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Mrs Whitehouse may have been the ultimate vexatious complainer and many if not most of her objections were petty in nature. But at a time when it was deeply fashionable to embrace unbridled cultural libertarianism she held certain opinions which would probably enjoy widespread support today. Whitehouse was rabidly against violence on TV and in the theatre, believing it to be a negative influence. Pressure from Whitehouse and other campaigners consequently led to the 1984 Video Recordings Act which required the BBFC to certificate every feature film released on video. Prior to the act pre-recorded videos were not subject to certification, leading to the importation of a host of uncensored exploitation movies such as SS Experiment Camp, Cannibal Holocaust, I Spit on Your Grave and Snuff. Whitehouse believed that porn was bad for a number of reasons one of which was that it contributes to the objectification of women. Who'd disagree with that? Formerly a teacher, Whitehouse deplored the early sexualisation of children and fervently opposed the activities of the Paedeophile Information Exchange. Her anti-child porn petition helped to bring about the 1978 Protection of Children Act which for the first time prohibited the possession and distribution of pornographic images of children. On one occasion Whitehouse opined in a more general sense: "Television may teach self-interest rather than philanthropy, violence rather than gentleness, a disregard for human dignity rather than a respect for it. It may not always teach the truth but teach it does, and it is more than time that responsible people both within and outside the broadcasting professions said boldly what is so obvious in commonsense terms — we cannot understand what is happening in international, cultural, economic, political and social affairs without coming to grips with the way in which television influences virtually all our behavioural and thought processes". Substitute 'The Media' or 'Twitter' for 'Television' and those words could have been written yesterday. In the 40-odd years since Roger Waters wrote Pigs (Three different ones) and bloke-ily suggested that Whitehouse's stance was due to sexual frigidity popular opinion has shifted away from the 'Let it all hang out' approach characteristic of the free-wheeling sixties and seventies. Nowadays Mary Whitehouse casts a long shadow on contemporary phenomena such as Mumsnet, paedophilia, issues of civility and language, sexual exploitation in the media and the depiction of violence. Yes, Whitehouse was an ocean-going pain in the ar5e and obsessed to a microscopic level about sex on TV. But time has a funny way of rehabilitating our bêtes noires of yesteryear.

Barefaced bass speaker cabinets have been around for over a decade now and, although more people know about them than ever before, they are nowhere near as well known as the more mainstream manufacturers. You may very well be reading this and wondering who I am to be writing this. The honest answer is, I’m nobody special. I’m an ordinary bloke who plays bass in some bands, I’m not a signed artist, in a touring band, in a band of any great popularity and I’m certainly not endorsed by anybody. I wanted to write this because, to be honest, I thought it might be helpful for anybody who wants an opinion, not only about the cabs and BF’s customer service, but also to read about my experience. I should say here that I’m only talking about the bass cabs, I’m not a guitarist and have absolutely no experience or knowledge regarding the new BF guitar cabs, which is why I’m speaking purely from a position of my own experience. So how did I hear about Barefaced cabs and what made me take the plunge? Like many musicians out there I was becoming more and more fed up with having to lift, drag and carry large and heavy gear. I’m also blind and although I’m more than happy to manhandle my gear, it often ends up being another member of the band or a roadie loading the cars etc. Since losing my sight I’ve always been very conscious of this and over time strove to make my gear lighter and easier to manage, in particular the cabs. I’ve been playing bass for just over twentythree years now and, like thousands of musicians around the world, I have always sold or traded in unwanted gear to help fund new purchases. The cabs I’ve used over the years are a good example of this. My first serious gigging rig was a Peavey 2x12 combo and a Hughes and Kettner 1x15 and man they were heavy, the combo in particular was a nightmare if you didn’t pick it up at exactly the right angle. Over time a moved to using an amp head and cabs, which of course made things lighter. It was at this point I found Gallien Kruger amps and fell in love with the 1001RB head which I used for several years before switching to a 1001RB II for the increased head room and power. This was an important time for me as it’s where the biggest changes in my cab set up took place. For the first few years I ran a GK Backline 4x10 and a GK Backline 1x15 with my original 1001RB head. Once I’d invested the money in the head my budget was limited for the cabs, so I went with what I could afford and that matched reasonably well with the head. After a few years I wanted better quality cabs that were smaller (the Backline cabs were massive). I got a really good trade in deal with the Backline cabs for a GK RBH4x10 and a GK RBH2x10. These new cabs were actually slightly heavier than the Backlines but they were infinitely better for sound, were very well matched for the 1001RB II head and were physically quite a bit smaller than the Backlines, which of course made them easier for moving and loading. It was once I had these cabs that I started noticing in practical terms how much easier having a smaller footprint on the stage made the logistics of playing gigs, particularly in small to medium venues with limited stage space. I appreciate that nearly every bass player reading this will have gone through a similar moment of realisation, I mention it here simply because it was the physical practicality of it which really hit home. It was around this time that I basically decided that any cabs I were to buy in the future would always be lighter and physically smaller than their predecessors where possible, and all without the loss of any sound quality etc. Fast forward a few years and I was switching to a GK 1001RB II head and was thinking about switching cabs again. By this time I was playing in a 7 piece rock covers band and a 4 piece metal band. I needed plenty of volume for both but stage footprint was also starting to become increasingly important, particularly in the rock covers band. By the time we had a drum kit, bass rig, 2 guitar rigs, keyboards, all the musicians and 2 vocalists on the stage, we were almost needing to sit on each other’s shoulders! So, I ended up going with a 4 ohm GK Neo 4x10 which allowed me to run the 1001RB II head to its full potential for larger gigs and a GK MBE 2x12 as my small gig cab. Both were great cabs in their own ways. The Neo 4x10 sounded awesome but was quite big and reasonably heavy, although not as big and heavy as any other 4x10 I had previously owned. The MBE was light enough to be carried easily, was only about 20” wide and was loud enough but I did always miss the sound of the 4x10. I must have had these cabs and been gigging with them for a year or so before I stumbled across something about Barefaced speaker cabinets online. Apparently BF cabs were compact, ridiculously light, ridiculously loud and their sound quality was fantastic; the only downside was that they were expensive. Any musician who is reading this will know exactly what I’m talking about as I describe that I read everything I could about this awesome new gear, fantasising about owning one but at the same time knowing that there was no way I could afford it and anyway, the stuff I had was okay. Yet over time I read more and more about it and my mind started working over scenarios where I could sell this, trade that or sell a kidney to raise the funds. Ultimately I decided that I really wanted a Barefaced cab as, from what I’d read, I believed that I could have the small stage footprint and lightweight portability but still have the clarity, punch and bone crunching volume that I required. It took me a couple of years to work up to getting my first BF cab and I don’t mind telling you, I was really quite nervous about it. The reality was the the cabs I was using were actually very good and I was about to need to sell them to get one Barefaced cab purely based on what I had read online, all without ever having even tried one out. I must have read through the entire Barefaced website about twenty times before I finally emailed them to ask for their advice. I was relatively sure I knew which cab would be best suited to me, I had narrowed it down to two possibilities, but I really wanted to get their input as I didn’t want to drop all that money on something only to find that it wasn’t right for me. As it turned out, of the two cabs I’d narrowed it down to, Alex from BF actually recommended that the cheaper of the two would be a better match for me. That cab was a SuperTwin and holy cow was I in for a surprise! So, the cab......any good? Before I even start talking about sound, I want to talk about build quality. I had read that there were some quality issues with carrying handles and rubber feet coming off which did concern me a bit initially. I soon realised on investigating further, that those issues were happening in the first and sometimes second generation cabs and that BF had made design tweaks and/or hardware changes which eliminated those issues for the newer third generation cabs. The SuperTwin is a third generation cab so naturally my concerns went away. There were, and still are in fact, some reports of the covering peeling away from some of the 10” models, but I understand that BF have managed to sort this out now. Not only that, but they will send out repair kits to people who encounter that issue. I have never owned a 10” model so can’t really comment on that at all. What I can say is that the build quality of the 12” models is fantastic. They are incredibly well put together, tidy, compact, incredibly stiff and incredibly light. The SuperTwin has tilt back wheels and a pull handle on the top so you can pull it along but also has a carry handle on each side. It’s actually very easy to manoeuvre with the wheels anyway but even if you need to carry it up stairs, it’s so light it’s perfectly possible for one person to lift it. No need for two people to each take an end of a massive heavy 4x10 any more, brilliant! I now also have a BigBaby2, which is a 1x12 cab and it is awesome. The stage footprint is only about 19” wide and it’s so light I can pick it up with one hand, I can literally have my amp head in its bag over one shoulder, my bass in a gig bag over the other shoulder and the BB2 in one hand if I want or need to travel light, it’s just brilliant. It’s clear to me that Barefaced put a great amount of craftsmanship and pride into their cabs and rightly so. Not only that, I’m 100% certain that if something were to go wrong with one of my cabs and I were to contact BF, they would either send me a repair kit (if it were something I could do myself) or would take the cab back and fix it as long as I hadn’t done something stupid like playing through it under water or something. Bringing the thunder. When you read through the Barefaced website there’s a ton of information about the science of the cabs, hints and tips about how to get the best from your cab, technical information aplenty etc. To be honest, it’s all rather a lot to take in initially but, what immediately impressed me was how much useful and practical stuff was available. They talk about frequency response, power handling, dispersion etc and they are all terms we are, if not familiar with, will at least be aware of. Naturally I was very interested in the physical size and weight of any BF cab I was thinking about buying but then I found myself thinking more about things like clarity and dispersion and how getting what, on the face of it, would be a smaller cab with less speaker area to move air, might affect those factors. Like most bass players out there, I not only wanted my bass to be heard by the audience but I also wanted to hear it clearly myself. My GK cabs, the 4x10 in particular, were actually very good and could certainly move some air, but I did used to find that at high volumes I would start to lose clarity on the deep lows and being a 5 string player, I felt this was quite important. The first thing that struck me when I plugged the SuperTwin in for the first time was how incredibly clear the sound was. I actually ended up adjusting the EQ on my amp a fair amount to dial in the tone I wanted. This was because the EQ settings I had used with my old cabs really needed to compensate for their shortcomings, the SuperTwin however was much more responsive to pretty minimal EQ tweaks. I really felt like I was hearing my playing and my bass properly for the first time and it was clear, loud and punchy as hell. This was reinforced by our drummer who, at the first rehearsal I used the BF at, said something like, “Holy stinky poo man, I can hear every note you’re playing!”. What I hadn’t really appreciated at that point was that the dispersion qualities of the cab were making a huge difference, not only to what I could hear, but what the rest of the band and by extension, the rest of the room/venue were hearing. When I asked him about it, the drummer said that he had always been able to hear the bass, feel the rumble etc before but he couldn’t really hear the actual notes I was playing, but with the BF he still got the rumble but could hear the notes cutting through. I think the thing that impressed me the most however, was that even when playing loud heavy rock/metal and playing down on the E and B strings, the Barefaced never farted out, never lost any clarity and showed no signs of being anywhere near its limit, all in a smart lightweight package that I could easily carry and that took up way less stage space than any other cab I had ever owned. I also didn’t seem to need to push my amp as hard to get the sound and volume I wanted/needed, which I felt could only be a good thing. Shortly after getting the SuperTwin I had the opportunity to buy a pre owned BB2. I honestly couldn’t believe my luck, particularly as the guy selling it had it from new and had only owned it a couple of months. He was selling it as he couldn’t get on with the fact that he could hear absolutely every nuance of his playing. It perhaps should be acknowledged that not everybody wants absolute transparency from their cab, some players like a more coloured tone. That’s what makes us all different though; imagine how dull music would be if we all sounded the same. I was ecstatic with my SuperTwin but it’d be fair to say that the BB2 absolutely blew me away. It’s only just over half the size of a SuperTwin, can easily be picked up and carried with one hand, has a single 12” driver, can handle up to 800 watts of power (it’s an 8 ohm cab) and has a fully adjustable tweeter crossover built into it. As I don’t really use tweeters I did wonder if I shouldn’t bother to buy the BB2 but ultimately decided to go ahead as it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Man, am I glad I did! Several weeks later I was reading the information on the BF website and saw that it was perfectly possible to use the BB2 (and the SuperMidget in fact) as a high quality PA speaker by turning the crossover all the way up. Needless to say, I had to try it. Well, I can tell you that it absolutely can and it sounds killer. I tried it with music running through a mixer, with my playing bass along with the music through the mixer, guitar, bass, electric drums and vocals through a mixer and it all sounded crystal clear, with no hint of it farting out and that was with only one BB2. I imagine with 2 you would have a PA set up for practically every situation. The BB2 quickly became my go-to cab, not because the SuperTwin wasn’t amazing, it was, it is the best cab I have ever played through for consistancy of tone and volume, but the BB2, particularly in small to medium venues could do the same and it was practically half the size and two thirds the weight, plus it has the flexibility of being used as a PA speaker when needed. Ultimately I decided to sell my SuperTwin, the truth was that I had only used it for 4 gigs and 1 rehearsal in the year that I owned it. In contrast, I used the BB2 for every rehearsal and all but 2 gigs since getting it. I think I would have kept the SuperTwin if I were in a bigger band which played more medium to large gigs rather than the small to medium gigs I mostly play, but it’s gone to a good home and I know that it’ll deliver no matter what it is used for in the future. I now play through a DarkGlass AO900 head and I think it’s worth mentioning that, both the SuperTwin and the BB2 handle distortion with ease and sound great. If you like those DarkGlass tones I’d be very surprised if you were disappointed with the sound you got from a Barefaced 12” model. I’d buy that for a dollar (10 points if you get the movie reference). You often hear things like, “Barefaced are good but they’re bloody expensive” or “I’m not sure the expense is worth the returns”. Obviously the perception of value is completely subjective and almost everybody is going to have a different opinion, so I’m not going to say categorically that Barefaced cabs are worth the money and everybody should have one. At the end of the day we all have different criteria as to what constitutes the best cab for us, different music tastes, different playing styles, different budgets and or course different expectations. So all I’m going to do is tell you what I think and feel about my BF cabs based on my own experience. Yes, they are expensive. However, when both new, the SuperTwin (2x12) was approximately £300 more than the GK Neo 4x10 and all things considered, I would choose the SuperTwin over the GK if I had the funds. Although very good, the GKs sound quality wasn’t as good as the SuperTwin, particularly at high volume, the clarity all the way through from deep lows up to high end frequencies was significantly better on the SuperTwin, the dispersion was also significantly better on the SuperTwin. The SuperTwin is much lighter and easier to move and crucially, its footprint is significantly smaller. When taking all of those things into consideration, for me, the Barefaced is well worth the extra money. If I were to compare the BB2 (1x12) with my old GK MBE (2x12), the Barefaced would win every time. When new, the BB2 would be approximately £350-£400 more than the MBE. The sound quality of the BB2 out performs the MBE on every level yet with only one 12” driver, the footprint of both cabs is about the same, however, the BF is much smaller over all and can be carried in one hand, the BB2 is also lighter. The BB2 has a built in tweeter crossover and can very comfortably be used as a PA speaker, the MBE cannot. For me, the Barefaced is worth the extra money when taking all of this into account. None of that is to say that either of the GK cabs were bad, far from it, they were very good cabs, I used them for several years and both were very reliable. It was more to help communicate my thoughts regarding the value of Barefaced cabs. The one thing I haven’t talked about is the fact that all Barefaced cabs are hand made to extremely high standards by a small team of dedicated folk, they aren’t produced on a mechanical production line in a factory as many big brand speaker cabs are. The guys at Barefaced are also incredibly customer focused and always do their best for the owners of their products. Even when you purchase a cab from them it’s more like a chat with friends about gear (friends who know their subject inside and out) and their communication as not only prompt but friendly and helpful too. That, on top of the performance capability, portability and weight saving of BF cabs makes them well worth the extra cost for me. Well, that went on a bit longer than I thought it would! Thanks for reading and I hope, if you are considering buying a Barefaced cab, it has been helpful to you which ever way you are leaning.

You should've taken up tap dancing. You'd only have had a short drop until you hit the wash basin.

Just back from a punk festival type gig in Great Portland St, London. Two stages, with bands although not starting at same times, on simultaneously, we were on the smaller of the two. The event was run very professionally, everything was spot on even to the security team briefing which largely said “they’re gonna look like they’re fighting, they’re not, unless someone goes down and isn’t helped straight back up leave them alone they’re just having fun”. Sound was good on soundcheck, the soundman clearly a guy who knew his job, which always makes for a good gig. So we went on at 8pm for a 30min set and it was amazing, the room probably held 250/300 and they had to stop people coming in as it was so rammed. The mosh pit was exactly as the security team discussed, frenzied but friendly and the reception we got was out of this world. We had people come from as far away as Chester just to see us, and the comments from audience members throughout the rest of the evening were nothing short of amazing. Quite humbling really.

Went over my head at first....

My Niece's band, Honeyblood, have put out 3 albums since 2014 and have been runners up for the Scottish Album of The Year, twice since then. They've supported many bands, including The Foo Fighters and Garbage and are just about to head off on a headlining UK tour in October.

Love this modern take on the Ace.classic. What a voice that guy has.

Good post and I agree, albeit a bit pricey, they do make a good product. Worth it? For me yes. Got myself a One10 last year at 70 years of age. I just wanted simple and light-weight. To complete my rig I bought a TC BH250, so no pedals or tuner needed. Sounds good and goes loud. This year I bought a 2nd One10. Sounds good and goes louder.

Well, I'm back depping with the Stones trib band because their main bass player has developed carpal tunnel syndrome. So I'll be keeping his seat warm until he gets that sorted out. Hope it doesn't take too long, poor guy. Anyway, last night's gig wasn't too bad considering I hadn't played with them for 6 months and they did a couple that I've never played live before. I did the usual array of bum notes, but I think I think I got away with it. My good friend from my other band was depping on drums, so that made it more enjoyable because he really gets the Charlie Watts feel. We'd been warned in advance that the pub could be really rough, but it actual fact it was fine. It's recently had a name change and is under new management which might account for it. So that was good! Not packed out, but enough in to create an atmosphere and a few up and dancing. Including a couple of blokes who were doing a sort of 'knees up Mother Brown' to 'It's Only Rock n Roll'. That really made me smile 🙂 So not too bad all in all, and cash in hand at the end of the night. I'm looking forward to the next one - I think I'll play better having done last night's gig to get back in the groove so to speak.

The problem with sex on the TV, was that we always kept falling off.

I’ve just got this from Jon . And thoroughly enjoying my first Shuker experience . its a lovely built bass and weighs only 3.7kg..

I like cake too😀

And the first BBC colour tv show was ? .......... The Black & White Minstrels ............ (you really couldn't make it up) 😎

Disappointed it's got to be a separate show again

BYO is the most expensive way. Hands down. £100 is next to nothing: check some component prices and add them together. You will be amazed. It is like building a car from spare parts. @pedwrote a nice article:

Well, its a theory, but it doesn't make any sense to mark all the notes of C major with the exception of C. and D, instead incuding C#.

I had the TecAmp Puma amp which basically is the Eich and a V1 Darkglass They are so massively different they are not really alternatives to each other. The Puma is the cleanest amp I’ve ever played. Too clean for me in the end. I found it a bit sterile. Of course the DG will do metal, but it’s got a good clean core sound too. I found it far more versatile than the Puma even when playing clean. i kept the DG and sold the Puma. However if you want a clean non-sterile amp as an alternative then the brand new Markbass Marcus Limited Gold Line is a cracker. Better EQ centres than the Puma and other Markbass heads, and has a warmth to it that the Puma couldn’t do.

They were hand made by Deviser (Bacchus, STR, Momose, Seventy-Seven, etc) to a really high standard. I've had this one for over 10 years, it came with stock US Bartolini pickups paired with the Godlyke preamp. I've had a few US Stingrays come and go but the Godlyke stays. The neck is really, really nice. Jazz width nut with an almost flat fretboard and one of the finest fret jobs you'll ever see. I used to have a 5er twin but sold it on a few years ago after I realised 5 strings were not for me Whoever buys Andy's one will be onto a winner.

IMO forget Thomann and the other companies out there. Many of us here use cables made by OBBM. My reasons; he's a great guy (so supporting our own) and he makes exceptionally good cables at good prices. The link again. . . . http://www.rock-wire.co.uk/

Well I bought one yesterday and have no regrets. I know the pigtronix mothership 2 is not the C4 but it does enough for me to just go with the filter which outperforms any envelope filter I've tried before. The tracking is fantastic. To the point that my Pitchfork may be going on sale. The programming looks like a geek's stairway to heaven but the potential is there straight out of the box. Best buy in a long time.

I actually recall the BBC getting all angsty about Statue of Liberty by XTC, what with it's lyrical content containing the words nearly naked and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt. When you think back to BBC radio in the mid-late '70s, many of the execs/producers/programmers who were controlling the nations listening habits were geriatric suit-wearing, pipe-smoking old farts so it's no wonder they were banning stuff and trying to uphold common sense and decency. What what. The were completely out of their depth; it would be like someone coming to me and asking me to throw together content for a show on New Zealand grime. This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

Formed a band from the ashes of a previous project and did our first gig last night. A wedding in deepest darkest Zummerzet. Lovely room, good natural acoustic, decent stage, I got to sort the pa for a full band kit, bvs, keys guitar the lot, which was a first for me. Sound was great B&G were lovely people dancing from the off. A great debut.

Again, context. Shining a spotlight on our shameful, distant past is a good way to try and make sure it never happens again. Depends If you think the Stones were celebrating slavery or shaming the perpetrators. If art cant cover the past, and make people think, then where would that leave films like 12 Years a Slave?

Depends on the style you like but my current faves (all Oi/streetpunk bands) are The Old Firm Casuals, The Last Resort, Argy Barny and Booze & Glory. Another fave - still punk - is Dirtbox Disco.

Fab. Seen PC on numerous occasions, first with Squeeze followed by Mike and the Mechanics, then solo stuff and then as keys player for Eric Clapton. Great singer and keyboard player and a lovely guy. May be a bit AOR for some people on here but he’s had an amazing career since first charting with Ace.

It will be interesting to hear what the others feel. For me, I come away reminded to always use Switchcraft jack sockets and to take great care soldering. I can't imagine how it would feel if silence suddenly descended...

The one thing (pair of things) I wouldn't gig without (apart from my bass!) is my earplugs. There is no way I am going to let my ears be ruined by drummers and incompetent monitor mixes.

I don’t shop anywhere now , I just contact @obbm and he makes me anything I want, all top quality fittings and cables , job done 🙂

This has all the hallmarks of a cheap bass that a complete novice would buy and be put off bass playing for the rest of their life!

Think we are getting into ‘agenda against manufacturer’ and ‘axe to grind’ territory here. The OP clearly stated in his write up about this having been a problem documented, and if people wish to search this up, there will be plenty written. Shall we not go down this line and instead contribute to this post in the manner it was written and celebrate someone clearly finding a product they have found suits them, which is a really cool thing.

I read that review the trouble is Glarry I don’t think do a 5 string Precision Out of all my builds my most expensive was about £90 because I don’t use premium parts (allparts, warmouth etc) and because I’m skint I buy cheaper parts that you would find on HB, G4M etc anyway the timber I don’t use exotic woods it’s mostly stuff I’ve got hanging round my workshop at work I've worked out building my own would be approx: Paulownia body modified to allow for 5 string neck and split coil £23 5 string Maple/Maple neck £24 Pickups £20 Hardware £30 Pickguard + Paint £20 So it will probably be around £110 give or take and the end result will be something like this (I hope!!) but with Maple fretboard and block inlays If I wasn’t going for brass hardware I’ve already got a chrome bridge and tuners it would be even cheaper................😀

I have finally been able to use it at big band rehearsal. In the mix the core tone is deeper than the DG, and the Ultralow 40hz control is brilliant for removing flub in what can be a very boomy room. I usually play a Precision with this ensemble, but I used my Berg Superlight. At the start it was a bit too mid scooped - not a surprise with a jazz type - but a tweak of the mids sorted that. I might get the footswitch so I can easily switch in the semi-para EQ for an easy change for slap. It was really punchy and had a great piano tone to the attack when played hard, and fattened up when played with more finger on the strings. When using the DG head I usually have the B3K on all the time at a low level. I purposely didn’t bring any drive with me to force me to learn the amp. Signal chain was bass, tuner, ThorpyFX Fat General Compressor, amp, Barefaced One10. Loved it!

Bands/Artists I'm digging at the moment: Blackberry Smoke Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown Jared James Nichols Govt Mule & Warren Haynes The Highwomen Amanda Shires The Bros Landreth (plus solo stuff from Joey Landreth & Ariel Posen from the band) Black Star Riders Stone Mountain Sinners The Record Company John

First of all great advice from BFM. you need to re-do this with the same size cab to make sense of the response below 200Hz 'ish as the cab is as important as the driver . Above that look at the published responses. Is it the neo magnet? yes and no, you are looking at very different drivers. The BP 102 is really designed as part of a multiple driver and probably sealed cab. it's got a heavier cone (mms) and a softer long throw suspension for deeper bass, though a sealed cab would raise this. all this lowers the efficiency, it is less loud than the other speakers which wouldn't matter in a multiple driver cab. The basslite has a more powerful magnet and that is what is affecting the bass response. The increased magnetic power increases it's efficiency but also the electromagnetic damping of the speaker which rolls off the bass response. It'll respond well to being in a smaller box than the BP102 as the damping will be coming from the magnet and won't need to come rom the cab. It's the extra magnetic power that matters not the material the magnet is made of. Which will you prefer? well you won't know unless you build them all but this is my preference. The BP102 has a 'smiley face response baked in, it'll sound like an Ampeg. that bass peak is because it's an underdamped speaker but in the box you have the peak of that bass boost is quite low. I personally don't like excessive response below 50Hz, sounds great in the bedroom but playing live it just creates mud for the whole band. Have a close look at the upper peak of the Celestion. the vertical scale is 10dB on the graph and for the Eminence it's 5dB, that's going to be a big peak and a nice aggressive sound if you like that. Celestion calculate Xmax differently to eminence by the way. Eminence would rate it higher so the Pulse would be less excursion limited than your graph shows. They all have that upper range peak though, the heavier cone of the BP102 may be contributing to a smoother breakup mode but it's probably more complex than that You might also think about efficiency. The Pulse is loudest and the BP102 the quietest by 2db up and down from the Basslite. you'll hear that 2db difference and definitely notice 4dB. 118db midrange efficiency is going to be a bit short in a band situation but you might get away with it in the rehearsal room. You won't with 114dB.

There are charities that use them. https://theguitarwrist.co.uk/ Janek Gwizdala set this one up: https://adomedia.co.uk/who-needs-strings-we-do/ Another one here: https://www.secondstringsproject.org/

First thing I would do is get an external router. Ours occasionally failed to connect using the inbuilt WiFi, which caused a major panic once just before we were due to go on! We thankfully had the old mixer in the car but was a bit of a faff to change everything over. Reliability has been great since we hooked up an external router and have never looked back.