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Fodera Club Part XIV

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#802
The fact that the body is made of Koa is the dominant tonal feature IMHO. We do not notice a tremendous tonal difference between basses with the same body woods with or without a top UNLESS the top used is one that tends to have a major tonal impact on the overall build...

J

nuwavedc said:
One other particularly interesting characteristic of his basses are the solid body wings. Do these bases tend to me more or less resonant or no difference from a bass with a layered construction?
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#804
This has not been my personal experience at all. Having heard hundreds of different Fodera instruments of varying scale lengths, in GENERAL, the longer the scale length the more articulate, resonant and "deep" the low-B sounds to my ear. That is not to say that these differences are necessarily "better" or "worse."

I find the same to hold true with pianos.

Of course, there are always instrument to instrument variations, but I have definitely experienced a generalized pattern...

pierreganseman said:
Hi, I am a new fodera owner...

I personally do not believe at all in this scale thing regarding B string...

I have heard sloppy B's with 35, and My sei bass 6 was a 33 and had a thunderous B string...

All in all, I think it's down to building... how do things or not...

:)
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#806
Of course on any given day you can find a thread or two swearing that tone woods mean nothing...I just hate how much of my life I have spent learning about something that does not exist and does not matter.

LOL.

J

nuwavedc said:
Thanks for the info, and sorry guys if am asking a lot of questions that have been asked before. Between the members in the Fodera forum and Jason's presence, I can't think of a better place on the planet to get information on tone woods for bass. With a new custom on the horizon I keep tearing it down and rebuilding it in my head.
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#807
nuwavedc said:
How would you describe the difference between BRW and ebony as a fingerboard wood? And which is the harder / denser wood, I assumed ebony is.
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The ebony has an airy ping to the top end. The brw board is warmer and much less compressed.
 
#808
Joelc73 said:
The ebony has an airy ping to the top end. The brw board is warmer and much less compressed.
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That's it exactly to me. I have somehow always known that I was a rosewood family guy and yet ended up with wenge, ebony, and even maple boards until recently.

The BRW seems to be the best of the Rosewoods. It has some warmth but still some nice clarity, focus, and articulation.

I also concur that fingerboard is really important with whoever said that. I generally hear it as having a big impact on the sound of the attack of the note. It might be bigger to my ears than body wood, though more so on bolt ons than on neck throughs.

My Sadowsky is ebony/alder and it is pretty bright with lots of edge, though in a different way than a maple/alder bass MTD I owned. I'll be parting with the Sadowsky once I get a BRW/Ash J-style bass from Callowhill shortly. I also have a fantasy of getting a Mike Lull P5, which of course I also want in BRW/Ash! (Maybe that would be redundant . . .)

I think I've made the mistake of thinking I could get a warm sound from body woods alone and with this bass I am more convinced that I was never gonna love anything with a harder board.
 
#809
The other thing with the Sadowsky is the preamp (unless you run passive - I personally never run anything I have passive, though I normally am flat most of the time). That brings its own thing to the party. I'm not sure I'd describe ebony as compressed. It definitely has the airy sizzle up top, but I also find it has a strong fundamental and fairly even response. At the risk of generalizing between my two PJ Monarchs the ebony board has a flatter curve while the BRW is more of a frown - less high sizzle and a bit less fundamental but very punchy mids.

I'd love to get an MG with ebony board and do the comparison :D
 
#810
nostatic said:
The other thing with the Sadowsky is the preamp (unless you run passive - I personally never run anything I have passive, though I normally am flat most of the time). That brings its own thing to the party. I'm not sure I'd describe ebony as compressed. It definitely has the airy sizzle up top, but I also find it has a strong fundamental and fairly even response. At the risk of generalizing between my two PJ Monarchs the ebony board has a flatter curve while the BRW is more of a frown - less high sizzle and a bit less fundamental but very punchy mids.

I'd love to get an MG with ebony board and do the comparison :D
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I actually do run the Sadowsky passive sometimes, like when I'm playing in my fake country band. (Don't ask. ;) )

Still lots of sizzle and I'm pretty sure its because of the board. My first one had RW and had much softer attack. Maybe compressed is not the right word for the board, and perhaps ebony comes off that way because it often shows up on basses with lots of laminates and dense woods- i.e Ken smith.

One thing about this particular Fodera is that I was designing it for jazz, light pop, latin; nothing too aggressive with hard hitting drums and guitar distortion. It has loads of punch and groove still but not that harder edge of brighter boards. (Last night I was just playing with a piano and it was gorgeous.) I can see why Ebony or maple might fit some styles of music better.

I keep thinking Macassar ebony might be a nice in in between BRW and ebony if anyone is looking to split the difference between the two.
 
#811
Robin Ruscio said:
I actually do run the Sadowsky passive sometimes, like when I'm playing in my fake country band. (Don't ask. ;) )

Still lots of sizzle and I'm pretty sure its because of the board. My first one had RW and had much softer attack. Maybe compressed is not the right word for the board, and perhaps ebony comes off that way because it often shows up on basses with lots of laminates and dense woods- i.e Ken smith.

One thing about this particular Fodera is that I was designing it for jazz, light pop, latin; nothing too aggressive with hard hitting drums and guitar distortion. It has loads of punch and groove still but not that harder edge of brighter boards. (Last night I was just playing with a piano and it was gorgeous.) I can see why Ebony or maple might fit some styles of music better.

I keep thinking Macassar ebony might be a nice in in between BRW and ebony if anyone is looking to split the difference between the two.
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I thought Indian and Macassar ebony are the same wood? Now I am confused. Btw both KS basses I had had Macassar ebony FBs or maybe it was gaboon ebony. Can't remember. I always liked the clarity and bell like high end on my ebony boards. Still trying to get a handle on what causes warmth in woods whether they have content that damps high frequencies or if they resonate at lower mid frequencies more. I do agree that the ebony high end can be harsh and kind of clanky but I can just roll of the high end in that case.
 
#813
It also depends on the strings. I only use nickel so the ebony sizzle never gets out of control to my ear. I think stainless strings are another story.

The reality is that it is only glaring when I swap back and forth. They all sound great, they just have a different character. And I still have a tough time putting the MGS down. Kinda rare that something exceeds expectations, especially when the expectations are so high.
 
#814
nostatic said:
It also depends on the strings. I only use nickel so the ebony sizzle never gets out of control to my ear. I think stainless strings are another story.

The reality is that it is only glaring when I swap back and forth. They all sound great, they just have a different character. And I still have a tough time putting the MGS down. Kinda rare that something exceeds expectations, especially when the expectations are so high.
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I really would love an MGS someday. That's the only bass that has tempted me back to a High C.
 
#815
I don't have a point of reference for the high C. All I know is that I've all the sudden got a whole bunch more that I can do. I really don't miss the B string these days. But even after only a couple weeks of working with the MGS I miss the C string when I swap back to a 4. Until I start slapping - that is a pita for me on the MGS. Well, actually slapping is ok but popping I'm having a tough time with.
 
#818
Robin Ruscio said:
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I'm pretty sure that jet black stuff is gaboon.
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Good info, thanks. The ks basses use Macassar I checked the specs. I think lower cost instruments like carvin use gaboon. Fodera is probably using Macassar or east Indian (Ceylon).
 

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