Barefaced Bass

Exceedingly deep lows, very high output for a 1x12" and paired with the matching sub a true big gig monster stack

Possibly the most confusing Barefaced model, the Big Baby occupies a very unique niche. It is the same size as the Compact, our most popular model, but despite having a smaller woofer (12" vs 15") it goes much lower and can play almost as loud.

So it's a 1x12" that goes lower than a 1x15", and is bigger than almost any other 1x12" but weighs less than most?

Yes! What sets it apart is that it has a uniquely high excursion woofer which can handle 450W continuously without thermal problems AND can also handle low frequency peaks of up to 600W whilst exhibiting <10% THD. This means that although the Big Baby is lower in sensitivity than our other designs it has more than enough power handling to play loud. But it is not forgiving of amps with insufficient power or harsh tone on the limit.

To make the most of this woofer's abilities it has an oversized enclosure and large port so it goes seriously low (3dB down @ 44Hz - only one other range of cabs on the market goes lower and they're pretty special too) without boom or mud.

Because this woofer is so good at going low it is not good at going high - the rest of your sound comes from an extremely high output 6.5" midrange speaker which gives you more tone and volume than you can believe possible from such a small speaker - it can cut through even the densest rock mix. Not only that but because this speaker is small it disperses your midrange much better than if it were coming from a larger woofer.

Stand anywhere in the room and you will hear almost exactly the same tone - no other bass cab can achieve this!

But it's just a big speaker and a little speaker, all in one box. Yes it's unusual but I've seen cabs like that from other makers.

The magic is inside the box - a full 2-way crossover, akin to that found in the very best studio monitors, which splits the sound between the two speakers, so each speaker can concentrate on doing what it does best. No other crossover found in a bass guitar cab has this complex topology, with very steep slopes so it is all but impossible to overpower the midrange driver, so that you get no interference between drivers either side of the crossover point, and so that you get the most accurate and realistic sound whether you're the bassist, a bandmate or a fan.

What if it can't handle my bigger gigs?

Due to the lower sensitivity of the 12" woofer we use a custom built attenuator to match the output of the midrange speaker and woofer. This pad is bypassable so you can increase the loudness of the midrange speaker to give you added sensitivity and punch on a loud gig. Should that not be sufficient then...

In comes the Baby Sub

Unlike other extension cabs or bass guitar 'subs' where a 15" or 18" woofer runs fullrange (with the resulting peaks and dips in the high midrange and low treble where the cone enters break-up) we lowpass filter the woofer so all it adds is pure fat lows and low-mids which couple with the output of the Big Baby and increase the sensitivity, power handling and thus max SPL substantially. The Big Baby and Baby Sub combined have very similar sensitivity and response to the Big One, with slightly higher voltage sensitivity due to the 4 ohm nominal load and marginally more max SPL due to the higher volume displacement.

Note that as stated by 'Hoffman's iron law', a loudspeaker cabinet can only achieve two out of three of the following criteria - high sensitivity, deep bass extension and small size. Fortunately although the Big Baby and Baby Sub are small and go deep and thus have relatively low sensitivity, their massive excursion limited power handling means they can still go loud but it takes more watts than usual.