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Fodera Club Part VI

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#741
basswalker2004 said:
On the subject of Tone... :-) how's that for a lead in.. On the new Matt Garrison. First off the bass resonates beautifully with out being plugged in.. The combination of the woods and the tone chambers really makes it sing.
I said when I got a chance to play with the pre-amp settings, I would post something. Initial set up from Fodera was Kill Switch active, Bass low, Mid set in mid, highs in high position tone control set to Jazz. Sounded great..
Last night i changed the multi function switch to control mids.. and chose low mid and high mid for my options.. I also changed the tone to P-bass..
i got as far as playing the bass passive, pickups in single coil with the p-bass tone rolled back a little. I say 'i got as far as' because once I head the way that sounded I could not put it down.. Played for 2 hours straight. I had nothing but P-basses until I got my Fodera in March '84 and have missed the sound.. This was incredible..
Today I will spend some time experimenting with the mid options and report back..
Hat's off to the Pontif... This is on fantastic pre-amp and control set up..

ps I have special narro Duncan Dual Coils..
Click to expand...

Very cool to hear the results of your exploration. I think that mine is set to the p bass setting as well, but I haven't played with it much in passive mode. I'll have to explore passive mode some more. I tend to go for a more modern tone in general, but I do dig a classic p bass tone.
 
#744
Just got this yesterday... and it completely kills!

Emperor 4 with maple burl top, ash/BEM, 22 frets, made in 2006, bolt on. Almost a Fender jazz done custom Fodera style. I'm really stunned by this thing. I'm not sure why I've had some weird 'bias' about bolt-on basses in the past (I tend to gravitate towards neck-through, somehow imagining that there's more sustain), but I really shouldn't have any. This is a fantastic bass in every respect. The playability is off the charts, and it's just a fun, funky bass. I've read a lot about Foderas being 'organic' in sound, and not real 'spanky', sometimes linked to the preamp--this bass is both organic and spanky in spades. I think I'm sold on single coils...
 

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#745
climb said:
Just got this yesterday... and it completely kills!

Emperor 4 with maple burl top, ash/BEM, 22 frets, made in 2006, bolt on. Almost a Fender jazz done custom Fodera style. I'm really stunned by this thing. I'm not sure why I've had some weird 'bias' about bolt-on basses in the past (I tend to gravitate towards neck-through, somehow imagining that there's more sustain), but I really shouldn't have any. This is a fantastic bass in every respect. The playability is off the charts, and it's just a fun, funky bass. I've read a lot about Foderas being 'organic' in sound, and not real 'spanky', sometimes linked to the preamp--this bass is both organic and spanky in spades. I think I'm sold on single coils...
Click to expand...

Very nice bass....
 
#746
Just Thumpin' said:
Dear Angus --

I am thrilled to hear your initial impressions of the bass and that it arrived safely. The soaking box part is pretty horrific, but I am glad that the bass seems none the worse for wear.

About the "steel wool" thing (as we are a bunch of perfectionists here), for better or worse, with a completely hand rubbed finish, there is simply no way that we have found to completely eliminate the very fine "scratches" that appear in the surface of our finish...especially on dark woods (like Katalox, Walnut, Ebony, Rosewood, etc.).

Many builders do not have this issue because they use either a polyurethane based finish or use a satin finish spray...neither of those finish methods will result in the fine scratches that you see in ours. Instead our finish process involves an ultra-thin glossy (you read the word 'glossy' correctly) urethane lacquer that is hand rubbed to a satin finish between each of the 7-10 coats. It is a painstaking process that takes a ton of hand time, but in the end, feels silky smooth to the touch, wears very well, is easily repaired AND (MOST IMPORTANTLY), allows the wood to breathe throughout its life rather than encasing it in plastic. We believe, based on a lot of tinkering, trial and error, that this is one part of the Fodera sound.

We actually stopped using steel wool (0000 steel wool) for final rub out over a year ago as we get better results with Abralon Pads (which we use in successively finer grades up to 1000 grit). Consider the marks a little bit of our humanity left behind to remind you that your bass was built completely by hand and rubbed out completely by hand as well...and, if we could figure out a finish that sounded as good and did not have any scratches, Joey and Vinny would have switched to it 20 years ago. LOL

Play it in good health!! It was a real pleasure to build it for you...

J
Click to expand...

At re-reading some of this thread something occured to me.
Another question actually...as usual :)...

What is the difference between urethane and poly urethane?

Many luthiers I know seem to use many coats of finish and cut back in between, but tis polyurethane and urethane distinction is something I can't seem to remember hearing before...

Hope you don't mind!


climb; very nice looking bass!! :hyper:
 
#747
cnltb said:
What is the difference between urethane and poly urethane?
Click to expand...

They are completely different, chemically. Urethane is a solution of ethyl carbamate, and polyurethane is a polymeric chain of some alcohol with a urethane linkage. Because the alcohol-containing chemical can be widely variant, "polyurethane" is a bit misleading as it only describes what is linking the groups in the alcohol together. They are quite different, chemically and structurally.
 
#751
tomika said:
:hyper:
Thanx for my "The Last Chestnut" bass for Fodera team!!!
I got it in the morning today! I did not put down yet!
Dreambass...!!!

:bassist:
Mike, this new preamp like the heaven :) You know 8-)
My favorite the selectable Bass and Mid...
Very high quality, no distortion, incredible headroom...
Congrats and thanx!!!
Click to expand...

Can't wait to hear a recording of you playing this bass. Congrats!

I really dig the bass/mid selector switch as well.
 
#753
climb said:
Just got this yesterday... and it completely kills!

Emperor 4 with maple burl top, ash/BEM, 22 frets, made in 2006, bolt on. Almost a Fender jazz done custom Fodera style. I'm really stunned by this thing. I'm not sure why I've had some weird 'bias' about bolt-on basses in the past (I tend to gravitate towards neck-through, somehow imagining that there's more sustain), but I really shouldn't have any. This is a fantastic bass in every respect. The playability is off the charts, and it's just a fun, funky bass. I've read a lot about Foderas being 'organic' in sound, and not real 'spanky', sometimes linked to the preamp--this bass is both organic and spanky in spades. I think I'm sold on single coils...
Click to expand...

Dude, single coils are the deal. They have transparency that I do not believe can be gotten any other way no matter what you do. When you need the single coil sound you just have to deal with the noise. There's a reason why so many players are willing to do that. Look at guitar players with their strats. Single coils PU's can just sit in a mix live or recorded better than anything else, IMO. Somehow the bass takes up just the right space and lets everything else be heard.
 
#754
Agreed. The tone of singles is just beyond anything we have yet been able to do with anything else. For tonal versatility, dual coils trump singles, but at the expense of that incredible, open, rich, organic single coil tone.

About three months back I replaced the linear humbuckers that I had in two of my Monarchs with single coils...one set was a set I had from a 1972 Jazz Bass and the other was a new set of our Fodera / Duncan Single Coils. Wow, what a difference...it was like removing a blanket from the speaker cabinet...and both of these bass were flat out killing before the change.

The downside is that when I favor either pup, there's noise, but since I have my fair share of basses, I have been taking these two out to blues and R&B gigs where I can run the pup selector dead center...and the tone is simply fabulous. So much so, that my two builds coming up this July (the ones I ordered in September 2009) may very well end up with single coils...

thepontif said:
Dude, single coils are the deal. They have transparency that I do not believe can be gotten any other way no matter what you do. When you need the single coil sound you just have to deal with the noise. There's a reason why so many players are willing to do that. Look at guitar players with their strats. Single coils PU's can just sit in a mix live or recorded better than anything else, IMO. Somehow the bass takes up just the right space and lets everything else be heard.
Click to expand...
 
#755
Have there been experiments with stacked and dummy coil pickups?
To get a singlecoil tone with no noise,stacked p/us seem to make sense...if built properly
I have heard some very good comments about some(i forget what manufacturers the pickups were made by,that I heard those comments about)

Just wondering.:)
 
#757
So if I wanted to make my dual coils pups true single coils but not make my bass look strange--what do I need to do? Take out the duals, put single coils into the pickup covers and then put some 'faux' poles without magnets into the dual slot? Has anybody ever done this? (I know this came up a few months ago but it was sort of dropped.)
 
#758
climb said:
So if I wanted to make my dual coils pups true single coils but not make my bass look strange--what do I need to do? Take out the duals, put single coils into the pickup covers and then put some 'faux' poles without magnets into the dual slot? Has anybody ever done this? (I know this came up a few months ago but it was sort of dropped.)
Click to expand...

I'd think a regular dual size cover with no holes could easily house/hide a single coil, but get the dual look
 
#759
Thanks--but I already have dual coils with holes, and don't want to get new pup covers necessarily. I don't care about having the look of dual coils, but I don't want a bunch of holes without poles... (I know that sounded pretty bad...heh heh)
 
#760
Garey said:
I'd think a regular dual size cover with no holes could easily house/hide a single coil, but get the dual look
Click to expand...

Thats exactly why I'm ordering dual covers no holes....to be able to experiment and/or swap between singles and duals with no concern to the asthetics. I'm also going to ask Jason if they can make a little foam "mold" to hold a "single" in the bridge pup in the center of the dual cover ( will be 60s position for my bass).
 
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