Three10 vs Super Twin youtube comparison
Barefaced Three10 vs Super Twin – Real-World Comparison
Here we have an article based on the transcript of these videos:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLANa36KFwzEiDk1VitwfKlxROX-CGOo1A&si=y-YjwXTHWkAnuULu
Alex and James talk tone, gear, and how they actually sound
Alex: We’re comparing the new Three10 to the Super Twin. These are two of our most popular and similarly sized cabs, but from different design families. The Three10 uses our 10CR drivers in a hybrid resonator enclosure, while the Super Twin uses 2x12XN drivers in a ported cab. The Super Twin is 10mm deeper, but otherwise they’re nearly the same size. The Three10 is slightly heavier due to the extra driver and the big chunky handles—but both are easy to move and gig with.
James is playing a Sire Marcus Miller signature Jazz Bass, which is active/passive switchable. For this test we’re running it passive, with tone all the way up, and the pickup pan centered. It’s strung with roundwound strings, and we’re playing mostly fingerstyle, with some pick playing added later.
We’re using just one amp, and A/B switching between the cabs. The tweeters are off at the start of the test, and we’re running a clean signal to begin with.
Alex: When you’re hearing us talk, that’s picked up by the camera mic—a RØDE VideoMic Pro+. It’s a good mic and gives a decent reference for voice and room sound. But the cabs themselves are being recorded with a JM47, which is a large-diaphragm condenser placed about seven feet away, and a few feet off the ground. That’s a Joe Meek copy of the U47 I’ve had for 20 years. Not expensive, but very honest—great for hearing what things actually sound like in the room.
First Impressions – Clean Tone
[James playss bass through Three10, then Super Twin]
Alex: That sounds nice, doesn’t it?
James: I like it a lot. I’m enjoying the Three10 more, honestly.
Alex: Got words for it?
James: It just feels more clear. I find it goes higher—it’s got more top end. It's a prettier sound. I always tend to lean towards these when I play them.
Alex: Let’s swap players—same settings on the bass. Preamp off, tone up, pan centered.
[Alex plays both cabs]
Alex: Froa.
James: Yeah, more throa.
Alex: Tighter, maybe?
James: I felt like the Super Twin had thicker lows. It’s got more to it.
Drive Tone – Same Setup, Added Dirt
We’re now switching over to a Fulltone Bass-Drive, set to the Boost Channel, using my usual settings for a Stingray. Still the same bass and clean amp otherwise—just some gain in the front end.
[Plays distorted bass through Three10, then Super Twin]
James: The Super Twin sounds more like the distortion; the Three10 sounds more like the bass.
Alex: Yeah, definitely. The Three10 fills more of the mix, while the Super Twin slices through it more. Very different.
James: I thought the Three10 had a bit of a notch in the mids.
Alex: It literally does. If you measure it, the Super Twin is nearly ruler-flat in its power response until about 4kHz. You can push the highs up to around 10kHz, thanks to the dust cap. The Three10 has a dip in the mids, a bit of a bump in the lows and highs, and rolls off around 6kHz. You can crank its top end as well, but the tonal shapes are different.
Engaging the Tweeters
Alex: Shall we try turning the tweeters on?
James: Yeah. I want to hear what changes.
Alex: Most people don’t use tweeters with distortion—only strange people like me. But for this, we’ll crank them all the way up so the differences are as clear as possible.
[Plays with tweeters on]
James: Interesting. The top end’s basically the same now—very consistent.
Alex: Yeah, so now what we’re hearing is the difference in the mids and lows. Previously you were noticing the Three10 had more top end. But now, with tweeters up, the Super Twin just sounds cleaner—it’s not dipping the mids like the Three10.
[Alex toggles tweeters on/off]
James: The Super Twin shows a bigger change when you switch the tweeter in and out.
Playing with a Pick
Time to test pick playing—still on the same Jazz Bass, still with roundwounds, still running passive. We turned the tweeters off, assuming that’s what most pick players would prefer.
[Plays pick-style on both cabs]
Alex: That’s really good with a pick.
James: Yeah. One of the more controlled tones—I wasn’t watching which cab that was.
Alex: I’ve said this before, but the 10CR speakers in the Three10 just react really nicely with a pick. They thicken up the sound, round off the sharpness, and do a really musical thing.
[Adds distortion + pick]
Alex: Really like that.
Summary – How Do They Actually Compare?
Alex: The takeaway here is that the Three10 and Super Twin are cabs from different design families that occupy similar use cases. The Three10 is a hybrid resonator with three 10CR drivers. The Super Twin is a ported cab with two 12XN drivers. Physically, they’re almost identical in footprint—the Three10 is 10mm deeper, and the Super Twin is a bit heavier.
The Three10 already goes very loud, but the Super Twin goes louder still. That said, either of these cabs will be loud enough for 95% of players, especially given how efficient they are—you don’t need a huge amp to get serious volume out of them.
If you prefer the sound of the Three10, then you’re probably someone who will love the rest of the 10CR series—like the One10, Two10, Four10, Six10, or Eight10 if you’re brave (or deaf, or just like standing far from your rig).
If you prefer the sound of the Super Twin, then you’re in 12XN territory. That includes the Super Compact, Super Mini, Big Twin, Big Baby, and the Super Third (which is designed to stack neatly on top of the Super Twin). These all share the same voicing family—just more or less of everything.
James: So they’re kind of two tonal families with different strengths?
Alex: Exactly. It’s less about better or worse, and more about which flavour of “excellent” works for your playing, tone, and setup.
Barefaced Three10 vs Super Twin – Deeper Dive: Tone, Feel, and Strings
More comparisons from Alex and James with new basses, strings, and playing styles
We’re back with more demoing of the epic new Three10 and the equally epic—though now well-established—Super Twin. The Super Twin launched in either 2013 or 2014 (we honestly can’t remember exactly), and even after all these years, we haven’t bettered it. It’s fantastic.
This is a proper comparison between our 12XN and 10CR designs. They sound different—not because one uses 12s and the other uses 10s—but because we designed them to do different things. The fact that one ended up being a 12 and the other a 10 was a consequence of the design goals we were chasing.
The Super Twin (12XN) is all about clean, accurate, fast response. It could’ve been a 15 or a 6—we weren’t aiming for a twelve inch sound; we were aiming for that level of performance. The Three10 (10CR) is about pleasing warmth and musical colouration. The 10 was the obvious choice to get us there, particularly because we wanted to capture something in the ballpark of Ampeg 810s with a flavour of the big JBL and EV 2x15s from the '70s. It’s fatter, warmer—and for some players, just more fun.
James: I definitely prefer the Three10.
Alex: I don’t—but I totally get why you do. You’re a bassist who fits in bands. I, on the other hand, tend to start bands and then dominate them sonically.
The Three10 fits both styles. You can be the kind of player who wants to subtly glue the mix together, or the kind who cuts through and takes over. Think of someone like Tim Commerford from Rage Against the Machine—he uses 10s for his ultra-aggressive sound.
Test Bass 2: Passive P-Bass with Roundwounds
We’re now using a P-Bass strung with Elixir stainless steel roundwounds (fresh), which hilariously cost almost as much as the bass itself (about £50, second-hand). It’s running passive, with tone all the way up. We're still running through the back end of our Genz Benz power amp, bypassing the preamp for the cleanest signal.
[Plays P-Bass through Three10, then Super Twin]
James: The Three10 sounds really fat with this setup.
Alex: And the Super Twin feels quicker. More immediate. You play, and the note just goes. The Super Twin has a start/stop tightness I love—especially since I’m a rhythmic player.
For context, I play acoustic bass at home most of the time, but then show up to band practice with a big rig and a pedalboard the size of a skateboard ramp. I obsess over note articulation and timing, so I want gear that lets me stop and start with precision. That’s what the 12XN drivers give me.
James: Let’s swap players.
[Alex plays both cabs with the P-Bass]
Alex: The Three10 definitely sits better with a P-Bass. It just gets on with the way the P-Bass speaks. It’s got that forgiving fullness and natural roundness.
Adding Drive
Let’s throw on some overdrive.
[Plays driven signal through both cabs]
James: Whoa. That is a huge difference.
Alex: The Super Twin makes the dirt sound massive and dirty. The Three10 sounds more produced—like a mix engineer cleaned it up and found it a pocket.
James: The Super Twin is definitely more raw and mid-forward. The Three10 tames that, thickens it, and makes it more “finished.”
Pick Playing and Slap
Alex: I’m not a pick player, but I’m curious…
[Plays with a pick]
Alex: I partly prefer it with the pick. It cuts more. To clarify, we’re running through a class-D power amp, with no preamp colouration at all. That clean power stage shows off exactly what the cab is doing.
In the past, we’ve used the front end of the Genz Benz, and when the preamp tube died, I had to go direct into the power amp. That experience was eye-opening—the preamp was adding more colour than I realised. Bypassing it made my Stingray sound huge, almost like a different instrument.
This test is all about hearing the cabs, not the amp.
Test Bass 3: P-Bass with Flats + Slap
Time for a P-Bass with flats—very old flats, in fact. They’ve been on the bass since around 2011. This one’s a bit of a mutt: possibly a made-in-Mexico Fender, body replaced, maybe even a Mike Dirnt model at some point. It has a Badass bridge and zero documentation—classic project bass. Still sounds excellent.
We’ll do some slap playing, first with tweeters off, then with them at half, then full.
[Plays slap on both cabs]
Alex: I’m rusty, but it still sounds great. That’s a proper slap tone on a passive P-Bass with flats and no tweeter. Just shows how much these cabs can do.
James: Fresh strings or not, that’s a great slap tone.
Alex: I love slap when it’s done like Freddie Washington or Larry Graham. I don’t love the hyper-Instagram stuff. Most of the music out there doesn’t need slap. But this cab makes it sound good anyway.
Tweeter Up, Flats In
We now try with tweeters halfway, then full. Both cabs get much more similar as the tweeter comes up—because so much of the difference in their character is how the top end is handled.
James: When tweeters are full, both cabs start to sound pretty similar on the very top end.
Alex: Yeah, but they still express differently. The Super Twin does that hi-fi 1980s sound really well—tight lows, scooped mids, sparkly highs. Like those great double 410 rigs: Trace Elliot, SWR, Eden. That shiny “studio bass” tone. And you can carry it yourself, unlike a lot of those older setups.
Test Bass 4: Flats + Pick
Next up, pick with flats.
[Plays pick + flats through both cabs]
James: Interesting how the Super Twin makes the pick tone sound bigger and more like a guitar in a great way.
Alex: People sometimes call that quality “hollow,” though I hate that term—it’s confusing. Maybe it’s better to say “tubey” or “chambered,” that sort of midrange scoop. It’s probably something around 600Hz, whereas the real nasal “honk” tends to sit around 800Hz.
The 10CRs dip in the mids, while the 12XNs stay flat through the mids and rise a bit as the polar pattern narrows. That’s why we’re far-miking with the JM47—about seven feet away—to get a true sense of what it sounds like in the room. If you close-mic these, you’ll hear more of the mic and cone than the cab’s actual room tone.
Closing Thoughts
Alex: So, what’s the conclusion?
These cabs are both awesome. They do different things, and they do them exceptionally well. If you're choosing between a Barefaced 10CR cab and a 12XN cab, these comparisons show you the real-world differences—not just what they look like on paper, but how they feel, how they react, and how they work with your gear.
And if you're thinking specifically about a Three10 or a Super Twin, this series of tests is the best resource we can offer you.
We’re off to get some lunch. If you’ve got questions, ideas, or specific gear you want us to demo next, let us know.
Thanks for watching. See you next time.
Three10 vs Super Twin – Part 3: Extended Range, Slap, and Dirt
Short scale, long scale, 5-strings, slap, and fuzz – what do these cabs really do?
We’re back again—Alex and James from Barefaced—with the final part of our Three10 vs Super Twin comparison. This time, we’re pushing the cabs further with two more basses: a W-Bass short scale and a custom long-scale 5-string, both passive. We wanted to see how they behave with extended range, different pickup layouts, and more aggressive playing styles—slap, pick, fuzz, and combinations thereof.
The Super Twin (12XN) is still our loud-but-convenient clean beast. The Three10 (10CR) is the fatter, warmer, more colourful cab—somewhat vintage-flavoured, but not retro for retro’s sake. Both are extremely capable and versatile, and the difference comes down to how they pair with you, your bass, and your tone goals.
We’ve said this before, but it's worth repeating: you and I might play in the same band, use the same gear, but still prefer different cabs, and both work perfectly in the mix. James leans toward the Three10 and the 10CR range. I (Alex) lean toward the Super Twin and the 12XN line. Neither is wrong.
Reverend Wattplower Short Scale
First up, the Wattplower. It’s a 30” set neck bass, passive, with a standard P-style pickup and humbucker in reverse P position. This one’s strung for standard tuning. Short scales are really popular right now, and this one has a fat, round tone.
We start on the Super Twin, running clean through our usual power amp setup, bypassing all preamps and EQ—just pedalboard in bypass, tuner acting as a buffer.
[James plays fingerstyle on Super Twin, then Three10]
Alex: It does what we expect. You’ve probably noticed this across our other tests: the 12XN drivers (Super Twin) have a certain immediacy, transparency, and clarity. The 10CRs (Three10) are thicker, rounder, a bit slower to speak, and have more natural compression and bloom.
James: Going low on this bass really worked through both cabs, but the Three10 added more weight. That was really nice.
RIM Custom Extra Long-Scale 5-String
Next, we swap to the custom 5-string: 36” scale, chambered body, passive, with Q-Tuners positioned roughly like P and J pickups. There’s a four-way switch: neck, series, parallel, and bridge. This one’s drop tuned to A-standard: A–D–G–C–F.
[Plays clean fingerstyle through both cabs]
Alex: That sounds better on the Super Twin to me—really showcases its clean, extended low end. But overall, we noticed something interesting…
James: Yeah, I think bassists often end up using gear that brings them back to the same tone zone, even if the signal chains look totally different.
Alex: Exactly. If you start with a super fat, warm bass, you often run it through a tighter, more focused cab like the Three10 to balance it out. If your bass is tight and hi-fi, you often go through something fatter like the Super Twin to warm it up. Two opposite approaches, but both land you where the bass sits best in a mix.
[Plays same bass, same settings, fingers only]
Alex: I’ve said this before, but scale length changes the feel of how you play. Not just physically—it changes your phrasing. The envelope of the note, the way the sound blooms and stops, makes me play differently.
Short scale makes me roll around the groove. Long scale makes me dig in. There’s more attack, more “bam.”
Pick Playing + Tweeter Variations
[Plays pick-style on both cabs]
Alex: This one—I definitely prefer with a pick. It’s got more bite and energy. Kind of a studio/session vibe. Super Twin is more hi-fi; Three10 is warmer and more “in the room.”
James: Tweeter on?
Alex: Let’s try it, but it won’t make a huge difference on the short scale—it’s not very bright. Still, the tweeter does add a bit of attack and finger-on-string noise. Might be good, might not, depending on taste.
[Adds tweeter, plays slap]
James: This bass isn’t built for slapping—the pickup’s in the way—but the Three10’s natural scoop helps bring some slap energy out.
Alex: I agree. The 10CRs naturally scoop the mids a bit, which enhances slap tone. The 12XNs are flatter and more revealing. I personally like slap sounds with mids left in, so I lean toward the 12XN voicing—but again, it’s preference.
Dirt and Fuzz – And Tweeter Tuning
Now let’s get heavy. We engage the Darkglass Machine with fuzz and distortion blended. There’s also a clean blend on the pedal, so we show how rolling the tone knob changes how much clean treble comes through.
[Plays fuzz and distortion with tweeter at various levels]
Alex: So different when dirty. The Super Twin pushes the band aside and takes over the mix—absolutely massive. The Three10 keeps it more cohesive—fuzzier and more balanced.
James: I prefer the Three10 with dirt—still focused. The Super Twin is wild.
Alex: Yeah, and with tweeters involved, the type of dirt shifts too. Overdrive becomes distortion, distortion becomes fuzz, and fuzz becomes static. I like it. Most people don’t. Try it.
[Adjusts tweeter between full, half, and quarter]
Alex: You can find a really sweet spot with the tweeter around 25%. Just enough edge, but still natural.
Final Impressions – What Have We Learned?
Alex: Playing slap on a five-string, especially with a pick or fuzz, makes the differences even clearer. The 12XN cabs sound flatter, cleaner, and more revealing. The 10CRs bring weight, thickness, and colouration. They both scale up well, and as you add drivers (e.g. Four10, Big Twin), they just get fatter and louder without losing their core tone.
These two cabs—the Three10 and the Super Twin—are the only models where the form factor is basically identical. They’re nearly the same size and weight. The Super Twin is slightly lighter. The Three10 has bigger handles. But in practical terms, there’s no difference in portability.
They’re both very loud. The Super Twin can go a bit louder, but to get that extra volume, you need a bigger amp. The Three10 is already seriously capable.
James: And both are available with or without tweeters. But if you never use a tweeter, no need to pay for it. That’s why we make it optional.
Alex: The Three10 is now the 10CR answer to the Super Twin. It fills a perfect niche—same power, same portability, different voicing.
James: If you like the Three10, you'll like the rest of the 10CR range. If you like the Super Twin, you'll like everything in the 12XN line.
Alex: That's it. We’ve compared slap, pick, fuzz, clean, flats, rounds, short-scale, long-scale. Hopefully this series gives you everything you need to choose between our 10CR and 12XN cabs.
Thanks for watching. We’re off before the camera cuts out. It’s been Alex (shorter today) and James (still tall) from Barefaced. See you next time—maybe next year, or last year, depending on how time works when you’re watching.