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Fodera Club Part IX

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#622
The Red Book would make no difference...I want to see better pictures of that instrument to verify my hunch that it is not legit. BTW, one of the very first things that I did (personally) is to enter EVERY instrument from Vinny's Red Book into a database so that it is searchable and readily accessible. That is how I could tell in 30 seconds that we have never used Cocobolo as a top...

Cheers,

Jason


jumbodbassman said:
Go to Vinnie's reddish/brown book. he has details of all the early instruments - yes a few guitars were made - actually my buddy owns the matching guitar to my Brazilian Rosewood bass.
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#624
Does anyone have any advice on preamp swapping from the John East U-Retro 01 Deluxe that came installed on my Emperor Elite 6 to either the Pope NYC or Pope Custom Shop ones? They both have different knob/switch configurations, so I would imagine there would be significant work/drilling, or perhaps putting a dummy switch in for the NYC version?

This is not to bad-mouth the U-Retro - it's great for what it does, but it doesn't have what I feel is the ideal Fodera tone - I much prefer the preamp in my YYS for what I want from a Fodera. For more vintage stylings the U-Retro is an excellent preamp.
 
#625
It won't be a difficult swap, but note that most of the Pope custom shop configurations have three mini-pots, whereas the Pope has two oversized ones. You might have to choose your configuration carefully, or get one specific to your situation.

It's funny- I'm thinking of going the other way.
 
#626
Radial said:
Does anyone have any advice on preamp swapping from the John East U-Retro 01 Deluxe that came installed on my Emperor Elite 6 to either the Pope NYC or Pope Custom Shop ones? They both have different knob/switch configurations, so I would imagine there would be significant work/drilling, or perhaps putting a dummy switch in for the NYC version?

This is not to bad-mouth the U-Retro - it's great for what it does, but it doesn't have what I feel is the ideal Fodera tone - I much prefer the preamp in my YYS for what I want from a Fodera. For more vintage stylings the U-Retro is an excellent preamp.
Click to expand...

ya know, i'd just get two boxes and put the retro in one and the pope in the other; put some sort of splitter/blender in the bass and wire the pickups straight to the jack. that way you could have both preamps and use according to gig or taste du jour. you'd also have the option of going completely passive.

the problem to me of having an onboard pre is that styles and tastes change . . . my state-of-the-art pre of 25 years ago is now "passe" . . .but the bass itself is not.
 
#627
Just spotted an article in MiPro in the UK that talks about Paul Turner signing up with Fodera NYC via a partnership with BassGear who have the exclusive distribution deal for Fodera in the UK.

Invalid Link Removed

Turner said: "I'm fortunate to have some great basses but there's always been some mystic awe surrounding Fodera and so I was curious to try the NYC5. The clarity of this bass is mind blowing, yet it still retains many of the qualities I like in my old favourites. It's flawless."

Looks like a cracking bass and I've seen that he's been using it live with Jamiroquai on a couple of gigs already.

In the past I've only ever seen him with a lovely vintagey Alleva Coppolo and a few of his old vintage Fenders so this is a bit of a departure for him.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Paul and he really knows his basses, definitely the most knowledgeable player I've ever come across and he has an amazing 'ear' for tiny little subtle differences between individual basses, body and fingerboard wood types, pickup position, pickup age, string types etc.

He's also a fabulous player and a first call session/dep guy over here for lots of people.

Really interesting that he's chosen to go with Fodera as a new gigging bass, would love to see/hear what it sounds like live :)
 
#628
Paul Turner is my Nr. 1 favorite Jamiroquai Bassplayer of all time !!!

great honour for me that I'm pictured right next to him in the Fodera Artist section :D
 
#629
I wonder how many of the new Emperor Standards have been sold? I'd love one, but I don't think I can live with 19mm spacing on a 5 string. I generally feel like 19 is a tad wide and 17.5 is a tad narrow... wish I could get 18.25 without paying custom prices (even then, I'm not sure if builders could offer that?)!

Another Fodera question: anybody know why so much fingerboard wood extends after the last fret? It looks like they could almost squeeze another fret in! And that's just eating into your slapping space. Most basses I've seen don't do this... I wonder if there's any functional reason?
 
#632
48 are spoken for of the first 60 as of this morning...

In terms of string spacing, you can get our 19.0 mm bridge down to very, very close to 18.25 mm...

Finally, we cut our fingerboards exactly where the 25th fret would be. That's just the way Vinny has always done things...

Cheers,

J

freshesd said:
I wonder how many of the new Emperor Standards have been sold? I'd love one, but I don't think I can live with 19mm spacing on a 5 string. I generally feel like 19 is a tad wide and 17.5 is a tad narrow... wish I could get 18.25 without paying custom prices (even then, I'm not sure if builders could offer that?)!

Another Fodera question: anybody know why so much fingerboard wood extends after the last fret? It looks like they could almost squeeze another fret in! And that's just eating into your slapping space. Most basses I've seen don't do this... I wonder if there's any functional reason?
Click to expand...
 
#633
lowfreqgeek said:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Very interesting, to say the least. Something seems off, but anything is possible. I'm sure the experts here can clear it up.
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I emailed the guy, and got some interesting looking pics. Definitely not a butterfly on the headstock. Also.....

"
And one other thing I want to mention is this is a very custom Fodera... I worked at USA Custom Guitars for 5 years and the Monarch 4 was the only guitar that Fodera didn't build themselves... We built them for them at the time... But we only built 60 -75 of them before our CNC guy left...
"

So......no.
 
#634
Radial said:
Does anyone have any advice on preamp swapping from the John East U-Retro 01 Deluxe that came installed on my Emperor Elite 6 to either the Pope NYC or Pope Custom Shop ones? They both have different knob/switch configurations, so I would imagine there would be significant work/drilling, or perhaps putting a dummy switch in for the NYC version?

This is not to bad-mouth the U-Retro - it's great for what it does, but it doesn't have what I feel is the ideal Fodera tone - I much prefer the preamp in my YYS for what I want from a Fodera. For more vintage stylings the U-Retro is an excellent preamp.
Click to expand...

The Pope Flexcore preamp is fantastic. Go to his website and you can configure your core to the holes you have. This pre kicks butt IMHO.... and is a breeze to install
 
#635
lamarjones said:
I emailed the guy, and got some interesting looking pics. Definitely not a butterfly on the headstock. Also.....

"
And one other thing I want to mention is this is a very custom Fodera... I worked at USA Custom Guitars for 5 years and the Monarch 4 was the only guitar that Fodera didn't build themselves... We built them for them at the time... But we only built 60 -75 of them before our CNC guy left...
"

So......no.
Click to expand...

He's talking about the new standard series. If he worked at USACG during that time period, then his story is probably legit about the bass. This was probably something he pulled off the line and tweaked for himself -- and never actually made it to Fodera.
 
#637
+1 on this. I have the FlexCore (active-passive V/B/T + 4 band) running with switched Nordy dual coils in a Lakland chassis. I will be ordering another. The tone pallette is just perfect. With his electronics and the Fodera attention to design and construction detail, I totally get why you all love their instruments.

The FlexCore, however, is as close to a Fodera as I'm going to get for a while.
:hiding:

basswalker2004 said:
The Pope Flexcore preamp is fantastic. Go to his website and you can configure your core to the holes you have. This pre kicks butt IMHO.... and is a breeze to install
Click to expand...
 
#638
Joelc73 said:
He's talking about the new standard series. If he worked at USACG during that time period, then his story is probably legit about the bass. This was probably something he pulled off the line and tweaked for himself -- and never actually made it to Fodera.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Sounds like it could be semi legit. I wouldn't say it's completely legit however as he describes it as a 'custom Fodera' which it obviously is not. It's a Fodera shell with hardware and electronics he put in himself. Still for $2000...I bet it plays well and plenty of older 80s Fodera basses had bartolini pickups.

One thing I've noticed, amongst all the obvious Fauxderas there are some which are less definitely less 'faux' than others.:hiding:
 
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