TimothyGroovy
Commercial User
- Aug 3, 2000
- 2,374
- 2,097
- Disclosures
- Owner: Uni•Sound Endorsing Artist: Sadowsky Guitars, Olinto Bass, LaBella Strings
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Fodera Club Part VII
- Thread starter Bryan R. Tyler
- Start date
-
- Tags
- club
- Status
I just went through all 35 pages. All the basses that you could see some of the neck, were maple (various dark wood stringers, but majority maple), except Janek's which is ash and maple. For those of you that have order from Fodera do they give you any other choice? They are the biggest name in boutique basses so they do it for a reason. Maple is much cheaper than other woods people use and I know they are not looking for the cheap way out. I love Fodera basses and I am a bass builder so I am curious.
I just visited the shop this week and I totally believe this statement. Jason really took the time to walk me around and make sure that I felt like I had covered all the bases that I wanted with a new ax. And very cool and patient while doing so. I could tell that he had the process clocked and that helped me to get all the answers I needed while other peeps were doing what they needed to on the various instruments. That said, the whole crew was really friendly and it was nice to see what I consider to be a legendary shop in action. Thanks guys, it kicked in my excitement about this ax to a whole different level!
Link Removed
Some other pics I took....
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150170739679420.319149.687694419&l=8f1a5d315b
There was a post about this somewhere, basically they are a custom shop and will build what you want. I'm sure if you wanted they would do a purple heart neck although I would not want to sand/shape that neck.
Originally I wanted Cherry as the body wood on my bass but Vinny thought there were better sounding woods for bass so I went with Mahogany. They would have gladly built a bass with Cherry but I trust the opinion of Vinny Fodera for body wood choices.
Originally I wanted Cherry as the body wood on my bass but Vinny thought there were better sounding woods for bass so I went with Mahogany. They would have gladly built a bass with Cherry but I trust the opinion of Vinny Fodera for body wood choices.
Great pic of Matt's acoustic bass in the shop. I'm still dying to hear that bass recorded.
As someone who has a beautiful 6 string bass made with a cherry body, at my request, I can tell you that you were right to go with Vinny's suggestion. My next bass will be just like the one I have now, but with a mahogany body. If I had had a rosewood board it would be better, but mine is the cherry body with an ebony board and it turned out to be bright with not enough low end. With a mahogany body it would've been perfect.
if you like you could do more extensive and accurate research by viewing the 'newborn' section of the Fodera site. The specs customers have chosen, are posted there. I personally have always been a big fan of 3 piece hard rock maple necks. That's what I have on my original Monarch and what I ordered on two of my other basses. On my new Imperial, I went with 3 piece ash and love it just as much. It's a matter of choice man.. Fodera is a complete custom shop so they will do what you want.. but, they also know what works and they know how to combine woods to get the tone and feel the customer is looking for.
hope that helps.
new haven has a nice italian area with some great restaurants and tremendous neopolitan (thin crust) pizza !!!!
Great shots. That acoustic MG5 intrigues me. I'd like to hear it, see the heel block and transition from the neck to the body and actually see it in action. Has Matthew had that on the road with him at all?
that thing intrigues me as well. It wasn't as heavy as it looks but I didn't really play it. I took another shot from further but it was pretty blurry. Anyways, it was really a cool looking bass and if you ever hear of clips in action, id love to know!
Hey Andy,
Well my old bass had a wenge/purple heart neck and had tons of low end. I want a maple/purple heart neck on my fodera and figured it would be bright sounding with the cherry. Are you talking about a smith?
Well my old bass had a wenge/purple heart neck and had tons of low end. I want a maple/purple heart neck on my fodera and figured it would be bright sounding with the cherry. Are you talking about a smith?
I remember seeing some feature somewhere on Matt Garrison when he was on tour with Whitney Houston. He said he had a Fodera NYC 5 string(B-G) and his main Fodera(E-C) and one more Fodera bass. I think this might have been it.
Just Thumpin'
Commercial User
- Mar 7, 2008
- 4,534
- 1,664
- Disclosures
- Manager and Partner, Fodera Guitars (10/14/09 - 12/16/19)
No, they are not. We have three preamps...
1. The NYC 2-band (this one is not a Mike Pope Design).
2. The Fodera Standard Preamp -- an implementation of Mike Pope's FlexCore technology unique to Fodera that we use as the upgraded (optional) preamp on the NYC series instruments and on the Yin Yang Standard. This preamp is also available for retail sale to non-Fodera owners for use in their own bass. It is sonically similar to the Custom Shop Preamp at a lower price point.
3. The Custom Shop Preamp -- Also a Mike Pope design that he perfected for us with Joey's input. This is the preamp that comes with all of our Custom instruments and is only available to Fodera Custom owners. More about the preamps here...
http://www.fodera.com/PublicPages/ProprietaryElectronics.aspx
In terms of Neck Woods...over the years Vinny and Joey have determined that Maple and Ash work for 99% of what they want(and our customers want) to do. We have built an occasional Wenge neck also, but the vast majority are Maple and Ash. There really is no need to turn to an exotic material when these do such a great job both structurally and sonically.
We do have one really cool "exotic" wood that I will be using on my upcoming Monarch "twins" that we will be building for me in late summer / early fall...we call it Water Maple. It is the same Hard Rock Maple that we usually use except that this was from a parcel of logs that were originally harvested in the mid-1800's and then sat submerged under the cold waters of the Great Lakes until the mid-1980's when they were recovered through a salvage operation. They are incredibly stable dimensionally and their tone is slightly warmer than the normal Maple that we use...
1. The NYC 2-band (this one is not a Mike Pope Design).
2. The Fodera Standard Preamp -- an implementation of Mike Pope's FlexCore technology unique to Fodera that we use as the upgraded (optional) preamp on the NYC series instruments and on the Yin Yang Standard. This preamp is also available for retail sale to non-Fodera owners for use in their own bass. It is sonically similar to the Custom Shop Preamp at a lower price point.
3. The Custom Shop Preamp -- Also a Mike Pope design that he perfected for us with Joey's input. This is the preamp that comes with all of our Custom instruments and is only available to Fodera Custom owners. More about the preamps here...
http://www.fodera.com/PublicPages/ProprietaryElectronics.aspx
In terms of Neck Woods...over the years Vinny and Joey have determined that Maple and Ash work for 99% of what they want(and our customers want) to do. We have built an occasional Wenge neck also, but the vast majority are Maple and Ash. There really is no need to turn to an exotic material when these do such a great job both structurally and sonically.
We do have one really cool "exotic" wood that I will be using on my upcoming Monarch "twins" that we will be building for me in late summer / early fall...we call it Water Maple. It is the same Hard Rock Maple that we usually use except that this was from a parcel of logs that were originally harvested in the mid-1800's and then sat submerged under the cold waters of the Great Lakes until the mid-1980's when they were recovered through a salvage operation. They are incredibly stable dimensionally and their tone is slightly warmer than the normal Maple that we use...
Could you please give us a little more detail into the differences between the two Fodera preamps sonically? I have a Yin Yang standard on order and I used to have an old Fodera/Pope preamp from an Emperor and a Fodera preamp pedal and I was just wondering how they sound compared to each other.
Thanks,
Michael
Hey Dan, my bass was made by my good friend Brian Ristola. It has a cherry body/top, ebony board and maple/purpleheart neck....Bartolini quad coils. I put the Barts in because the bass was too bright with other pickups. It helped. The bass sounds great (and plays like a dream) but it's still too bright and doesn't have the low end I'd hoped for. I had played an M Bass that was similar, but with a kingwood fingerboard. That was one of the best sounding basses I've ever played...ever. It was so good I've thought about having the ebony board taken off of my bass and having a kingwood board put on instead. It'd be labor intensive but a great, great deal cheaper than having a new bass built, which won't happen for a couple of more years while I finish school.
- Status
