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: Link Removed
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!
Design: fEARful 1212/6/1 by greenboy
Website: Be seeing you
Builder: Ron Anchak, Anchak Audioworks
Website: Link Removed
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!
