Is a Barefaced cab the best for light weight / high volume?

[logdrum]

If you lived in Europe -- sure .. In case there are issues and if I were you. just to be sure maybe before the warranty expiry date, I would get a backup driver from the company.

Why is your need for a very light cab. Would you be mainly taking public transportation - health reasons, live in a 7 floor walk-up apartment? If you can be okay with more weight but still something that you think should be better than a GK or close to the BF pricing - I would look into Bergantino. They have NEO series but I do like their Reference series better. Genzler definitely has some tech with those arrays because those are taken from the Hi-Fi stereo systems..

 

[baxter_x]

I own two Hartke HL410 and I'm simply amazed by those cabs. Super lightweight and awesome tone. And you can find them for a very good price.

 

[xav_paris]

I’m hoping to find a one-cab solution that will cover everything from thumpy Motown sounds to a slapping . I get occasional calls for jazz gigs, both electric and upright, so I would like something fairly flexible!

MOTOWN and SLAPPING :

I think a Two10 ST (with tweeter) you will have the characteristic frequencies answer mix of sealed & ported
(Ampeg B15 year 60’s)
Tweeter = above 4Khz

And power as well :

Two10ST
Great until rock bands get LOUD (500W / 125dB / 8 ohm or 4/12 ohm switchable - from 13kg

With my amp Mesa D800 I never go over 1 pm on the master…

 

[Zbysek]

I have been using Barefaced Two10 and One10 cabs recently. They are sufficiently loud for my purposes.

 

[beavis420]

Thanks everyone!

 

[BaltBass5]

I've been Happy as heck with my GR Bass 212AT+

 

[alexclaber]

As someone who owned a Barefaced Super Twin I found it to be spectacularly underwhelming

Thankfully I don't hear this very often because it does make me very sad. I've seen you post this a few times so I thought I'd look and see which of our customers you might be - and it looks like you bought your Super Twin secondhand.

I do try really hard when selling cabs direct to ask all the right questions to make sure someone gets the cab that works best for them (and help out potential used cab buyers too - but please don't all email if you're looking at a secondhand Barefaced cab, I don't have time for that many extra emails!) Maybe your view would be different if you'd been in direct communication and I'd said "no the Super Twin isn't the right cab for you, you need something else"? Having been doing this since 2008 I know there's absolutely no point trying to sell someone a cab that they won't love, it's absolutely not worth the negative publicity!

 

[dune]

I’m thinking of buying one based on hype alone lol.

I've generally had good luck with TalkBass‑hype‑driven purchases, but not always. Some brands here have more highly vocal supporters than others, and threads about them can develop an echo‑chamber effect that creates the illusion of a broader consensus than actually exists. In my experience, boutique brands like Barefaced, PJB, and Dingwall fall into this category of having inordinately passionate and vocal proponents.

None of that means the support is unwarranted or insincere — only that a highly vocal minority can distort perception. And when that minority becomes especially loud, disagreement tends to become more muted, which compounds the effect.

 

[Nebadon2000]

There you go @beavis420 email Alex

 

[el murdoque]

Here's some personal, first hand experience with their cabinets:

Band scenatio one: The deaf lunatics.
The PA system in the rehearsal room had double 18" woofers and 12" tops, power amps totaled to 6,5kW. Guitar player ran a half stack with Marshall 412 and Egnater head, but also ran through the PA. Drummer had to mic the kick or it would not be audible. Complete and utter insanity. I would put in my earplugs in the car, before even entering that room because I feared someone playing a single note before I was protected.
My rig at that time was an Aguilar Tonehammer 500 with an Aguilar GS212 cabinet. It did not really work out. Adding a second GS212 did the trick - I was playing with the amp turned up a lot.
When I changed my cabs out to barefaced, I went with a Super Mini (back then they were called Midget) and a Super compact, so I traded 4 capable 12" speakers for two.
The first rehearsal with the new setup, the drummer told me it was a good idea to run through the PA because now, he really could hear he finer nuances of my playing and it had more of that punch you feel in your chest. I told him I'm not running through the PA at all. He refused to believe me. At one point he actually got up and walked over to my amp to verify there is no cable running from the amp to the PA system.

Band scenario two: Heavy Metal.
I auditioned for a band that wanted to play heavy metal. For the audition, they had a few cover songs - Saxon, Manowar, Wasp. The classics.
This was, what I, with 30 years of playing in bands, would call normal metal rehearsal room volume. The drummer hit semi hard - a drum stick lasted a few weeks with him, the guitars were set to be clearly audible over the drums. I brought the Super Mini. They looked at me with pity and offered that I could use the cab in the room, a Hartke HyDrive 410. I said "No, thanks, I'm good" and proceeded to set up my tiny rig. They looked at me like I was some sort of mentally ill. Then they asked me to turn down a little because the bass is overpowering things.


The 12" cabinets are small, incredibly light and obscenely loud, while sounding more or less neutral - so what you feed them is what you get.
I have sold every single bass cabinet I owned, just keeping those two. I don't need anything more - and when the cab is sub 10kg and easily carried one handed, I don't need anything less, either.

 

[Rockgeezer]

I have had my first generation Big Twin T for many years. It has been on many gigs, has been bulletproof and is the ideal tone I always look for. Punchy, loud, clean, reasonable weight and transportability. Two 12’s, a 6 1/2” mid with toggle to reduce it by about 5 db’s and tweeter with an L pad to dial in tweeter amount. Any questions or info I’ve asked, Alex has been very responsive and helpful. I’ve had many different cabs over many decades and this cabinet has given me everything I hoped for and expected. There are a ton of great sounding capable cabs out there as many have mentioned here but I can only speak of my experiences and time with this cabinet and no others I’ve played through have exceeded the Barefaced.

Currently I’m playing in several tribute and bar bands and several years ago opted for a small pedalboard direct to FOH. It’s simply logistics for me, traveling, festival style shows, out of state, flying, yada yada …and I needed to be able to have the ability to do last minute trips and quick setups, not to mention I’m just plain getting older and can’t do all the grunt work I used to do so….
the cabinet sits in my climate controlled storage unit going unused. I thought about selling it but haven’t really pushed that hard. Problem is I’m in SW Florida so would need it picked up and not able to ship. Someone should be using it though….sigh

Anyway, long post but my experience with Barefaced, Alex and fellow musicians with BF cabinets has been overwhelmingly positive so I wish you luck with your research and results.

 

[ole Jason]

The hype is real IMO. Barefaced has a well deserved reputation. The One10T is the perfect upright cab IMO.

 

[rapidfirerob]

I have a One10T and a One10. These two cabs are very loud and sound amazing. On larger stages, my rig goes through the PA, of course.
Barefaced is fantastic! Email Alex on their website and he can suggest what to get, if you decide to go that route.

 

[SactoBass]

I currently play a GK 700RBii and a Traynor YBA-2A through a GK RBH210 and an Ampeg 410HLF. I like how both heads work with both cabs. The 210 with the 700RBii is my all purpose solution; the 410 comes out when I want the extra lows. The Traynor and the 210 is my setup for old school sounds, but can sound a little bare in the mids with the 410. It all sounds good though.

Anyway, will a Barefaced cab let me sell both my other cabs? They’re both too heavy even though they sound good.

Please tell me about your experiences and give me recommendations!

Years ago I had a pair of BF One10 cabs. To my ears, they were some of the best sounding cabs I have ever owned (and I've owned a plethora of various cabs during my 50+ years of playing bass). I'm still trying to locate the malfunction in my brain that caused me to sell those BF cabs. They really sounded good! In your situation, I would think a stacked pair of BF Two10 cabs would work very well for you. And @alexclaber is a stand up guy. He knows his stuff and he is very helpful in assisting bassists with finding the right BF cabs for their particular use case.

 

[Jack]

Not to nitpick, but Barefaced uses USA made Eminence drivers. A couple of the USA based companies you mentioned actually use overseas drivers, made in Italy.

Not to nitpick, but he said 'overseas'. Barefaced is a UK company so the States is in fact overseas.

 

[73_Blazer]

Not to nitpick, but he said 'overseas'. Barefaced is a UK company so the States is in fact overseas.

I think Mesa uses Faital Pro drivers made in Italy and Genz uses LaVoce and Eminence in some of their cabinets

 

[Fan Fret]

Not to nitpick, but he said 'overseas'. Barefaced is a UK company so the States is in fact overseas.

In that case he shouldn't have hinted that Barefaced has delays because they use overseas drivers, then list USA companies to look at instead.... who use drivers overseas to the USA.

 

[Hamrlik]

In that case he shouldn't have hinted that Barefaced has delays because they use overseas drivers, then list USA companies to look at instead.... who use drivers overseas to the USA.

My point wasn't about where the speakers are physically manufactured, rather that I thought BF was using their own proprietary drivers which would make replacing them more of a hassle and expensive. Apparently they don't which is news to me. If they're using readily available off-the-shelf speakers then I stand corrected.

 

[Jack]

They sort of are proprietary. Most amp companies use the same 2 or 3 manufacturers that make the lines of speakers that they make. In the guitar world they often don't change them at all and then trade off the name, resulting in different cabs using exactly the same drivers. I'm the bass world it's common to tweak the standard models and put your own stamp on the off the shelf ones. If you buy the minimum order then you can ask for tweaks. Sometimes minor, sometimes major.

It's not a suit off the peg from the high street but it's not a fully custom suit either. It's the one you've bought and then had tailored to fit.

 

[Jack]

Band scenario two: Heavy Metal.
I auditioned for a band that wanted to play heavy metal. For the audition, they had a few cover songs - Saxon, Manowar, Wasp. The classics.
This was, what I, with 30 years of playing in bands, would call normal metal rehearsal room volume. The drummer hit semi hard - a drum stick lasted a few weeks with him, the guitars were set to be clearly audible over the drums. I brought the Super Mini. They looked at me with pity and offered that I could use the cab in the room, a Hartke HyDrive 410. I said "No, thanks, I'm good" and proceeded to set up my tiny rig. They looked at me like I was some sort of mentally ill. Then they asked me to turn down a little because the bass is overpowering things.

I have a similar story. Years ago when they were brand new I had a local who asked if he could come along to my band practice space and test the cabinets out. I had a midget and a compact. A few minutes before he arrived I unplugged the compact and he arrived to hear my band playing reasonably loud rock with me just using the midget. He listened for a bit, then the rest of the band went home and he played for a bit, said he was quite impressed. I asked if he wanted to plug the compact in as well and he was blown away that until then he'd just been hearing the one tiny cabinet. He bought two midgets that he uses to this day.

I know there's plenty of wonderful cabinets that are very much in Barefaced's league, but at the same time it's important to realise how much they and cabinets like them blow away a lot of the mass produced, big name stuff.