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Came across these on Facebook the other day and subsequently searched Youtube and there's plenty there too, absolutely awesome. Here's their version of Distant early warning:

In the last 10 years I've only played Bergantino and Barefaced. The Berg tone was particularly impressive and I felt I'd reached a whole other level in bass sound when I got them. IMO my Barefaced cabs are another level again, they are monsters for sound and get even more positive comments than my Bergs did, and they generated a lot of praise. IME people do notice the bass player, if you sound good enough! The BF cabs are lighter and I need fewer of them to cover all levels of volume that I require. If my rig was stolen I'd happily replace it with either, but a BF rig would be at the top of the list. I'd expect all of these cabs to sound totally different to your Markbass rig. You might find that a little off putting, maybe not, but the difference will be very noticeable. IMO the difference was a revelation to me and the extra tone and clarity gave my bass playing a boost. I've not heard an amp that didin't sound good through either Bergs or BF cabs. You can go down to Brighton and try Barefaced cabs in the factory. If they have a demo unit on the shelf you can borrow it. You can send the Barefaced cabs back if you don't like them. You can't audition the other cabs and you'll be stuck with them if you change your mind. I'm sure that if I heard one I'd love the VDK. At this level there are no bad cabs, just preferences. PS Sorry, but Barefaced cabs are not flimsy. Don't confuse light for "flimsy". They are as solid as any standard designed cab. If you are careless enough to damage a BF cab you'll have done more damage to a regular cab. I carry all my gear and don't have access to roadies. In 10 years my cabs have never even been scratched. Good covers and care are all that is needed. my 2p

Coffee and KitKat at inflated price at a convenient filling station.

This has the makings of one of the most useful BC threads ever.

More my era of Rush, but this is terrific, too, especially the vocal: I've heard Geddy worse...

Hi everyone, I bought a cheap bass Sunday for parts or maybe another build, its a spider bass ? never heard of them. Anyway it has pups and tuners a bridge the neck has been very poorly converted to fretless, the body is a plywood thing that has been butchered in the neck pocket, I thought about re fretting it but ive never done that before but it hasn't cost anything yet so nothing to lose, this is were you come in what fret wire do I buy ? this may not happen depending on the state of the neck, it has been filled in the slots with a softish filler so it might clean up without to much hassle because I haven't got a fret cutting saw. I have an old front door that I took apart to make a body but I wont start that until I sought the neck out, ideas and criticism gratefully received.

I too used Markbass very happily for many years, had 2x10, 4x10, 1x12 (x2) and 1x15(x2) and have held onto a couple 1x12s. Still great stuff but Vanderkley and Barefaced are in a different league, which their price would suggest I visited Bass Direct a few years back and did a direct comparison between Bergantinos and Vanderkleys, and I went for the Vanderkleys.. I have been using Vanderkleys for about five years. I recently acquired a preowned Barefaced Super 12T which is a superb one cab solution and I now have trouble choosing between this and two MNT112 or a single LNT210. I visited Barefaced in Brighton and did a direct comparison between the Big Twin and Super Twin. The Big Twin was probably the best single bass cabinet I have ever heard, but as I am nearly always DI'd hrough PA, I went for the portability of the smaller cab, but sonically the Big Twin Is quite a bit more impressive. Barefaced cabs do use relatively thin ply, but are very rigid and well braced. If you respect them and dont hurl them about they are robust enough and really easy to touch-up. The pre and after sales service at Barefaced is excellent . Vanderkley cabs use thicker ply, have less bracing and do seem more robust. I have always preferred tough carpet covering to Tolex, but the 'lumpy' paint on Barefaced cabs is a doddle to maintain. Vanderkley use custom Faital Pro drivers, Barefaced use Eminence drivers wound to Alex's specs. Both companies give exceptional service. A difficult choice, unless you get both!!

It's one of those things, they'll all be good, but you just have to make the best guess, if you can't try them. Everyone is just going to say what they use is best for X reason. FWIW, I had a VK 212MNT. Don't be put off by it being rated at only 600w... It's a hugely loud cab and took all a 900w amp had to offer. With very strong lows and clear highs. I went back to Markbass however, and for what I want it does the job far better. Its obviously not a better cab, just better suited to what I need.

I love playing The 100 Club, iconic venue, you just get the feel of the place when there. Also love The Star & Garter in Manchester, just great gigs and great audiences, in a venue that is standing proud in a development area and not moving. And lastly The Rebellion Festival at The Winter Gardens in Blackpool, just love that, the biggest and best punk festival, being asked to play there is awesome. 200+ bands over a weekend, you get to catch up with so many people that you`ve met over the previous year, it`s just an amazing time. We`re setting off tomorrow (playing Sunday afternoon), am so looking forward to it.

@TimAl. Been on your site. Very nice job! Seeing that you can make everything you are the obvious choice.

I saw that clip last week and was really impressed. The bass player gets a great Geddy sound from his G&L bass. Another fun Rush cover band are "Fred Barchetta" who feature Uriah Duffy (ex Whitesnake) on bass. The girl singer really nails the early Rush vocal on this track, I've included a YouTube link below: (Incidentally, how do you embed YouTube clips in replied on this forum?) http://youtu.be/HodK8zn7xz4

These puns are boring; the're just going rind and rind.

FRFR. Line out from your preamp of choice (or amp, just don't use the power stage), into... RCF 735A or RCF 745A. Will smoke all the aforementioned cabs, especially on treble extension.

My back wants me to like Barefaced, but 40 odd years of playing through cabs with ‘baked in tone’ mean I struggle to hear what my brain wants to hear with the ‘clean’ output of the Barefaced range. i haven’t tried the Bergantino, but have played through the Vanderkley albeit at low volume, and I loved the sound. Very creamy and musical sounding, even with the matching amp set ‘flat’. If I was to be persuaded to move away from my SWR Goliath, then the Vanderkley would be top of my list.

Based on this I would say Barefaced. They're the one cab that with the 12's I couldn't give you and description of their voice. They're just very flat, and I'm often really surprised at how different, different amps can sound with the same cab. The treble extension with the BT2 is also really nicely executed. The Bergantinos have probably more of the colour I prefer, but they are coloured, which isn't really what you're after based on that quote. Not much experience with the Vanderkleys, I was always recommended against them for one reason or another at the time of buying. Barefaced it is in my view!

Gigs I love? I love playing in big fields. Open air festivals, that is. Big stages, big sound systems, big stage sound, captive and appreciative audiences and you also get to see some great bands on the bill. We were booked to play one early this year that was washed out and had to be rescheduled but I haven't been rained on at an open air gig in a few years.

I was trying to think of a polite way of pointing that out too haha Si

Hmmmmm....seen at the double bass bash in April......

Eww. just kidding!!

OK, I don't think it is going to be a fireman, and I haven't really got any plans yet other than the vaguest of ideas. The only things I do know is that it is almost certainly going to be 32" scale, a 5 string with 17mm string spacing at the bridge and it is going to be using this:

I bet he still can't get it under his chin.

That hurt my peelings

Joking aside, we do not hide anything either. I find it useful to talk things through before committing more funds to the bottomless pit. I have my second double bass and she knows it is a good investment, as well as being a musical instrument of far better quality than I might have hoped for.

For bass the filter and synths in the Helix really don't do much. This is possibly the biggest future requirement of the Helix bass community (alongside a bass specific compressor). I add my Future Impact in to the loop as well.

Had a reply typed, then misclicked. Don't see a reason to be snarky even if I don't swallow marketing hype. RCF offer a good product, they have for years. They have not made a quantum leap out of the weight, cost, efficiency, fidelity field. They are still subject to the conflicting design goals, but yes, the points one is able to reach in the 4-dimensional space are better now than earlier. That's nothing new, materials and processes evolve over time and this has always been the case. I've used them a lot back when I lived in Finland and the spec was 'sound reinforcement that doesn't break the back or the budget.' And RCF and Yamaha were my first recommendations for small-scale sound reproduction. I'm not an engineer, never claimed to be. I'm just a former gearslut. For my back and money, the Acme were a good pick, and having used them, I can recommend them. They are a passive 3-way speaker that have an 'accurate'* response and wide range. Can't recommend stuff I don't use. For gigging, I'd in general recommend passive speaker setups unless you are very sure you can get a replacement cabinet during a weekend in time. Woofers can and will blow on passive and active setups, but that's something that is hard to prep for, unless you have spare woofers with you. The more electronics you have in a speaker cabinet, the more you're subjecting those electronics to wear and tear. The sound reinforcement company I used to work for went with passive line arrays and subwoofers and separate power amp racks, partially for this reason, partially for scaling. A woofer is a much more robust electrical component than most non-mil spec circuit boards. I'm sure there's an absolutely bullet proof and cheap circuit on a board somewhere, because people make knives out of pasta and chocolate, these days. I still think my summary mostly holds: the most relevant stuff is portability and price, many solutions are high enough fidelity and put out enough 'volume' to hurt yourself. I'll add that reliability, replaceability, ease and cost of repair are important, too, depending on where you live. *if very accurate is your goal, then PA loudspeakers are not the right place to look anyway. You want good mastering monitors.

I usually just press the SHARE button on Youtube and then COPY and then PASTE onto BC page. Dave

As an ex-MB cab user I would say you would be happy with any of these cabs, they're all a considerable upgrade. I went for a BF S12T which I've had for about 7 years. It's a great sounding and extremely light cab. But I'd bet either of the other two would be stonkingly good too.

Yup - top cover that. Voice is perfect too. Thanks for posting.

Talk to Alex Clabber at Barefaced, the Big Twin goes down to 30Hz, and whilst that doesn't sound like a lot lower than 45Hz, the OP states he uses extended range basses and I know from experience that running bass through a speaker designed for general PA use (the QSC and RCFs etc.) does not give the same response as a properly tuned bass cab, not without using a sub, which is exactly why all PA designers offer a sub... This is not to say that a QSC K12.2 or an RCF 735A won't be a good replacement for a "traditional" backline, because anyone with sense will know that it is, the wedge shape and size is a good tradeoff if you're playing small venues. It will come down to personal choice, and the OP stated he's looking at backline, not FRFR. I moved my Big Twin on because I'm not playing live anymore and it was taking up a large amount of room in my small studio, but if I went out live again I'd consider the QSC K12.2, but not before I'd had a serious look at what Alex was up to...

I trained my wife up too well, she knows makes models, colours and now even comments on the colour and comments things like “you’d need to change the pickguard in that, tort would look better”. I think I am the odd one out because my friends all hide purchases for their hobbies from their partners but we discuss everything and I like running things past her. I think I have almost got her on board with a mustang bass and she knows one of the ultimate dream basses is a Pino signature.

Just PMd you Rikkers :-) Thanks for kind words Andy - much appreciated :-)

We play the Freddie G drum academy at Sparsholt college in Winchester. The venue is just the campus bar but we get to play with the celebrity drummers. So far we've played with the likes of Gregg Bissonette, Steve White, Ian Matthews (kasabian), Craig Blundell and Woody from Bastille amongst others. Always great fun.

Tim will return the originals with the black versions - he’s a good sport like that 😂

Juicy what he did there?

Was always quite proud with how this came out, a playthrough of an old electronic/dubstep band I was in. You absolutely need headphones or decent speakers, listening on your phone or laptop speakers? Don’t bother pressing play . There’s no bass sounds on the track, all me! The verses are just OC-2 (-1 Octave, no direct) and this slow gear effect on the ME-50B (basically a volume swell). The synthy ‘choruses’ are all tapped on my fretting hand so my right hand can operate the Hot Hand for the enevelope changes. So that’s a Source Audio BEF, OC-2, Orbit CoPilot Fuzz & the ME-50B for some chorus and the whammy bits at the end of the phrase. Worked nicely live. Basically every modular bass synth sound is Envelope filter, fuzz, modulation and pitch in some variation. Si

The Grecian 2 Cromwell Road, St Andrews, Bristol, BS6 5AA Hundreds of times, and it opens until 5am. If you’re in Bristol the Grecian is an establishment that needs no introduction. A freshly cooked pizza and (proper) chips for just £5, kebabs and a whole host of cheap but delicious produce. Been going here 20 years, and the veggie options are brilliant too. Perfect for a post-gig bite. Amazing! http://www.greciankebabhouse.com/bristol/

I used to play this winery right above the Columbia River (http://www.maryhillwinery.com/) a few times a month for several years. It was perfect for my jazz trio and the owners and staff were super nice to us. Their wine is first class too, so for years I had a really nice stash at home. And we got to do tasting room pre-show stints before Bob Dylan and ZZ Top, with a few thousand people coming through before they made their into the adjacent 3000 seat amphitheater. This gig paid OK but not great (regular local scale plus a few bottles each, and pretty good tips), but it was one case where exposure really did pay off. All I had to do was tell other venues that we played Maryhill and that was typically enough to get the gig if the style match was workable. Good hours too, usually 1-5 PM, w/ four45 minute sets. The place next door wasn't too shabby either (http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/) : View from back: Mostly we played arts festivals there, out on the lawn with a great family atmosphere, cool food booths, numerous juried art vendors, and good advertising in the big city markets like Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. If your band made the promo poster as a featured artist you could leverage a ton of mileage out of that. I think we managed that three years in a row.

Mine has to be a favourite place I used to play as I don't gig anymore..... Rock City Nottingham... Iconic Rock venue, just about every famous Band you can mention has played there at some point. The Stereophonics tribute band I was in has played the main stage there 5 times. It was an all day charity event ( I'm far from famous 😉) but the crowd loved us. it was always a sell out (2450 capacity) raising thousands of pounds for the relevant charity but the best bit was the on stage sound. There was a front of house soundman AND at the side of the stage, a sound man that just gave you a monitor mix ...he was BRILLIANT ….anything you wanted in your monitor at sound check was delivered in seconds. I know the combination of Tribute band and Charity gig is an anathema to many on here but they were the gigs of my life and I would do them again, at the drop of a hat , If only I was well enough.

£400 + delivery, as much as I love Barefaced, & these look fantastic, erm, no thanks.

I did a mid day gig yesterday - 40 minutes outside at about 11:30am. No shade. It was for the educational music trust I play with. It was the summer concert and awards for the kids. Most of the show was inside but for some reason they like the interval for the summer show to have refreshments and entertainment outside. It's great fun having to get my gear off the stage and reset it all outside in about 5 mins. My Marleaux did very well considering but I was still re-tuning between most songs. I'm very glad I didn't take the Ray.

I'm not sure it would be as resonant or robust as a body made from say Alder or Ash, but if it sounds good to your ears - then it's a good tonewood!