Fodera Monarch P

[Dr. Cheese]

I'll stop short of saying "tone is in the fingers" because I think that greatly over simplifies the impact that the instrument, strings, amp etc have but what I hear is Janek Gwizdala getting as close as he can to his normal tone while playing a Pbass.

I haven't played the Fodera P, but I have played a bass with the Aguilar P pickup. It absolutely delivers the expected Precision tone. If anything it is very slightly modern with a bit more upper midrange (IMO) but it's far, far closer to a vintage Pbass sound than say, a normal EMG, parallel wound active P pickup.

But look at where Janek's hand placement is. How many guys pluck a P bass that close to the bridge? Almost everybody I see playing a P is either right on top of the pickup or shifted closer to the fretboard. Combine that hand placement (and technique - he's obviously spent years trying to be as articulate as possible) with new strings and the tone knob all the way open and I'm guessing it's not that hard to get most P's to sound similarly.

That makes all the sense in the world!

I don't think it is an accident that fusion/jazz virtuosos favor Fodera while a bass like Sadowsky is favored by sidemen and session players. Foderas seem to designed to capture individual nuance and technique above all else. I think a player like me whose technique is nuance free simply is not wired to get the most out of a Fodera. As always, a player has to know himself in order to pick the best instrument.

 

[Jotha]

There's a lot of things involved on the construction/sound/playability of any instrument, and any player will shape that instrument's sound to his unique, personal playing style... I been played many Fodera basses, and all of them are really easy to play, and great sounding instruments!! When you pay a high tag price for an instrument, you are paying not only for how it sounds, but for a playability, construction, experience, design, research, material, skills and craftsmanship of the personal who worked on the instrument... That's a lot of things that cost money, but the final winner is the musician who play that instrument!!! It's not only a 'pedigree' price, it's a complete work that goes beyond a P or J pickups, and a reputation and experience that support all that work!!! And that applies not only for Fodera, but for any respectable luthier out there... Any professional, in any area, knows that experience and reputation worth more than any single product.

 

[Just Thumpin']

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it. To clarify, I wasn't suggesting moving the entire company out of NYC, or cutting (actual) pay and benefits to workers. Rather, I was wondering about establishing a 2nd workshop somewhere with a lower cost of living and (probably) lower taxes. Customs could still be made in NYC, with all the benefits that provides, while the batch-produced Standards could be made at lower cost a few hours drive away. Perhaps quality would suffer by separating the shops like that, or maybe the savings wouldn't be worth the cost and effort of a second shop.
While I'm unlikely to be able to buy a Fodera anytime soon (perhaps ever) I admire the company for trying to produce the best instruments while treating its workers well. I'm not suggesting that Fodera stop doing so. I'm just wondering if the Fodera Standard line could maintain the same quality of craftsmanship and standard of living for the employees while being produced more cheaply in a location with a much lower cost of living than NYC. Of course, I'm probably biased by my dislike of NYC for any visit longer than about 2 days.

I definitely understood what you are getting at and we have toyed with that idea, but at least for now we have decided to stay put here in Brooklyn. Thanks for your post!

 

[Smallequestrian]

Long before I was a Partner here I was a customer of Fodera and the first time I visited the shop I did not sleep the night before because I was horrified that I was going to have to demo a bass guitar in front of Joey and Vinny. Within literally two seconds of meeting them I realized that they were just as interested in me as a rank amateur player as they were in AJ and Vic (and all of the other wonderful players with whom they got to regularly work).

Methinks if high end luthier's only gave time and sold to players of the "appropriate" skill level, many of them would find their customer bass severely reduced!

 

[Baird6869]

Actually it is not funny at all. As someone with a degree in business from a pretty wonderful school, I have spent literally hundreds of hours of my life working with our team just to be able to build this bass at this price and we are still not 100% certain that we will be doing so profitably. There is exactly ZERO fee for the name Fodera on any of our basses. The reality is Fodera at its very best is a 10% margin business. I have written extensively on this topic here on TB. You may flat out hate our pricing, but it is what it is because it has to be in order to build instruments the way we do, where we do, with the wood and parts that we use and have them be built almost completely by hand by trained craftspeople who are also compensated fairly.

Oh I hate your pricing!

Having said that, if I ever sell either of my two very expensive custom Foderas, I would lose less of my initial investment that I would if I sold one of my much less expensive Fenders.

The TCO of a Fodera is as good as it gets IME. Pretty cool to play a $5-10k bass for a few years and sell it at little to no loss if need be. Try that with a custom shop Warwick or Alembic.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Oh I hate your pricing!

Having said that, if I ever sell either of my two very expensive custom Foderas, I would lose less of my initial investment that I would if I sold one of my much less expensive Fenders.

The TCO of a Fodera is as good as it gets IME. Pretty cool to play a $5-10k bass for a few years and sell it at little to no loss if need be. Try that with a custom shop Warwick or Alembic.

You will make your money back and then some if you keep your Fender thirty years. If you are on the other side of fifty, that option is not attractive at all!

 

[Bass Viking]

Hard to say what exactly was going on between the two clips. The Precision tone can vary a heck of a lot. Rounds, flats, high action, low action, amount of tone knob roll off, amp EQ, etc.

I'll field this one since I recorded the Peavey Fury video. No amp was used, I plugged the bass into my Presonus Audiobox USB (which has no EQ) and from there into my Zoom Q3HD video recorder. I used stainless steel roundwound strings, most likely Carvins. Action is fairly low. I can't remember where I set the tone knob but it sounds like most or all of the highs are rolled off. Hope this helps!

 

[Belka]

I did not say the Fodera in that clip sounded bad, it just doesn't sound like a Precision to me. This is the sound I think of:

They both sound great - just different. But mostly I have to give you massive respect for posting something from 'In Flight'. Grew up on that album.

 

[Belka]

I'll field this one since I recorded the Peavey Fury video. No amp was used, I plugged the bass into my Presonus Audiobox USB (which has no EQ) and from there into my Zoom Q3HD video recorder. I used stainless steel roundwound strings, most likely Carvins. Action is fairly low. I can't remember where I set the tone knob but it sounds like most or all of the highs are rolled off. Hope this helps!

Great stuff!

 

[Bass Viking]

They both sound great - just different. But mostly I have to give you massive respect for posting something from 'In Flight'. Grew up on that album.

Another great tune from that album is "The World is a Ghetto".

 

[Belka]

Valdez in the Country

 

[spade2you]

I'll field this one since I recorded the Peavey Fury video. No amp was used, I plugged the bass into my Presonus Audiobox USB (which has no EQ) and from there into my Zoom Q3HD video recorder. I used stainless steel roundwound strings, most likely Carvins. Action is fairly low. I can't remember where I set the tone knob but it sounds like most or all of the highs are rolled off. Hope this helps!

First off, nice plaing. Secondly, that helps. My ears hear some highs rolled off. I'm a little surprised that the strings were roundwound.

 

[Flaked Beans]

Another great tune from that album is "The World is a Ghetto".

They both sound great - just different. But mostly I have to give you massive respect for posting something from 'In Flight'. Grew up on that album.

Me too! "The wind and I" was my favorite back then. Stanley Banks on bass! I still have the original LP record that i bought back in 1977!! and it sounds much better than all of these modern CD's MP3's or whatever!!

Here's my 39 year old "In Flight"

 

[Bass Viking]

But mostly I have to give you massive respect for posting something from 'In Flight'. Grew up on that album.

"The wind and I" was my favorite back then. Stanley Banks on bass!

I didn't have the album back then but the local rock radio station in Montreal used to play The World is a Ghetto. You wouldn't hear that on any of today's classic rock radio!

Stanley Banks cooks!

 

[Bass Viking]

First off, nice plaing. Secondly, that helps. My ears hear some highs rolled off. I'm a little surprised that the strings were roundwound.

Thanks. You'd probably hear the roundwound strings if the treble knob was turned up.

 

[DirtyDuke]

Is there a P deluxe?

 

[Lowendtech]

The deluxe version is pretty killer too

 

[Flaked Beans]

I didn't have the album back then but the local rock radio station in Montreal used to play The World is a Ghetto. You wouldn't hear that on any of today's classic rock radio!

Stanley Banks cooks!

Yeah, "the world is a ghetto" is awesome! Great guitar solo on that tune too!

 

[spade2you]

I'll have to check this album out.

 

[spade2you]

Andy Cichon sounded pretty damned good to me when I saw him play his three Foderas with the Billy Joel band in front of 25,000 people at an arena show.

TB used to insist that the boutique players would never get good gigs.