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Fodera Imperial: Good Playing, Pedestrian Tone

#21
Money spent is no guarantee of a bass sounding great. I have often thought that Fodera basses can actually sound a little bland, particularly with the Duncans. I have found that the EMG and Bartolini equipped Foderas sound more exciting to my ears and sit just as nicely in a mix. However, some buyers don't want a very distinctive sounding bass and the market caters for that. P basses still sell by the truckload and a lot of that is about looking 'right' rather than having exceptional tone.

On the other hand, some exotic basses are practically guaranteed to sound amazing. Alembic, Modulus, Zon, Status Graphite - I always look forward to hearing those basses as they generally sound awesome.

I remember someone once decrying Overwater basses online, saying that they had found them to be incredibly well made but very bland sounding. Another commented that one man's bland is another man's neutral and that Overwater had designed their basses not to stand out in a mix but to sit nicely and blend in. I would love to read that discussion back again, as it that 'neutral' sound was my experience of Overwater to a tee.
 
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#28
Snaxster said:
In that case, Doc, I think your leading statement would have been more accurate as "This just proves even a great bass can be made to sound bland."

That would be like the idea that even a mediocre instrument can be made to sound excellent when it is played by a great player.
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Yes but my opinion is that Fodera basses sound like that and, in fact, I don’t like the sound of A. Jackson and I think it may be difficult for anybody to guess which bass is a Fodera with dual-coil pickups in a blindfold test with other basses provided with similar pickups.
The tone of a P-bass, instead, is unmistakable and, generally, very pleasant and capable to be made to fit almost everywhere in modern music.
It’s not strange that both Fodera and Elrick manufacture their version of the P.
The Elrick sounds as a P and cost more than a Fender due to the wood selection and the workmanship’s quality.
I don’t know how the Fodera sounds but it will surely cost twice the Elrick although being substantially a P-bass, that is, a very simple instrument ...
Waiting now for Fodera purists and fans to shell me ...
 
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#29
India_Sierra said:
Money spent is no guarantee of a bass sounding great. I have often thought that Fodera basses can actually sound a little bland, particularly with the Duncans. I have found that the EMG and Bartolini equipped Foderas sound more exciting to my ears and sit just as nicely in a mix. However, some buyers don't want a very distinctive sounding bass and the market caters for that. P basses still sell by the truckload and a lot of that is about looking 'right' rather than having exceptional tone.

On the other hand, some exotic basses are practically guaranteed to sound amazing. Alembic, Modulus, Zon, Status Graphite - I always look forward to hearing those basses as they generally sound awesome.

I remember someone once decrying Overwater basses online, saying that they had found them to be incredibly well made but very bland sounding. Another commented that one man's bland is another man's neutral and that Overwater had designed their basses not to stand out in a mix but to sit nicely and blend in. I would love to read that discussion back again, as it that 'neutral' sound was my experience of Overwater to a tee.
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Yes, but if I have to pay 10k (or more ... OMG!!!) for an instrument, that instrument must be almost capable of sounding without being touched !!
 
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#30
Is there such thing as the “Fodera sound?”

A small list from the top of my head can only recall a few makers that offer their own distinct signature tone not including Fenders and their dozens of copies.

Music Man
Ken Smith (Alembic copy?)

Basses designed with proprietary electronics and pick ups.

As much as I love the look of a lot of boutiques including Alleva Coppolo they don’t seem to offer a unique tone so are people paying 5–15k for practically looks and design with Slightly modified EMG/Barts/Duncans?

No fault at that as I would own a lot of that boutiques myself if I could afford them.
 
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#31
Actually, and maybe a little off topic...

The P bass is actually quite mistakable. In fact, a lot more folks than you might think can't tell which is a P bass and which is a Jazz bass running just the neck pickup in a blind test. They may be able to tell that they sound slightly different, but they'd have a much harder time identifying which is the P bass and which is the Jazz bass at a better rate than just guessing.

In fact, my L2K without frets was hard to tell from a P bass soloing just the front PU running it in parallel mode.
Even more so my jaco pastorius jazz bass which is 99.125% pure precision bass on just the neck pickup. And so on with a lot of basses.

Personally, the only bass I've actually been able to identify in a blind listening test, better than just chance, is the rickenbacker 4001/3. And even that I get wrong half the time, even though I owned several ricks and gigged with them for a number of years. If you put flats on the rick, I'm screwed.

Anyway, I'm not saying this to be contrarian, but more to say the kind of "bland" tone of the Fodera is probably intentional. Kind of like the somewhat indistinct tone of a precision bass, and other basses that are similar to it just running one pickup in the neck position, is intentional. It's a good neutral sound that fits in a lot of different styles of music.

Certain styles, like the TuMiniNotes kind of thing, are better suited to a sharper tone, like the jazz bass soloed on the rear pickup, and so on. But if you're looking for a bass to cover the most bases all at once, that kind of tone is a good one.

L
 
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#33
Definitely different strokes for different folks. I thought it sounded good and showcased its variations quite well honestly. I had a fretless Emperor for a couple months with the Fodera/Duncan pups and I wasn’t totally in love with the tone but it played beautifully. I swapped out the EMGs in my YY5 to the Duncan NYC dual coil pups and it’s absolutely fantastic and every position is usable, for me. Mine sounds more aggressive in the mids and less HiFi than in this video though.
 
#34
willsellout said:
I hand picked a Fodera for a friend of mine when I worked at Sweetwater. I pulled 7 different Same model Fodera basses that we had in stock. All except for one was “meh” to me. The one that stood out was absolutely fantastic. The rest weren’t worth the money for me, personally.
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that is absolutely horrifying to hear...
 
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#35
A Fodera P will sound like a P and play like a Fodera (i.e. amazing). I nonetheless sold mine to help pay for a Monarch Standard with dual coils, which I prefer. I don't think it has a particular tonal profile, a la a Rick or Alembic (also great basses), rather, I think it naturally has an open, neutral tone that can be adjusted to produce a lot of variety.
 
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#40
caasi91 said:
Is there such thing as the “Fodera sound?”

A small list from the top of my head can only recall a few makers that offer their own distinct signature tone not including Fenders and their dozens of copies.

Music Man
Ken Smith (Alembic copy?)
Click to expand...

Whilst I would absolutely include Ken Smith and Alembic in the list of manufacturers that do have a distinct sound, I certainly don't think they're anything alike. The electronics packages were designed with entirely different goals in mind and that shows in how theh operate and how they sound.
 

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