A small video review of the TOOB Metro 6.5BG+ speaker

[Alter]

I recently got a TOOB Metro 6.5BG+ speaker, based mostly on the forums positive feedback from people using it on gigs. Bought it directly from Gitterbug, who was a joy to deal with. My goal for this speaker is to use it on small gigs, both miked and not, hotels, conferences, restaurants, events etc, that kind of gigs, where you want something portable, dependable, good sounding with enough volume, and having enough features to make your life easier (DI, headphone out, etc)

Having tried the TOOB speaker in a couple of gigs and rehearsals, it sure delivers! I paired it with the TC BAM200 head, which seems to agree with the little speaker. I don't need to use reverb live cause usually places have enough ambience, but i do have a HOF II mini i sometimes use (i used it on this recording). I had borrowed a Quilter US to try it out, but had to return it before making this video. Sounded great with the Quilter as well, and more versatile, as the BAM is a one trick pony, gives you that bassy, uniform sound, whereas the Quilter is more dynamic, has more eq range and more features (like reverb).

Number one thing is obviously the light weight, 3 kilos for the entire rig, 5 if you add a second speaker for stereo. Similar gear is two times that or more. You can carry light 6-8 kilos amps for long distances, but this rig takes the amp completely out of the weight equation. Sound wise, often small speakers suffer from weak bass and boxiness, the TOOB has neither of these. I had the bass around 11 o'clock on the recording, less than half, as the sound can easily become too bassy. The Quilters bright character was nicely balanced. I can see players that disliked say the mid heavy early Lunchbox sound being happy with this sound. Overall, i was pretty happy with it on gigs, had enough tweakability to handle the different rooms, and a nice character, akin to warm solid state amps like the polytones, roland, etc.

Volume wise, this SICA 6L 1.5SL is a 91 db speaker (the other metro models are 94 i think), so not too loud, but loud enough for archtop jazz, that is jazz in a medium volume (which is usually the case in the mentioned type of gigs). If playing really loud with a heavy drummer, fusion etc, there are the 8 or bigger models, which are not really a lot heavier. But for my use it was adequate. You can also point the BG+ upwards with the three small legs it has, which works great if you are miking it (i was using the BAMs di out).

Here is a small video i made at home, using a Rode NT1-A mic about a foot away, only some limiting on the daw. I think the video sounds very close to the actual sound in the room, which was very nice. It is really an accomplishment for such a tiny rig to be able to play gigs with such good results. And the price isn't that expensive either, still less than half of getting a henriksen (especially in Europe). I know this rig will make a difference to my gigging, day in day out carrying next to nothing! And it's very nice to be able to support a small business that makes such a unique product. I am ordering the full range metro version next, for a stereo rig, and for a no-weight acoustic rig! And i got Nevershouldhavesoldit's bags from Amazon which are a great fit, even got the small one for the ZT Lunchbox

[kris]

Sounds great with hollow body guitars.
Thanks for the test.
Best
Kris

[marcwhy]

Great review and vid - sounds fantastic!

[Donnd]

Appreciate the excellent review! I often gig with an electric classical (Godin Ambient duet) as well as various archtops. I have difficulty finding one amp that works well for both types of guitars. Bass amps work best for the classical guitar so perhaps the BAM200 is appropriate. Cheers!

[Alter]

Thank you! This guy plays the BAM with a classical, it sounds pretty good. I will post something when i get the FR metro, as i also have a Guild Paloma which is similar to the Godins. Also even the Quilter US might work since it has a full range speaker simultation option. Maybe someone on the forum has tried it with a full range speaker like the TOOB FR.

[Gitterbug]

Mikko Karhula has a first gen. FR here. The FR II has a flatter response, enhancing the bass end. SuperBlock's cab sim options apply to line out, not the speaker connection. The Tweed voicing on SuperBlock does not have the mid-scooped tone stack of the later Fenders. Therefore, it's louder than the ´61 and ´65 voicings. OTOH many acoustic players tend to suppress the midrange.

[Alter]

Hotel season is starting, so the first gigs with this setup are comin up. Stellar results so far, have tried an archtop and a tele!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Yeah, baby!!

For gigs that require a mic, I run a BG+ and an FR II in stereo, powered by my trusty old Alesis RA100 (50 WPC) driven by a small 6x2 mixer. This is an amazing setup when accompanying a vocalist. It also does justice to my Roland guitar synthesizer when I'm pretending to be a B-3 with Leslie and/or a horn section (which I'm asked to do more and more for an old established blues band who used to have horns but gave them up for $$ reasons).

[jackalGreen]

Beautiful review!

That's my setup as well — the TC + 6.5BG — used with my gussied-up Ibanez AF55 (stock pickups, but wooden bridge and Th-Inf GB 14s...and some cosmetic things like applying Meguiar's #7), as well as just a mono for a Hammond clone...no worries about blowing the driver.

You play the lights out on your rig! Kudos!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

even the Quilter US might work since it has a full range speaker simultation option.

The cab sim on the SBUS only works on the XLR DI out and the headphone out. It does not affect what comes out of a connected speaker.

[jackalGreen]

The cab sim on the SBUS only works on the XLR DI out and the headphone out. It does not affect what comes out of a connected speaker.

Huh.

Thanks for the info.

I know you run a stereo rig with your Metro BG and the FRII with your guitar-synth thing working the Hammond....I think you were saying quite a while ago that one of your regular jobs has an XK5 setup in the corner or so.

In addition to your regular guitar playing.

I think you said somewhere that you use a stereo amp to drive your Metros....which is good.

You think I should upgrade from the BAM200 to a Quilter to drive my (soon to be arriving!) 6.5 FR II for primarily stereo keys (Crumar Mojo Classic + bass pedals)?

I know....can't tell without hearing it.....and stereo's only for the organ, really....I even prefer all my other pianos in mono, generally, without any effects except a touch of delay and slapback....and less said about my guitar "playing" the better, really.

Shouldn't be a problem, but what do you think, maestro?

[Alter]

Way i see it the Bam200 is more uncolored than the Quilter Us, and being a bass amp more suitable for bass sounds. The Bam200 being so cheap i ended up getting a second one instead of the Quilter US for now. One sits on top of the BG+ and handles the bass part of the sound just fine, the other one on top of the FRII+ as a stereo pair (or i use it as a stand alone acoustic guitar rig). Sometimes i use a Tonex One with them, but it's not really necessary.

Plus i also use the Bam200 for actual bass gigs Together with a Henriksen style 10 inch cabinet with an Eminence Beta 10A speaker it is a killer portable setup for both jazz guitar and bass.

Playing bass here with this rig:

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Huh.

Thanks for the info.

I know you run a stereo rig with your Metro BG and the FRII with your guitar-synth thing working the Hammond....I think you were saying quite a while ago that one of your regular jobs has an XK5 setup in the corner or so.

In addition to your regular guitar playing.

I think you said somewhere that you use a stereo amp to drive your Metros....which is good.

You think I should upgrade from the BAM200 to a Quilter to drive my (soon to be arriving!) 6.5 FR II for primarily stereo keys (Crumar Mojo Classic + bass pedals)?

I know....can't tell without hearing it.....and stereo's only for the organ, really....I even prefer all my other pianos in mono, generally, without any effects except a touch of delay and slapback....and less said about my guitar "playing" the better, really.

Shouldn't be a problem, but what do you think, maestro?

I played a local club twice a week for years, jazz with my trio on Thursdays and blues with the house band on Sundays. I led on guitar and - reluctantly - was the default vocalist for much of the 17 years I played with the blues band. But I also played whatever was needed to back touring acts Fri & Sat nights when they used local backing or sidemen. I quit that gig last December, disbanded my trio, and went back to solo jazz. By February, I got enough calls for a trio to put together a new one with two old friends and excellent players on bass & drums.

The club owner bought a new XK5 Pro and a Leslie 3300 in 2017 IIRC. It’s a great rig and much better to play and hear than the poorly maintained B3s still out there. A “real” B3 in excellent condition has the mojo to sound and feel even a bit better - but the cost and effort of restoring & keeping one in top shape are high, and IME few are still that good. There’s a Nord Stage 2 sitting on top that’s a fabulous keyboard with excellent pianos including a sampled 9’6” Bosendorfer Imperial, Rhodes, and Wurly.

The Roland synth is very good. But it’s not in that league, even though audiences don’t notice or care and bands love it. If I’m on a big stage, I use a 30 year old Mackie mixer & Alesis RA100 stereo power amp driving a pair of bass cabs (RevSound & Raezer’s Edge). I rarely need that much stuff, so I started using 2 Toobs instead of traditional bass cabs unless I’m the horn section or B3 for a big, loud band in a very big room.

Most often now, I just use a BAM200 through a Metro BG+ for the synth. The BAM is an excellent amp that’s a perfect match for the Metro. You don’t specify which Quilter you’re considering. A SBUS isn’t in the same league with the power of a BAM - it won’t do the job for a synth. If you’re asking about a Tone Block, it’s no more powerful than the BAM and offers no advantage except the power limiting. As both are rated above the Metro’s limit, you need to use a bit of care and not push your volume to extremes. There are great cheap stereo class D amps you could use to drive a pair of Metros if you don’t want to bring 2 heads. Pyle makes a few 100W+ that are great for under $100 USD.

Bass pedals are probably too much for Metros except for very small quiet gigs. It takes a lot of power to push tones below 40 Hz, and the Metro is already down several dB by 80. You will not get realistic pedal notes and you risk blowing the driver. The organ sounds realistic because of reinforcement of the weak lows by their 2nd harmonics in the overall sound. Pure low tones will sound weak, and you’ll push volume in an unsuccessful attempt to get around that. I don't play organ bass with the Roland synth - I always have a bass player.

I wouldn’t use a Metro for a bass pedal board. That’s asking a bit more than the little giant can do.

[jackalGreen]

I wouldn’t use a Metro for a bass pedal board. That’s asking a bit more than the little giant can do.

Yeah that was a concern....Markku seemed very confident the Sica speaker could take it.....but maybe not at max volume. Haven't blown the driver yet, but then again I don't stand on the low C pedal....mostly "tapping" and some walk-ups/turnarounds.

Good to know I'm not the only fan of the BAM...probably just pick up another one and stick it on the second Metro.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Yeah that was a concern....Markku seemed very confident the Sica speaker could take it

As long as you don't hit the Metro with a sustained 125+ Watts, it'll "take it". You probably won't blow the speaker unless you keep going at 125W long enough to overheat the voice coil. The BAM has a thermal cutoff, so it will probably shut down at about the same time the voice coil gets hot enough to fry an egg. It's the age old question - which died first, the speaker or the amp?

So the speaker will probably survive a fair amount of abuse. But it also has to sound good. To do that, it hs to push out solid, weighty, palpable bass. Bass pedals need their fundamental frequencies to sound right, and no Metro will put out effortless sub-60Hz tones. Low C on a Hammond B3 (tone wheel #1) is about 32 Hz. This is serious bass, and it just doesn't sound right from speakers that can't pump it out easily. The second harmonic (64 Hz) will have more weight, but the only way you'll hear much of a low C from a Metro is psychoacoustically. For lack of a better term, there's no thunk to it without that fundamental.

Can you get by with it? Sure you can. Will it sound as good as a more robust bass speaker in a cabinet that's flat to 40 and down 3 to 6 dB at 30? Absolutely not. The Metro is a wonder among speakers. Be grateful for what it does, but don't expect the impossible. You can turn water into wine - but it won't be Chateau Lafite.

[Baldoza]

I am liking the sound!

[Alter]

I've found both the Bam and the Toob speaker to progressively compress when the volume gets close to the limit. So it's easy to see you are stressing the amp/speaker and realize where the healthy volume level is.

[Alter]

Here is the BG+ paired with a ZT Lunchbox. Using two because we play outside and it's a huge open place. I'll have the second BAM next week, so will post something with the two Toobs then. Also using the Tonex One here, with the Tonexcellence Henriksen preset (which is by far the best jazz tone i have found for Tonex). But i'm not really set on the Tonex, the Bam sounds great by itself too.

[Christian Miller]

Nice playing! Listened to that all the way through. Wish I was there…

I think this well represents the sound of the smaller Toob. When turned up a little it has an attractive compression to it as you note…

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kris]

I"m not sure that sounds good .For me, it"s a bit too thin.
Certainly a very mobile device.
I recently bought a guitar cabinet with a 12 -inch Matrix -Made in UK.
Very light cabinet with neodymium speaker.The sound is really very professional.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Here is the BG+ paired with a ZT Lunchbox. Using two because we play outside and it's a huge open place. I'll have the second BAM next week, so will post something with the two Toobs then. Also using the Tonex One here, with the Tonexcellence Henriksen preset, which is by far the best jazz tone i have found for Tonex). But i'm not really set on the Tonex, the Bam sounds great by itself too.

Nice!

18 July, 2025? I assume you got the flux capacitor fixed and drove to the gig in the Delorean

[Alter]

Haha yeah i meant June.. need to fix that. No lottery ticket number guess yet unfortunately...