Fodera just debuted this today, and I have to say I'm very intrigued. I've seen other attempts at this concept, but this one is definitely the most advanced.
I'll let Fodera do the talking...
"No your eyes are not deceiving you and no we have not decided to move our design ethos into the realm of Modern Art, however, here at Fodera Form has always followed Function and this instrument is no exception. For more years than we care to admit our good friend and bassist extraordinaire, Victor Wooten, has wanted us to design and build an instrument for him that can be played both fingerstyle and with a bow. This instrument (affectionately known here at the shop as “The Bow Bass”) is the result of this collaboration. For better or worse this was very much a prototype that we delivered to Vic in early April of 2014. As with all of our prior designs, The Bow Bass now will be tested “under battle conditions” and, based on the feedback that we learn from Vic’s work and input, we will refine the concept and potentially offer it as a commercially available model.
We decided to build The Bow Bass with an Alder body, Maple neck and Ebony fingerboard to provide some heft and warmth to the low end while retaining the articulation necessary for good fingerstyle tone. The pickups are a set of 5-string P-J style Nordstrands that we then heavily modified to suite this application. As you can see, the radius of the fingerboard is super small to allow the necessary clearance of the bow between each string. It is early days yet for us to adequately describe its tone, but suffice it to say it is wonderfully rich, deep and unique and should give Victor an entirely new set of tools with which to work. And, a note of caution…when Dave (a member of our Team who is well versed in playing upright with a bow) drove the B-string hard with a bow during final set-up, the low end was so wonderfully thunderous that had the volume been cranked a bit higher we probably would have blown up the very sturdy 2×10 cabinet that we were using! Stay tuned!!
Body Woods: Bow Bass Custom Shape, Alder Body, Alder Tone Block, Flame Maple Top (Solid)
Neck Woods: Ebony Fingerboard, 3-pc. Hard Rock Maple, Blank Inlays (Side Dots Only)
Construction Specs: Birth Date – April 2014, Neck-Through Construction, 34″ Scale Length, 5 String Configuration (17.5mm Spacing), 24 Frets (Fretless with Lines)
Electronics Options: Fodera / Pope Custom 3-Band Preamp, Norstrand P/J Pickups, Monarch Control Layout"
I'll let Fodera do the talking...
"No your eyes are not deceiving you and no we have not decided to move our design ethos into the realm of Modern Art, however, here at Fodera Form has always followed Function and this instrument is no exception. For more years than we care to admit our good friend and bassist extraordinaire, Victor Wooten, has wanted us to design and build an instrument for him that can be played both fingerstyle and with a bow. This instrument (affectionately known here at the shop as “The Bow Bass”) is the result of this collaboration. For better or worse this was very much a prototype that we delivered to Vic in early April of 2014. As with all of our prior designs, The Bow Bass now will be tested “under battle conditions” and, based on the feedback that we learn from Vic’s work and input, we will refine the concept and potentially offer it as a commercially available model.
We decided to build The Bow Bass with an Alder body, Maple neck and Ebony fingerboard to provide some heft and warmth to the low end while retaining the articulation necessary for good fingerstyle tone. The pickups are a set of 5-string P-J style Nordstrands that we then heavily modified to suite this application. As you can see, the radius of the fingerboard is super small to allow the necessary clearance of the bow between each string. It is early days yet for us to adequately describe its tone, but suffice it to say it is wonderfully rich, deep and unique and should give Victor an entirely new set of tools with which to work. And, a note of caution…when Dave (a member of our Team who is well versed in playing upright with a bow) drove the B-string hard with a bow during final set-up, the low end was so wonderfully thunderous that had the volume been cranked a bit higher we probably would have blown up the very sturdy 2×10 cabinet that we were using! Stay tuned!!
Body Woods: Bow Bass Custom Shape, Alder Body, Alder Tone Block, Flame Maple Top (Solid)
Neck Woods: Ebony Fingerboard, 3-pc. Hard Rock Maple, Blank Inlays (Side Dots Only)
Construction Specs: Birth Date – April 2014, Neck-Through Construction, 34″ Scale Length, 5 String Configuration (17.5mm Spacing), 24 Frets (Fretless with Lines)
Electronics Options: Fodera / Pope Custom 3-Band Preamp, Norstrand P/J Pickups, Monarch Control Layout"
. No way to be indifferent about this one. 
