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fEARFUL the solution to everything
- Thread starter Warwick Qc418
- Start date
Well, as a herpetic, bald, flaccid man, I'm offended that someone would think that I actually NEED curing...
The fEarful cabs are fantastic at what they do, but not all people will like what they do.
My wife is a coffee conoisseur; she keeps trying to introduce me to different coffees.
Knowing her level of selectivity, they are probably some VERY well-executed coffees, but they all taste like battery acid to me.
The success of Startbucks suggests to me that she isn't an anomolous weirdo drinking this stuff, there are LOTS of people out there who actually like this stuff.
So I just have to go with "It's not for me" rather than "Coffee is garbage and I'm sick of people talking about it all the time".
If you want the lightest cab with the loudest, deepest and clearest sound, fEARful (or very similar 2 or 3 way crossed cabs with state of the art long x-max woofers) pretty much beat all other traditional cabs. For many of us, that's so exciting that we tell people about it, especially since so many TBers post questions specifically asking for cab recommendations. It's not hard to wrap your head around why you it happens repeatedly. As has been posted above, if you like the your cab there may not be any reason to care. Some other cabs have their own tone you may like and that's fine.
It isn't a matter of "colored" vs "uncolored". It is a matter of which page you do your coloring on.
If your color comes from the speaker page, then you probably wouldn't like the result of leaving that page out, unless you put some time into coloring the "before the speaker" page the way you wanted instead.
If your color comes before the speaker page, the reverse can also be true... you might get annoyed with a speaker that throws a bunch of its own color on top of what you've already dialed in to your liking.
Both happen all the time... in the first case someone might love the sound of their rig, but the audience often hears something else if there is a PA, because the house takes a DI and won't mic the cab.
In the latter, one might be dialed in for DI into the PA, but never get quite what they want on stage for themselves because their cabs sound very different.
The point of PA, or "PA-like cab" isn't "PA tone".
It's a relatively blank slate for getting the tone the audience hears and the tone on stage to be similar. (Plus get PA-like projection when there is no PA.). Another method is to always have a PA, and to always mic your cab when using it.
Some find the first method incredibly useful and flexible, and like to share info about various cabs that are really good at it (not all are fEARfuls) with others that haven't tried or heard it. Because most haven't. Pretty much everybody has tried or heard the latter.
It isn't so much just the fEARfuls... it is the different approach, and a modern class of multiway super-woofer cabs that excel at it. (And more recently, some super-woofer cabs that also excel at the other approach.)
A major benefit of an uncolored cabinet is that your post-EQ di signal is now useful. With a cabinet with a characteristic voice you will be the only person in the club that hears said characteristic voice when the PA carries the house. EQ you send to such a cab is completely worthless for the board. Micing helps this to some extent.
Edit... I was late to the party.
I'd add that the original designer of the cabs is a big proponent of the Roland V-bass system, and thus a clear subscriber to coloring before the cab, and therefore having a basscab that mimics a PA makes his life far easier.
You've just described the yet-to-be-released, but coming-soon, Barefaced 69er. Yet to be played and judged, but so far (on paper), it should do exactly that.
A 6x10, rather than 4x10, but the same principles could be used in a 4x10.
I agree with you OP. I'm pretty sick of people recommending what they think is the best cab. We need more people recommending what they think are not the best cabs.
Agreed. The part about the woofers is key. The design and technology of the Emenince kappalites with long their xmax and light weight is why these cabs can get loud with one driver and therefore the weight and dimensions are less. Greenboy's utilization of these drivers in a well designed box is the other half of it.
But yeah, if you have drivers that can bring more to the table than a traditional driver the end result will be different.
Transparent speakers always sound boring to my ears, even when I use heavy processing and EQ'ing before them...
Look at any "What X should I buy?" thread and it's %90 people saying to buy whatever they use. So the fact that fearful folks do the sane is hardly surprising.
So every large concert you've ever been to had boring bass tone? Becasue unless you are in front of the FOH speakers in the front row, and off to the bass side, directly in front of the bassists cabs, you are hearing hte tone through boring, transparent speakers.
These cabs are now being built in the UK. OT, but what would people recommend for a 900W 4 ohm amp?
I was thinking if I didn't get Fearful, it would be a 2x12...so what Fearful does the 2x12 thing, but lighter weight and more volume? I also want very cutting mids...I absolutely love mid range.
I was thinking if I didn't get Fearful, it would be a 2x12...so what Fearful does the 2x12 thing, but lighter weight and more volume? I also want very cutting mids...I absolutely love mid range.
A 15/6 is on my wish list for sure. I'm not tired of reading about them and I like the enthusiasm of the true believers on the board.
If you have a question about them I'd suggest you post in the club thread or Greenboy forums since this thread was created to complain about them. 
My 1212/6/1.
Except for the "lighter" part. Probably the heaviest ever built in fact... everything that cut into the cab at all was fully boxed in. All hardware the heaviest duty available. For the finish, it was shot with Line-X. Unfortunately it isn't large enough to crawl inside during a nuclear event. So I guess there's one thing it doesn't do well.
If you have a question about them I'd suggest you post in the club thread or Greenboy forums since this thread was created to complain about them.
In that case, if limited to complaints by those who've played one... it'd be a pretty short thread.
Not ideal. It's not that they work poorly, it's that you shouildn't intentionally choose drivers with large mechanical capabilities wihtout the ability to use them.
With that many watts you will get plenty of noise, but there will be boxes that produce more. What these cabs do is put out SPL per pound that is highly difficult to challenge, if given enough watts to eat.
I would add, though, that my magically healing 1212/6 sounds great with a 300 watt Walkabout head.
