Barefaced Big Baby 2: help/recommended heads?

[Misowaki]

29 minutes ago, itu said:

I was thinking that your current amp is just fine, but if you want more of that lowest end, there is nearly no limit... Your choice is probably something like a 900 W class D amp. Flats and very low end means really big power levels. It is not very much louder, just different.

Right, thanks for confirming, that's what I was getting at, just less eloquently =D

I'm going for an SVT 7 Pro I just scored for £350 with a flight case. Twice the wattage of what I've got right now, let's see how we go!

[acidbass]

Had a Big Baby 2 for a while and just couldn't get a sound I liked out of it.  Tried numerous heads, both lightweight and full fat (Aguilar, Hartke, Ashdown, Bugera) and no joy.  Ended up moving it on.  I now play Aguilar cabs and they are so sweet.

[Al Krow]

59 minutes ago, acidbass said:

Had a Big Baby 2 for a while and just couldn't get a sound I liked out of it.  Tried numerous heads, both lightweight and full fat (Aguilar, Hartke, Ashdown, Bugera) and no joy.  Ended up moving it on.  I now play Aguilar cabs and they are so sweet.

Always helpful to have the cons as well as the pros, so thanks for sharing that. What would you say are the key differences between the two? Was it just that the BB2 was 'flatter'? 

[Misowaki]

Also: just plugged in my BH250 to see how it plays... wow! With the PF500, I was getting loads of hiss when using the horn, now it's silent and booming! Not tried with the pedals yet but it's the head, just as Alex suggested.

[51m0n]

You are right your amp isn't powerful enough.

Thing is those BF cabs are very very capable down low, they really deliver, but they definitely need a lot of power in the amp to actually deliver their best. This is not a criticism of the cabs or drivers, its more the fact that these cabs can handle so much more than a 'normal' cab that if you hear any break up, or inability to deliver and you are running less than a solid clean  800w @ 8 Ohm amp then its your amp that's the weak link.

I have a pair of FR800s, a BB2 and a BT2 to play with.
I can attest that the Quilter BB800 is very,very loud into the BT2, pretty darn loud into a BB2 (loud drummers are going to struggle against you), its only issue is you need to be careful if you like a very clean tone when setting up the gain as it will overdrive (very nicely) if you push that input, and this can become a bit of an output limiter. It will definitely blow away your Ampeg though.

The BT2 though, that can just gulp down the watts, I am only just getting my head around the fact that I haven't been able to get the best out of it up until now, and that was with an sa450 ( a really solid 500w), then a BB800 (800w), its taken a long time but I'm now running a good 1KW of super clean signal into it (or thereabouts) and it sounds unbelievable. Superb cabs, but they will really really show up any weak link in your signal chain!

[LukeFRC]

1 hour ago, 51m0n said:

I have a pair of FR800s, a BB2 and a BT2 to play with.
I can attest that the Quilter BB800

Lucky booger

[Misowaki]

1 hour ago, 51m0n said:

You are right your amp isn't powerful enough.

 Superb cabs, but they will really really show up any weak link in your signal chain!

Yup, and that they have.  Picking up my SVT 7 on Sunday, hoping its 600w is going to make it purr like it should instead of clipping like it does.
The PF500 and 115LF together are great, a lovely little combo.  Was not expecting things to turn out this way.  Was driving me mad at first, thought 'surely it's not the head...'. 

I guess it's testament to the clarity and no nonsense handling of the Barefaced cabs, really.

[51m0n]

16 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Lucky booger

Yep 😁

[51m0n]

27 minutes ago, Misowaki said:

Yup, and that they have.  Picking up my SVT 7 on Sunday, hoping its 600w is going to make it purr like it should instead of clipping like it does.
The PF500 and 115LF together are great, a lovely little combo.  Was not expecting things to turn out this way.  Was driving me mad at first, thought 'surely it's not the head...'. 

I guess it's testament to the clarity and no nonsense handling of the Barefaced cabs, really.

It's testament to that weak derrière Ampeg actually 😉

[Misowaki]

37 minutes ago, 51m0n said:

It's testament to that weak derrière Ampeg actually 😉

Here's hoping that's not the case with the SVT 7 😬

[machinehead]

8 hours ago, acidbass said:

Had a Big Baby 2 for a while and just couldn't get a sound I liked out of it.  Tried numerous heads, both lightweight and full fat (Aguilar, Hartke, Ashdown, Bugera) and no joy.  Ended up moving it on.  I now play Aguilar cabs and they are so sweet.

Haha.  I'm glad you didn't like it because I still have it and still love it, over three years later.

I added a Super Midget but rarely need them both.

But it does show that we all have different tastes and requirements from our gear. 

Frank.

[Open E]

I’ve got a PF500 and I think it’s a bit lacking in volume and headroom. I’m now using an Ashdown ABM500 (second hand for £195) through a compact and a super compact. It is heavy but it’s got volume and headroom way above the PF500. I recently played a large hall without  pa support and it filled the venue turned half way up on the master volume. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Open E

[51m0n]

2 hours ago, Open E said:

I’ve got a PF500 and I think it’s a bit lacking in volume and headroom. I’m now using an Ashdown ABM500 (second hand for £195) through a compact and a super compact. It is heavy but it’s got volume and headroom way above the PF500. I recently played a large hall without  pa support and it filled the venue turned half way up on the master volume. 

Nice office that

[roblpm]

On 11/03/2019 at 22:19, machinehead said:

Haha.  I'm glad you didn't like it because I still have it and still love it, over three years later.

I added a Super Midget but rarely need them both.

But it does show that we all have different tastes and requirements from our gear. 

Frank.

How do you find the BB2 and SM together? I have a BB2 but would really like a minimal rig of a SM and small head for practices etc. Then maybe combined for fun at bigger events. Ie 3 different sized rigs. 

[machinehead]

31 minutes ago, roblpm said:

How do you find the BB2 and SM together? I have a BB2 but would really like a minimal rig of a SM and small head for practices etc. Then maybe combined for fun at bigger events. Ie 3 different sized rigs. 

Together they are a monster rig.  Huge sounding, with deep lows and higher frequencies than I can hear with my industrial deafness and almost 50 years playing music.    Two cabs somehow sound better than one - to my ears anyway.

The three rigs idea works a charm for me.  I wouldn't rule out a Super Midget for quite big gigs either.  Sometimes I use mine in larger pubs and it copes very well.  You miss the lows of the BB2 of course, but the SM gets the job done easily enough on its own.

It's a bit more expensive to buy two 1x12 cabs rather than a single 2x12 but honestly, the flexibility is worth the cost to me.  For most gigs, I need only one cab.  Having two means I can cover any gig if required.

Frank.

[roblpm]

Just now, machinehead said:

Together they are a monster rig.  Huge sounding, with deep lows and higher frequencies than I can hear with my industrial deafness and almost 50 years playing music.    Two cabs somehow sound better than one - to my ears anyway.

The three rigs idea works a charm for me.  I wouldn't rule out a Super Midget for quite big gigs either.  Sometimes I use mine in larger pubs and it copes very well.  You miss the lows of the BB2 of course, but the SM gets the job done easily enough on its own.

It's a bit more expensive to buy two 1x12 cabs rather than a single 2x12 but honestly, the flexibility is worth the cost to me.  For most gigs, I need only one cab.  Having two means I can cover any gig if required.

Frank.

Thanks. Sounds great. Will get saving..... 

[funky8884]

On 10/03/2019 at 20:36, Misowaki said:

My first real rig was a 2nd hand GK 400RB with matching 4x10 and I did love it but I somehow managed to kill it.  It was pretty knackered when I bought the whole thing tbf, only cost me £300 all in.  I would be up for trying GK again actually.  Thing is I don't see many of them around ridiculously cheap =D

I have a GK MB800 into a BB2 and it easily keeps up with a loud drummer with a crystal clean sound, the amp isn’t even breaking a sweet,

Sometimes MB’s come up for sale around the £400 mark 

I think some guys have used a MB500 into an 8ohm cab with good results 

[dave_bass5]

On 11/03/2019 at 13:41, acidbass said:

Had a Big Baby 2 for a while and just couldn't get a sound I liked out of it.  Tried numerous heads, both lightweight and full fat (Aguilar, Hartke, Ashdown, Bugera) and no joy.  Ended up moving it on.  I now play Aguilar cabs and they are so sweet.

Same here. At first it was great, but i started to notice i was tweaking the EQ more, but was never satisfied at gigs with how it projected me.  Seemed to lack a bit in the mid range. 

Maybe I’m just more happy with a cab like my RS212 that does colour my tone more. These ‘flat’ Sounding cabs aren't always a good thing IME.

[51m0n]

5 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Same here. At first it was great, but i started to notice i was tweaking the EQ more, but was never satisfied at gigs with how it projected me.  Seemed to lack a bit in the mid range. 

Maybe I’m just more happy with a cab like my RS212 that does colour my tone more. These ‘flat’ Sounding cabs aren't always a good thing IME.

Yep, you either like the sound coming out of the lead or you want something different!  

Guess I'm lucky in that the flatter the better, but I really like a cab that stays as flat as possible and extends as low as my bass goes. I don't want a bump in the bass end or low mids, I don't want a scoop in the mid range or over hyped sizzly top end.

Even more important I don't want a cab that can't reproduce fast transients well.

If I have all of that in my rig then I can apply whatever I like in terms of EQ, transient shaping, spacial FX, whatever I fancy and it will produce what I expect.

It really helps that to my ears my bass sounds absolutely killer, especially in the mix....

[Al Krow]

30 minutes ago, 51m0n said:

Even more important I don't want a cab that can't reproduce fast transients well.

So what please, dear chap, for the uninitiated like me is a 'fast transient'? 

[dave_bass5]

49 minutes ago, 51m0n said:

Yep, you either like the sound coming out of the lead or you want something different!  

Guess I'm lucky in that the flatter the better, but I really like a cab that stays as flat as possible and extends as low as my bass goes. I don't want a bump in the bass end or low mids, I don't want a scoop in the mid range or over hyped sizzly top end.

Even more important I don't want a cab that can't reproduce fast transients well.

If I have all of that in my rig then I can apply whatever I like in terms of EQ, transient shaping, spacial FX, whatever I fancy and it will produce what I expect.

It really helps that to my ears my bass sounds absolutely killer, especially in the mix....

I think my problem with my BF cabs was that i didnt have enough mid range. The lows seemed to overpower the rest in both my BF cabs. Not that they weren’t there, just that i didnt find it pleasing. 

Over the years ive pretty much stuck to P and jazz basses, on the whole. Tend to use my amps mostly flat (although I’m not saying the tone is flat). Ive used many cabs with these heads and basses. I have no idea what true ‘flat’ sounds like, but I do know what i like when I hear it. I just found using the BF cabs produced a low end heavy tone compared to most of what I’ve used. If this is ‘flat’ or ‘neutral’ then it’s just not for me. I firmly believe flat or neutral is not always what its cracked up to be. Finding the right combination is not easy. 

[Al Krow]

40 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I think my problem with my BF cabs was that i didnt have enough mid range. The lows seemed to overpower the rest in both my BF cabs. Not that they weren’t there, just that i didnt find it pleasing. 

Over the years ive pretty much stuck to P and jazz basses, on the whole. Tend to use my amps mostly flat (although I’m not saying the tone is flat). Ive used many cabs with these heads and basses. I have no idea what true ‘flat’ sounds like, but I do know what i like when I hear it. I just found using the BF cabs produced a low end heavy tone compared to most of what I’ve used. If this is ‘flat’ or ‘neutral’ then it’s just not for me. I firmly believe flat or neutral is not always what its cracked up to be. Finding the right combination is not easy. 

And If you're playing passive basses you don't always have the option to push to the mids in the way that active basses allow, although I'd have thought most amps would allow you to adjust reasonably provided they have decent centres on their EQ points?

Not sure why folk think that amps 'optimal' position is 'flat'. Surely the point of the amp's EQ is to allow you to get the combination lows, mids and highs that suit your bass & pups, cab and venue?

Obviously the cab needs to be able to put out, faithfully, what it's receiving from the amp and not have an overly narrow f-response.

Edited March 16, 2019 by Al Krow

[mcnach]

On 10/03/2019 at 04:07, Al Krow said:

Really weird that you should be getting a bigger sound with your 110 than the BB2 at 300W?

In fact with the bigger speaker size and additional driver displacement, I would be expecting it to be the other way around ie the volume from your BB2 to exceed the 110 by a margin (in the same way I’d expect a 410 to be louder than a 110). A capable cab shouldn’t require a monster amp to drive it.

Hmmm...if what you’re getting is common to BB2 owners, it will definitely make me think twice about upgrading my SC to a BB2.

 

Having owned both BB2 and Two10 (not One10, 'though), I thought it strange as well... I can't imagine half of a Two10 compare with the beast the BB2 is. 

 

[dave_bass5]

13 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

And If you're playing passive basses you don't always have the option to push to the mids in the way that active basses allow, although I'd have thought most amps would allow you to adjust reasonably provided they have decent centres on their EQ points?

Not sure why folk think that amps 'optimal' position is 'flat'. Surely the point of the amp's EQ is to allow you to get the combination lows, mids and highs that suit your bass & pups, cab and venue?

Obviously the cab needs to be able to put out, faithfully, what it's receiving from the amp and not have an overly narrow f-response.

Well to be fair, i said I had the amp flat, not that the tone was flat. I realise all knobs at noon is not always flat, but it does work as a reference point when hooked up to other cabs, or using other basses. Keeps the playing field even. 

IMO the cab is just part of the tone chain. 

[Lozz196]

I think it would be really helpful if amp manufacturers put what the flat settings if their amps were in the manuals. Would really help when choosing cabs etc, and especially if intending to go post-eq to FOH.