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What makes fEARFUL Cabs so scary?
- Thread starter SRCRS
- Start date
Depends I guess, if it's loud enough it's loud enough
I Just wouldn't recommend the 6.0 with an 8 ohm fEarful myself.
I play a 100t bassman. i just got the 610 to go with it but before was playing a goliath III and the bass was over bearing even at 2 on the dial. i would love to try a fearful with this head because reading about them of course intrigues me. and the idea of building my own high end cab is just.......very very satisfying. it just makes me wonder about the low end. will there be too much bass? i dont like dub music at all.
Don't confuse boomy mids with rich clean low frequency.
There is no such thing as too much bass. It goes clean and deep.
What comes out of such a well thought out design is up to you.
You have a beautiful rig.
I doub't you have much to gain except the satisfaction of building your own.
It will weigh a heck of a lot less.
It is interesting that the Super Bassman didn't get the switchable.
But my theory is this:
#1) If you are buying the 300watts, well, you are probably looking for something for the stage. No need to switch down.
#2) It actually makes the 100t more attractive to those of us who don't need 300watts, and makes it a "no brainer"
#3) A recording studio is likely to purchase the 100t - and it has more flexibility for subtle nuance.
_ - _ - _ - _ - _ -
But, to get back on topic - I guess these tube heads are actually a BAD match for an 8 ohm fEARful.
Actually, I saw a thread where greenboy says to get the Carvin BX1500 to make full use of these awesome speakers. I think some were surprised, but he stood by this recommendation
I guess i forgot to mention im def also gonna purchase some micro head to go with it. The streamliner 900 is in my sights or mbfusion800 (that bx1500 looks awesome and priced right!) But still would want to build the "tube version" so i could also play my 100t thru it. And yes im very ignorant when it comes to hz or khz and recognizing low mids/high mids. i was not gifted with a good ear but its not gonna stop me from building and enjoying this cab. although since reading on TB doing more research and simply turning knobs i have gotten better in the last 3 months. Im hoping with the fearful and its crossover with 3 different speakers it will help my ear to recognize and distinguish more bass sounds. You guys who get super technical truly amaze me and i love to read it. I will have all winter to read and GAS cuz my wife will kill me if i spend another dime!! Spring time i plan to start. I just dont know why someone he hasnt heard or played one (like me) would get on this forum and try to discredit these cabs/designs. I checked out the google/fearful map (PRETTY COOL BTW) and the closest owner/user is 3 hrs from me but seems like a trip worth taking. While in DC ill catch a show.
IMO Owners/Builders of these cabs have given substantial evidence, in this thread alone, as to why these cabs are so "scary".
IMO Owners/Builders of these cabs have given substantial evidence, in this thread alone, as to why these cabs are so "scary".
alexclaber
Commercial User
FYI, way back when, a couple of the TBers who used Acme speakers were into the concept of a full range, full sounding bass speaker that 'fixed' some of the things they (and others, including me) didn't like about the Acme's:
1) So much low end extension that the trade-off in efficiency to get what amounted to sub bass was not particularly a useful trade-off in live performance
2) The small mid driver in the Acme tended to become buried by the big wump of the low end driver
3) The physical characteristics of the OEM Acme 10" drivers resulted in the strange combination of needing a LOT of power to get the things pumping, but pushed the limit of thermal safety and XLIM.
So, these two TBers (AlexClaber and Greenboy) started down the path of taking what was good about the Acme (full range performance with impressive low end and no low mid hump, nice dispersion of the upper mids, relatively small size), and 'fixing' 1-3 above (and, for the Acme fans, many believe these fixes were not needed).
Those two guys ended up being 'Barefaced Cabs' in the UK, and fEARful over here. Using the PA quality 3015(12)LF drivers, various heavy duty 6.5" mid drivers, decent crossovers, and a relatively large box made out of lightweight materials, I think they were successful.
What you get is more absolute low end extension than the typical production cab, but not so much to be a problem regarding efficiency (I believe most of the designs are -3db a touch above 40hz). You also get a mid driver that can keep up with the low end so you don't lose your definition on stage, and you also get INCREDIBLE XMAX and XLIM specs that result in a very open, even low end, even when slapping and digging in.
As has been posted, all these cabs have a voice, and the extended low end and bright upper mids are not necessarily the 'end all' in tone. However, the specs are accurate, and the performance is pretty impressive.
When you hear a Mesa M9 (for example), with literally no hi passing, wumping into a 15/6, whether you dig it or not, it is impressive as heck, especially if you have a nice traditional 410 or 212 around to A/B. You still might like the 212 (I prefer my Bergantino AE212 over virtually any other cab), but the 15/6 (much less the 1212/6) will 'outperform' it in a technical sense.
Again, just trying to clarify that even some of us (like me) that don't really appreciate the extra low end and the nature of the upper midrange in the fEARful, for the most part appreciate that the design goals of both Alex and Greenboy were achieved pretty nicely in each of their product lines.
IMO and a lot of IME
Nicely put. Subsequently we at Barefaced have continued with lots of R&D as we've learnt more and more about what matters for different bassists and different situations, hence the wider product line and changes/replacements of older designs. One thing we found was that our Big Series (fEarful-esque) cabs are more of a niche choice, being fussier about amps, bigger/heavier and having more bottom than many bassists need, and the off-axis response being great but not essential (vertical woofer alignment combined with woofers with the right power response can get pretty damned close to being as good for many bassists in the real world - much much closer to our Big Series cab's off-axis performance than it is to the disastrous off-axis response of any square 4x10"). Making the cabs light was one of those "well, why not?" rather than a goal. If there are no sonic downsides and the cabs are already expensive due to the very high quality components used then why not spend some more money on cunning enclosure design/construction? We have some pretty groundbreaking things in the works at the moment, taking advantage of all this R&D time!
My old Acme cabs were simultaneously amazing and frustrating, the extra extension and low tuning coming at a serious cost to max SPL and robustness when slapping or using effects, and the mid driver was way too feeble to cope with aggressive sounds, especially dirty ones, at high SPL, without compressing or running into protection (bulb lighting/blowing). I pestered Andy for years about this latter point but he's always insisted that it's more than loud enough...
So, that stuff we hear at some rooms that make everyone cringe is just some kind of audio hologram, right?
The Acme cabs have the lowest bass extension in the business, and will reproduce the fundamental of a low B string quite impressively. They have been on the market for 20+ years. Andy has plots on his website.
You seem to just be negative about everything.
Yes, Andy's cabs dip when you approach the frequency of the open B. The main difference is that, using your point, most cabs that report a drop-off point of 45hz are actually reporting -10db and hence really roll-off at 60 or 80hz. That can still sound great.
The point is, the Acme's extend EXTREMELY low, using a mid driver to reproduce the midrange since there is no free lunch... if a driver is tuned to go that low, it will not go very high.
The downside of the Acme's is that they have the lowest efficiency in the business, which means it takes a lot of power to get them pumping. So, as always, there is a cost.
However, as one who gigged a couple of B210's for a while, they actually do go low, and you notice very little loss of fundamental moving down the B string. That, of course, is not necessarily a 'great thing', since most of the energy and 'articulation' of the B string is at the second harmonic.
The key to the fEARful low end is that it doesn't extend extremely low (like the Acme), but the driver has the mechanical properties to just SLAM at 50hz..... i.e., real, usable, non-boomy low end. However, since that cab has no low mid bump and extends lower than many production cabs, and has everything above 700hz or so being reproduced by a very clean mid driver, the TONE of these cabs is much more similar to a big PA cab (even though it extends lower than even the best PA cabs, so really like a small PA stack with a sub hi passed at around 40hz). This is a tone that some love and others find 'overextended, mid polite, and clean to the point of being a bit clinical up top.
Do you even own a cab, an amp or a bass? Do you have any actual gigging experience? Anything at all?
+1 in that it will sound fine, but you won't be driving those cabs to anywhere close to full performance. No big deal. If it isn't loud and full enough, but you basically dig the Genz tone, save your pennies for a Shuttle Max 9.2. Amazing amp with the fEARful cabs... lots of power, controlled low end (no need for external hi passing at all), and great control of the upper mids and treble to tame that mid driver if you choose.
You might want to fill in your profile. That sometimes helps with others seeing where you are coming from, both in your tone preferences and the context of what gear (and hence, in some ways, tone you enjoy).
This is, in general, a very friendly place, and the best way to use and benefit from TB (IMO) is to strongly state your case but actually be respectful of others, and come in with an open mind that there are probably guys here who know a lot more than you (or me)
The other thing that many of us try to do (sometimes successfully and sometimes not) is separate 'what we like personally' from trying to describe and provide feedback to others who haven't been able to try some of this stuff, regarding the actual performance and tone of various amps and cabs relative to one another. That seems to be helpful to some TBers, since there are very few brick and mortar music stores that carry any of this higher end stuff. IMO there.
There really are some amazing products out at the moment for bassists..... massively powerful micro amps, speaker cabs that provide performance that one could only dream of 10 years ago, and could only get close to with massively large, heavy cabs, etc.
