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Official Barefaced Bass Cab Club

It's a big thread ;)
That, it is, mate! I'm just thankful to everyone who's posted here...without them I might not have taken a BIG chance on a speaker I'd never heard before. That is quite unlike me! I told my friends, while anxiously awaiting its arrival, "either this is going to be a great speaker or there are a LOT of liars on TalkBass!" :D
 
Very curious how the Retro 210 compares to the BB2...I'm looking for something to replace my Markbass 2x12 (which is remarkably light...but not light enough!). I play mostly rock and RnB, occasionally some more contemporary pop stuff that requires synth, so leaning towards the BB2. However, I've never played through a truly "transparent" cab and I'm not sure how much I'll like the tone. I like punch and warmth.
 
Very curious how the Retro 210 compares to the BB2...I'm looking for something to replace my Markbass 2x12 (which is remarkably light...but not light enough!). I play mostly rock and RnB, occasionally some more contemporary pop stuff that requires synth, so leaning towards the BB2. However, I've never played through a truly "transparent" cab and I'm not sure how much I'll like the tone. I like punch and warmth.

I'll report back shortly. I own the Bb2 and the 210 :)
 
Seems I'm usually late to the game in these magnificent, new gear threads. But I like to buy that pricier gear later on as used gear to save some bucks; wife's slightly less angry at me this route too. Well yesterday I bought that Big Twin T (pretty sure its Gen 2?) that was in local Craigslist. First off, I was surprised to find a BF for sale less than 30 mins from me. So if nothing else I had to go check it out just to see firsthand of all I've read here. I feel I've got a lot of gear, 9 cabs/10 basses. But this cat has some serious, pricey gas. Very hi-end bass gear all over his house. And his band just went with in-ears, so he's unloading buncha cool cabs/amps. Sigh.....Sorry, I digress.

This used FB cab looked to be in very good condition, had the Roqsolid cover, played great at sellers house. And we pushed it hard with my Caevin SB5000+GK MB800. So we settled on a good price and rolled it out to my SUV. Its def taller than my other cabs with its 2x112LF's+mid+tweeter, not light but not bad at about 56lbs. My next tallest cab is GB NX2 212T, so easy to schlep that GB.

Went straight home and I hooked up same amp/bass I took to sellers. Holy Cow! Terrible, distorted lows much like burnt voice coil I've unfortunately heard before. I changed out cables, power cords, inst cable and even amps, now using my ri-V4B. Ahh, back in heaven again. The V4B sounds friggin huge thru this cab. But wait, bad distort back again. Darn!

Figured it's time for some minor surgery. First, I checked all cab external screws. Every single screw of outside cab were at least a quarter turn loose. Handles, corner protectors, caster housings all loose. Not uncommon, I've seen this before with some boutique cabs. Moving wooden cabs around can loosen the screws over time. But nope in a few seconds after niceness, distort started again. So hated to but time to pull the front grill off, it was all tight and well in place but I just had to get into cab. Removed the top 12" driver, nothing there. Removed bottom driver. BAM! One wire hanging completely off speaker connector. I guess it was touching off n on while I was getting good then bad sounds.

I've read where Alex says his cabs are built for out in the field repair. This cat is not telling tales. The drivers have those real nice, chrome, knurled speaker connects on both drivers. Thank goodness, no soldering. So I just slipped the single wire back into place, tightened the knurled knob back down tight. Looked inside cab, very nicely done. Checked the other 3 knurled knobs for tightness, two were wee bit loose.
As much as I hated having to loosen the drivers and front grill factory tightened screws, couldn't be helped. But it all buttoned back up very nicely and all with just the same, one phillips screw driver. Again, nice.

So I hooked the V4B and MB800 heads taking turns to pound this cab with a couple of my 5 string active/passive basses. A lot of greatness coming out of this cab so far. But only at loud, home volume. Huge, lows and just very nicely balanced tone as I tweaked each amp. Sure looking forward to gigging this rig on Jan 30 at big biker bar. I usually use my 4ohm, TB153 w/MB800 there in loud blues band. Then I have a large, outdoor, no PA for bass gig, for large Mardi Gras party on Feb 6th on Galveston, Tx island. That's gona be fun now with this cab.

So this is not a rant or a rave on BF cabs...yet. Gotta gig it first. But from all 83 pages I've read in this thread. All the hype seems to be Hyper-Truthful. A couple days ago, Alex was nice enough to school me in a same-day PM here as to the differences of his Gen2 vs Gen 3 BF twin cabs. Just very cool. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks monster! I am eagerly awaiting your review :thumbsup:

Haven't forgotten. Just haven't had time to do a real A/B session yet.

The 210 doesn't seem to be as noticeably impacted by the port orientation as the 110 did. The 210 is just loud and big in the lows. It rattles my walls at low volume. I've found home practice required me to set my bass EQ to 120hz (switches on my amp between 120 and 60) and cut (using my P). Higher settings don't sound bad or boomy or muddy, it just moves tons of air. Can't wait to crank it up!
 
Thanks monster! I am eagerly awaiting your review :thumbsup:

Quick A/B with my P > Demeter VTBP M 800D > Two10 vs. BB2 (tweet on full).
Strings were old. Tone and volume on the bass were on full. EQ points set at noon (bass eq in the 120 Hz position).

BB2 sounds "scooped" in comparison. I know it isn't a scooped cab, but going to the BB2 directly from playing the 210 gives the impression of some more hi-fi scooping in the BB2. The BB2 doesn't sound any harsher up top, despite the extra top end available (6k roll off vs. 20k roll off). In fact the top end differences are subtle at best with a clean tone and older strings. I'm guessing distortion and new strings would present otherwise. By comparison, the SC is much more like the BB2 with the tweeter off and lacking the additional deep lows of the BB2. The SC is noticeably darker than the BB2 with the full tweet on, whereas the Two10 doesn't feel as different, despite it only bumping the treble roll off from 4k (the SC) to 6k (the Two10) vs. 20k (the BB2).

Mids are fuller and warmer on the Two10, but not honky or even terribly growly sense. Warmer, but not in a "dark" sense. There isn't any high-mid spike that pokes out. I think there are some overtones filling space but not harshly distorting. It might be somewhat comparable to adding "tube-like" warmth to the BB2, by comparison.

The low mids and lows feel bigger on the Two10. They might not be bigger in the true low lows, but they seem bigger where you "feel/hear" the lows. I found that by adjusting the bass EQ on my head from 120 to 60 Hz (which thins the sound just by flipping the switch) and then rolling down the lows, and mids (500 Hz on my amp) I could approximate the BB2 sound/feel with the 210.

Going from the BB2 to the Two10 almost reminds me of lower gain settings when engaging a BBBOD with the BB2. In some ways, it reminds me of the differences between the sounds at 1:45 (dry) and 2:00 (wet) in this clip for the Basswitch Sonic Spark:

The difference I'd emphasize in my use of the above clip, is that the Two10 mids don't do quite the Ampeg-scoop thing you hear in that section of the clip. The sound does develop some additional fullness and character moving to the Two10, but not in an exaggerated way. The BB2 is 8 ohm with a single driver and the 210 is 4 ohm with two drivers, so some of the fullness might be coming from my amp volume knob not being moved but the 210 doubling the wattage the amp pushes, not to mention the coupling of having two drivers.

Hope that helps.
 
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Quick A/B with my P > Demeter VTBP M 800D > Two10 vs. BB2 (tweet on full).
Strings were old. Tone and volume on the bass were on full. EQ points set at noon (bass eq in the 120 Hz position).

BB2 sounds "scooped" in comparison.

I appreciate the enthusiasm but that's the opposite of what our ears and our measurements at Barefaced HQ tell us!
 
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The retro drivers actually have a dip in the middle mids, around 500Hz. The 12" neos are pretty flat with a bump around 2.5k. The extra top from the horn as well as the crossover set at its lowest point when The horn is all the way up is making it sound smoother and less mid forward.
 

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