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NCD EAD Foundation 212


Billy Apple
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Just picked this up today;



All points to being an awesome cab. So far I'd describe is as tight, focused and articulate. I've not played around with the mid/treble levels, just set them at noon. You can hear the sound move across the speakers as you go from low to high and no horrible hiss from the tweeter.

It's not super-light, but is no back breaker either. Extremely well put together, everything about it screams quality.

I can see this working very well live and should imagine it cuts through across the full range.

Can't see the handles breaking either!

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[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1423434719' post='2684814']

All points to being an awesome cab. So far I'd describe is as tight, focused and articulate. I've not played around with the mid/treble levels, just set them at noon. You can hear the sound move across the speakers as you go from low to high and no horrible hiss from the tweeter.

It's not super-light, but is no back breaker either. Extremely well put together, everything about it screams quality.

I can see this working very well live and should imagine it cuts through across the full range.

Can't see the handles breaking either!
[/quote]

Nice one! They are great cabs. I use mine for both electric and double bass and have even used it for a PA speaker. Currently it's used as back line for double bass when we don't run everything through the PA (many of our gigs) and it puts out a ton of sound. In the studio we've used it for Reggae through to modern stuff, mostly by tweaking the attenuators on the cab.

DLP did a great job engineering these and they sound like it.

You'll love it ;)

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They are indeed top quality the best construction I have seen on any cab and the custom crossover really makes a huge difference to the range of sounds capable from the attenuators. And as you say hard to see the handles coming of. I will not be parting with mine.

Edited by skelf
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[quote name='skelf' timestamp='1423475442' post='2685078']
They are indeed top quality the best construction I have seen on any cab and the custom crossover really makes a huge difference to the range of sounds capable from the attenuators. And as you say hard to see the handles coming of. I will not be parting with mine.
[/quote]

Do you know why EAD ceased production?

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[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1423515401' post='2685869']
One of these would have been my next choice, the only thing similar design wise looks to be the TKS stuff so a lottery win would bring a pair of 1x12s from them now just for ease instead of my 2x12 or 1x12 I have now. I love them EAD handles though :)
[/quote] I loved the look of the 1x12's they made

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Nice to see the cab has new home and still looking good :-)



I spent a lot of time building PA and Bass cabs over the last 20+ years before EAD. Massive horn loaded cabs, front loaded cabs, lots of Bill Fitz cabs.....I have forgotten more cab builds than most people can remember...but I think that's just down to not taking the right tablets at bed time....or the adhesive.....yes I think its all down to the adhesive.....


Its something that I have always enjoyed doing ( cab building , not adhesive). The Foundation range EAD 212 came into life after several previous incarnations of similar cabs I had built and designed, but this was my first time making them as a going concern using full production techniques.

Very proud of the cabs, but the cost of production was frankly prohibitive - every element of production costs went higher and higher

Timing was also an enemy ....directly after placing the order for the first batch of cabs a few years ago to be manufactured (all CNC and very high quality birch ply construction) the market for Neo drivers doubled overnight, very frustrating.

Put simply the cost of manufacturing cabs, to a standard that I wanted to put them out at was not practical to do so - and although I have enjoyed building and designing cabs for years in the past, this was not something that was going to be practical to do so when I also run my own main Business providing architectural / engineering services.


I have always been astounded at how badly some cabs had been built, and frankly far more astounded at what people accepted as the holy grail of cabs without question, but hey, what do we know, we are only bass players..... ;)


Nothing is perfect, but some things are so off the mark on quality of finish, form and function that I am lost for words, and in fact lost all faith in trying to even attempt to understand now.

There are some great guys building and providing cabs out there:-
Richard and Mike produce some ace cabs based upon the fearful range, and Mikes magical ply is like nothing I have ever come across before or since....
[url="http://www.speakerbuilder.co.uk/about-fEARful"]http://www.speakerbuilder.co.uk/about-fEARful[/url]


Myself and John East had been looking at doing something with the smaller EAD 112 but again, time restraints and simple cost of manufacture are very much against small scale production. I loved the Little EAD tilt back cabs, but only made the two units for myself as test ideas. Both cabs got sold to some pals of mine a few years ago.


I have just renewed the EAD web site domain for another few years, just in case I have a massive change of heart, but its not likely.


To be honest, I am now spending far too much time playing with kit cars and hardly playing bass at all now.

The [url="http://www.moffatbassbash.co.uk/"]Moffatt bass bash [/url]is probably the only thing that has me remotely fired up as a bass interest these days, and that's primarily as its just a great laugh and great company. :D

Always good to see loads of different cabs in one place.



Dave

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Well, it wasn't that glib an answer as you could see the workmanship to a degree,
just from pictures so it wouldn't be hard to 'assume' the forethought and planning involved.

I sometimes wonder about design goals and also the end users real needs.
Just as gtr players might like an effect or two ..and that can mask a myriad
of things, .. I wonder if a lot of bass players really want or can even handle
a really clean reproduction of bass? I'd think a majority of them would want
to muddle or dirty up the sound. This is why a lot of cabs can be too bass
orientated and 'forgiving' but the compromise is lost and those same bass cabs
become tone killers. Seems very muddled up thinking to me on both parts,
the people who designed them and the people who buy them..??

FWIW, I thought there would be room for a specialist bass cab maker but
assume from the above post that it just wasn't worth it, in the end. Shame.

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[quote name='GUI101' timestamp='1423608086' post='2687091']
Absolutely love mine,.....the true Rolls Royce of bass cabs.
[/quote] .... out of interest... what make it stand out - I'm thinking in comparison to other similar 3 way designs like the ACME or Barefaced Big Baby?

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[quote name='david_l_perry' timestamp='1423521099' post='2685995']
Myself and John East had been looking at doing something with the smaller EAD 112 but again, time restraints and simple cost of manufacture are very much against small scale production. I loved the Little EAD tilt back cabs, but only made the two units for myself as test ideas. Both cabs got sold to some pals of mine a few years ago.
[/quote] can't help thinking that in another world the 112 came out first before the 212 .... and you had caught the whole "super-neo-112" wave thing that came with the kappalite they could have taken off - the 112 design was genius.

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[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1423609897' post='2687118']
.... out of interest... what make it stand out - I'm thinking in comparison to other similar 3 way designs like the ACME or Barefaced Big Baby?
[/quote]

the build of it alone smacked seven shades out of... well... any other bass cab. I suspect things could have been different if the single 12 came first too. Not being "small footprint, super light" was probably the achilles heel...

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[quote name='david_l_perry' timestamp='1423521099' post='2685995']
Nice to see the cab has new home and still looking good :-)
[/quote]

Dave, thanks for the post and thanks for building such a great cab. It's a pity events transpired to prevent the 212 gaining a foothold. You've never fancied building these as they come by order?

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Unfortunately, its not as simple as making one cab, as the only way to remotely get things to be cost effective is to make things in absolute minimum batches of 10 units per time

So essentially I have to commit to making a batch of 10 just to sell 1, and its a massive financial undertaking of many thousands of pounds.

Dave

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[quote name='david_l_perry' timestamp='1423694871' post='2688137']
Unfortunately, its not as simple as making one cab, as the only way to remotely get things to be cost effective is to make things in absolute minimum batches of 10 units per time

So essentially I have to commit to making a batch of 10 just to sell 1, and its a massive financial undertaking of many thousands of pounds.

Dave
[/quote]

What drivers are in them? I'm wondering what the button thing is on the cone of the mid?

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