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Official Barefaced Bass Cab Club
- Thread starter Stumbo
- Start date
Tweaked the amp alittle tonight and Im very happy. I set 5 presets to account for different rooms and situations, simply used a 48db slope at 30, 40, 50, 62, 75 and 80hz. Bumped the input gain up +3 and thats it. Messed with the eq's and it was cool but, I prefer to just use the preamp in any live situation. The twin will go LOUD! Im not sure where the cabs performance will start to suffer but, it's louder than most will use. With the carvin, the low end is very solid and in proportion with the rest of the frequencies. I hooked up some of my other cabs in tandem with the twin....just scary amounts of volume using the carvin. Scary. Very 3d sounding. A pair of twins should.....no WILL be spectacular. Truly overkill and unreasonable. Perfect. Glad I picked up the carvin.
There was a few rays of sun trying to peak out today after work so, I loaded up the rig and headed for my folks house out in the country. Their lawn is basically an acre, out in the country with woods and a river and from now on will be refered to as "The Killing Grounds". I basically bring gear out to the middle of the back yard and run an extension cord so, there is NO sonic weirdness and it's really the only kind of place where you can crank big cabs and not cause some kind of damage.
So, I ran the carvin up until the clip light was coming on pretty regularly but not solid. I didn't hear any compression or strain from the twin but, it had to be close it's limit. If Alex could say what the signs of the cab being pushed too hard would be, that would be awsome. At that volume the tone didn't suffer or get harsh at all. I would like to say that the nv610 is still a bit louder, and it may be but, it's a tough comparison because the berg doesn't put out quite the low lows, which you don't really hear outdoors so much, and I know that having all those woofers close together is creating some thickness in the low mids which definitely give the berg a "loud" tonal profile and punch. The twin is more even and has better dispersion.......it may actually have a better tone. They are pretty similar in a way.
The twin is hands down louder and better sounding than any 4x10 I've ever heard and, you guys know that I've owned or used almost everyone. If buy this cab, break it in and then think that your micro head is pushing that twin to it's limits, it's not. Not even close. The clean output from the carvin proved that.
Maybe if I had hp'd the lows a bit and bumped some low mids I would have found the twin to be as totally loud as the nv610 but, I wanted to do a very fair, apples to apples comparison. I can't wait to get the second twin cab. It will only be for outdoor gigs or for indoor gigs where I wanted to get that big low end presence at low volumes.
Overdrive is just awsome through this cab. I am in love.
So, I ran the carvin up until the clip light was coming on pretty regularly but not solid. I didn't hear any compression or strain from the twin but, it had to be close it's limit. If Alex could say what the signs of the cab being pushed too hard would be, that would be awsome. At that volume the tone didn't suffer or get harsh at all. I would like to say that the nv610 is still a bit louder, and it may be but, it's a tough comparison because the berg doesn't put out quite the low lows, which you don't really hear outdoors so much, and I know that having all those woofers close together is creating some thickness in the low mids which definitely give the berg a "loud" tonal profile and punch. The twin is more even and has better dispersion.......it may actually have a better tone. They are pretty similar in a way.
The twin is hands down louder and better sounding than any 4x10 I've ever heard and, you guys know that I've owned or used almost everyone. If buy this cab, break it in and then think that your micro head is pushing that twin to it's limits, it's not. Not even close. The clean output from the carvin proved that.
Maybe if I had hp'd the lows a bit and bumped some low mids I would have found the twin to be as totally loud as the nv610 but, I wanted to do a very fair, apples to apples comparison. I can't wait to get the second twin cab. It will only be for outdoor gigs or for indoor gigs where I wanted to get that big low end presence at low volumes.
Overdrive is just awsome through this cab. I am in love.
Nice, it's good to have lots of headroom to see what these are capable of. Congrats on a slammin rig!
Kringle what head were you running into the twin before the carvin? What are you running for a pre?
I'd also like to point out that Alex did the right thing with coming up with his own oem drivers. There are some guys doing great work with stock drivers but, there is a cycle of tail chasing and redesigning going on. They are trying to make pa style drivers work for bass cabs. Some are really great. But, Alex came up with the best BASS driver possible and then built the cab around it. There is no magic, or secret technology. Just facts, science and the knowledge of what really works for bass in the real world.
I see on another thread that alex is coming out with some 10" based cabs. Not sured if they are ported, sealed, neo, etc but id love to know.
alexclaber
Commercial User
I've yet to work out why an 8x8" would be a good idea! If you can tell me why then I'll be interested.
I've yet to work out why an 8x8" would be a good idea! If you can tell me why then I'll be interested.
Well, I once played through an SWR Henry The 8x8 and the movement of air combined with the awesome sound that emanated from that cab never left my mind. Whole band was in awe
But those SWR's are hard to come by over here, and even though it wasn't heavy (as far as I recall - but online reviews prove me wrong) I am sure a Barefaced 8x8 would be lighter, louder and overall better sounding ... How about you make just one of them for me and we'll both find out if it is a good idea? «edit»
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alexclaber
Commercial User
Well, I once played through an SWR Henry The 8x8 and the movement of air combined with the awesome sound that emanated from that cab never left my mind. Whole band was in awe
«edit»
If your Super Twin doesn't sound better, move more air and play louder than a Henry 8x8 I will eat my (metaphorical) hat!
I was gonna put a little "PS" stating mostly that (except for the part about you eating your hat). But I don't want a Henry 8x8 (though it IS cleverly named) - I was just curious if you'd ever consider building a Barefaced 8x8
I missed last week's rehearsal which means I haven't had much play time with the Super Twin yet - looking forward to Friday as I do not get to break it in as quickly as kringle77 did
Ah, my time will come
alexclaber
Commercial User
We did spend some time on custom 8" driver designs but as bass guitar drivers they just didn't stack up - the aim with them was to make a 1x8" cab but by the time you've got a big enough voice coil to handle the power needed to make up for the lack of cone area, added enough suspension to give you enough excursion to make up for the lack of cone area and then dealt with how that moving mass and cone design affects the midrange you've basically lost all the upsides whilst trying to fix the significant downsides.
SWR were very good at names! RIP...
SWR were very good at names! RIP...
And that's why I love Barefaced so much A lot of thought goes into the end-product (and it shows). Thanks, Alex!!
I'll keep my money for a GK head, then
A lot of thought goes into the end-product (and it shows). Thanks, Alex!!I'll keep my money for a GK head, then
alexclaber
Commercial User
To be honest, unless you're pushing in a lot of power down very low then you're unlikely to get the woofers to overdrive. The Big Series cabs use the same woofers but in larger lower tuned cabs so we give them a higher max recommended power because they're less at risk of damage from extreme excursion (below the tuning frequency) or overheating. If you were using these speakers in PA cabs then you'd be running them with 1000W per 12" but bass guitar can be more demanding because the warning sounds of overdrive can simply sound good so players keep pushing and risk popping a very expensive driver! Our max power recommendations assume that you'll be seeing frequent but not very heavy clipping on an amp of that power, so you'll be just starting to hear the amp (or speakers if you're putting a ton of bottom in) break up.
I prefer not to significantly high pass our bass guitar woofers because that fore-aft movement caused by the low frequencies is the main thing keeping the voice coil from burning up, by pumping hot air out and sucking cool air in as the driver moves in and out.
