Barefaced SuperMini review from a blind player's perspective

[JGSpector]

This review covers the SuperMini speaker cabinet from UK manufacturer Barefaced. I have owned a few different Barefaced cabs over the years but I now own a SuperMini so felt that it would only be fair to review a cab I still own and use on a regular basis.

Disclaimer: I’m just a dude who gigs in a few projects and bands for fun, I am by no means a professional reviewer. All views are my own and I have not received any payment or other incentives to write this piece.

Overview.

I’m a huge fan of what Barefaced do and I have to say, getting a SuperMini has not changed that. I have owned a SuperTwin, a BigBaby III, a SuperCompact and a 210 and they were all absolutely fantastic cabs that made me smile every time I played through them. I did also have a SuperMidget at one point, which is what the SuperMini used to be called, but I rather stupidly sold it to help fund a new bass or something, yep, you guessed it, GAS again. Around the same time that Barefaced renamed the SuperMidget to SuperMini, they also made it available in two versions, the SuperMini which doesn’t have a tweeter and the SuperMini T which does have a tweeter. I hardly ever used the tweeter on the SuperMidget I had owned previously anyway, so the standard SuperMini appealed to me for several reasons. Mainly because I knew it would sound great but also its small size and weight due to it not having a tweeter really fit with what I need in the real world when it comes to a cab.

Small but mighty.

The SM is a 3rd generation 12XN model and the build quality, just like the other 12XN models I’ve owned is impressive. It’s incredibly well put together, tidy, very compact and looks awesome. It’s also comically lightweight. All of the 12XN models come with a black powder coated steel grill as standard but there is an option to have the cab built with a high strength silver or black cloth grill. The cloth grill saves some weight compared to the metal grill version as you would expect and the non tweeter version is around 1kg lighter than the version with the tweeter.

The quality of sound is superb. Clear, responsive, punchy with nice tight lows and smooth highs. I pretty much always play 5 string basses these days and it handles the low B with ease as well as octave and envelope filter effects. I really like the tight lows as they seem to have more definition but I guess that’s more of a personal preference thing.

I play in a rock covers band, a metal/atmospheric instrumental band and a function band. The SM works wonderfully in all three without breaking a sweat. What I particularly like is that, as with all of the 12XN models, whatever sound you put in is what comes out, just louder. I use an amp with a tube pre amp for the covers and instrumental bands and with the instrumental band I tend to use a fair amount of fuzz, octave and chorus. For the function band I use a pure solid state amp but also use chorus, octave, envelope filter, a little overdrive and fuzz, not all at the same time obviously but depending on the song. Because I’m playing all sorts of different sounds and styles the SMs ability to handle them all works brilliantly for me.

Cab Specifics.

Height: 17.5”.

Width: 16.5”.

Depth: 11”.

Weight: 8.5kg (Cloth grill no tweeter), 9.5kg (metal grill no tweeter), 9.5kg (cloth grill with tweeter), 10.5kg (metal grill with tweeter).

Max amp power: 600w RMS.

Max output: 127db.

Frequency range: 37Hz - 20KHz.

Impedance: 8ohm.

As a side note, you can even use the version with a tweeter as a high quality PA speaker by turning the tweeter all the way up. Barefaced sell top hat stands for this purpose.

Summary.

I’ve been using Barefaced cabs since 2017 and I haven’t looked back. They sound fantastic, have a small stage footprint, are easy to move and look great.

For the bands I play in these days I just don’t need the big double 12XN cabs like the BigTwin III or SuperTwin. Even the larger single 12XN models don’t quite fit my needs these days because of their size compared to the SM, particularly when 2 SuperMinis will give me more than enough output for the larger gigs that I play whilst giving me a modular solution. The SuperMini whilst not able to give quite such deep lows as its bigger brothers the SuperCompact and BigBaby III, does produce tight thick clear lows that still beat larger cabs produced by other manufacturers. The fact that the SuperMini is small, weighs next to nothing but can handle up to 600w and just one of them can easily keep up with a loud band makes it a no brainer for me at this stage. Can it do massive lows like a BigBaby III can, not quite, but the lows it does are more than suitable for my needs.

To find out more about the gear that Barefaced make, visit their website at: https://barefacedaudio.com/

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