Many of the changes that were made during 2008 / 2009 had to do with solving what had been an "identity crisis" of sorts for the NYC line. They were neither JBass clones, nor were they Foderas...they were kind of stuck in a no-man's land.
Although I have had the pleasure of playing MANY great NYC's from earlier years, I have also played some that weren't as appealing (to me personally). As these instruments came back into the shop, we consciously asked ourselves what made the great ones great and what made the ones we liked less inferior. Being an organized, diligent, nutty lover of basses, I kept a little journal about this stuff so that our observations could be memorialized and reflected upon.
As most of you who read this thread know, I am all about team don't take personal any credit for much of anything at the shop because we make every key decision about the instruments and the business as a team. That said, the value that I DID personally add to the process of refining the NYC's was that of being an "outsider." I didn't have anything personally invested in the past decisions that had been made about the product, so I was free to ask questions and be honest about what didn't work. This is a valuable role in any organization, but especially important when a company has been doing something for 28 years. You can risk a case of "that's the way we always have done it" syndrome.
There were many different "batches" of NYC's built over the years and they all used varying neck profiles, parts, pickups, preamps, etc. They ALWAYS were made from great wood, but that is only one part of the mix...and some of the other choices were not always consistent. They were instruments in search of their soul.
So, in looking dispassionately at the many NYC's that came back to the shop over the course of well over a year, some very clear themes emerged...
1. The ones that were built with OUR neck profiles felt better to play.
2. The ones with our high-mass, upgraded, proprietary bridges had more sustain and sounded more "Fodera-like" than ones with various less-expensive, lighter mass "parts" bridges.
3. The pickups from one of the four sources that we had been using for the NYCs consistently sounded the best in these instruments.
4. Two different preamp voicings emerged as the ones that seemed to work work best...our 2-band Fodera preamp was unrivaled for copping a more vintage-style tone and our 3-band Pope / Fodera NYC preamp was most pleasing when being compared directly to our full-blown Custom Shop preamp. Earlier versions of the NYC preamps (other than these two) just were frankly not as good.
5. Aesthetically, we were selling "Deluxe" versions of the NYC's that had beautiful wood tops at the rate of 2 or 3 to 1 compared with painted "standard" NYC's.
6. We offered so many versions of the NYC's over the years (i.e. number of frets, neck build, etc.) that even we couldn't keep them straight.
So, we used these observations when designing what the NYC's now are and ALL of them are being built the same way to ensure consistency. Essentially they no longer are trying to be great JBass-style basses built by Fodera, they are instead aimed at being as much as possible like their bigger siblings given that they cost roughly 50% less. They now unabashedly sound and play very much like our Custom Shop instruments and this is why they now proudly wear the Fodera Butterfly AND the name Fodera on their headstocks.
I hope that this is what you were looking for!
Hi Jason,
I was wondering if you can just briefly highlight the major improvements/changes the NYC line has undergone over the years. I did a search on TB and my impression is that the opinions have been very mixed...especially regarding the "pre-2009 redesign" models. However, the descriptions on your site as well as the recent BPM review seem to indicate that the NYCs are now killer instruments. Any thoughts on how the line evolved? Thanks!
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