Beer of the Bass

The output jack wiring is obviously wrong, but two 500k pots would measure 250k in a wired-up harness with no pickups attached, as they are in parallel with each other.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1400085896' post='2450626'] [size=3][size=4]However, I've just discovered Solovair offer an 8-hole boot for £120. Still expensive, but also made in England, hand crafted, reputed to use the original DM lasts and the company's been around since it was formed as a co-operative in 1881. Soon as I get round to it, I'm trying a pair.[/size][/size] [/quote] They were one of the factories licensed to make DMs before production was moved overseas, and they are a lot like DMs used to be. I like the dealer boots rather than the 8-holers though.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1400063273' post='2450289'] They tend to comment on the home made aspect because, IMO, they look home-made... I've long thought they needed a proper cabinet maker ( Skilled, and they cost ) and not someone who thinks he can handle tools... Design is also down to how good the eye is in that regard... and you can't fake that... you either have it or you don't. Also, you can only read so much out of a book,... sooner or later talent needs to kick in. Otherwise, you are just another guy building a box..and the best thing about that box is the things that you don't make yourself and buy in. [/quote] Again, these would all be reasonable points based on where they were several years ago and perfectly valid criticisms of the earlier cabs, but I'm not sure they still apply. All of those points have been made multiple times on Basschat and I'm sure anyone looking for opinions can use the search function without them having to be repeated on every thread. I have a cab which was Alex's pre-production prototype for the S12, and while it's light and very functional, there is a certain roughness about it. Comparing my cab to McNach's new ones, I'd say they have addressed that. The woodworking is done by CNC now (so should be spot-on) and the finishing has improved. They're no longer simply buying in drivers and putting them in a box either, as the new drivers are developed specifically for them and are a bit of a USP. Of course, you may still prefer something else on aesthetic or tonal grounds, and that's fine.

[quote name='Bolo' timestamp='1400010246' post='2449930'] Why not? Just rounding off the edge won't even take off a 1mm slant. The fact that MM does it to their own polepieces now says enough. It's not going to remove so much material as to reduce the strength of the magnetic field. [/quote] I think that MM probably bevel their polepieces before the pickup is wound and assembled. As well as leaving fine magnetic and conductive filings everywhere, alnico is quite a brittle alloy and I'd worry that going at it with hand tools could chip or crack it. I'd avoid tapping polepieces up or down too. It's safe enough on pickups wound on plastic bobbins, but I think most MM pickups use fibre flatwork with the coil wound straight on to the poles (I'm not a MM player, so correct me if I'm wrong here). While you might be lucky and get away with it, you could easily break a turn on the inside of the coil and kill the pickup.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1400001515' post='2449801'] do you mean the new "retro" cabs or the new ten 3 stuff? [/quote] I believe Lawrence was responding to the comments about the BB2. Basschat topics do tend to drift somewhat!

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1399978486' post='2449487'] No, I think you might not have understood what I mean. As far as I know, all of the posts are from people who HAVE tried thr cabinets, in some way/form, eg bass bash, gigs, home vs other cabs, all of these, etc etc. [/quote] No-one here has tried the cabs which are the subject of this thread yet. It seems to me that the older Gen1/2 Compact, S12, Midget etc. had different design goals from the 2 and 3-way designs and the new 10" cabs are going for something different again, so playing one and not liking it doesn't necessarily reflect on the others. Also, seeing McNach's recently bought cabs in the flesh makes me think that both the woodworking and finishing have moved on since the early one-bloke-in-a-garage days, as you'd expect them to.

I bought one of these new for the retail price of £499 in the late 90s! Seemed like decent value at the time, though ridiculous now...

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1399892153' post='2448626'] Looks like a Faital tweeter/horn combo in those cabs, and if I'm right about which model is probably the best ever put into a commercial bass cab, and significantly better than a lot of PA cabs too until you get to the middle of the market. I'd hope the implementation is good as well - Alex's claimed off-axis response suggests it is. Most bass cabs with tweeters have nasty peaks around the roll-on frequency (accompanied by distortion) so you get a harsh upper-mid spike, often preceded by a dip. [/quote] That would make sense, as I usually can't stand tweeters on bass cabs, but the BB2 didn't have whatever property it is that I dislike about them. I'm not sure it would change my life or redefine the instrument (just to make sure I'm stopping short of hype), but it's a good sounding piece of kit. These new 10" designs sound interesting as I've always liked the sound when boosting the high end slightly on the amp (especially with a touch of valvey colouration) then running into a tweeterless cab. It sounds like they may lend themselves well to this approach. Of the cabs I have, the EA Wizzy 10 does this well but is perhaps a touch small when the drummer is going for it, and the 2x12" with B&C 12HPL64s is nice and even through the mids but can sometimes be a little dark and pillowy for the sound I'm after, but it can get there with the right EQ. I'll most likely stick with both of these, but it's always worth looking at the options.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1399836332' post='2448210'] Yes - one wonders if they would have been as successful had they been called 'Schicklgruber'. [/quote] Well, they were formed from what was left of Framus when they went bust IIRC, so there may have been an element of that thinking.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1399831952' post='2448140'] In Germany it's 'Vorrik'. [/quote] I wonder if they intentionally went for a name that wasn't Germanic sounding to appeal to international markets?

I'm sure Dawn from Status says "State-us". I spoke to her on the phone about a string order a few months back.

I'd point out that for all the talk of the "antis" being afraid to post, Alex C. has been answering questions about these cabs over on Talkbass but is yet to pop his head up over here. I know he's a busy guy, but you have to wonder if the inevitable multi-page barney that happens on every Barefaced thread on basschat makes it less than inviting!

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1399799719' post='2447672'] The practical benefit of Class D is the lack of big heavy mains transformers. [/quote] The power supply and associated mains transformer are a separate issue from the type of power amp used. Usually Class-D amps and switch-mode power supplies are used together, but there are exceptions. The older Acoustic Image heads had a linear power supply with a toroidal mains transformer powering a Class-D power amp and were surprisingly weighty for their size. The Markbass LMII uses a lightweight switch-mode power supply with a class-AB power amp.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1399749553' post='2447341'] The Compact Gen2 was ok, the BB2 is really nice, full stop. Try one if you get the chance, but at high volumes (reheasal or gig), as I never feel it sounds all that great at low volumes, but it shines once you turn it up. [/quote] Well, drifting off-topic, I liked playing through your BB2/Gen 2 Compact combination at the gig last night! It seems like the BB2 is really clear and even in the upper mids/treble region - it's all there without giving the impression of having gaps or peaks in the response. Also, with just a small tweak of the Markbass VLE knob, I was happy with the sound of my fuzz, which is rare for a tweetered cab. Although I don't know how you had the attenuator set - maybe it was switched off?

[quote name='spinynorman' timestamp='1399743055' post='2447268'] For some reason I keep hearing Desmond Dekker singing "Israelites". [/quote] Oh, Ohhhh, me ears are alight!

[quote name='allighatt0r' timestamp='1399717136' post='2446903'] How does this work then? Does the wick of the candle draw out the ear wax? [/quote] I'm not sure it does "work" in the sense that most folk would use the word. [url="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1097/00005537-199610000-00010/abstract;jsessionid=E8EFC9DCFDF61F54C5FD069DB76D5BC7.f01t02"]http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1097/00005537-199610000-00010/abstract;jsessionid=E8EFC9DCFDF61F54C5FD069DB76D5BC7.f01t02[/url] It also has nothing at all to do with the Hopi tribe! [url="http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2008/03/hopi-ear-candling-removing-grey-goo.html"]http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2008/03/hopi-ear-candling-removing-grey-goo.html[/url] If some people find the process relaxing then fair enough. I just wouldn't consider it to be a treatment for ear wax.

Getting the full power out of your amp by running the minimum impedance doesn't mean a lot when the excursion limit of the cab is less than the rated power of the amp. This will usually be the case with a high powered amp (like most modern solid state heads) running into a 2x10". So it's quite possible that a 12 ohm cab could get louder than another 8 ohm cab with the same amp if the excursion limited power is higher. Some of the responses here seem almost angry, which I find odd. If a product doesn't tick your boxes, choose something else. You don't have to rail against it's very existence. For others not bothered by the 12 ohm impedance, a lightweight cabinet aimed at a particular old-school colouration, with the .5 alignment for improved dispersion could make for a useful option. I'm not likely to change my cabs any time soon, but I'd be intrigued to hear what these sound like.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1399625216' post='2445905'] With a bridge? Or is it photoshopped? [/quote] He must mean that it's missing a saddle (it's only got five), not a bridge.

The bridge on eBay is probably unfitted. When fitting a bridge, wood is removed from the feet to match the arch of the bass top and from the crown of the bridge to set the relative heights of the strings to suit the fingerboard profile, so an unfitted bridge will always start off on the tall side. This is done to suit each individual bass. Fitting a bridge is a task involving some skill and most players will go to a luthier rather than attempting to DIY. It may also be possible to have adjusters fitted to your existing bridge rather than replacing it.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1399570476' post='2445503'] Oh c'mon. He's put a 8 and a 4 Ohm driver in series and is going to mutter some technobabble about different impedance curves and frequency curves. No special drivers about it. [/quote] Why would he do that? If the drivers were 8 and 4 ohms, it would make a lot more commercial sense to use two of either for a 4 or 8 ohm cab and not have to explain the unusual impedance. Barefaced have worked with an unspecified manufacturer to produce their own 12" drivers, so there's no reason to suspect they haven't commissioned their own proprietary 10" for these cabs. Unless they are flat-out lying, which they have no history of doing and I would have no reason to suspect that they would...

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1399560638' post='2445342'] [color=#333333][size=3][size=4]Hmmmmm.[/size][/size][/color] [color=#333333][size=3][size=4]So it's more sensitive (= louder? who needed it to be louder?), and it has better treble, better mids, and better bottom. All at once. [/size][/size][/color] [color=#333333][size=3][size=4]I thought cabs were always a trade-off? To make one thing better, something else had to be less good ...[/size][/size][/color] [/quote] I suspect "smoother, more flattering treble" means "less treble".

12 ohms is unusual! I suppose they must have commissioned a driver to make the 4 ohm 6x10", and the 2x10" might have been less economical to produce if it needed its own model of driver. I wouldn't be too worried about running one from the 16 ohm output of a valve amp, as it's only a 25% mismatch from the nominal value and as the blurb points out, impedance varies with frequency anyway. I'd be interested to hear what these sound like. With more neutral sounding cabs I tend to cut the low bass and boost the upper mids (around 2KHz) to get towards the sound I like, so I wonder if the colouration of these might be the kind of sound I aim towards.

It does look like the outer box from a Leslie 16, and I can see parts of the rotor mechanism in the photos (the part where it says "oil here"). Is the rotating drum still in there? It's hard to tell from the photos. It's been heavily modified, as an original would have had a single 10" speaker firing into the cutout in the rotating drum and no amplifier. The amplifier in yours uses the front panel from an old Selmer Treble n' Bass head but none of the circuitry from it.

There doesn't seem to be a schematic out there for the TS5, only the block diagram that Ibanez put in the manual. It looks like has one 12AX7 in the preamp with a single knob tone control in between the two triodes and a single-ended 6v6 power stage. Depending on how the tone control is implemented, that probably puts it closest to a tweed Princeton circuit.

I love some of these. I'm almost tempted to give the process a try! I'd have to persuade my wife to run me up a matching shirt in the same fabric though...