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New Barefaced Generation 3 cabs announced

mudpup

mudpup

Oct 19, 2011
407
800
Bishops Stortford, England
#1
Have now been officially announced in the UK. New versions of some old favourites with a new bespoke speaker design and hardware improvements.

Heres an image of the Gen 1 Big One alongside a new Gen 3 Big Baby 2. This is the rig i will be running when my BB2 arrives along with a Gallien Krueger MB500 Fusion.

b563ed0111e4013cbcc678802362b582.gif


Check the Barefaced Facebook page for updates and the pricing is now on the Barefaced website.
 
#4
falconspatriots said:
Very nice!!! I really liked my Compact for the short time I had it. That BB2 looks SO GOOD and small!!! If the wait time wasn't so crazy I'd be all over this.
Click to expand...

That prototype Big One was a bit louder with equal settings but they max out at remarkably similar SPL with the bottom tighter and more controlled with the BB2.

Every detail of the Generation Three cabs has been considered to make them as time efficient to produce as possible (without compromising performance) so I'm hopeful the wait will go from crazy to reasonable to nothing.
 
#5
Hi Alex, as I said you in a recent e-mail contact, I'm ready to pull the trigger on a BB2, but right now!
Only two questions before entering the Barefaced site and hitting the "buy now" button (I was waiting this moment for a while...but the old BB design wasn't the ideal for me).

1) How long it will take to have my BB2 built and shipped to my door? I'm ready to wait, only curious and prepare my wait
2) how many handles has the BB2? One on one side or two? I guess it has one, no problem with a 13 Kg cab
3) since the website has no picture of the BB2, only a drawing, the design is already definitive and complete or you have to test prototypes for a while? (this will affect waiting time).

Thanks!!!

Mariano



alexclaber said:
That prototype Big One was a bit louder with equal settings but they max out at remarkably similar SPL with the bottom tighter and more controlled with the BB2.

Every detail of the Generation Three cabs has been considered to make them as time efficient to produce as possible (without compromising performance) so I'm hopeful the wait will go from crazy to reasonable to nothing.
Click to expand...
 
#8
sratas said:
1) How long it will take to have my BB2 built and shipped to my door? I'm ready to wait, only curious and prepare my wait
Click to expand...

Probably December for current orders.

sratas said:
2) how many handles has the BB2? One on one side or two? I guess it has one, no problem with a 13 Kg cab
Click to expand...

This has been a contentious point! I was pushing for two, but the other two thirds of the Barefaced team both only wanted one. I took the pre-production cab to a bass bash in the UK, asked everyone I could and the view was about 40% saying one handle, 40% saying two handles, and 20% suggesting something else entirely! I must admit, my original two handles idea was somewhat connected to earlier prototypes having ferrite drivers and thus being a lot heavier.

So unless something strange happens we're going to stick with one handle as it looks better, won't get scuffed as a second handle on the foot side would, won't get in the way of a small head as a second handle on the top would, and, as you say, the cab is very very light.

sratas said:
3) since the website has no picture of the BB2, only a drawing, the design is already definitive and complete or you have to test prototypes for a while? (this will affect waiting time).
Click to expand...

The design is done - the cab pictured is our pre-production demo model, which we used for checking that our tolerances on the CNC machine are correct and the cab assembles well - which usually involves fractional dimensional changes to compensate for backlash/flex in the machine.
 
#11
The engineering development looks very thorough on these Gen 3 cabs. That new 12XN550 driver at the heart of things is stunning. That Big Twin 2 looks like a tone monster with enough headroom to handle a wide range of venues. Excellent.
 
#12
One thing about the new tweetered cabs that I missed somewhere...The Big series cabs have a compression driver for mid/highs if I understood correctly.
Is this driver adjustable? I guess "yes"
What kind of changes can I expect from the mid/high driver attenuation? Will the tone be similar to that one of the non-tweetered cabs?
 
#13
Yes, there's a compression driver on a waveguide in the Big Baby 2 and Big Twin 2. Fully adjustable, from off to LOUD. With it off the BB2 and BT2 sound just like the SC and ST through the mids and highs but with deeper lows (larger enclosure, lower tuning). As the HF driver is turned up the cabs change quite a lot in character - you have a lot of tonal versatility from experimenting with the knob on the cab plus the tone controls on your bass and amp (and what your hands do).

We tried a variety of approaches, various switching combinations with extra filtering but in the end we found a level control was both intuitive and surprisingly powerful. The key was to make sure that the crossover worked as designed regardless of settings.

I'll write some hints and tips in the manual but an interesting example was how a fully overdriven valve amp sounded great with just a touch from the HF driver, really opened up that pickstyle grind and spread it round the room. I can't see Lemmy ever switching from Marshall but he'd have loved that sound!
 
#15
thanks alex..still very happy I have finally ordered my BB2.


alexclaber said:
Yes, there's a compression driver on a waveguide in the Big Baby 2 and Big Twin 2. Fully adjustable, from off to LOUD. With it off the BB2 and BT2 sound just like the SC and ST through the mids and highs but with deeper lows (larger enclosure, lower tuning). As the HF driver is turned up the cabs change quite a lot in character - you have a lot of tonal versatility from experimenting with the knob on the cab plus the tone controls on your bass and amp (and what your hands do).

We tried a variety of approaches, various switching combinations with extra filtering but in the end we found a level control was both intuitive and surprisingly powerful. The key was to make sure that the crossover worked as designed regardless of settings.

I'll write some hints and tips in the manual but an interesting example was how a fully overdriven valve amp sounded great with just a touch from the HF driver, really opened up that pickstyle grind and spread it round the room. I can't see Lemmy ever switching from Marshall but he'd have loved that sound!
Click to expand...
 
#16
alexclaber said:
...The design is done - the cab pictured is our pre-production demo model, which we used for checking that our tolerances on the CNC machine are correct and the cab assembles well - which usually involves fractional dimensional changes to compensate for backlash/flex in the machine.
Click to expand...

hmmm... a professional CNC workcentre for woodworking has a positioning accuracy of better than +/- 0,1mm in X,Y and Z. That accuracy is more than adequate for the job at hand......
 
#17
OldogNewTrick said:
hmmm... a professional CNC workcentre for woodworking has a positioning accuracy of better than +/- 0,1mm in X,Y and Z. That accuracy is more than adequate for the job at hand......
Click to expand...

Clearly you know how to use our CNC machine better than we do because we've only been using it every day for the last 18 months!
 
#18
alexclaber said:
Clearly you know how to use our CNC machine better than we do because we've only been using it every day for the last 18 months!
Click to expand...

Your condescending reply is off the mark.
I do not know what CNC you use, but I do indeed know that a professional CNC (Homag/IMA/HolzHer/Biesse/SCM/et.al) in good working order does not machine components which have such inaccuracies that they would pose problems on a realtively simple item as a speaker box.
If it does, you need to get it fixed. If it is one of those DIY jobbies, oh well...
 
#19
My 'condescending reply' is simply in response to the tone of your post. We do not have a large heavyweight CNC machine - ours has an 8'x4' bed but it is neither that heavy nor that expensive - we could not afford such a machine at the time.

It is however good enough that it can cut easily fast enough and accurately enough to handle our current needs and for the foreseeable future. At some point we may need to step up to the next grade of machine but that will require a ~£50k investment.
 
#20
alexclaber said:
My 'condescending reply' is simply in response to the tone of your post.
Click to expand...

My apologies, absolutely not meant that way.

... At some point we may need to step up to the next grade of machine but that will require a ~£50k investment.
Click to expand...
~£30k can get you already a decent pre-owned CNC (Biesse Rover, Weeke BP80, SCM Record or sim.), check the trade journals for offers.

Enough of the derail:
Back to Barefaced Gen3. - Congrats on finding your new 12" speaker - OEM, I would presume.
 

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