Fodera in Gospel

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by Luke Warm Water

I agree with Munjibunga. Gospel is a broad term, so I will address my experience.
I grew up playing in both white and black churches, everything from delicate ballads with acoustic guitars to finger-bleeding shout music with shrieking B3's and highly abused drum sets. What I have found is that the most forms of gospel seem to embrace a wide variety bass tones and styles. I played a couple of Foderas recently. They seem to have a modern and refined tone, with great action...a definite must if you get caught up in a praise break. To Munjibunga's point, some Foderas seem to have a little more edge to them than others. But overall, the that smooth modern tone with delicate highs would be great to use. From my experience, while having a bass 'with teeth' is important to compete with a B3, the greater battle for me had more to do with amplification and finding the tone that would fill the music just right. (I used an Eden with some 4x10,s...worked out pretty well.)

To be honest, the real reason I wouldn't bring a Fodera to most of the gospel gigs that I've done is because they haven't been in the best parts of town. Bringing a $10,000 bass to a gig in the back neighborhoods? I've seen and heard of TOO many axes stolen...literally from the church parking lots. One of them was a bass I just sold to a friend...unreal! But if you are responsible with it, yeah, it's great bass and I would imagine a lot of fun to use at a gospel gig.

Stealing at church really rankles me because I am pretty sure that at times it is members doing it. I have zero respect for anyone who would buy a bass that was clearly stolen.

On another note, I know a local bassist who is quite brilliant (he went to Wooten's bass camp too) who had his gear stolen from his car at a church in East St. Louis. He mentioned that the preacher asked the audience to pray for him, but the bassist wished the preacher had called for a collection on his behalf!

[joebar]

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

Stealing at church really rankles me because I am pretty sure that at times it is members doing it. I have zero respect for anyone who would buy a bass that was clearly stolen.

On another note, I know a local bassist who is quite brilliant (he went to Wooten's bass camp too) who had his gear stolen from his car at a church in East St. Louis. He mentioned that the preacher asked the audience to pray for him, but the bassist wished the preacher had called for a collection on his behalf!

i agree
if someone needs a coat, do you give him a loaf of bread?

[Johnny Roots]

Originally Posted by grisezd

Here's a thought, play a squier and give $9700 to the poor?

Can I tell you how to use your money? Gotta love the todays train of thought.

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by joebar

i agree
if someone needs a coat, do you give him a loaf of bread?

The bottom line was that the collection for the church (pastor.) The bassist was getting nothing but prayers!

[nostatic]

Amazing how sanctimonious crap creeps into threads, along with arbitrary standards for "right" and "wrong".

So I play my $10K Fodera at nursing home gigs where I don't get paid. Does the venial sin of owning an expensive bass get offset by the karma points from giving music to those less fortunate? Do I have to play a 45min or 90min set to get enough credit? If I played a Squier, I guess I'd only have to do one tune? I'd love for someone to lay out the math and indicate the top allowable price for a bass being played in a house of worship.

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by nostatic

Amazing how sanctimonious crap creeps into threads, along with arbitrary standards for "right" and "wrong".

So I play my $10K Fodera at nursing home gigs where I don't get paid. Does the venial sin of owning an expensive bass get offset by the karma points from giving music to those less fortunate? Do I have to play a 45min or 90min set to get enough credit? If I played a Squier, I guess I'd only have to do one tune? I'd love for someone to lay out the math and indicate the top allowable price for a bass being played in a house of worship.

I guess having a nice rig is a sin too.

I seriously doubt if I will ever own a Fodera, but people own what they own and use what they use. If one uses Christianity as the standard, there is scripture where Jesus praised a woman for putting expensive oil on his feet while he told a rich man to give up all he had and follow him. One can pick and match anything to match one's argument.

The bottom line is that the church is a material entity in the material world. It costs money to run a church or buy the things needed for a church.

[joebar]

IMO i think anything worth doing is worth doing well.
to do anything well requires the right tools.
if the right tool is an expensive bass then so be it.
more importantly, a good player will sound good on anything.
but then again, i like fine things.
but it wasn`t long ago when i had only the essentials.

[Baird6869]

Originally Posted by Dr. Cheese

They don't exactly give away Warriors, MTDs, or Ken Smiths either. I think the main factor about Foderas are that many tend to really favor the upper mids. They would certainly cut through.

+1.

I am not a gospel/P&W expert, but most of the top guys seem to play MTD and Smiths from what I have seen. Almost always 5ers too. A Fodera would sound great IMO.

playing a $5000-10000 bass in church isn't any worse than wearing a $5000-10000 Rolex to church IMO.

[joebar]

Originally Posted by Baird6869

+1.

I am not a gospel/P&W expert, but most of the top guys seem to play MTD and Smiths from what I have seen. Almost always 5ers too. A Fodera would sound great IMO.

playing a $5000-10000 bass in church isn't any worse than wearing a $5000-10000 Rolex to church IMO.

in the P/W teams i played with in the past, the instrumentation was sparse and that lended itself to letting the bass playing shine thru
all the more reason to play an awesome bass

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by iwearpumas

We can all agree that certain basses are better for certain styles of music.

I reckon so...

I would never bring a fretless Rob Allen Mouse bass to a metal gig. Or bring a hot pink & pointy ESP bass to a County & Western gig.

MM

[Baird6869]

Originally Posted by nostatic

So I play my $10K Fodera at nursing home gigs where I don't get paid.

Do you at least get free apple juice or tapioca pudding?

I agree with you though. I am playing a Legion fundraiser next week for free and I will be playng my MTD 535. Would be my Fodera but I won't have it ontil Jan.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Baird6869

Do you at least get free apple juice or tapioca pudding?

No, seeing an Alzheimer's patient smile and tapping their feet is payment enough. Besides, I'm gonna need all the karma points I can get, especially with my basses

[capnsandwich]

Foderas would be great in gospel. They have coil tap switches, multi-band EQ's and soap bar pickups to get a lot of different tones out of them. Plus, they look good on stage, especially in an urban gospel setting.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by MysticMichael

I would never bring a fretless Rob Allen Mouse bass to a metal gig. Or bring a hot pink & pointy ESP bass to a County & Western gig.

I would, but I'm nucking futs...

[gkbass13]

Originally Posted by nostatic

Amazing how sanctimonious crap creeps into threads, along with arbitrary standards for "right" and "wrong".

So I play my $10K Fodera at nursing home gigs where I don't get paid. Does the venial sin of owning an expensive bass get offset by the karma points from giving music to those less fortunate? Do I have to play a 45min or 90min set to get enough credit? If I played a Squier, I guess I'd only have to do one tune? I'd love for someone to lay out the math and indicate the top allowable price for a bass being played in a house of worship.

You're the man.

[phillybass101]

Originally Posted by bassistjoe93

Hahahaha! As a Christian who disliked and disagrees with Joel immensely, this made my day right there!

Don't hate the Playa, hate the game. LOL!!!!