TOPIC: Bane weathered 12W+ Red review

The good:

Looks: This saber is BEAUTIFUL. It is quite honestly a work of art. Pictures don't do it justice it is very uniform and has the perfect menacing and sinister look I would expect from something named the "Bane." I don't know how I feel about dueling with it with my son because I am afraid to damage the finish and put scratches on it. Also see below. He by the way was extremely excited and everyone was right about previous comments in my previous posts . The weathered look is just awesome. The matte feel of the body is comfortable to hold and done perfectly. It appears to have had a thick layer of anodizing that sandpaper was used to make a matte finish (which I love) and then further used to make a weathered look but I am just guessing. The emitter and pommel color appears to be "sprayed" on and then perhaps sandpaper was used to weather so the finish is shinier and therefore takes on another "tone" of color. It fits perfectly in my hand and is comfortable to hold and swing around and such. Over all the form of the saber I would give a 9/10.

Sound: The crimson font is a good sith font and complements and adds an exciting feel to the saber.

The adjustment of the saber was easy and I dialed it in pretty quickly.

Light: one word: BRIGHT. The 12 w+ Was def worth it in my opinion. Sucker almost hurts the eyes. 9/10

The bad:

Looks: There is a visible line down the middle of the saber. Again its not the worst thing and I understand why it had to be. I knew it was going to be there as well. But there is a little extra space where in the correct light you can see some red which I assume is a wire underneath. No biggy as no one will notice but me. The emitter points are quite sharp by the blade and I am considering filing them to avoid gashing my son or myself by mistake. I may not duel with this saber. The claw is not sharp and has near zero chance of hurting anyone with the blade in.
There are no flash on clash. Even a dimming of the blade would have satisfied me but that is by no means a deal breaker. I think shutting the saber down takes a second or two too long but again I am being picky.

The ugly:

Okay this is not to start an argument. I am not a fanboy to any store as I only own two custom sabers. This was my first purchase but I also purchased a Graflex CE from Ultrasabers and of course that arrived weeks before this. I therefore am using it as a reference for this section. Maybe the Hero Tier version of this saber would have been different. Please as this is the only Saberforge saber I own correct me or let me know as the next tier I will order will be hero if this is the case.

The sound:
The volume of this saber quite frankly SUCKS. I know Saberforge is about to release a new board and honestly if I knew how this one sounded I would have waited. I would have upgraded to a hero tier saber if if it is louder but I wanted a 12W+ color. The obsidian 4.0 board and speaker set up iis impressive. It may be that Saberforge has the brightest and most durable lightsabers but they sure as heck don't have the loudest . The obsidian blows this away. This saber is quite overshadowed by it. I can hardly hear the swing noises as they are not very loud in the crimson font. There are odd background sounds like a weird hum on mute and such and it kind of gives a cheapening effect to an otherwise stellar design factor. There is some room for improvement here and I may send this back for an upgrade if I hear reviews of how loud the new champion level board is. I would give the sound volume a 4/10.

Over all impressions so far:

I am really happy with my choice. There is a little room for improvement as I think the saber should be louder but I am still enthralled with it. I do not regret purchasing the saber. Anyone who wants a really nice piece that can be dueled with should consider this in the weathered form. The looks of this saber and the others on deck and now available are light years ahead of the competition and I will be a repeat customer here. Thank you for reading!

Some pics if I can get them to work.

Final thoughts and pics up

The board itself is very, very rarely to blame for volume issues. Like, we're talking 1 in 90 cases, it's the board's fault. The Sabercore has its issues, but I've never seen anyone say volume was one of them... lol.

Have you adjusted the settings on the onboard menu? There are different volume levels.

Have you tried taking off the pommel, to make sure nothing somehow got caught on the wrong side of the speaker, or that it's somehow not facing outwards correctly? If the C-ring shook lose during shipping, the speaker may have twisted, and not be sending the sound down into the resonance chamber of the pommel/end of the hilt like it should be doing. Also, double check the pommel itself. If it's THAT muted, some of the vents may be blocked/missing...?

Hope these tips help in some manner. If nothing like that is visibly wrong... how comfortable are you taking a peek at the wiring to see if maybe one of the speaker's connections is lose? Also possible...

But, like I said, usually it's NOT the board to blame for volume issues, but rather the speaker/other scenarios. Just to try to help you narrow down what may be the cause of that.

I have 2 US sabers, and 2 SF sabers. The volume on all of them are comparable (give or take a decibel or two).

Something else is amiss.

i checked the saber and the speaker seems seated fine. I think it is a resonance problem with the bane. I say this because to change settings on the graflex I have to pull the board out and turn the saber on and its sound diminishes significantly. When its back up in the saber it is very very loud again. I think this is due to the width of the graflex body. Maybe in another saber the sabercore board sound is more impressive. I mean this is my first Saberforge saber and its not like the volume isn't acceptable. Its just comparing it to another boards sound was like night and day. I'm okay with it though. I'm happy with every other aspect of the saber. Maybe the light side font is more polished. Thanks for the input!

The Viridium and Crimson are just different fonts. They play at the same volume levels.

Like I said, the board itself is very, very rarely to blame for volume issues. It's probably something in the way of the speaker, touching it, not allowing it to vibrate fully, or something blocking the sound, a problem with a connection to the speaker... one of these things.

You said the speaker seems to be sitting normally but did you check anything else? You're right about the resonance chamber, as I mentioned before if something is blocking part of it, or not allowing the speaker clear path through the end of the hilt and pommel, it greatly diminishes the effects of the resonance chamber and therefore the volume. If the speaker is clipped in place, make sure the clip isn't overly on the inner part of the speaker itself. Sound is formed by vibrations; if the speaker isn't vibrating correctly because something is pressing on the center, that will result in diminished volume.

I have seen video reviews of a few Bane sabers, and there has never been any mention of a volume issue. In fact, one of the oft mentioned comments is how LOUD it is.

There just has to be something else going on.

I will check it again tonight. Maybe I can figure something out. Don't want to send it back and wait weeks again just for them to tell me I'm nuts and its fine . I can try moving the speaker up and down to try and generate better resonance.

We want to do what we can to prevent you from having to send it back as well, but without seeing/hearing the same thing you are, it is difficult.

Perhaps you could make a quick video (with the pommel pointed towards the microphone) showing the saber at the low volume setting, then changing it to the high volume setting. There might be a clue there that could help us, to help you figure it out.

Just a thought.

Brax has an excellent suggestion. If you could do that, it would help a ton in trying to figure out what's causing the volume issue for you.

Also, just want to point out, if you do have to send it back in, their turnaround for RMA work is generally 1-3 days. So, you don't have to wait weeks... unless you live... not in the states, in which shipping to and from could take a while. Hopefully, tho, we can figure out what it is without that being necessary!

Woah since when was bane an elite saber?I don't see it in the elite section of the store...

Since... always...

It hasn't been added to the main site yet. They're releasing a rather large website update soon with the new ASP stuff... my guess would be that it will be added to the website then.

Knytiri wrote:
That's really good to know. I don't think I'd be able to get another hilt for a while and I was hoping The Bane wasn't going to be a limited run.

Ok so I took the pommel off and the ring out and slid the speaker out of the bane for a closer look. The speaker appears to be a little "pushed in" on a side and I think this is taking away from some of the bass part of the sound. It appeared the ring was pushed too hard against the speaker originally. I ordered a "bass" speaker from TCCS and its on the way as this is the style speaker in the ultra saber. I know this will probably void the warranty but I am good with electronics and its just a two wire fix. If this doesn't work I'll ask saber forge if I can buy one of their speakers and just put the stock one back in. I have a feeling due to the decreased diameter of the bane compared to the graflex type body will require a speaker with more resonance. I will keep you up to date! Plus a speaker with more bass will probably sound better with the crimson fonts. I would post a video but I only have my iPhone. I doubt it would show a slight decrease in sound but if I lit the graflex up and then the bane that would probably one would hear the difference. Again the diameter limits of the bane may be the problem. Also the speaker hits an inner ridge on the "claw" which acts to hold the speaker from creeping up the bane. This prevents a deeper chamber for resonance. It might not be possible to make the bane louder this way but I am going to try with this speaker. There is another speaker called the "premium" speaker on the site which more closely matches the stock bane speaker but we'll see what happens!

I changed out the speaker today to this: http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/2W-28mm-Bass-Speaker-P662.aspx.





Let me tell you something. This is how the saber should have come! The handle literally shakes with bass. It is very loud now. I am fully satisfied with the bane and it has now met all my expectations. I HIGHLY recommend this upgrade if you want superior sound. The highs are also excellent and I cannot tell the difference from the speaker that came with the saber. It resonates wonderfully now. Thanks for reading!