alexclaber

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1428670764' post='2743625']Would one of those port bunger-uppers that Trace used to supply work with one of these cabs? There must be a few of them around as you never see them being used in Trace cabs...[/quote] It's a flared port so I don't think so.

[quote name='Handwired' timestamp='1428427175' post='2741186']I don't have a problem with the RS10, I love it, I was just trying to describe the initial differences I heard. It's interesting what you say about the hybrid resonator and the T shirt, perhaps an 'adjustable port' might give owners some degree of flexibility in fine tuning the lows, great for improving boomy stages.[/quote] Great! The T-shirt thing sounds a bit ghetto but it works really well for blocking a big round port - and you can't see it because it's underneath the cab. A big ski sock works well too!

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1428401239' post='2740848'] Dumb question, what actually is a "hybrid resonator"? It looks like a port, so what makes it different to a port? [/quote] Not a dumb question - smart question! A port has one tuning frequency and the effect is very much like moving the lowest slider on a 12 band graphic EQ up by a fair few dB. The hybrid resonator has two tuning frequencies, one lower than a typical port tuning frequency, one higher. Its effect is more like turning up the bass knob on a 3 band EQ by about two dB.

Bob, just had a thought - you might want to try blocking the hybrid resonator's port on the bottom of the cab. A rolled up t-shirt will do the job (that's what I used in testing), just make sure it's a tight fit! This will reduce the output in the lows and also cause the cab to overdrive sooner. You may find that this is the best way to use the cab for all your indoor gigs if you want that extra growl - then outdoors take advantage of the extra output and power handling from the hybrid resonator.

[quote name='Handwired' timestamp='1428099011' post='2738169']I've been comparing my Retro Six10 to my Berg NV610 today, and at the moment the Barefaced wins on lows and smoothness in the mids but when I play aggressively the Berg breaks up and sings while the Barefaced just gets louder. I'm far from finished testing but at the moment, they both sound amazing! The Berg sounds more 'Fridge like' but only when driven hard. The Barefaced is more civilized in comparison but can still 'rock hard' in a vintage sort of way.[/quote] With a good amount of power pushing it I've got the Two10 to start breaking up and growling and then overdriving in a really awesome way. I've never managed to push the Six10 loud enough to get the same effect - it will do it though, it'll just be [b]VERY VERY VERY LOUD[/b]!

We've only been selling the Six10 for a few months so there aren't many out there yet!

Amps don't have throw and nor do cabs. The sound comes out of the speakers and it gets quieter as you get further away. If you hear louder spots or quieter spots in the room then that's due to reflections from walls reinforcing or cancelling the sound. Cabs with better dispersion and/or more consistent frequency response will suffer less from room reflections and therefore exhibit more even loudness around the room. That's why 18" folded horns like Jaco's Acoustic 360 sound like they have throw - because the mids have very poor dispersion so are hard to hear up close whilst the lows are very peaky so will accentuate boundary effects. Cabs with feeble lows which require you to stand in the nearfield (basically within a foot or two) will lose even more output as you move further from the cab because they're not able to fill the space with sound.

[quote name='monsterthompson' timestamp='1427820713' post='2734682']Alex, I trust your science about the lack of dips and peaks[/quote] Although the science is true my view comes from being someone who has played bass for a long time and is bloody good at playing bass his own way - particularly with respect to tone, groove, feel etc. And from selling lots of cabs to lots of other bassists! If you personally find that to get your tone you need to do complex midrange tweakery then that's all well and good but I'd suggest that the vast majority of bassists won't need to do so with the Super Compact.

I don't think most Super Compact owners need an amp with significant midrange control - it's a cab which is very honest through the mids, no peaks, no dips, consistent on and off-axis. If your bass makes the sound you want and your fingers do what you want AND your amp makes the sound, you want then the Super Compact will make the sound you want. It won't do extended treble clarity/sheen etc but that's what the Big Baby 2 and Super Midget are for. It won't mellow/smooth/dirtify/colour/etc but that's what the Retro Two10 is for. Let us know how the ABM sounds with them and if you want/need to change amp then you have a good reference point!

Iain, based on that you definitely need a HF driver or tweeter on your cab - so the two options are a Big Twin 2 or a Super Midget + Super Compact stack. I think the latter could work very well because you'll only need the SM quite a lot of the time and then for the loud stuff the SM+SC pair will be thunderous!

Wooks, do you know what drivers are in the Matamp?

What cabs are you using now and what do you like/dislike about them (other than the clarity when pushed)? If they have tweeters, how do you set them? What strings do you have on your bass(es) and how new/old do you like them best?

300W into that will be LOUD! Use good lifting technique (or some roadies) and you'll be sorted.

[quote name='zacclowes' timestamp='1427495615' post='2731263']What's the wait time at the moment?[/quote] Just a few weeks! We need to get some recordings done for our overseas customers to hear it. In the UK the one month trial is cheap enough to use (return shipping being the customer's only cost) that I'd say it's best to get one and have a good few weeks of noise making with it. But you can't really do that if it's been shipped thousands of miles because that return journey would be pricey...

[quote name='zacclowes' timestamp='1427488401' post='2731156'] It's this model. I'm not in the news letter. If I add myself now can I get the info? [/quote] Sign up and I'll forward it on on Monday! I've just compared some rough simulations of the Six10, Super Fifteen (your one), and Vintage (Wooks' one). I don't think you could tell the difference between a Super Fifteen and Vintage if you were blindfold. Basically the Six10 can play about 4dB louder through the upper bass (120-250Hz), about 1dB louder through the mid bass (60-120Hz) and about 6dB louder through the low bass (30-60Hz). It's a monster!

Are you on our newsletter? Some good info on the Two10 (which is 1/3 of the Six10) and its abilities in the lows, which we sent out today! Is your 2x15" the Super Fifteen?

[quote name='D.I. Joe' timestamp='1427445188' post='2730368']Guitar speakers are almost always miked up to capture the overall sound of their rig, so why should it not be the same for the bass? Our rig works in the same way after all...[/quote] It depends on how you approach your bass amplification. For all the bassists that like the colouration their cab brings to their sound, there's just as many who want a cab that makes their TONE (which is coming from their hands, bass and amp) loud but not changed in any way. If you're of that mindset then you're better off DI'ing. DI'ing doesn't mean the soundman is in control of your tone. Even if he takes a DI before your amp your hands are still in control, as is your bass. If you're DI'ing out of the send on your amp then you have even more control. Trust your hands to be in charge - they're what make us all sound different!

We definitely found that midrange drivers don't get on so well with distortion, unless you want it to be in your face gnarly distortion. So cabs with them show up amp clipping more severely (and thus require more power to drive) and that would also make sense with the issues with the Big One and the TH500. Although the Gen 3 Big Series cabs cabs are actually more accurate than the Gen 1 (Big One) and Gen 2 (original Big Baby / Big Twin) they seem to get on much better with clipping amps, overdriven preamps and so on.

[quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1427306825' post='2728676'] As Alex has visited & had input here I thought he would have answered the OP's question [/quote] I said it would be only a couple of weeks or so when he ordered and nothing has changed! I thought he was asking others to see how long they waited?

Vouchers sent to those who were offered them, only 2 1/2 years late! ubit, we don't ask customers for full payment until their cab is in production, so if someone has chosen to pay the full amount up front it is not the norm, hence the mistake, sorry.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1427237557' post='2727885']Mine was 4 months. I was supposed to get a Barefaced voucher to apologise for the delay, I never received one (despite a reminder email to Alex).[/quote] I'd forgotten about the vouchers - it's not been an easy few years! I'll go back through the customers we offered them to and get them sent out. Sorry again - switching over to in-house CNC based production, developing the Gen 3 models and then moving the factory stretched us to our limits and customer service ended up slipping during that period as we had to prioritise basic survival of the business by not running out of money. Hopefully those growing pains are over!

Short of sticking an RMS voltmeter on the outputs on the amp and turning down if it sits above a certain voltage for a while there's not really much you can do. Your best friend in this situation is experience (so knowing what you can realistically expect from a given cab) and good ears - or buying a nice cab of your own that's small and light enough to take to the gigs and robust enough to handle your needs!

I very much liked the TH500 I tried but similar to electric guitar through a Fender Twin, the cleanest sound it does isn't truly clean. It's probably clean enough for 95%+ of bass players wanting a clean sound though - or at least it will be through most cabs. Use a higher resolution cab and it won't sound so clean.

My favourite sound for studio micing of bass cabs is always large diaphragm condensers but they don't really work live, too much bleed and too fragile. The thing with kick mics on bass cabs is that most of them have a very scooped sound and hide much of your real tone whilst meaning your sound gets lost in the kick sound. The proximity effect on something like an SM57 counteracts its low frequency roll off. Enjoy the cab, it's (hopefully) a modern classic!

This was a 4 ohm one! Though a TB500 would drive a 12 ohm one LOUD when in its 8 ohm setting. Sign up to our newsletter for some interesting info on the Two10 soon (hopefully tomorrow)...