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More fearful 12/6/1 questions

happychicken

happychicken

Jan 24, 2012
773
252
#1
hi all,
I am about to purchase a kit for fearful 12/6/1 but before I do I just wanted to make sure that this would be suitable for low volume venues like my church as well as larger ones. The church is an 80x50 room not somebodys cathedral. And the music is toned down not hot funk super gospel. Right now I have a markbass lm3 that would be paired with it until I can go for the mesa subway or gk fusion 800 (still deciding)
 
#3
I have the LMlll and Fearful 12/6. It's a nice combination and can be used at low volumes and sounds great. Although when playing out side without PA support for the bass I ran out of steam and started to distort. I had to change the EQ to keep it clean which changed the tone (less bass). I have since added another 12/6. The choice was getting a bigger rig that would cost a lot more money or add another 12/6. With the extra cab I gained 6 more db. That doesn't sound like much but it is. Don't get me wrong the 12/6/1 will get very load on it's own. Loader than most single 12's on the market. The Eminence Kappalite 3012 is one monster of a speaker.

Tedward
 
#4
Tedward said:
I have the LMlll and Fearful 12/6. It's a nice combination and can be used at low volumes and sounds great. Although when playing out side without PA support for the bass I ran out of steam and started to distort. I had to change the EQ to keep it clean which changed the tone (less bass). I have since added another 12/6. The choice was getting a bigger rig that would cost a lot more money or add another 12/6. With the extra cab I gained 6 more db. That doesn't sound like much but it is. Don't get me wrong the 12/6/1 will get very load on it's own. Loader than most single 12's on the market. The Eminence Kappalite 3012 is one monster of a speaker.
Click to expand...

Yep. The LMIII will definitely run out of gas before a 12/6 will for many people if running only one cab. Same with quite a few new school 500 watt @ 4 ohm amps.
 
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#6
I use a fEARful 12/6/1 paired with a Trace Elliott GP7SM 200 (previously used an EBS Reidmar) at my church, which is similar in size to yours. Generally the bass is run with little or no PA support. Our team consists of piano, acoustic guitar, and 2 - 3 vocals, so pretty tame/low volume. The fEARful fills the room better than any other cab I've owned. So in answer to your question, yes, and it does so beautifully! The only issue I've ever had was that I didn't like the EQ points on my Markbass F1 with the fEARful. I found that an amp with parametric mids (EBS Reidmar) or a multi-band EQ (Trace Elliott) allows me to dial in a sound that can be heard in the mix at low volumes, with the fairly flat response of the fEARful. But, YMMV and you may love how the Markbass sounds through the cab. Have fun with your fEARful build!
 
#8
I've done Gospel in a large church with a 500 Watt amp and a 12/6 and the rig was coasting, and have played many gigs in rooms the size you describe with a head that's a little lower power than your Markbass and never once had to wonder if I could get loud enough.

The 12/6 does exceedingly well in low volume work. It doesn't do anything weird, which is super nice to live with. For me, a 12/6 is my big rig!

I was an early adopter of things fearful, I am about to hit five years of steady use.
 
Last edited:
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#9
Passinwind said:
Yep. The LMIII will definitely run out of gas before a 12/6 will for many people if running only one cab. Same with quite a few new school 500 watt @ 4 ohm amps.
Click to expand...

Just for general knowledge for those folks who are new to all things fEarful, what wattage would you recommend for a 12/6, in order to get louder without the amp running out of gas, or is adding another cab the only way to not run out of headroom ?
 
#12
I like about 700w@8ohms with my 12/6/1. Sufficient headroom good output. Great bass response. Works out to be just less than a 4x10 in output, IME.
Don't feel like more wattage would be useful. Slamming my poweramp I've blown crossover components. Used with caution its fine.
Love my cabinet.
2012_09_29_13_41_30.jpg
 
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#14
jnewmark said:
Just for general knowledge for those folks who are new to all things fEarful, what wattage would you recommend for a 12/6, in order to get louder without the amp running out of gas, or is adding another cab the only way to not run out of headroom ?
Click to expand...

Adding another cabinet is always going to work better IMHO. I liked amps I tried in at least the 500-600 watt range (8 ohm broadband sine power at onset of visible clipping, measured by me) for my needs and wants. I pretty much always prefer to have enough power to potentially be able to torch the cab, but I'm a bit reluctant to recommend that outright for anyone else.
 
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#16
What I am planning to do is buy two 12/6/1 kits (if one of my basses sells) and keep one home and one at church. Class d amp is light so I'll just carry back and forth. Someone suggested I do that in another thread sounds like a good idea to me. That way I can get my tone dialed in and not have to fuss with it.
 
#17
happychicken said:
What I am planning to do is buy two 12/6/1 kits (if one of my basses sells) and keep one home and one at church. Class d amp is light so I'll just carry back and forth. Someone suggested I do that in another thread sounds like a good idea to me. That way I can get my tone dialed in and not have to fuss with it.
Click to expand...

That's a great approach, and if you end up getting gigs outside of church that require more stick you'll have that covered. For that reason I would go with mirror-imaged cabs.
 
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#18
Tedward said:
I have the LMlll and Fearful 12/6. It's a nice combination and can be used at low volumes and sounds great. Although when playing out side without PA support for the bass I ran out of steam and started to distort. I had to change the EQ to keep it clean which changed the tone (less bass). I have since added another 12/6. The choice was getting a bigger rig that would cost a lot more money or add another 12/6. With the extra cab I gained 6 more db. That doesn't sound like much but it is. Don't get me wrong the 12/6/1 will get very load on it's own. Loader than most single 12's on the market. The Eminence Kappalite 3012 is one monster of a speaker.

Tedward
Click to expand...
Adding another cabinet will get you another 6 dB, but only in the low frequency range. At higher frequencies its half of that, not considering that you're probably getting some comb filtering.
 
#20
I did the mirror baffle 15/6s and used them in nearly the exact same way…one stayed at the rehearsal space with a power amp, the other stayed at home with my main rack. My pedal board with floor preamps and a programmable EQ went back and forth...and I had consistency and control everywhere.

Best thing I ever did!

Lonnybass
 
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