Well there was the Kubicki...
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Well there was the Kubicki...
wintremute
mediocrity at its finest
- Oct 16, 2014
- 6,942
- 29,551
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Langstrom Carrot Farms
And 9 of them will eventually be given away after no one buys them.
I think this D tuner is a complete hash up....4 double ball strings and a non double ball for the low E...come on.
Status Graphite make their own headless units and are by far the best headless systems out there. ZON make their own custom de-tune headless bridge....unlike this thing which cobbles 3rd party supply parts together. My goodness....$11.6K for parts which are readily available from Hipshot. I used to have respect for Fodera....but after this, I'm not sure I do any more.
But I still can't get over their statement about headless basses lacking in tone....I'm astonished !?!
.....I think you mistook my post for a Fodera fanboy post. I wouldn't buy one of their basses, I'm a committed socialist.
Even if they made the best basses in the world from the best parts in the world (hey, maybe they do) I wouldn't want one. I'd buy a Korean Jazz (I did) and give the rest of the money to fund electoral campaigns for Jeremy Corbyn (again, I did).
Not actually joking. Respect to those who do spend $11k on a bass guitar though. I'm sure they made their money without squeezing anyone else further into poverty than was absolutely necessary.
Buy a new Squier in EVERY town you go to, and still have money to fly first class all the way!! No thanks.
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Apart from the suspicious headstock (if any!) shape, I am highly concerned that the thickened part around the first fret will make it horrible to play on the low register.
See:
See:
Yeah, I'm sorry but for $5K you can get this - No contest:
For 11.5 K you get TWO of these. Including the airplane ticket to get you to the place where the second one resides, so you don't ever need to bring it...
Controls laid out much better, save for output jack. And don't care for led dots, but those are optional. I never ever cared for actively lit up dots, but that's just my thing. Would be so much better with just fluorescent color that glows in the dark. Stage lights are strong enough to light those ones up for hours, and be visible if stage lights dim enough, but OT. OT.
This reminds me of the foldable guitar that was some sort of invention a decade back. Trumped out, and lots of ads and endorsment deals. Then neck had a mechanism that you folded with strings on. When I looked at the specs it just turned out 3 centimer (a little longer than one inch) shorter than my headless guitar, which can be stowed away in the compartment anyway.
They were on the notion that it just must have headstock on it, and went to lengths to produce something that still stuck to that design adamantly, while making everyhing else cumbersome and way out of line unwieldy.
I'd choose headless (any) any day.
Just because you can, you shouldn't!
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Apart from the suspicious headstock (if any!) shape, I am highly concerned that the thickened part around the first fret will make it horrible to play on the low register.
See:
Oh yes! Damm right about that one. What bothers me is that I missed out on this in the first round! Even regular headstocked basses or guitars, with a volute, the volute comes further up. And, Fodera, pleeeeze, zero fret (of stainless steel please) so you can use a number of thicker and thinner gauge strings. Well, the rest of the frets should be SS too.
All this bickering. But hey, at 11.5 K they're sort of asking for it. They had it coming. Skip the last zero at the end of the price, I would be all game and stfu.
It would be best to balance this with that all other basses Fodera makes, I have no problems with. The "upper horn" which is a les paul like "bout" that goes out over the neck is a stretch in design and comfortability for me, but they just don't make those basses. They make other basses to that are more likely to fit with their 5-6 K price tag. Even with or without their percieved "headless lack of tone" whatever that means. This is actually the first time I've seen such a statement come from any manufacturer, even (or especially) from a boutique luthier that hand builds their basses.
Bet they'll chime in here, with "sorry, but we're hiring marketing people to put together our technical spec sheets so the features are listed in an accesible way, so we have changed features wihout further notice.."
To make some sort of excuse for their statements.
There's dime a dozen YT vids that demonstrates dead spots, intonation errors, all things in the world that are peoples pet peeves, it would be real fun to see if any YT vid - especially by Fodera - shows the massive difference in tone character between ALL HEADLESS basses, and headed, regardless of scale, and if they're made of graphite, or wood. If there's a special thing that can be nailed down to "just because they're headless". I would love to make a bet on that in a blindfold test, and have Fodera "himself" a go at it.
Sorry, but the 11.5 K pricetag PLUS the "headless lacks tonal character" statement, want's me to think they had it coming, and deserves a lot of flak. And while i think other manufacturers refrain from critisizing their fellow "guild" and luthiers, they just stfu, it's up to us punters to give a review. But it might even be so that moderators are freezing this thread, or even removes it.
We, as potential customers (nevertheless), have the right to point out all caveats, and has preferential right of interpretation of all features, and statements made by any manufacturer. Fodera, Dingwall, Fender, Squier or not.
Hey, even Dingwall thought that I brought out a good idea for him, in another thread, while bickering about things.
Bet they'll chime in here, with "sorry, but we're hiring marketing people to put together our technical spec sheets so the features are listed in an accesible way, so we have changed features wihout further notice.."
To make some sort of excuse for their statements.
There's dime a dozen YT vids that demonstrates dead spots, intonation errors, all things in the world that are peoples pet peeves, it would be real fun to see if any YT vid - especially by Fodera - shows the massive difference in tone character between ALL HEADLESS basses, and headed, regardless of scale, and if they're made of graphite, or wood. If there's a special thing that can be nailed down to "just because they're headless". I would love to make a bet on that in a blindfold test, and have Fodera "himself" a go at it.
Sorry, but the 11.5 K pricetag PLUS the "headless lacks tonal character" statement, want's me to think they had it coming, and deserves a lot of flak. And while i think other manufacturers refrain from critisizing their fellow "guild" and luthiers, they just stfu, it's up to us punters to give a review. But it might even be so that moderators are freezing this thread, or even removes it.
We, as potential customers (nevertheless), have the right to point out all caveats, and has preferential right of interpretation of all features, and statements made by any manufacturer. Fodera, Dingwall, Fender, Squier or not.
Hey, even Dingwall thought that I brought out a good idea for him, in another thread, while bickering about things.
Well spotted. There's another one I'd missed! But I am not sure. It looks like it is made for regular strings, but in that case, it's even a more major gaffe. If regular strings they should come out at the back of the "headstock" so you can cut them off properly. And a regular E-string at - say - .105 should be dropped down to low B at 30.25" scale and still make it? The rationale behind it all is absurd. First, you don't need that angle behind the nut, it's only for the open string, as fast as you fret anywhere the angle behind any nut or zero fret as nil impact. It seems on their webiste they are shipping it with an extra set of Fodera special made strings...ha ha. Double ball ends made for 30.25 scale but one single string that is not?
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By and large, it's a too personalized bass for MG that suits his demands, and wishes. Too personal to put out to the general public. Such customized instruments, that are down to a tee for a specific bass player, doesn't fare well, when you try to "please them all" with forcing one persons personal design features to the public. I'll bet that if I had all my whishes into one instrument, it would only fit - me. Others would complain about that one too. And a lot of "wonder why's". This one should be best left over as a one off, one only, bass for MG and his wishes.
One thing that bothers me is the low E/B strings tuning mechanism at both ends. I am wary of these. Including Hipshots D-tuner. When I've tried them out, if I should "drop" one tune at a gig, 1 minute and 30 seconds into any tune, the drop D-string needs touch up, and fine tuning because the string wants to retract/expand back to the pitch/tension it had before. It takes too long time for it to settle perfectly at that pitch. Now this is just for E down to D at a 34" scale bass.
I wouldn't dare to think what happens and the pitch/tension drift of a bass that has a - say - .105 E string that is all of a sudden dropped down to B ... on a 30.25 scale bass, with tuning mechanism at both ends. It takes 15 seconds, then the low B is too sharp again, and wants to "creep" back up on to the E tension it had before, then you have to adjust manually with the tuners at the bridge anyway. The shorter the scale, the more prone to pitch deviance it is. And if you leave it at that low B, touching up, fine tuning it, and leaves it that for an hour or so, it would be the same when brought up to regular E again. After turning it back to E it will start to drop down by itself within a minute or so. You still have to fine tune these things. This is the physical nature of all flexible strings really.
Kubickis solution to this, with the capo annihilates these pitch/tension errors. A better solution.
So while this isn't exactly exclusive to this particular instrument, they could've come up with a solution instead, that once tuned up - or dropped to any pitch - it STAYS like that forever, without having to fine tune, touch up, or adjust afterwards. They should've contact Evertune people or something.
just my 2 cents... or 11.6 K dollars ...
One thing that bothers me is the low E/B strings tuning mechanism at both ends. I am wary of these. Including Hipshots D-tuner. When I've tried them out, if I should "drop" one tune at a gig, 1 minute and 30 seconds into any tune, the drop D-string needs touch up, and fine tuning because the string wants to retract/expand back to the pitch/tension it had before. It takes too long time for it to settle perfectly at that pitch. Now this is just for E down to D at a 34" scale bass.
I wouldn't dare to think what happens and the pitch/tension drift of a bass that has a - say - .105 E string that is all of a sudden dropped down to B ... on a 30.25 scale bass, with tuning mechanism at both ends. It takes 15 seconds, then the low B is too sharp again, and wants to "creep" back up on to the E tension it had before, then you have to adjust manually with the tuners at the bridge anyway. The shorter the scale, the more prone to pitch deviance it is. And if you leave it at that low B, touching up, fine tuning it, and leaves it that for an hour or so, it would be the same when brought up to regular E again. After turning it back to E it will start to drop down by itself within a minute or so. You still have to fine tune these things. This is the physical nature of all flexible strings really.
Kubickis solution to this, with the capo annihilates these pitch/tension errors. A better solution.
So while this isn't exactly exclusive to this particular instrument, they could've come up with a solution instead, that once tuned up - or dropped to any pitch - it STAYS like that forever, without having to fine tune, touch up, or adjust afterwards. They should've contact Evertune people or something.
just my 2 cents... or 11.6 K dollars ...
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I've owned a bunch of headless basses, Steinberger, NS Design, Kramer...but $11,000 for a "travel bass"??? Especially with such a boring finish, for that price I want to see some good looking wood
I'm not in the market anyway, if I had the $11K I'd be buying a DB not a BG
More comapct, sleeker and cheaper...SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper
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That is a gorgeous instrument. A Status Graphite bass is my dream instrument. I tried the headless 5 string almost exactly like the pic I posted when The Bass Centre still had a location in Los Angeles in the 90's and couldn't believe the playability of it. Just amazing. I seriously would never need another bass for the rest of my life.
I could do without the LED dots too. They're a little too late 70's - early 80's for me.For 11.5 K you get TWO of these. Including the airplane ticket to get you to the place where the second one resides, so you don't ever need to bring it...
Controls laid out much better, save for output jack. And don't care for led dots, but those are optional. I never ever cared for actively lit up dots, but that's just my thing. Would be so much better with just fluorescent color that glows in the dark. Stage lights are strong enough to light those ones up for hours, and be visible if stage lights dim enough, but OT. OT.
This reminds me of the foldable guitar that was some sort of invention a decade back. Trumped out, and lots of ads and endorsment deals. Then neck had a mechanism that you folded with strings on. When I looked at the specs it just turned out 3 centimer (a little longer than one inch) shorter than my headless guitar, which can be stowed away in the compartment anyway.
They were on the notion that it just must have headstock on it, and went to lengths to produce something that still stuck to that design adamantly, while making everyhing else cumbersome and way out of line unwieldy.
I'd choose headless (any) any day.
Just because you can, you shouldn't!
That foldable guitar obviously had too many practicle hurdles that made it invalid!
Just Thumpin'
Commercial User
- Mar 7, 2008
- 4,534
- 1,664
- Disclosures
- Manager and Partner, Fodera Guitars (10/14/09 - 12/16/19)
This is the fifth instrument that we have worked on for / with Matt Garrison and he feels that it is the best of the bunch. It would be fantastic if those of you who have so many doubts about the instrument from afar could come and pay us a visit here in the shop and play the bass in person. Then we could get your specific, real world feedback rather than receiving input that is limited by being based only on several photos, a press release and a YouTube clip.
If you do pay us a visit you would also gain a better understanding of who we are as a Company. We wish that we could offer an instrument like the Mini-MG at a lower price point, but the sad reality is that we remain a very low margin business and to build instruments the way that we do, where we do and to take care of our employees the way that we strive to do (i.e. providing health insurance, retirement benefits, a safe work environment, etc.) necessitates that we price our instruments the way that we do.
Yes, we could easily send our manufacturing oversees and cut our prices by 75% or so, but then our instruments would be radically different than what we want them to be.
If you do pay us a visit you would also gain a better understanding of who we are as a Company. We wish that we could offer an instrument like the Mini-MG at a lower price point, but the sad reality is that we remain a very low margin business and to build instruments the way that we do, where we do and to take care of our employees the way that we strive to do (i.e. providing health insurance, retirement benefits, a safe work environment, etc.) necessitates that we price our instruments the way that we do.
Yes, we could easily send our manufacturing oversees and cut our prices by 75% or so, but then our instruments would be radically different than what we want them to be.
Doug Parent
Supporting Member
