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Official Barefaced Bass Cab Club

#3,501
Tim1 said:
Got to say my Four 10 has really started to open up now. It sounded absolutely superb at the weekend with the Orange AD400 and a custom shop jazz. I am noticing quite a difference to the original, unplayed in tone - much freer at the top. Absolutely lovely and loves tubes.
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Glad to hear it. Due to the lack of a cover my Four10 has been underutilized, but has sounded quite good when used. Honestly I am not at all certain mine has fully opened... I've only played about 3-4 loud gigs with it. For convenience I have been bringing the BB2 for louder gigs. I am very much looking forward to putting the Super Bassman on it when the SB arrives... if it arrives. Going on 9 weeks now which is 5 weeks overdue from initial estimate. But that's the combo I had in mind in getting the SB. I have the space cleared... but the space is getting dusty, lol.

Are you still gigging your SB often? Or has it been supplanted by the Orange? I admit one reason I didn't really consider the Orange amps when loking for a tube amp is that I can't stand the look. Foolish I know... but the heart wants what the heart wants, and looks is part of the package. Shallow me.
 
#3,502
Plutonium244 said:
Glad to hear it. Due to the lack of a cover my Four10 has been underutilized, but has sounded quite good when used. Honestly I am not at all certain mine has fully opened... I've only played about 3-4 loud gigs with it. For convenience I have been bringing the BB2 for louder gigs. I am very much looking forward to putting the Super Bassman on it when the SB arrives... if it arrives. Going on 9 weeks now which is 5 weeks overdue from initial estimate. But that's the combo I had in mind in getting the SB. I have the space cleared... but the space is getting dusty, lol.

Are you still gigging your SB often? Or has it been supplanted by the Orange? I admit one reason I didn't really consider the Orange amps when loking for a tube amp is that I can't stand the look. Foolish I know... but the heart wants what the heart wants, and looks is part of the package. Shallow me.
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I swing between the SB300 and the Orange generally. Funnily enough I actually like it looks :laugh:. The SB300 can get pretty close to any tube amp with its versatility, but now that the Four 10 has opened up I am really liking what it does for the Orange. I do like the simplicity of the Orange too.
 
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#3,509
friskinator said:
Got word today that my One10 is almost finished, and I paid the balance in full. Really looking forward to checking it out. For those of you who ordered direct, how does the customs fee work once it arrives?
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FedEx will deliver your cab and then a week or so later you'll get a bill in the mail for whatever custom fees are due, which for my recently delivered BB2 was approx. $40. Love the overnight FedEx delivery and the extremely well engineered blue corners that protect the cab during shipping. Quite a nice experience.
 
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#3,511
triode6L6a said:
FedEx will deliver your cab and then a week or so later you'll get a bill in the mail for whatever custom fees are due, which for my recently delivered BB2 was approx. $40. Love the overnight FedEx delivery and the extremely well engineered blue corners that protect the cab during shipping. Quite a nice experience.
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Absolutely agreed on the quite nice experience!

At the risk of sounding like a party-pooper however, please note that BB2's shipped to the USA include a $239 USD shipping charge (part of the $1099 USD purchase price), in addition to the separate $40 USD in custom fees.

The first-class overnight delivery experience is not by accident, but still is surprisingly affordable given the origin, size, and weight of the package.

All well-worth it of course, but simply stated here to be transparent! ;)

Cheers!
 
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#3,512
I placed an order for a Big Twin on October 24th after Alex had recommended it to me. It was shipped yesterday and this morning I received it. After reading this entire thread over the last week I was still rather impressed/surprised with this cab. It goes louder than I was comfortable turning it up! I had been using an Acme B4 for large venues and was looking for an accurate cab that is lighter and as loud (or louder) than the B4: This is everything I was looking for and more. I'm gigging this Friday and Saturday at a very loud rock club (a different act each night) and will report back after the weekend.

Pics: It didn't last 6 hours before I painted it...I already know it's a keeper:)
30128094443_97514ebe7c_c.jpg
 
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#3,513
Very interesting weekend; this could get a bit long.

tldr; The Big Twin is it. I can't imagine many/if any gig scenarios that it couldn't handle. Dream cab: light, loud, deep, and extremely well designed and engineered. Best bass cab ever?

First off I'm running a Modulus GenesisVJ > Turbotuner > Aguilar octamizer > Source Audio manta (Friday only) > EBS multidrive > Empress compressor > VTbass deluxe > Future Impact (Saturday only) > Avalon U5 > Aguilar DB750 (into effect return)
I had run 24hz into the BT for 6-8 hours and also practised at moderately loud volume for another 4-6 hours to help the break in.

The club capacity (same club both nights) is about 275 and stage is 30'l x 15'w x 2'6"h. The owner/sound engineer is a great guy and great engineer with a lot of experience in the industry (a lot of national metal acts). We had a different great engineer on Saturday. I'll also add that I've played this venue hundreds of times (every Thursday for about 10 years along with regular weekend gigs) and know it better than any other.

Friday night was with a Heavy Metal/Funkyish Rock tribute: bass, drums, guitar, vox. I mainly use the VTbass, compressor, and multidrive and right off the bat the BT was clear, loud, punchy...just perfect. I would usually run the b4 at this club and the subs (4 x 18" under the stage) would give me trouble cutting through; the sound engineer has the drums so huge sounding that the toms and kick just eat the low end up so he typically runs me into the drum fill (18") to help. I didn't have this problem with the BT...when we sound checked I was loud but got lost when the band kicked in so I leaned over and turned up a little bit and it easily jumped perfectly into the mix. All my patches were well balanced when switching between them, seemingly more so than with the b4. The BT gave me all the volume I needed and sounded great but the gig didn't require much more than different levels of distortion so I didn't get a chance to really put it through its paces (the manta did sound great when I used it).
All was well until about 4 songs left when I started to have major hand cramping/locking, it was tough but not many people noticed and overall the gig went well. I was concerned about how weak and bad my hands were at the end... and I still have to play 4 hours on Saturday:/

Saturday is another tribute act but this one covers multiple artists spanning a specific decade: bass, drums, guitar, keys, sampler, vox. I use a lot of sounds for this band: synth, delay, chorus, octaver, and all sorts of specific bass tones and styles.
The engineer we had for Saturday didn't have us as loud as the owner/engineer usually does but I was still having trouble with my hands in the first set: I could barely hold the bass, so I activated the comp and the VTbass to gain up my signal, turned up the Aguilar, and I played as soft and simple as possible. Having the BT certainly helped me from digging in too much: the clarity/dispersion was great.
After a distracting first set we went up for set 2 and I felt a bit better (freshly iced hands!): we started the set and I noticed the bass was pretty weak...Ooops, forgot to unmute my amp...I hit the switch and then it was immediately apparent that the BT was where all that amazing clear deep bass was coming from. There is a 3 dimensional quality that is hard to describe: the bass is everywhere but the bass is nowhere. Most impressive was the Future Impact with the BT (I have shared patches in the Future Impact patch sharing thread if interested) Some of the deep patches were so clean and responsive that I felt like my fingers were connected directly to the speakers and I was massaging the air (there were subs involved so it isn't all the BT...we had a great mix Saturday...it all goes together). For my needs, the BT is an absolutely perfect bass cab and I couldn't be more pleased.
Looking forward to gigging the BT in a room with a bit less pa support so I can really hear what it can do on its own.
 
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#3,514
jnewmark said:
Still would like to hear some gig reports of the SM as a stand alone, for bass guitar in medium loud bands.
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Did a couple more gigs with the SM. It'll do quite a number of gigs on its own, anything with "reasonable" volume for stage (if using FOH) or for venue (w/o FOH). Did a blues jam I co-host which can at times be pretty loud, no FOH for the bass though. I ran it by itself sitting on top of a BB2. Then later I plugged in the BB2 also. I played through the SM singly, and listened while another player played through it singly. Sounded very good tonally naturally, but also provided good level and solid bottom which is necessary when you have, at times, drums/bass/gtr x 2 /keys/vibraphone/harmonica/vocal. Mostly ran it with horn dialed down, maybe to 33%. My preference is for the SM + BB2 just because, well, why not? I just don't think you can beat the SM+BB2. Have used that often and it's impressive. It's not that SM was not loud/deep enough on its own, it's just that I prefer the sound of 2 cabs carrying the load, all other things being equal.

Also used SM alone at a quiet gig, a gtr/keys/bass trio, last might. Normally I'd use the One10 for that gig. Sounded good, ran the horn much more open, Ken Smith through a GK MB200 sounded unusually good. It's only a little larger than the One10, I think mostly I'll bring the SM to the small gigs, in case I need more than I expected to. SM is versatile in that it is able to cover both loud gigs with a full band, and be small enough for small gigs.

Except for very very loud gigs, SM can cover most by itself. My favorite cab right now, due to versatility.
 
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#3,515
Plutonium244 said:
Did a couple more gigs with the SM. It'll do quite a number of gigs on its own, anything with "reasonable" volume for stage (if using FOH) or for venue (w/o FOH). Did a blues jam I co-host which can at times be pretty loud, no FOH for the bass though. I ran it by itself sitting on top of a BB2. Then later I plugged in the BB2 also. I played through the SM singly, and listened while another player played through it singly. Sounded very good tonally naturally, but also provided good level and solid bottom which is necessary when you have, at times, drums/bass/gtr x 2 /keys/vibraphone/harmonica/vocal. Mostly ran it with horn dialed down, maybe to 33%. My preference is for the SM + BB2 just because, well, why not? I just don't think you can beat the SM+BB2. Have used that often and it's impressive. It's not that SM was not loud/deep enough on its own, it's just that I prefer the sound of 2 cabs carrying the load, all other things being equal.

Also used SM alone at a quiet gig, a gtr/keys/bass trio, last might. Normally I'd use the One10 for that gig. Sounded good, ran the horn much more open, Ken Smith through a GK MB200 sounded unusually good. It's only a little larger than the One10, I think mostly I'll bring the SM to the small gigs, in case I need more than I expected to. SM is versatile in that it is able to cover both loud gigs with a full band, and be small enough for small gigs.

Except for very very loud gigs, SM can cover most by itself. My favorite cab right now, due to versatility.
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I think a pair of SM would work great for me.
 
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#3,516
John D Harris said:
I think a pair of SM would work great for me.
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I would certainly think so, it'd be very much like my SM + BB2 except maybe with slightly less native bottom end (due to BB2 being a bigger box) but 1) some people may not want that much bottom and 2) a slight nudge on the bass knob will fully compensate for that. I got all the bass I wanted and more out of the SM. A previous poster just noted that the Big Twin has the "everywhere but nowhere" sound which I have called "sounds liked you have PA support for bass when you don't" effect. Two SM's would provide that too, I think. My only knock on 2 SM's-- and it is a minor/petty one-- would simply be that two SM's stacked still aren't that tall, since they are, well, midgets. Still, they'd be taller than one BB2 which I didn't find to be "too short" to do what I wanted.
 
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#3,519
chris_b said:
I'd use 2 cabs for my medium option and 3 cabs for my XL (xtra loud) rig.
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I am having trouble envisioning a gig that would need 3 or truly benefit from 3 Barefaced cabs. Wanting three, enjoying three, okay... totally get that. Needing, I just don't see it from personal experience with the BF cabs. Of course I don't play 130 dB thrash music, so YMMV. Just my BB2 covers 90% of all gigs I do, and really I think the SM alone would cover at least 80% of what I do; the SM + BB2 is my overkill rig, though I confess to enjoying it even when it's not needed. Of course you did not say you "need" 3... so I chalk you up in the "want/enjoy" column, which I fully empathize with. :)

To run three, of course you'll want to pay attention to the ohm load. 2 Barefaced cabs running at 4 ohms is a lotta juice when paired with a good amp.
 
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