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Fearful Part 14: one better than 13!

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#701
BurningSkies said:
In all senses, it is what it eats.
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Thats what I love about my fEARfuls, they produce what you send them. Sure it uncovers a lot of sound that other cabs may mask, but that is a good thing its more to work with. You have to control it, but if you do you gain so much. A small change on your amp makes a big difference in your sound, so the amp becomes more versatile. A small change in your playing style or bass settings or eq or anything makes a difference, so you have much more to work with.
 
#702
CL400Peavey said:
Thats what I love about my fEARfuls, they produce what you send them. Sure it uncovers a lot of sound that other cabs may mask, but that is a good thing its more to work with. You have to control it, but if you do you gain so much. A small change on your amp makes a big difference in your sound, so the amp becomes more versatile. A small change in your playing style or bass settings or eq or anything makes a difference, so you have much more to work with.
Click to expand...

I'm also a bit confused by the people who knock it as not being 'plug and play'.

...once you've played it a couple times, and you've divorced yourself from how you used to EQ your rig for 'normal' cabs its no harder to get 'your' sound...in fact its easier, because small tweaks to EQ and playing position are very easy to hear.
 
#703
BurningSkies said:
I'm also a bit confused by the people who knock it as not being 'plug and play'.

...once you've played it a couple times, and you've divorced yourself from how you used to EQ your rig for 'normal' cabs its no harder to get 'your' sound...in fact its easier, because small tweaks to EQ and playing position are very easy to hear.
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I agree. Its like saying you only paint in grey scale on white construction paper because it is simpler to do so after eliminating color and surface choices.
 
#705
BurningSkies said:
I'm also a bit confused by the people who knock it as not being 'plug and play'.

...once you've played it a couple times, and you've divorced yourself from how you used to EQ your rig for 'normal' cabs its no harder to get 'your' sound...in fact its easier, because small tweaks to EQ and playing position are very easy to hear.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I'm not sure I've heard the "normal cabinets" you're referring to. The cabs I've used all sound different from one another, and require different EQ. And this is certainly not a "knock," but I'm one of those guys that didn't find my 1212/6/1 to be "plug-and-play." However, the cool thing about fEARfuls is that you can continue to tweak them after they're built.

In my case, after spending some time with a 31 band graphic eq (and getting some insightful commentary from Greenboy), I realized that my unpadded 18 Sound midrange was too prominent in the mix. After padding the midrange 3dB, I like the overall sound much better.

Yet another advantage of the fEARful's "open-source" design!
 
#706
Yeah. I'm a bit interested in how my EQ is going to go. I generally prefer a more articulate and puncy sound (even throughout the range of my playing) and my Eden rig and Status S2 bass gave me most of that while leaving stuff flat, for the most part. I would adjust it for covers....but....I guess we'll see.

Here's how it's going, so far. I plan on using the 15/6/1 stand alone for small venues so I put castors on the bottom there (up top with the tall stack) but I plan on using a short stack for most of what I do so I put castors on the sides of the 15/6. And feet on the bottom of the 15/6 for when I feel like pulling off a tall stack.

All I have to do now is shave some of the baffle bracing, attach that, do all the wiring, and attach the grille. :hyper:
 

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#707
CL400Peavey said:
Thats what I love about my fEARfuls, they produce what you send them. Sure it uncovers a lot of sound that other cabs may mask, but that is a good thing its more to work with. You have to control it, but if you do you gain so much. A small change on your amp makes a big difference in your sound, so the amp becomes more versatile. A small change in your playing style or bass settings or eq or anything makes a difference, so you have much more to work with.
Click to expand...

+1 That's exactly how I have experienced it. It's made me more creative, because the sound variations introduced by variations in my playing style can now be heard.
 
#708
gregbackstrom said:
Hmm. I'm not sure I've heard the "normal cabinets" you're referring to. The cabs I've used all sound different from one another, and require different EQ. And this is certainly not a "knock," but I'm one of those guys that didn't find my 1212/6/1 to be "plug-and-play." However, the cool thing about fEARfuls is that you can continue to tweak them after they're built.

In my case, after spending some time with a 31 band graphic eq (and getting some insightful commentary from Greenboy), I realized that my unpadded 18 Sound midrange was too prominent in the mix. After padding the midrange 3dB, I like the overall sound much better.

Yet another advantage of the fEARful's "open-source" design!
Click to expand...

By normal cabinets, I'm referring to ones that are either woofer only, or traditional woofer/tweeter combinations that don't have a dedicated mid driver and crossover, and have a 'gap' in their response. While I agree that all cabs sound different from each others, most mainstream cabs have some very similar characteristics in that range between mid and treble frequencies. Production cabs also tend to have similar characteristics in the 'true' lows as most cabs roll off heavily below the low mids...and the fEARful has more true extension down below the low-mids area without the bump that many cabs have that create 'boom' and fool people into thinking they have real lows.
 
#709
Hi , i use a status kingbass thru my 15/6/1 with a shuttlemax 9.2 head,
These heads have a ton of eq on them, and i found my sound very quick, status basses have incredible definition and you will be stuned by what you get from the fearful, in a old school slapper at heart and it cuts thru like a razor.
I know run a 15 sub as well, i don't need it but that wall of sound is addictive .
 
#710
For the loud upright bass thing, I set everything flat, turn up the amp, and take away the frequencies I don't want in that room...just learned to stop eq'ing with my eyes and threw away old habits...for me it's been the secret sauce. My bass has never sounded better :)
 
#711
dukeorock said:
For the loud upright bass thing, I set everything flat, turn up the amp, and take away the frequencies I don't want in that room...just learned to stop eq'ing with my eyes and threw away old habits...for me it's been the secret sauce. My bass has never sounded better :)
Click to expand...

The very first time I used my 15/6...I tried to do what I always did with my amp. And about 10 seconds of that proved that it was NOT right. Once I flatted it out, and got in a room with a bunch of players I could dial in what I wanted to hear pretty easily. What the cab wanted was a lot less of any kind of knob twisting. I could also get a lot more out of my controls, no longer did the 40hz on my bass or the 60hz on my amp do the same thing. Also I could get a lot more out of jockeying the treble control on my bass, the treble and high mid on my amp in different configurations.
 
#713
Ha. I'm using my Eden 410 as a temp until the fEARful build is done. I got a Mesa Strategy 400 power amp a few month back and I'm using an Ashly SC-40 preamp with it. It pretty much gets "my sound" flat but when we're doing some covers with muddier bass sounds I have to mess with the EQ....I noticed about half of the knobs don't make any difference what-so-ever when turned.
 
#714
Just for giggles, does anyone ever run a power amp mated with a Sansamp BassDI pedal? Not a full head with the DI into the power amp section, but just a power amp. I'm assuming it would be the same as a rack mount pre&power setup. Just seems like an interesting way to go minimal and modular with these cabs.
 
#715
monsterthompson said:
Just for giggles, does anyone ever run a power amp mated with a Sansamp BassDI pedal? Not a full head with the DI into the power amp section, but just a power amp. I'm assuming it would be the same as a rack mount pre&power setup. Just seems like an interesting way to go minimal and modular with these cabs.
Click to expand...

I have run an RBI through the power section of my SS head. I am undecided if I like its tone by itself.
 
#716
monsterthompson said:
Just for giggles, does anyone ever run a power amp mated with a Sansamp BassDI pedal? Not a full head with the DI into the power amp section, but just a power amp. I'm assuming it would be the same as a rack mount pre&power setup. Just seems like an interesting way to go minimal and modular with these cabs.
Click to expand...

Many people do this. Some swear by it, while others (like myself) find it a little lacking. Probably depends on one's style and taste... like everything. ;)
 
#717
Got done with my 15/6 today . All I can say is wow , just like everybody says , these things are the real deal .

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A couple pics after I got the wiring and crossovers put in . I put the pad switch in it so I can use it with a sub and it works just like Greenboy drew it up . I also used the crossover Duke designed for the newer 18 Sound mid and it also sounds great . Thanks to you two guys and to Speaker Hardware for the parts and Don at Barry Audio for the great aluminum grill .

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This is a pic that shows the switch on the backplate and the wiring for the speakons .

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The back plate with the switch . Thankfully neither of my dogs relieved themselves while I was taking the picture .

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More pics to come .
 
#719
BurningSkies said:
The very first time I used my 15/6...I tried to do what I always did with my amp. And about 10 seconds of that proved that it was NOT right. Once I flatted it out, and got in a room with a bunch of players I could dial in what I wanted to hear pretty easily. What the cab wanted was a lot less of any kind of knob twisting. I could also get a lot more out of my controls, no longer did the 40hz on my bass or the 60hz on my amp do the same thing. Also I could get a lot more out of jockeying the treble control on my bass, the treble and high mid on my amp in different configurations.
Click to expand...

+1. And like burningskies wrote earlier, plucking/picking hand position and pickup selection yield a wide array of tonal differences. I find I need less EQing to reach my tone goals. On the flip side, it's fun to experiment with EQ settings since I can clearly hear the frequencies that I may be boosting or attenuating.
 
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