Ex-Barefaced users?

[largo]

Have you tried https://archive.org 

[discreet]

14 hours ago, fleabag said:

I've lost a few things since owning the behemoth

Your marbles? 

[fleabag]

Ouch - none taken   

[Kevin Dean]

I've had a super t12 & 2 super compacts but I preferred the Ashdown ABM neo stuff sound wise & for me they look the part  , robust & nice inset handles ;).

[potato bass]

On 14/09/2017 at 17:10, Conan said:

This could be a long story... http://basschat.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR%23%3E/blush.png

I started with a G2 Compact, then sold it and bought a Vintage, just because it was big and available! That was an awesome cab, but the rehearsal space my (then) band were using had some awful, twisty, narrow stairs and I just couldn't be arsed humping the cab in and out of that room. Also, we weren't gigging all that often. I traded the Vintage for another G2 Compact.

A few months later, an original Big One became available. I'd always wanted to try one of those (partly so that I could tell people that I had a Big One... http://basschat.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR%23%3E/rolleyes.gif ) and wasn't disappointed. HUGE sounding, yet still a fairly small box and light as a feather. Worked great with my Hartke LH500, but then I started to use J basses most of the time and I felt I needed an amp with more control over the mids... then followed a period of about six months when I tried lots of different amps (story [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/255371-new-amp-dilemma/"]here[/url]) but found all of them wanting in some way. Several (especially the Aguilar TH500 - story [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/257641-aguilar-th500-distortion-issues/page__hl__th500%20distortion"]here[/url]) were incompatible with the Big One - so one (or both) had to go! Initially it was the Aggie that departed, to be traded for a GK MB800, but the stupid controls were just too close together! That was sold and I bought my current amp, which is a Mark Bass LM2. I'm dead happy with that!

I sold the Big One, and purchased a pair of Bergantino HS210s - mainly because I had listened to all the BF haters who claimed that Bergs were "the best". Well, they weren't for me. They sounded OK, to be fair, but after years of BF usage, their relative heaviness was just not necessary - so off they went.

Next up was my (current) G2 Compact - the third such cab I have owned! It is just brilliant, and does everything I want it to do. From time to time, I still get bursts of GAS* but once I heard another BC member (wateroftyne) playing through my rig, I understood how great it sounded when used by a real bass player! http://basschat.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR%23%3E/cool.png So whenever I don't feel quite happy about my own sound, I just recall how it will sound to an audience.

* The last cab I bought was a TKS H115. I still have it. It is great. Just as good as the Compact for me. I rarely need both cabs, but it is wonderful having them just in case! They sound kind of similar, but the TKS is slightly "cleaner" and has the dubious benefit of a tweeter. It is slightly larger and heavier, but still an easy lift. It also looks the business http://basschat.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR%23%3E/tongue.png

If I was really strapped for cash, one of them would have to go - but that would be a [b][i]very[/i][/b] tough choice... http://basschat.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR%23%3E/sad.png

So, I have tried a lot of stuff over the last four years or so (some not mentioned here!) but I am happy to still be a Barefaced user! http://basschat.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR%23%3E/man_in_love.gif

TKS: H-15, for clear tone, and portability, and plenty loud. Really sweet, and paired up with a clean head, for projecting the Bass of choice, What a CAb ! 

Edited January 2 by potato bass

[tauzero]

A bit of a necro thread...

 

I was a BF user, had a BB2 and later a One10. I found the One10 started distorting at quite low levels, so stopped using it. I later fancied changing to a combo and bought a GR Bass AT800 Cube (1x12 combo) and sold the BB2, and later went back to separates and went for a GR Bass AT212 to go with my Tecamp Puma 900 (despite having built a BC 112 Mk3, which I also sold).

[Jack]

When this thread was new I was a current Barefaced user but now I'm one of these modern weirdos who doesn't have any backline most of the time. I've had 2x midgets, a compact, and 2x FR800s, all of which are exceptional and the fr800s were easily the best cabs I've ever used. If I need stage volume these days, which used to be pretty much never then I use a QSC k12.2. However both of my new bands look like they might be stage volume bands, so I am considering a big twin to amplify my quad cortex. Who knows what the future holds eh?

[fretmeister]

Another ex-user here.

 

I've had One10 x2 stack, a Super Twin, then One10T + One10 stack. Enjoyed them all, but I've gone back to my first light weight love: Mark Bass.

My first actual love was a pair of Marshall VBC412 cabs with separate big iron Hartke and Ashdown heads. I am never lifting all that again! It might not even suit me these days as my musical tastes have changed a lot.

 

It's been about 18 months since I quit my last band and if I ever look for another I'd be perfectly happy to swap to IEM and no backline, but the last band was big band jazz without any PA support - piano, bass, guitar all had their own amps - so if I did that again I'd still need an amp. The brass and reeds are loud enough without any PA in the venues were were doing.

[Russ]

Not an ex-user - still have, and love, my BT2. I have found myself in a slightly weird place lately though - I've rediscovered my love of 15" cabs thanks to a huge Peavey 2x15" at our rehearsal room. Nothing shakes a room like 15"s. 

 

Barefaced have something for almost everyone, but I do wish they still built a variant of the original "Big One". That was the first BF cab I ever played through and I loved it. Maybe Alex will have a brainwave about something new and cool he can do with a 15".  

[paul_5]

I used to gig aBF Compact, but missed the added 200Hz ‘boom’ that my older, shitter cabs used to give me, so went back to an Ampeg 4x10”. Then I realised that I’d stopped using said cabs due to weight and bulk, so I made myself a 1x12” that ticks all of the boxes.

[Sean]

I'm an ex-Barefaced user. I had 4 over the years. My experiences are well documented on BassChat. 

 

I've moved on. I've applied a lot of my professional skills to the "what" of the desired outcome. I should have done this years ago but it's like cobblers' shoes. 

 

In work (I was a product manager for a big engineering company for the best part of 30 years) when developing a new product, we always tried to establish what users were trying to achieve, not what they want. In terms of bass players, they need to be able to hear themselves clearly and easily in a live environment. There are various solutions including IEM systems, which is disruptive tech as far as bass cabs go, but there's still very much a need for the individual bass amp to be heard in the room. 

So, bass cabs are still a need.  Often users don't really know what they want from products and it's the product managers that need to determine what the product needs to be to meet the needs. I thought in the past that, "I want 10" drivers because they give me this..." and I couldn't have been more wrong, the level of ignorance involved in coming to that "requirement" defies belief.

 

What users actually want, though they sometimes don't realise it, is easy portability, the ability to hear what they're playing in various situations and rooms easily, enough "volume" to keep up with other instruments (drums usually) etc. The constraints that then shape the product are price, size, availability of tech etc. 

 

For those of us that attended @Phil Starr 's speaker/cab demo at the SE and/or SW Bass Bashes last year, we've seen and heard first hand the whole "I prefer 10s" or "I only use 15s" fallacy in action. That demo just kills the argument about driver size preference and turns the conversation to which sound do you prefer, not which is your favourite size speaker. Then there's the array fallacy, "I prefer 4x10s". No you don't. What you have is experience(s) where a particular 4x10 has given you your desired outcome, or seeing Billy Sheehan using Hartke 4x10 cabs has coloured your thinking. 

 

What you need in reality is the sound you consider to be a pleasing tone clearly audible to you while performing. 

 

What pulled me away from BF? 

To start, product quality was a factor. I've never had anything where the tolex comes away and shrinks so easily; unacceptable on any product but inexcusable on a premium priced product. And the 10" BF cabs just didn't work for me in a gigging environment although they often sounded great out in the venue. The BT2 was pretty good but lacked something. 

 

I've now settled on a cab that gives me exactly what I want. I don't care what size driver it has, it does everything I want it to beautifully and brilliantly. It's light, compact, built like a tank and looks very professional. Comments and feedback from other people on the sound are always positive and I'm playing better because I can hear myself clearly all the time. 

 

The more we think about outcomes and less about specifications, the better products will get and the sooner you'll get what you need. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Sean

[Lozz196]

Good post

[Sean]

If we look at the way Barefaced markets the products on the website, you can see that it's getting away from being led by driver size to a bigger degree than many other manufacturers but is still led by 10 and 12 in the names of the lines, 12XN, 10CR, it's still spec-focused rather than being completely led by what it does for the user, although the copy does focus on what it delivers so in that respect it is progressive. 

 

If you look at LFSys.co.uk it's entirely focused on what the product does for the user to the extent that whether it's a 12, a 10 or ceramic or neo gets put in the specification not the "reasons to buy".

 

The Monaco delivers everything I need for most of my user cases. There are applications however where a different solution could be better and that's where it over-delivers. A 5m x 4m rehearsal room with 2m ceilings? Something much smaller would be the perfect answer and that's where the Monza and Goodwood come in and the small BC-build cabs that are based around an 8" driver. They aren't using 8" drivers because the 8" driver meets the tonal requirements, the 8" driver meets the technical requirements of loudness, size etc at a target price. 

 

Cab design/arquitecture has moved forward so much in the last 15 years and both these brands have done a lot in that respect. I'll not say I'll never buy another BF but for now, for me, my use cases and objective comparison there is a better option.

 

 

Edited 14 minutes ago by Sean