fEARful part 13: the bad luck's done, son

[Horny Toad]

Horny Toad, looks great. Ron is building my two 15/6/1s and I can't wait!

Thanks man. Did that 2nd gig last night. After everything I've read about fEARfuls, I shouldn't be surprised by what I experienced, but I was still blown away. Just amazing clarity and punch. The 1212/6 is probably overkill for the bar gigs my two cover bands do, but I don't care. I love it.

 

[jnewmark]

I did just buy a compressor

It is pretty funny how things evolve through the almost 40 years (man, that is scary) that I've been gigging.

First 5 years... clueless... don't want to even talk about it. Gibson basses involved.

Next 25 years.... fancy boutiques... Villette Citron, Tobias, MTD, Fodera, Modulus... whatever.. soap bar hell.

Next 10 years... J Basses.... stainless steel strings, ash/maple.... bright, zingy, grindy

Now..... P Bass and a 15 cab.

I figure when I'm 60, I'll get a Hofner, an SVT, play one final gig and then kill myself!

A compressor ? ! Somebody check hell, I think it just froze over !

 

[ACB0015]

KJung, that's pretty amazing! I'll look forward to your soundclip postings with your new AoN fEARful (!) as I'm sure you will not resist putting some up and they will be better recorded than the available clips are now.

 

[KJung]

Kjung - I just used my Art of Noise 15/6/1 with a P bass and an iAmp 800 at my bar gig on Friday. We did three 1 hour sets in a small bar to a crowd of 200 (!) and it was quite an amazing experience. I'm sure you will dig the cab.

My guitar player called me a bastard as I one-handed the cab and did a few front lat raises in his face as we broke down after the set. FWIW, my wife can carry the cab up the stairs in my home with one hand as well.

Excellent! I'll have to check and see if my spec is identical to the one you have, since you already sent the specs to Larry at LeCover. That will save me a bit of measuring.

I look forward to the cab, and as always will put up some clips with various heads and basses.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Excellent! I'll have to check and see if my spec is identical to the one you have, since you already sent the specs to Larry at LeCover. That will save me a bit of measuring.

I look forward to the cab, and as always will put up some clips with various heads and basses.

Cool. When you do clips, make sure to use a mic that reaches down to 20hz. I haven't yet had a chance to experiment with mic placement, so let us know what works for you.

You may need a gastroenterologist to insert a mic in your large intestine to capture the full visceral experience.

One more thing - I was a little worried about the custom cover, so I oversized a bit. My AoN cab is made of 1" panels and the standard dimensions are derived from 1/2" plywood, so adjust accordingly. The handle placement should be the same and Larry has my measurements on file.

 

[KJung]

Cool. When you do clips, make sure to use a mic that reaches down to 20hz. I haven't yet had a chance to experiment with mic placement, so let us know what works for you.

You may need a gastroenterologist to insert a mic in your large intestine to capture the full visceral experience.

One more thing - I was a little worried about the custom cover, so I oversized a bit. My AoN cab is made of 1" panels and the standard dimensions are derived from 1/2" plywood, so adjust accordingly. The handle placement should be the same and Larry has my measurements on file.

Very good. Thanks! I actually have 15/6/1 and 1212/6/1 clips on my Youtube channel, and they seem pretty representative of all the various configurations I've played. I will put up a few new clips when this one arrives.

I typically mic at 'standing level', about 15 or so feet away from the cab, slighty off axis. Seems to work pretty well.

Edit: I know the 'Art of Sound' builds are a 'product in process' and that there were issues with the early builds. I'm hoping that the current build has everything sorted out! However, I'll take one for the team no matter what, since the entire thing is such a unique take on a very nice design with amazing components!

 

[Oobly]

Horny Toad, that cab's a beaut!

For anyone interested, I did the polarity swap on my mid, left the tweeter reversed and it definitely is an improvement! Where I thought my cab was slightly lacking in low mid content has been filled in / smoothed out, so the woofer blends to the mid nicely. I will play with the tweeter polarity later, after the new highpass has been finalised.

 

[singlemalt]

I did the polarity swap on the 12/6 cube's Alpha 6A mid driver. As far as I can tell, it's not that big a difference, but I haven't been able to really run it up yet.

My new amp arrived so I spent a good bit of time messing with the rig yesterday. The amp seems to be working fine, everything functions as per the manual. The features are pretty cool. Plug in ear phones and the speaker output mutes. The aux in works nicely. The preset memory functions are cool. The ability to adjust the center frequency of each eq is very nice. The tube tone thing is cool: you can wind up a fEarful distortion, or not. The compressor is good.

Everything works except the foot controller, that was DOA, so I'll also be testing Zzounds return services. I requested a RMA this morning.

I'm kind of on the fence about the amp itself. Later today I'll have a chance to do a couple hours of A/B testing with the GK 1001 rb. I'll even hook up an old Peavy 2-15 cab. I think you can get acclimated to the fEarfuls and lose perspective. Ear fatigue sets in pretty quick. I got pretty used to the GK, so the new amp sounds different, and I'm slow to transition to new stuff.

So far, the TC seems to sound better with the 15/6/1 or the 15/6/1 and the 12/6 cube. No surprise there. Much better at 4ohms with both cabs.

I don't think it's getting it on the low end like the GK does. While the eq on the TC has lots more variations, and the GK sounds like a GK (how bout that?), if the TC won't get it on the lows, back it goes.

We'll see how it goes. I've got a month to try it out. If I'm not totally stoked, I'll be using the 30 day return.

Oh, and there's badges:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Erse finally delivered my crossover parts, so the second 15/6/1 should be wrapping up soon. We have a stretch of rare sunny weather here in the NW, time to get outside. The mountain is open with a good bit of snow!

I can build crossovers and dweeb with cabinets when its raining.

 

[jnewmark]

Very good. Thanks! I actually have 15/6/1 and 1212/6/1 clips on my Youtube channel, and they seem pretty representative of all the various configurations I've played. I will put up a few new clips when this one arrives.

I typically mic at 'standing level', about 15 or so feet away from the cab, slighty off axis. Seems to work pretty well.

Edit: I know the 'Art of Sound' builds are a 'product in process' and that there were issues with the early builds. I'm hoping that the current build has everything sorted out! However, I'll take one for the team no matter what, since the entire thing is such a unique take on a very nice design with amazing components!

You may want to check with TB'er Bassist, who has this cab. He was having a problem with the speaker screws coming loose.

 

[rpsands]

IIRC, that issue has been resolved. ::BASSIST:: had the one without the plywood ring initially. Newer AON models have a plywood ring for screwing the drivers in.

 

[KJung]

IIRC, that issue has been resolved. ::BASSIST:: had the one without the plywood ring initially. Newer AON models have a plywood ring for screwing the drivers in.

+1 I'm hoping enough of these have been produced at this point so that the current builds are solid. However, per my post above, I realize this is a bit of a risk. Pretty cool though, and cool enough for me to take the plunge and hope for the best!

 

[::::BASSIST::::]

IIRC, that issue has been resolved. ::BASSIST:: had the one without the plywood ring initially. Newer AON models have a plywood ring for screwing the drivers in.

Actually, I dont think I am totally out of the woods yet. I heard some distortion from what seemed to be the driver on certain notes at my last (louder) gig. I have a feeling it might be because the gasket tape I used wasnt wide enough. I'm going to take apart and look into it... again.

 

[rpsands]

Actually, I dont think I am totally out of the woods yet. I heard some distortion from what seemed to be the driver on certain notes at my last (louder) gig. I have a feeling it might be because the gasket tape I used wasnt wide enough. I'm going to take apart and look into it... again.

That bites dude. Good of you to be the guinea pig

I've done enough of that to know just how frustrating it can be.

 

[::::BASSIST::::]

Yeah, it certainly does suck when you pay $900 for a cab (not including taxes and shipping) only to have it consistently have problems. If it wasnt for the form factor, design and tone I might have given up by now.

If my next round of troubleshooting doesn't pan out I will likely rebuild the cab out of Italian Poplar and swap the components over. Not sure what else I can do.

 

[Robby Hoinsky]

Yeah, it certainly does suck when you pay $900 for a cab (not including taxes and shipping) only to have it consistently have problems. If it wasnt for the form factor, design and tone I might have given up by now.

If my next round of troubleshooting doesn't pan out I will likely rebuild the cab out of Italian Poplar and swap the components over. Not sure what else I can do.

Hey Torin, I applaud your enthusiasm for going at it head first, but before you rebuild the cab (if that is in your future), shoot me an email and I'm sure we can work something out on a rebuild. I don't want to see any of my cabs working improperly and I'll do what it takes to fix the situation, even if that comes at a loss on my end.

Robby

 

[Robby Hoinsky]

Kjung - I just used my Art of Noise 15/6/1 with a P bass and an iAmp 800 at my bar gig on Friday. We did three 1 hour sets in a small bar to a crowd of 200 (!) and it was quite an amazing experience. I'm sure you will dig the cab.

My guitar player called me a bastard as I one-handed the cab and did a few front lat raises in his face as we broke down after the set. FWIW, my wife can carry the cab up the stairs in my home with one hand as well.

haha, nothing better than pretending you're really strong

I handed a 1212/6 to my 110 lb girlfriend the other day and she said 'you can let go now'. Thing is, I wasn't even holding it.

It's awesome to get 3.5 dB per lb. I'd like to see that on a spec sheet.

Robby

 

[::::BASSIST::::]

Hey Torin, I applaud your enthusiasm for going at it head first, but before you rebuild the cab (if that is in your future), shoot me an email and I'm sure we can work something out on a rebuild. I don't want to see any of my cabs working improperly and I'll do what it takes to fix the situation, even if that comes at a loss on my end.

Robby

Thanks for the support Robby.

Once I get a chance to give this thing another shot, I'll let you know where things stand.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

I figure when I'm 60, I'll get a Hofner, an SVT, play one final gig and then kill myself!

Please don't say that. A friend of mine just did on Thanksgiving. I don't mean to be a downer, but people have been joking bout it a lot....

fEARful content: he loved how my rig sounded.

 

[KJung]

Just did another pretty good trial of the Streamliner versus the Mesa M6 with the fEarful 15.6 (Actually a 15.6.1 with the tweeter off).

First, the more time I spend with these cabs, the more comfortable I am to not include a tweeter in my Art of Noise Build.

I continue to be more and more impressed with the Streamliner and 15/6 cab (at least with various P Basses). Fat, warm, LOUD, round, and smooth. It is much more controlled down low than the M6, which seems to have no low end control built in at all (i.e., massive sub bass coming out of that amp) and much sweeter up top (even with the tweeter off, the M6 treble control needs to be dialed down quite a bit, and still sounds VERY grind and bright in the upper mids). Nice tone for those who want a massive 'spread' to their tone, from the deepest sub bass to the brightest lower treble/upper mids.

The Streamliner is a unique combination of a BIG low end that is tightly controlled with the built in hi passing. It sounds 90% of big down low as the Mesa, but results in much less pistoning of the 15 when really pushed. (one thing to be aware of when trying these heads is that the Genz uses an audio taper type master volume that doesn't really kick in until after the noon setting).

When you significantly boost the mids at 2.5K, reduce the treble control a touch, and keep the bass flat, the head gets 'somewhat' M6ish... big and bright.

Both heads sound great for the tone they are designed for, and the fEarful 15/6 handles that massive sub bass output of the M6 much better than most other cabs.

For those looking for a fat, all tube type tone, the Streamliner 15/6 is quite impressive!

For those with an M6, it seems that a unit like the Thumpinator or other hi pass units would result in the ability to increase the volume a bit with little loss of tone.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Anyone using a Knuckle Quake or other long scale bass with a fEARful?