Official Barefaced Bass Cab Club

[BigEarl]

Well all this talk has me thinking in a different direction from One10's and Two10's to a Big Baby II. If I decide to forego the colored sound of the 10's (and the lower wattage) for a more hi-fi sound with higher wattage of the 12's, can I still get the "old school" sound out of it if I dial eq and preamp settings?

 

[sratas]

Well all this talk has me thinking in a different direction from One10's and Two10's to a Big Baby II. If I decide to forego the colored sound of the 10's (and the lower wattage) for a more hi-fi sound with higher wattage of the 12's, can I still get the "old school" sound out of it if I dial eq and preamp settings?

Only partially I think. I tried, and finally came to the conclusion that the old school tone can be approximated 90 % if you have a good eq, with para frequencies and so on. The only thing missing will be that feeling of a conventional driver that is being pushed with compression and driver distortion, if it's what you want.

 

[solarfly]

Well all this talk has me thinking in a different direction from One10's and Two10's to a Big Baby II. If I decide to forego the colored sound of the 10's (and the lower wattage) for a more hi-fi sound with higher wattage of the 12's, can I still get the "old school" sound out of it if I dial eq and preamp settings?

I've been adding a little warmth with an Eden Glowplug pedal in front of my Mesa M9 Carbine. I'm still playing with all the settings to find the tones I like. But once again, that boosts bass a little too - though it can also act as sort of a dirty overdrive.

 

[anton72]

I had a Spector with the OBP. That bass boost is intense.

This is the reason I removed OBP2 preamp from my both Spector basses. Way too much low end to be useful.. Not sure about OBP3 but I think they have the same bass boost frequency.

 

[Stevie H]

No speaker is indestructible if you abuse it. Absolutely user error. Again, it is very kind of Barefaced to eat the loss for customer abuse. I dont know if I would.

Sorry but I completely disagree with "absolutely user error" and "Customer abuse". I like my bass to sound 'bassy', I've always had the bass knob on full with every amp I've played through at gig volumes with no problems whatsoever. I also like my amp to sound 'bassy', y'know...like a bass should sound. I've been playing guitar since I was 12 and I'm now 50. In that time I've never ever blown an amp or speaker cab up. Ever. This was absolutely not "customer abuse". The cab was recommended by Alex at barefaced, and as I had no way of trying one out I went along with it. I had no idea that simply turning up the bass control on the guitar (as I always have done) and playing quite loudly for a couple of hours would have such an effect on the drivers. Who would? It's never happened to me before. As Alex said to me, he doesn't always get his recommendations right. But y'know lessons learnt. I'll turn my bass knob down accordingly.

 

[sratas]

Your only error, Stevie, is trying to achieve that goal with a single tiny cab with a few drivers in it. Loud, subsonic bassyness and you never damaged anything? You have been blessed in the past. Forgive tiny cabs, buy a 810, barefaced if you want, and be done. Or two...

 

[anton72]

I've always had the bass knob on full with every amp I've played through at gig volumes with no problems whatsoever. I also like my amp to sound 'bassy', y'know...like a bass should sound.

I am not sure what bass control on MM basses is like since I've never played one but on all my other basses with active tone controls I've never used the bass knob on full. Most modern on-board preamps are so powerful that they will get the tone out of nothing but if you combine it with a high output pickup and roll the bass to 100% you are most likely to damage speakers IMO.

 

[alexclaber]

It's user error but it isn't abuse. It's simply what happens when what you consider to be a clean bass sound is actually quite a dirty bass sound, you're using that much power with a cab that is only rated to handle that much power if the sound is fairly clean, and you're cranking your onboard bass EQ that much. Without all three of those challenges simultaneously the cab would have been fine.

It's an unusual situation but when you sell enough cabs then low probability situations happen more and more frequently.

 

[monsterthompson]

... but when you sell enough cabs then low probability situations happen more and more frequently.

a good problem to have.

 

[Lowendtech]

I also use a D800 into a 4 ohm Two10 and have no issues but I do take some precautions.
Always have it set on the 2 ohm setting on the back which limits the amp output to around 600w.
When I bring the voicing up, the bass knob goes down a touch.
Only use the deep switch at low volume settings.
When I want more onboard bass from my active J, I cut treble and a bit of mids and leave the bass control flat or very close.
The Pups in my active J are much hotter than the Oems so I usually have the volume on my bass at 3/4 and it's plenty hot enough.
I don't use a ton of effects but it's either a VTBassDI (eq flat) with bright and speaker sim buttons engaged and/or a Diamond bass comp (eq flat).
Pics of my settings incl.
Lastly I am a fingerstyle type / hybrid picking style type of player so I don't get the big percussive note attacks like a slapper would so that may help me a bit.

So I'm pretty sure I'm gonna grab another cab if one isn't enough for a given volume requirement. I'm quite sure I'm not going to blow mine up with that thought in mind. Or as Steve H is going to go, a bigger cab like the ST might be the ticket in that situation.

 

[tombowlus]

I had a Spector with the OBP. That bass boost is intense.

+1 Way more than I would ever use.

 

[Lowendtech]

Agreed.
Have the OBP2 in my DW Super J/P, and it is overkill. I never use more than the first 15-20% of the bass control sweep. And if I do put it in active mode, I always drop the volume knob a bit (or a lot in series mode) as it is pretty hot and tends to drive the next input pretty hard.

 

[Dave W]

Aguilar preamps are known to really have a lot of boost on tap in a very short amount of sweep on the dial. EBMM preamps (and pre EB for that matter) are much more linear.

 

[John D Harris]

Got my Two10 on 18th August, gigged it with my d800 on 19th August. Sounded great at first at loud(ish) gig volumes but then cab started to 'fart' out with the sound deteriorating badly. Sent it back to BF a couple of days later. Very disapointed. It has to be said that barefaced customer care has been great, and they are sending me a Super Twin to try instead of the two 10 (which didn't seem to be up to the job). I'm sure the super twin will be great, it's just another £300 that I'll have to find if I decide to keep it!! Plus I've lost a bit of confidence in the product. Moral of the story...if you play in a pretty loud rock band with a Mesa d800 (or similar) and a two 10, you may need a bit more rig for the gig.

Anyway, this is what Alex from BF said to me last week...attached is a photo of my settings on the d800 at the gig.

"Well I'm sorry to say you have the honour of being the first person to ever blow one of our 10CR woofers! One of them had been driven so far beyond its excursion limits that one of the tinsel leads had snapped and was shorting against the other one. The other woofer isn't sounding too happy either and there are marks on both tinsel leads indicating it's been repeatedly pushed past its limits"

Moral of the story...if you play in a pretty loud rock band with a Mesa d800 (or similar) and a two 10 and you turn the bass control all the way up on your active bass guitar, you may need a bit more rig for the gig.

Fixed it to reflect the actual situation.
If you've been running your rigs like this for years, you are one lucky dude that you didn't blow every cab's drivers that you used.

 

[Tim1]

The first lesson I teach my students when using a rig - use your ears. It is not too difficult to recognise when you are starting to push a speaker beyond its excursion limit and respond accordingly. Common sense rules.
Not getting at you at all, Stevie, as we all make mistakes in the heat of a gig. Given the circumstances I doubt whether any major speaker manufacturer would look after you in the same way as Alex has.

 

[Stevie H]

I also use a D800 into a 4 ohm Two10 and have no issues but I do take some precautions.
Always have it set on the 2 ohm setting on the back which limits the amp output to around 600w.
When I bring the voicing up, the bass knob goes down a touch.
Only use the deep switch at low volume settings.
When I want more onboard bass from my active J, I cut treble and a bit of mids and leave the bass control flat or very close.
The Pups in my active J are much hotter than the Oems so I usually have the volume on my bass at 3/4 and it's plenty hot enough.
I don't use a ton of effects but it's either a VTBassDI (eq flat) with bright and speaker sim buttons engaged and/or a Diamond bass comp (eq flat).
Pics of my settings incl.
Lastly I am a fingerstyle type / hybrid picking style type of player so I don't get the big percussive note attacks like a slapper would so that may help me a bit.

So I'm pretty sure I'm gonna grab another cab if one isn't enough for a given volume requirement. I'm quite sure I'm not going to blow mine up with that thought in mind. Or as Steve H is going to go, a bigger cab like the ST might be the ticket in that situation.

The settings on your d800 are remarkably close to the settings I was using when my cab totalled! Only real difference is mine was set at 4 ohms and the bass on the guitar was turned up.

 

[John D Harris]

The first lesson I teach my students when using a rig - use your ears. It is not too difficult to recognise when you are starting to push a speaker beyond its excursion limit and respond accordingly. Common sense rules.
Not getting at you at all, Stevie, as we all make mistakes in the heat of a gig. Given the circumstances I doubt whether any major speaker manufacturer would look after you in the same way as Alex has.

I think some of the newer cabs using some of the newer ~Uber~ drivers don't really give much in the way of sonic clues that they are being driven past their recommended operating parameters until the damage actually happens.

It's a brave new world!

 

[1954bassman]

. I'll turn my bass knob down accordingly.

Good idea Steve, not leaving EQ setting the same at different volume settings is Bass 101. Remember the old "loudness" buttons on home stereos years ago? Same principle still applies today.

Another thought is while full bass boost has worked for you in the past, the D800 is not comparable to amps many of us have used in the past. Much more power available. I read you said you have been playing guitar for like forty years, so I feel like you probably already know most of this. I have been playing bass for fifty years, and I am still learning. The old "bass on 11" just does not work for me any more, I want to hear the difference between my low "B" and my low "C".

If your tone is full bass boost with an 800 watt Mesa amp, then you probably need to go with much larger cabinet design.

And I again humbly suggest reading the D800 manual. Also visit the D800 threads here on TB.

Just trying to provide positive feedback here.

 

[Lowendtech]

The settings on your d800 are remarkably close to the settings I was using when my cab totalled! Only real difference is mine was set at 4 ohms and the bass on the guitar was turned up.

Yes I noticed that they are close which is why I posted the pic. The only thing is that your bass knob is at 1:00 ish and mine is at 11:00 ish and my gain looked a touch lower but my master is higher. But not radically different at all.
It just made me think that your input signal must be stronger than mine and with the full 800 w with the higher input level made for a perfect storm to toast your driver. Just thinking out loud here about how I can make sure I don't overpower my own cab with my D800.

I hope it works out for you with the bigger cab. I'm on the fence about which cab to get to augment the cab I have (One10, 'nother Two10, or one of the twelves).
Cheers.

 

[solarfly]

I also use a D800 into a 4 ohm Two10 and have no issues but I do take some precautions.

Always have it set on the 2 ohm setting on the back which limits the amp output to around 600w.
When I bring the voicing up, the bass knob goes down a touch.
Only use the deep switch at low volume settings.

The Mesa manual actually warns you about this and goes into detail explaining how sensitive the gain stages and EQ adjustments are. They warn you to not pull that bass boost at high volumes and they warn you about cranking up your EQ too far to the right that it could cause damage to a speaker.

(Looking at the OP's picture of the settings, it doesn't look like he did anything bad with the amp).

When I want more onboard bass from my active J, I cut treble and a bit of mids and leave the bass control flat or very close.

On my Fender Jazz I never boost the bass more than about 1 o'clock past the mid-point. I also run a Eden Glowplug pedal, and have to watch out how much "warmth" I add to the mix, as this can get boomy.