Barefaced AVD guitar cabs - not open backed, not closed back, not even ported; but something new!

mrkb

Sounds like a fair review. Im definitely interested in these - would be good to try one out - do they have any UK stockists?

Is it worth clarifying the "Aside from genuine appreciation at the gesture Alex made, I don't have any incentive to sell you guys on these cabs." line.  Did I recall Bareface sent a cab to review/do a youtube video then raffle off for forum funds?

digitalscream

mrkb said:

Sounds like a fair review. Im definitely interested in these - would be good to try one out - do they have any UK stockists?

Is it worth clarifying the "Aside from genuine appreciation at the gesture Alex made, I don't have any incentive to sell you guys on these cabs." line.  Did I recall Bareface sent a cab to review/do a youtube video then raffle off for forum funds?

Yes - I've got it right here. The plan has always been to shoot an in-depth video review of it, but circumstances are working against us (schedule misalignment, and we've lost the studio we were planning to use for it).

I may have to abandon that idea and just raffle it off as per the original proposal if we can't shoot the video in the next month, because I feel bad hanging on to it when it should be in one of your grubby mitts.

digitalscream

Oh, and @mrkb - I'm in Stamford, so you're welcome to pop over at a weekend to try it if you want...?

BarefacedAudio

Thanks for the honest review! A quick response to some of the points/questions:

We sell direct, one month trial period within Europe, so that's a great way to find out the truth of how a Barefaced cab would perform for you. Anderton's are now stocking a limited range of Barefaced guitar and bass cabs (all black, no customisation), if you want to visit a (very nice!) shop.

Regarding the loudness thing, I never claimed the Reformer 112 was louder than a 212 with matching speakers - Chappers' demo shocked me and I think it was just luck that the room amplified the benefits of the AVD. Im 99% certain both speakers were running in that 212 because I remember the narrowed vertical polar pattern. I did wonder afterwards if it was on the wrong output tap (halving the applied power) but Rob insisted it wasn't (but a 212 should be the same loudness as a 112 with the same speakers and twice the power).

The claim on our website is that an AVD 112 has similar output to a closed back 212 with the same speakers, which I think is about right in practice. Loudness was never the goal, it was always about audibility, particularly based on my experience of the least pro gigging scenarios imaginable ("monitors, what are they?!!"). People have been asking us to make a lightweight guitar cab since the very early days of Barefaced but I didn't want to just build another cab with the same acoustic problems they all suffer from, hence the long R&D road to find a solution!

These are all the 12" drivers we offer as custom choices in the Reformer 112, Radical 212H and Uprising 212V:

https://barefacedaudio.com/collections/celestion-12-guitar-range

We're working on an FRFR cab too - just taking a while to perfect it. It's going to be really awesome!

WiresDreamDisasters

We will get to the video shenanigans, life has just been doing it's thing for both of us

digitalscream

BarefacedAudio said:

Thanks for the honest review! A quick response to some of the points/questions:

We sell direct, one month trial period within Europe, so that's a great way to find out the truth of how a Barefaced cab would perform for you. Anderton's are now stocking a limited range of Barefaced guitar and bass cabs (all black, no customisation), if you want to visit a (very nice!) shop.

Regarding the loudness thing, I never claimed the Reformer 112 was louder than a 212 with matching speakers - Chappers' demo shocked me and I think it was just luck that the room amplified the benefits of the AVD. Im 99% certain both speakers were running in that 212 because I remember the narrowed vertical polar pattern. I did wonder afterwards if it was on the wrong output tap (halving the applied power) but Rob insisted it wasn't (but a 212 should be the same loudness as a 112 with the same speakers and twice the power).

The claim on our website is that an AVD 112 has similar output to a closed back 212 with the same speakers, which I think is about right in practice. Loudness was never the goal, it was always about audibility, particularly based on my experience of the least pro gigging scenarios imaginable ("monitors, what are they?!!"). People have been asking us to make a lightweight guitar cab since the very early days of Barefaced but I didn't want to just build another cab with the same acoustic problems they all suffer from, hence the long R&D road to find a solution!

These are all the 12" drivers we offer as custom choices in the Reformer 112, Radical 212H and Uprising 212V:

https://barefacedaudio.com/collections/celestion-12-guitar-range

We're working on an FRFR cab too - just taking a while to perfect it. It's going to be really awesome!

Oh, I completely agree - I wasn't trying to say "It doesn't live up to the promises" at all. In fact, I'd say it exceeded my expectations, given that I'm always a little sceptical about specs (apologies if that didn't come across as well as I'd hoped!).

On the flip side, if I'd given it a glowing no-negatives review, I doubt many here would've believed me

digitalkettle

I got bored waiting for a raffle that I wouldn’t win anyway

So I placed an order and have just received a Radical 212H (2 x Heritage G12M).

Unfortunately, I’m done with gigs for the year...but I do have some rehearsals coming up.
I have had a couple of furniture rattling sessions at home to break it in a bit and I like what I’ve heard so far.

lukedlb

digitalkettle said:

I got bored waiting for a raffle that I wouldn’t win anyway

So I placed an order and have just received a Radical 212H (2 x Heritage G12M).

Unfortunately, I’m done with gigs for the year...but I do have some rehearsals coming up.
I have had a couple of furniture rattling sessions at home to break it in a bit and I like what I’ve heard so far.

How did you find the Radical? A keeper?

digitalkettle

Yeah, I really like it...speakers have bedded in a bit now.

I'm used to playing 1x12s so I'm not ideal for comparisons but it looks/sounds great and is a one-hand carry

https://i.imgur.com/Exbe8tS.jpg

lukedlb

very nice @digitalkettle . have you taken a look inside? in fact, just how does it open? is it front loaded?

Jeremiah

Does the design of these make it hard/impossible to replace the speaker without destroying the cab?

digitalkettle

Haven't looked inside but it is front-loaded (you can just see a pull tag on the grill cloth...centre/bottom).

digitalkettle

Jeremiah said:

Does the design of these make it hard/impossible to replace the speaker without destroying the cab?

I wouldn't have thought so

@BarefacedAudio

lukedlb

I believe that each cab is 'tuned' to the speaker choice. I imagine it's something to do with the angle of the AVD or it could be simply a depth of the magnet issue. I'm very interested in this matter as I'm leading a thread on cab construction of the 'happy accident' variety to the engineered models. I would love for someone at barefaced to pitch in.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/173456/the-art-to-speaker-cabinet-construction-a-box-or-an-acoustic-instrument#latest

lukedlb

I wish there were more photos of the cab without the grill cloth and inside the cab. Unfortunately there's nothing on the web.

digitalscream

FYI - I'll be running the raffle as soon as The Guitar Show's done, so I can put a banner up

lukedlb

digitalscream said:

FYI - I'll be running the raffle as soon as The Guitar Show's done, so I can put a banner up

That's good news. I was wondering how I could offer you a round of beers for all the work you put into the site; with a chance of winning a raffle again all the better (FYI I have never ever one a raffle... no wait, I did: I won a Lazy Lester LP that I never ever listened to).
Maybe a coincidence but I've only ever noticed the banner announcements on my computer and not on my phone. I'll keep an eye out once the guitar show is over.

BarefacedAudio

lukedlb said:

I believe that each cab is 'tuned' to the speaker choice. I imagine it's something to do with the angle of the AVD or it could be simply a depth of the magnet issue. I'm very interested in this matter as I'm leading a thread on cab construction of the 'happy accident' variety to the engineered models. I would love for someone at barefaced to pitch in.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/173456/the-art-to-speaker-cabinet-construction-a-box-or-an-acoustic-instrument#latest

Sorry about the delayed response! The speakers are front-loaded and we use bolts and t-nuts to mount them, so if swapping drivers the BCD needs to be near identical. And we had to make a unique AVD to fit around deep alnico magnets, so you can't put a 12" alnico in a standard AVD cab.