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Fodera Club Part XV

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#281
It was owned by one of my partners, Ken. He is a guitarist but wanted a Fodera. He has got one of the BADDEST looking Fodera guitars that we have ever built just being finished, so he is parting ways with the bass. It's a killer bass at a very good price. He just wants to move it quickly so that he can pay off the balance on the guitar.

And yes, we all pay and wait in line just like every one else...even as owners. The only luxury we allow ourselves is the 30% wholesale discount. Other than that, we are all in the same boat...

styro said:
BTW, theres a bolt-on Monarch 4 available at the Fodera webshop ... just tripped over it in the new borns galery ... seems to be preowned.
http://www.fodera.com/Main/NewBornDetails.aspx?FeaturedItemID=21
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#282
steubig said:
i sometimes think that part of it is just that people used the stuff and now we have that sound and so forth as part of our cultural "dna" (i know it's not real dna guys!).
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You are spot on and so had anything been drastically different in the original designs we might be playing instruments that sound different now, 50 + years later. For instance it's not that technically better or more accurate pickup systems don't exist, it's just that they don't fit in with the "cultural DNA" as you put it...interesting. Keeps me thinking about what's coming though and how things can advance.....
 
#283
nuwavedc said:
You are spot on and so had anything been drastically different in the original designs we might be playing instruments that sound different now, 50 + years later. For instance it's not that technically better or more accurate pickup systems don't exist, it's just that they don't fit in with the "cultural DNA" as you put it...interesting. Keeps me thinking about what's coming though and how things can advance.....
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This has crossed my mind before.

The sound of Fender bass created a social norm for what a bass guitar should sound like; a Fender "meme". We're all hearing bass tone through the filter of what we've heard before, which turns out to be a lot of P's and J's.

I usually think a bass should sound like whatever I've been listening to the most lately for tone, so right now, it's Mike Pope and Matt Garrison. Perhaps I should record myself with my new Fodera and only listen to that, so I'll always think it sounds great and not ever have GAS again. :D
 
#284
thepontif said:
Hmmm.....and love waves?
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I don't think they apply here. They occur in an elastic layer connected immovably at its base to a rigid substrate and open to a vacuum on top, although the vacuum in practical cases is absent, since the ground surface is exposed to air. Also, the layer has to have a slower acoustic velocity than the substrate. And that, my friend, is the Wave of Love.

BTW, my Viceroy-shape shipped today. It must've been ship-shape.
 
#286
Just Thumpin' said:
It was owned by one of my partners, Ken. He is a guitarist but wanted a Fodera. He has got one of the BADDEST looking Fodera guitars that we have ever built just being finished, so he is parting ways with the bass. It's a killer bass at a very good price. He just wants to move it quickly so that he can pay off the balance on the guitar.

And yes, we all pay and wait in line just like every one else...even as owners. The only luxury we allow ourselves is the 30% wholesale discount. Other than that, we are all in the same boat...
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Not sure if you can/will tell,but it's interesting nonetheless;
How many owners are there and what percentage is owned by the original owners ?:)
 
#287
steubig said:
i sometimes think that part of it is just that people used the stuff and now we have that sound and so forth as part of our cultural "dna" (i know it's not real dna guys!).
Click to expand...

I see someone else has noticed the pedantic side of Fodera ownership...

nuwavedc said:
You are spot on and so had anything been drastically different in the original designs we might be playing instruments that sound different now, 50 + years later. For instance it's not that technically better or more accurate pickup systems don't exist, it's just that they don't fit in with the "cultural DNA" as you put it...interesting. Keeps me thinking about what's coming though and how things can advance.....
Click to expand...

Thing is, I don't think we'd have seen anything drastically different back then. Leo was looking to make the double bass portable, hence the flat wounds and the thought that we should play with our thumbs (which is why there's a tug bar instead if a thumb rest on the earliest Ps). He might have made it fretless though, which would likely have made fretted basses nothing more than a curiosity today. But because he was trying to keep some of the DB character to the sound, I can't really see how different he'd have gone.

It's also interesting that Leo hisownself said that G&L was where he finally got it right. I personally like the straight-up Fenders just fine.

(I know they're not really straight)
 
#288
thepontif said:
There's not much theory to it anymore. It's mostly figured out, I think. Here's a link to some writing by one of the world's great minds on the subject, Harold Conklin.

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Paticularly the sections on strings, and longitudinal modes of vibration. This guy is the grandfather of modern string making technology, although most string makers have never heard of him. You can look up his patents for very technologically advanced string winding machines, which are now commonplace.
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For anyone that hasn't listened to the sound examples in the longitudinal modes section, please do. If the the longitudinal mode traverse the nut a substantial case can be made for the extended b headstock or atleast tuning this mode of vibration as mike has said many times. Granted you probably will hear it more when slapping then finger style, but its there and it's real. The obvious difference between a bass and a piano is that it's fretted and this has implications if the longitudinal mode traverses the fretted position I would think. Good stuff. I don't know how much of a difference it all makes on a bass, but I'll be playing with it no doubt and im glad I opted for the extended hs on the 33".
 
#289
roadkill2309 said:
I see someone else has noticed the pedantic side of Fodera ownership...

Thing is, I don't think we'd have seen anything drastically different back then. Leo was looking to make the double bass portable, hence the flat wounds and the thought that we should play with our thumbs (which is why there's a tug bar instead if a thumb rest on the earliest Ps). He might have made it fretless though, which would likely have made fretted basses nothing more than a curiosity today. But because he was trying to keep some of the DB character to the sound, I can't really see how different he'd have gone.

It's also interesting that Leo hisownself said that G&L was where he finally got it right. I personally like the straight-up Fenders just fine.

(I know they're not really straight)
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Pedantic, very true, even before Fodera ownership, but this certainly created nice common group for intelligent discussion.


Yeah, I like your point about the DB emulation...makes sense, especially on pbass which I think came several years before the jbass.
 
#291
One would expect that people who are willing to spend cubic dollars on an instrument would also tend to sweat small details, not only with their instrument, but in other aspects of their lives. Not a necessarily a requirement for ownership or a causal relationship, but correlation nonetheless.
 
#292
huh. most of my reading of "pedantic" is one that's negative.

most of my comment was just musing on how something is considered the norm (and a little in joke at the end about how we stress about definitions, which i see as rampant in humankind, not only in foderaland).
 
#293
pedant |ˈpednt|
noun
a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.

It usually has a pejorative context. Another way to think about it is that the discussion about the "cultural DNA" of bass tone drifts towards the existential, and Fodera owners might be more inclined to swim in those waters. Though I suppose one can play teh pointy bazz and quote Nietzsche :D
 
#294
nostatic said:
pedant |ˈpednt|
noun
a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.

It usually has a pejorative context. Another way to think about it is that the discussion about the "cultural DNA" of bass tone drifts towards the existential, and Fodera owners might be more inclined to swim in those waters. Though I suppose one can play teh pointy bazz and quote Nietzsche :D
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well that def is what i was thinking of.

"cultural dna" strikes me as being more "big picture" (well, this instance in our world) than a "minor detail" ;-)
 
#295
I would love to have Fodera's take on a headless instrument. Assuming this design would eliminate the "extended" B-string by making all of the strings the same length north of the nut, this might make for an interesting comparison for all of the string lengths regarding longitudinal vibration.
 
#296
Just got a new Emperor Elite and it's killer!
I was bummed, the action was way too high, you could shoot arrows with the bass. I tried to lower it and nothing. Then I noticed that the truss rod wasn't "working" right, I turned the rod clockwise and I was getting more back bow. Turns out the truss rod was flipped! I pulled it out and flipped it 180 degrees back to the normal position and it now literally plays like butter and sounds amazing.
The bass was new and the truss rod was a little tight when I pulled it, I'm wondering if it came like that from the factory.......

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#297
Danny R. said:
Turns out the truss rod was flipped! I pulled it out and flipped it 180 degrees back to the normal position and it now literally plays like butter and sounds amazing.
The bass was new and the truss rod was a little tight when I pulled it, I'm wondering if it came like that from the factory.......
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feature, not a bug :D

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#299
Danny R. said:
I read that, that's why I noticed it was in the reversed position!! Do all new basses come with the truss rod in the reversed position? The bass came from club bass and they said they never even touched it, they just inspected it.....
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Call Jason he'll give you a good explanation I'm sure. Better to get it right from the horses mouth. But I'm sure whatever direction it was in was to give the neck proper relief at the time it was installed. Wood isn't static.
 
#300
Danny R. said:
I read that, that's why I noticed it was in the reversed position!! Do all new basses come with the truss rod in the reversed position? The bass came from club bass and they said they never even touched it, they just inspected it.....
Click to expand...

I believe it depends on the time of year, humidity etc. as to which position they initially set it up with.. Jason will of course clarify.
cheers
 
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