle all at once, which couldn't quite be done with what I had. I was also reaching the ends of their limits when playing some gigs with only partial PA support.

So I did my research and decided on a fEARful. Took a little longer to decide which design. My favorite, the 1515/66, just plain wouldn't fit in my car with the kids. A 15/6 and 15 sub would, but with little usable room left over. I was also hoping to get down to just one cab if I could. A single 15/6 might've done the job by itself, but... I wanted a little more than that.

Enter the 1212/6. A little more than the 15/6, in a single cab, but smaller than the 1515/66 monster. It's the mini-monster. A bonus: One could almost swear that greenboy measured the interior of the back end of my big (ahem) station wagon, in order to build a cabinet to fit it perfectly, with as much spl as possible, while still leaving just enough room for everything else I need to carry. Awesome.


I considered building my own (no fear there), but space and timing issues (with other projects) led me to have one professionally built instead. Ron Anchak was the only one near the West Coast, so I emailed him, and later spoke to him on the phone. Working with Ron was great, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Communication was excellent... I'm not going to tell you how many emails we exchanged, because it was a LOT. (I can be a motormouth with a keyboard, which surely had a lot to do with it.) He provided pictures as the build progressed. There was plenty of back and forth consultation at points where decisions had to be made or revised. (There were some... which HF to use, which wiring scheme to do, labeling, a change of plans on coatings, determining one set of casters was not up to snuff and searching out another, etc.)


THE CAB

As stated, it is a fEARful 1212/6/1. Which of course has two 12 inch 3012LF woofers and the 6 inch 18Sound 6ND410 midrange. I chose to include a tweeter, so it could do any extra duties around the house I wanted to throw at it. (Full range prerecorded music, keyboard, electronic drums, maybe even guitar.) For the tweeter, I went with the 18Sound XD 125 horn+driver package. Ron puts the HF control on the side of the cab, which is very convenient... no reaching around the back to fiddle with it. It's even on the right side of the cab to be adjusted easily by a right-handed person holding a bass... talk about attention to details. If you are a lefty ordering a cab with a HF section, you should mention it.



I really liked MX21's original 1212/6, so got something very similar. Scoop handles on the sides, Top corner handle and tiltback wheels, wiring to bypass crossover the via switch for biamping, etc. Included a corner strip between the tilt casters, for some extra protection from rocks in gravelly parking lots. The biggest visual difference is the grill... my old cabs had the same diamond grid style, and was ready for a change. Not to mention something with smaller holes would be less attractive to little toddler fingers and toys. I went with the 5/32" hole pattern Ron suggested. After some experimenting with alternative coatings, Ron decided to have it professionally shot with Line-X.



The result is fantastic. It looks great. It's solid as a rock. It's not a featherweight like some (80lbs), but handles great all the same. Tips and rolls nicely, easy to manuever, loads nicely. I don't think I've seen a better built cab. Period.


USING IT

To power it, I decided to get a new head... a Carvin BX1500. Plenty of good power, features, flexible EQ, good tone, good price. (Previously used a SansAmp RBI and dbx compressor with a QSC RMX1450.) My two main basses are Spector NS/2000s. One is a 4 string neck-through with an Aggie OBP-3 and EMG P4/CSTW pickups. The other is a bone-stock Q 5 string... quilt top, bolt on, EMG-Hz. I don't use any pedals. Play mostly various forms of hard rock & metal, but not solely. Current gigging band is an AIC tribute, so... hard rock, with some lighter & snappy stuff mixed in with it.

Fired it up at home right next to my old rig. Wow. Switching to the fEARful was like removing a big, wet blanket. Clarity. Unmuffled balls. Lows that simply did not exist with the other stack. I also could hear exactly what people are talking about when mixing full range 15's with full range 10's, and running 10's side by side... after having done both for at least a decade, the evidence was crysal clear. "Don't do that". Everything sounded great top to bottom, and put out whatever I put into it, just way louder. The old stack got put away that night, and hasn't been touched since. Will probably sell it.

Didn't have any rehearsals or anything for it before tossing it into the fire for the first real test in a band situation... an outdoor gig at a county fair. It passed with flying colors. Not much to say other than it did exactly what it was supposed to do... sound awesome, everywhere on stage. One of the guitarists also plays bass, and is a longtime Ampeg SVT/810 guy. On first sight and lift, he had to give me a hard time... "dude, that's not a bass cab, bass cabs are twice as big, take 4 guys to lift, and can smash a hole through a stage if knocked over" or something to that effect. (All tongue in cheek and in good humor of course.) Later, during a bass intro, he turned at looked at it. And up at me. And back down at it. Said "WOW", and turned back to the crowd. And then about 4 seconds later, did the exact same thing, AGAIN. This from the far opposite side of the stage from me, with a full Marshal stack behind him. Pretty good first impression, I'd say.

Next gig is the last one for this band, we're all moving on to other things. It's at the same place we've done a few times, with no PA for me, where my old stack was just managing to squeak by. I'm not worried about it at all. Rather, I'm grinning in anticipation... this little thing is gonna shake the walls.




Thanks greenboy!
Thanks Ron!

[cableguy]

another fEARful rig with a Carvin BX1500......starting to see a trend. Great reveiw. I have a 12/6-12/sub set-up and couldn't agree more with what you've said. I've only played one outdoor gig with my fEARful & GK700RB-II and it was LOUD & CLEAR. You have over twice the power on hand that I do and play loud rock (AIC, I'm so jealous) as opposed to the blues I played. So I can assume you were smokin loud and I would have loved to be front and center. I'll bet the start of Would was awesome!

[lookiel]

Great build! I always love seeing a 1212/6, they look badass!
Thanks for the review, I'd love to try one of these someday, closest I've come to hearing a fEarful was TB'er Lomo's LDS nEarful 15/6 powered by an M9. Didn't get to crank it very much in his basement but even then it was an eye opener.

[MX21]

Nice!

[Sundogue]

Congrats makohund.

Still kind of makes you wonder what all the fuss is about fEARfuls though, doesn't it?

[3rdcurve]

Awesome review!

Each time I see another 1212/6 pic, I want one more. Its nice to get a few positive reviews from Rock players. The only thing keeping me from selling my 810 and 215 stacks to fund the build is a hands on demo of a fearful cab. Anyone in MO have a fearful and up for a GTG?

[DK Gray]

Originally Posted by 3rdcurve

Awesome review!

Each time I see another 1212/6 pic, I want one more. Its nice to get a few positive reviews from Rock players. The only thing keeping me from selling my 810 and 215 stacks to fund the build is a hands on demo of a fearful cab. Anyone in MO have a fearful and up for a GTG?

+1
I have been looking at these for a while. I have a Ampeg 610 that is not playing nicely with my new Shuttle 9.0. I also play Rock (AIC, Metallica, STP...) it requires a certain tone.

[3rdcurve]

Originally Posted by DK Gray

+1
I have been looking at these for a while. I have a Ampeg 610 that is not playing nicely with my new Shuttle 9.0. I also play Rock (AIC, Metallica, STP...) it requires a certain tone.

That it does. I really like my tone with the 810 and Streamliner, but if I can shave off a hundred pounds and fit somewhere other than a bed of a truck while retaining a badass rock tone I am in!

[makohund]

Thanks, ya'll.

Originally Posted by cableguy

I'll bet the start of Would was awesome!

Yep, lol... that's exactly where the guitarist did his double-take.

Originally Posted by MX21

Nice!

I owe you some thanks, too... your 1212/6 build page, pics, and so on were a big factor and inspiration for choosing that cab and the hardware to put with it. Not to mention the wiring diagrams for biamping... big help. Adding the HF made it a little more complicated, but still a wonderful reference. FWIW, we did the 1st and simplest option... full range on one speakon, bi-amp on the other. No passthrough for daisy chaining.

Originally Posted by Sundogue

Congrats makohund.
Still kind of makes you wonder what all the fuss is about fEARfuls though, doesn't it?

Yep. Watch out... I might be trying on some Chromes next.

Originally Posted by 3rdcurve

Each time I see another 1212/6 pic, I want one more.

Better hurry... buy now before they're all gone! j/k

Its nice to get a few positive reviews from Rock players. The only thing keeping me from selling my 810 and 215 stacks to fund the build is a hands on demo of a fearful cab. Anyone in MO have a fearful and up for a GTG?

I'd say come on over, but I'm a LONG way from MO. (Oregon)

Originally Posted by DK Gray

I also play Rock (AIC, Metallica, STP...) it requires a certain tone.

I think if you can get it out of your gear (plug some good headphones into your Shuttle to see), the fEARfuls will happily pump a room full of it.

Originally Posted by 3rdcurve

if I can shave off a hundred pounds and fit somewhere other than a bed of a truck while retaining a badass rock tone I am in!

The badass rock tone is there in spades. Or rather, the blank slate to pump badass rock tone into is there.

The cab lays flat on its side in the back of my station wagon, filling it from side to side with an inch to spare... just enough to make it easy to slide in. The width makes it stand a little taller than the rear seat, but shorter than the headrests, so I can see out the back just fine. And it is shallow enough to be able to stuff lots of things behind it. No truck needed! It is a big car, though.

I couldn't tell you positively whether it'd hang with an 810 or not. Never had one of my own, though I've heard plenty. I doubt I've heard one actually cranked all the way... who does that at a show? But I haven't ever cranked this thing all the way either, not even close. Either way, it's close enough for me. It works wonderfully, sounds great, everyone can hear me well, and it gets louder than I've ever needed. Can't ask for better than that.

[Robby Hoinsky]

Great Review, thanks. The slender stance of the 1212/6 makes it very easy to roll around on casters. Also being fairly tall, it puts the mid right up near your ear which makes it especially easy to hear when you are forced close to your rig on small stages. The quality of Ron's work means you'll be able to enjoy that cab for years to come.

Robby

P.S you wouldn't have a Dodge Magnum would you?

[DK Gray]

makohund, do you think the horn makes a big differance? Would you like the cab as much without it?

[cableguy]

Originally Posted by DK Gray

makohund, do you think the horn makes a big differance? Would you like the cab as much without it?

I have a 12/6 & 12/sub. For my playing style and type of music (hard rock & blues) I get plenty of high end with the 18 sound mid. And that's playing fingerstyle. If I played with a pick it would almost be too much.
Just my 2 pennies.

[makohund]

Originally Posted by Robby Hoinsky

P.S you wouldn't have a Dodge Magnum would you?

Yep. It's me, the guy with the SRT8 that was asking you about trunk measurements and whatnot.

Feels weird calling that beast a station wagon, but hey... it is. And a great one at that.

[Robby Hoinsky]

Originally Posted by makohund

Yep. It's me, the guy with the SRT8 that was asking you about trunk measurements and whatnot.

Feels weird calling that beast a station wagon, but hey... it is. And a great one at that.

Awesome! My poor Magnum is in the shop right now. So it fits in there sideways just fine? How much clearance would you say you have?

Robby

[3rdcurve]

Originally Posted by makohund

Yep. It's me, the guy with the SRT8

......and I am jealous agian.

[wcriley]

The only time I've missed having a tweeter in my 12/6 cabs, I was running electronic drums through one. The cymbals were a bit dull. And mine have the Alpha6, not the 18Sound (which I believe has more top end).

[Robby Hoinsky]

Originally Posted by wcriley

The only time I've missed having a tweeter in my 12/6 cabs, I was running electronic drums through one. The cymbals were a bit dull. And mine have the Alpha6, not the 18Sound (which I believe has more top end).

I really miss the tweeter when playing anything full range. For clean bass it is subtly but I tend to like it better with it. It is such an inexpensive option that it makes loads of sense to have it. If you aren't sure you don't need a tweeter, you need a tweeter.

Robby

[wcriley]

It's just as inexpensive to add it later...if I ever feel the need.

[makohund]

Originally Posted by DK Gray

makohund, do you think the horn makes a big differance? Would you like the cab as much without it?

Yep. And nope.

With bass, you can get away without it. Turned all the way down it's not like you miss it terribly. But I've been running it between 8 and 11 o clock for most "modern rock" and metal stuff and like what it does. Very smooth and pleasant, even with a pick. (I'm mostly fingers, but pick one up when tone calls for it.) For more classic sound, just turn it off.

And I never, ever liked or used a tweeter on any other cab.

It's also handy for drums, keys, etc. Gotta have it for those.

Glad I got it. YMMV.

[MX21]

Originally Posted by makohund

I owe you some thanks, too... your 1212/6 build page, pics, and so on were a big factor and inspiration for choosing that cab and the hardware to put with it. Not to mention the wiring diagrams for biamping... big help. Adding the HF made it a little more complicated, but still a wonderful reference. FWIW, we did the 1st and simplest option... full range on one speakon, bi-amp on the other. No passthrough for daisy chaining.

Glad it was helpful.