REVIEW OF GREENBOY FEARLESS F112

I drove out to Dave Homer's Gigmaster Soundworks (a little Northwest of Battle Creek, MI) and picked up my Greenboy designed Fearless F112. Dave had taken a little longer than projected for the build, since his day job schedule had gone crazy, but it wasn't that much of a delay. The build looked beautiful...I'd gone for black with red highlights, and he'd gone a bit darker than I had anticipated, but with much classier looking results. We tested it and one of his F115 cabs out on his deck, and initally I was quite pleased...the F115s are really nice as well, by the way. And Dave is a great guy, very knowledgeable and laid-back, a very easy person to do business with! It was a long drive but worth it.

When I was first testing the cab at home I had some doubts about its handling capacity, it sounded to me like the speakers were "bottoming out" on the low notes, especially with the electric bass. I took it to a couple of gigs and felt the same way, which made me kind of anxious...had I made a mistake? Was it too small after all? I have a fairly aggressive right-hand attack sometimes, and I wasn't sure what was going on. I wound up calling Dave "Greenboy" Green who designed the cabinets, just to see what might be up. He and I talked for a while about musicians, amps, basses, and the kinds of tones we liked...he too is a very good guy, very easy to talk to about any problems. He suggested that the distortion might be coming from the amp itself (a GK 400RB), and that it might be underpowered for the job with a setup like this. I'd been coupling it with a 4/10 cabinet, and I hadn't noticed any real problems, but I went to my good friend Doug Wolgat, who offered his GK 1001RB for a comparison.

Well, Dave was right! We ran the F112 through the 1001RB, and it cleaned right up. We played Doug's Fender Precision and Jazz Basses through it and it sounded clear, with the dark creamy Fender tones shining through like a champ, even on the low notes at substantial volume. Next weekend he loaned the amp to me again for a gig at a medium-sized club, and it kicked ass with the trio! I was using a Kawai FB2 (the "Poor man's Alembic") and a Diamond Series 5-string Schecter, and they both sounded amazing. While my band The Shelter Dogs aren’t super ultra loud, our drummer can get enthused and isn’t shy about the volume on a Bo Diddley number or two, and I had no trouble keeping up with him. We never mic drums or bass on gigs like this. While  I'd brought the 4/10 cab along just in case, it never got used. These F112 cabs seem very transparent, and give out pretty much what you put into them.  Which may mean rethinking your amp and eq settings! Apparently the distortion in my amp, which was undetectable with my old cabinets, was really noticeable with the F112. I did the last set at the gig with the 400RB, Doug having gone home with the 1001RB. I found that if I backed off the Master some (I’d been using it dimed for years), and compensated with the Gain, I could use the amp without any distortion at all. I DID have to change the eq settings…the 400RB has a pretty distinctive midrange hump (which I actually like) that was a bit over pronounced with this cabinet. But if I backed the mids off a bit and added a little bass, I was back to the target tone I wanted.

I haven’t done an upright gig since these last experiments, but at home today it seems to be confirming what I initially thought when I played through the F112. It’s really really nice! With the 40s Kay Swingmaster and a Rev Solo direct into the 400RB, it’s not hard to get a very natural “like the upright but louder” thing happening. It’s not only really clean and clear, but it seems more resistant to feedback…I’m not sure why this should be, but here in the practice room it sure is. I'm sure with a larger amp like the 1001RB for more headroom (I gotta get one of those, by the way!) the results would be even better. I tried the Fishman Pro Plat with it as well, but it just seems to magnify the shortcomings of that preamp…I’ll play with it further, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. It really doesn’t seem to need it. I’ll be playing the upright out onstage this weekend, and I’ll write more then.

As it is I’m feeling really positive about this cabinet!! The tone (now that I’ve figured out what’s up and dialed it in) is exceptional, the loudness is very impressive, and the folks who stand behind it are excellent. Did I mention that it’s beautiful and weighs only about 33 pounds? Pretty cool stuff. I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first, but now I’ve gotta say that if you’re looking to upgrade your rig to another level (and cut size and weight down considerably!), you should really look at these babys. You’ll like ‘em, I think.