Why Barefaced
The birth of Barefaced
Some years back, dissatisfied with the performance of the existing bass cabs on the market, I decided to put my engineering knowledge to good use and design a cab that did exactly what I wanted (within the bounds of physics!) Having then spent literally thousands of hours designing this cab and written about it online there was quite a bit of interest, so when certain components were going to cost more to ship than to buy singly I decided to buy more than needed for my personal cabs and to build a handful of cabs in my spare time for the interested parties...
Fast forward eighteen months and the situation is a bit different! What started out as one model designed for my needs is now a range of cabs to suit the tonal, amplification, portability and loudness requirements of most bassists. We have continued to stick to our guns regarding the importance of careful and accurate design, and to believe in local manufacturing and direct sales to provide a high quality product at an affordable price.
The Barefaced Qualities
There is no one Barefaced 'sound' as we believe our customers should be in control of their tone but there are consistent themes throughout our range on focusing maximum output, minimum distortion and zero excess weight.
But how do I buy a cab from you?
Our sales channel is very different to your usual shop-based or online experience. We don't have any retailers, nor do we have a simple online shop where you can buy one of our cabs on a whim. Instead we prefer to act in a consultative manner to ensure you get the cab to suit your needs - and a number of customers can confirm that although they may have contacted us to buy one model we ended up selling them a different (and often less expensive!) cab because we thought it would be a better fit. We believe in spending time learning about the music you play, the venues you need to fill and the tones that inspire you whilst taking into account the pros and cons of your current gear, so that we can provide you with the most suitable product from our extensive range.
The one month trial
We also believe that the only way to find out if a bass cab is right for you is to play it on a gig - loudspeakers are rather non-linear devices and what might sound lovely at shop loudness may sound completely different when turned up to compete with a drummer. We therefore have a one month trial policy. Buy a cab, use it for a month and if you're not totally happy then we will have it collected and give you a full refund bar the return shipping (£15 for our smaller cabs, £25 for the larger cabs). Just as we expect you to take advantage of our knowledge when ordering a cab, please use us once you have the cab in your hands: If you can't get the tone you want then ask us for help. A recent customer had gone from a dual 4x10" stack to a Vintage and was having trouble cutting through his band - he sent us a photo of his amp settings, we recommended some adjustments and here's the result: "Gigged with the cab last Wednesday and I have to say, after the tweaks you suggested, it cut through like a knife. The cab is amazing mate and it’s definitely a keeper."
Tell us what you need and we'll work out what we can do for you - we are experts!
You may be rather daunted by the sheer amount of information on our website - please don't feel you have to read or understand any of this if you're interested in buying one of our cabs! We like to educate and inform to help bassists get the most out of their gear but if you're buying a Barefaced cab then you are paying for our expertise to analyse your needs and recommend the best cab to suit - and we might even just tell you to save your money and give you some advice on how to get the best out of what you already own - we did just that we a recent potential customer and here's his response: "You are a genius.........I now have defined Mid`s and High`s, with a great Low end punch !" We didn't get to sell him a bass cab this time but at least we have one more bassist sounding great!
Contact us, we are here to help!
If this is the first time you've heard of Barefaced and are curious about our products, email us or use the contact form - no question is a bad question! Likewise if you're thinking of buying a cab, get in touch. Or even if you already own one of our cabs but are thinking of changing your amp, then ask us for advice. Some of our products challenge many preconceptions - we do our best to explain why we've taken unique approaches to bass amplification but we know that it can be confusing, especially as our range expands to fill more niches: Ask us anything!
Some Barefaced history
The first Barefaced model to be launched was the Compact in the winter of 2008. This was followed by the Big One in spring 2009. The Vintage then joined the party (at which point we started offering the silver cloth grill option on most of the range) before in summer 2009 the first Midgets arrived. Then came a shift to our unique dual-density plywood which further reduced the weight, and at the same time we switched over to metal corners and rubber feet from the previous plastic stacking corners (although all the Midgets had metal corners and rubber feet from the start despite the first few Midgets being the older ply).
The internal bracing has further developed as we've come up with cunning ideas for adding stiffness and/or removing excess mass. The Super Twelve (launched in spring 2010) uses the new bracing method (which was first applied to the Midget and since passed onto the Compact and any new designs), thus the Compact is on its third internal design and the Midget on its second. A recent minor revision has actually been driven by the incredible power and remarkably low weight of the latest micro-amps, whereby at full blast the amp has enough power to cause small vibrations in the top panel of the cab which have no audible effect but are enough to make the amp move about. Fixed!
We are also on the third version of the internal damping, where we've focused our energies on reducing the backwave as much as possible (for maximum midrange punch and treble clarity) without killing the port resonance (keeping the lows as big as possible). The latest approach is quite unique but very effective.
Continuous research and development
We don't recommend you immediately trade in your old Barefaced cab for the latest version, if it works for you then that's all that matters, but if you have heard one in the past and it didn't do quite what you wanted (even though you so wanted it to because it was so easy to carry) then consider that all these little tweaks over time could tip the balance in your favour. We pushed the boundaries of what was possible with bass cab design when we launched our first model and we're not going to stop trying to push those boundaries - stay tuned!