SBL calls it "The Bear Killer!" Barefaced Big Twin 3 blows away Scott & Ian. And some tech answers!

We were excited to learn that ‪@devinebass‬ and ‪@IanMartinAllison‬ consider our Big Twin 3 to be god-tier for speaker configuration, whilst simultaneously giving it the new nickname "Bear-killer" for it's sheer force and volume (whilst also demonstrating how light it is, a silent but violent monster of a cab) whilst chatting on ‪@thesblpodcast‬
Alex decided to take this opportunity to bask in the glow of their appraisal, whilst following up on some of their conversation topics around speaker configuration on other cabs, how much aesthetic matters when choosing a cab and why certain cabs work well in different spaces.
Watch/listen here:
• Bass cab roundup! / Sc...

[@IanMartinAllison]

Just seeing this now! Love it - thanks for taking the time Alex. I have so much to learn from you!

[@Scoots1994]

Yay Alex! Word is spreading ... slowly, but it IS spreading about the importance of cabs.

[@TomSJazzBass]

The 12XN is "telepathically quick". I noticed that right away as soon as I got my BT3. The notes seem to occur as I think of them and it made my time feel appreciably better

[@TimpBizkit]

As far as an "anger" rig. The Barefaced 8x10 with 2kw of solid state amplification, signal processing and pedals of my choice seems like an attractive choice. I was actually looking up their Dubster 2 for bottom end upgrade on a DJ rig but they don't make them anymore. The big twins look like they'd do loud clean bass and be a full range PA or house party speaker that brings the police if you crank it, so those are quite attractive too. As far as practice I'm curious as to their single 10 cab as it's smaller than even my MB30 but I bet it mops the floor with it on output.

[@KeithCopeland778]

I'm convinced based on the reviews I've read, KZbin demos I've seen, and the engineering, design, R&D, and build quality that Barefaced bass cabs are the best on the planet, and plan on getting a Super Compact T in the very near future!!! Another fascinating presentation by Alex!!!

[@alexkaznica8447]

Great information, as always!

[@gsimongear]

This was cool to watch and informative! Love hearing the engineering behind these common misconceptions.

[@Mikey__R]

I had a little BLX combo in the late 90s, it was a great little amp for what it was. I ended up giving it away, I don't think my friends sons band knew what they were getting. It was compact, but crazy heavy. I remember trying to drag it across the university campus and had to stop every 50 yards or so.

[@gorandelac]

Dear Alex this is like you described my past, I used to have that Trace BLX, and you are so right, no bottom, but we had a weird space to practice and that amp sounded like it was all over the room, but without low end. Another thing, I used to have 2x 2x10 Markbass cabs and I always stacked them vertically, didn't know why but it just sounded right. It looked weird,but sounded right on stage. And the I fell in love with you twelves, they are just so incredibly fast and clean, but with low end that just sits there right, my BB2 and BT2 are just perfect. I these are first 12" that I tried, luckily.

[@bennybass2000]

A great, thoughtful response video. Nice one Alex

[@PeterGaspar-vm4cb]

Hi Alex, I'm happy to hear that you are working on a bass amp. Have I heard it right that an active cabinet is also in the making? I used the FR800 for some time and I loved it. Unfortunately I had to give it away when I moved to another country. Looking forward to see your new stuff

[@BarefacedAudio]

Bass amp is definitely getting closer! Can't wait to share our progress over the coming months. As for active cabinet, we've released the Activier (for guitar): barefacedaudio.com/products/activier?_pos=1&_sid=c5535c60c&_ss=r Active bass cab will be a bit further down the line...

[@TimpBizkit]

In terms of dispersion of a 4 x 10, the other thing you can do is have a baffle in an angled in V at an angle chosen based on the speaker's dispersion characteristics. This does waste box volume though.

[@natron1908]

Alex, been following you for years, thank you for your explanations. It's my understanding that if two speakers that are constructed the same, but are different diameters (may not be possible), then the larger diameter speaker will produce a lower frequency sound. And I was very entertained by the wrong marker bit 😂. Suggestion, Ola Englund could provide a review for guitar cabs, seems like he gets a lot of reviews. Thanks

[@TimpBizkit]

I suppose as your compliance depends on the length of suspension and spider, they will increase roughly linearly. Cone area will go up in a square, and you might also need to make it thicker, so cone mass will increase more than the suspension spring stiffness. The resonant frequency will go down a bit with bigger speakers because of this. Also midrange dispersion will become worse so it will sound more muffled off to the sides.

[@PooNinja]

🤘🏽

[@lipptech1]

As a bass player. I bass amp speaker is really supposed to be a stage monitor for only the bass player. So 15" and 18" as a bass player you cannot really HEAR the cabinet very well when you are close to them. A 15" speaker needs like 20'+ in order to hear it well. It is even further away from the speaker if it is an 18" in order to fully hear the speaker as it was designed for. So as a stage monitor 15" and 18" do not work for a bass player to be able to hear the speaker fully. You would just keep turning the amp up louder in order to try to hear yourself. But at like 25 ' from the stage everyone would be screaming to turn the Amp down. I switched to 10's in the late 80's due to this issue. I can hear my 2x10/4x10/8x10 cab's well enough as I am playing with in the area of the stage within say 10' or so.

[@BarefacedAudio]

I need to make a video explaining why this seems like it’s the case but it’s not really to do with speaker diameter but all do to with dispersion. And also how speakers don’t “throw” sound.

[@BarefacedAudio]

Also, in most rehearsals a bass cab is the bass sound for everyone and in smaller venues it’s part or all of what the audience hears.

[@fuzzythoughts666]

I’ve never liked 10’s, I’m glad you like them but I’ll stick with my 2x15 + 1x18 setup 👍

[@chriscuthbertson]

Alex, you need some whiteboard cleaner, I can send you some in exchange for a cab ;)

[@PALongknife]

"... of the bass amps we've been working on..." Wait-- WHAT?!?

[@PALongknife]

Anyway, now that David Nordschow has, unfortunately, closed up shop, I'm looking for a worthy cab to pair with a DNA 1350 head (1350W into 4ohms-- and David was NOT a man known to overstate his output power ratings), and the Big Twin looks like it just might fit that bill...

[@BarefacedAudio]

I think you may be onto something there! Either that or the Six10 (1500W) will give you sufficient output.

[@ballsofcotton]

What is the colour of the baffles on the stack of Big Baby cabs? Where does that fall on your offering chart?

[@jxorz6013]

Looks gray to me, which is an optional color on their website. You can select from a range of colors or a custom color for the baffle when ordering. Very cool option IMO, I went with white on a Six10 currently in their queue.

[@MegaTubescreamer]

🤣😂🤔 Up`t north Alex !!( its a silent `T by .. way) see what i did there ,so you abbreviate `the` to its first letter (t) then create an impression of space within ...sentence ,it becomes not "the" sentence but " "sentence 😉, ``though in some applications we can re-instate the `t in front of certan words like `old` ie... t`owd bloke supped guiness exclusively ,so care must be given for accurate rendering of dialect, tha noz (you know)!

[@nathanlewis8032]

What amps are you primarily playing through your cabs? Any recommendations for an amp that works well for you with the 12XN line (bonus points for a 10CR amp suggestion but I'm more intrigued by the Big Baby/Twin)

[@BarefacedAudio]

Totally depends on the sound you’re after (and the rest of the gear you use) and how loud you need to be. Email us and we can get into your individual specifics!

[@nathanlewis8032]

I'm sorry, I was curious what you (Alex and any other bassists at Barefaced) personally use with your Barefaced cabinets. Perhaps the amplifiers that were mainstays in the prototyping and building of your cabinets and speakers.

[@BarefacedAudio]

@@nathanlewis8032 my old main rig (which is now the factory test rig) was an Avalon U5 into a QSC PLX 3002 - great with a great bass into great cabs as long as you play well!

[@robertbasone7667]

Great one! But try a Greenboy Audio!

[@BarefacedAudio]

I knew Greenboy from the late '90s via TBL and the early bass forums - the Greenboy fEarful and Barefaced Big One were parallel designs, we basically converged on a very similar solution to a high output high accuracy lightweight cab back in 2008, whilst exchanging a lot of emails. Obviously we've done different things since then at Barefaced, partly because we've sold a lot of cabs to a lot of bassists and learnt a lot in the process, and also been able to develop our own drivers and unique enclosure designs. 15 years of running Barefaced allows a lot of progress!

[@laurieharper1526]

If I understand you correctly, the reason most 10s sound "quicker" than most 12s is because most 12s do not reproduce the "slower" very low frequencies to any great extent, so you simply don't hear them and therefore are fooled into hearing greater "speed" from the 10. Makes sense to me, but have I got that right?

[@BarefacedAudio]

Are there some critical typos in that?

[@jxorz6013]

If you meant to say the 12s DO reproduce lower frequencies than 10s, then yes. The low fundamentals move more slowly, so a 10 that can't reproduce those frequencies will just respond to the overtones within it's range and sound faster or tighter to some people. Helps me to think of it as a form of compression or limiting that occurs through the speaker.

[@laurieharper1526]

@@BarefacedAudioI think so. I should have said most 10s don't reproduce the "slower" very low frequencies to any great extent. Doh.

[@AbeldeBetancourt]

Try and let people create their own myths about your gear. Myth (narrative) is the comfort zone of humans and marketing lingers around that zone. You can find a different angle to transmit your intended technical message, just try not to correct your users in such a direct manner: musicians need mythology (stories and parallelisms) for communicating their ideas. All the best. Looking forward to a Barefaced 212 for guitar.