Foderas are seriously nice instruments. They play great, sound great, feel great. I think for the right person with the right budget they are absolutely worth it. I don't happen to be that guy but that's perfectly fine.
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Fodera really worth the cost?
- Thread starter jzfunkateer
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Time for comic relief: PLEASE don't take this seriously. It just shows us China will try ANYTHING. Here it is folks. A Monarch bass for only $189 plus shipping! Get 'em while they're hot! 
100% absolutely yes.
Foderas are amazingly crafted basses. And the best way to buy one is to have them make your bass for you. Fodera is the ultimate in custom.
I always tell the story of how I got my Fodera. I was getting serious about playing bass back when then company was only a few years old. Joey and Vinnie spent that day with with a and watched me play and built a bass that was just 100% perfect. In those day sI had no idea about specs or anything. I just hung out with them, told them what I liked, they watched me play and then they built me the ultimate bass. Bonkers!
To this day my Fodera is the most amazing bass I own.
All this to say if you bought yours second hand or did not do the full custom experience, then like any pre-designed bass, there may be things you love and things you do not love. But if you go through the process of building your own Fodera, there should be nothing not to love as those guys are in the business of making bass players' dreams come true.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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Seriously, the Andy Griffith D-28 was crazy nice too. Still kicking myself for passing on a guitar show demo deal when an old friend was still a Martin rep.
I had the same experience with an Alembic back when Stanley Clarke was burning up the fusion scene with Return to Forever. I was playing with a very good sax player and just couldn't get anything resembling a good sound out of it for the music we were playing, switched to my Precision for the second set and never looked back. I blame my youth and inexperience for the sound problems but the P bass just sounded great by comparison to the point where the leader told me to bring only it for any future work with him.
It sure worked for Stanley Clarke and many others however. Different strokes I guess.
And sound comes from many places other than the bass. Such as your hands, your amp, your recording engineer, etc..
Alembics can also sound quite different depending on the woods, scale, electronics you had. May not have had much in common with Stanley's other than who built it.
Well, and I have made this point before, there's no abyss between them in terms of performance (horsepower, 0-60, top speed, etc). I assume you're talking about the Ferraris we usually see on the streets (430, 458, California, occasional 488). Maybe slight differences but late model Corvettes are insane.
There's another abyss between them, sure. For you and I, anyway.
My Squier is also better than your Squier. And your Fodera. Even if you don't have one.
Most people did not take it into consideration that Stanley Clarke was a band leader, and everything revolves around his sound. Jimmy Johnson from Flim and the BBs is a better role model for using an Alembic in the mix.
Unless I were in some professional act, I couldn't justify spending that kind of coin for a bass but even if the drunks at the bar won't notice, the tone you get for Brown Eyed Girl will just KILL !!
Smooth_bass88
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- Oct 31, 2006
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If ever there is a humble brag on TB, it usually comes in the form of "Wow, I just spent more money on a whim than many of you have in your car, but I don't know guys, it's just meh". LoL
Anyone remember that kid from about 10+ years ago who had like $20k worth of exotic parrots and several high end Warwick and Spector basses and was constantly talking about Nickelback's bass player having the ultimate tone? Then it was the dude from Slipknot who had the ultimate tone, and so on? I can't remember his name. Is he still here? I think he may have been British?
Anyone remember that kid from about 10+ years ago who had like $20k worth of exotic parrots and several high end Warwick and Spector basses and was constantly talking about Nickelback's bass player having the ultimate tone? Then it was the dude from Slipknot who had the ultimate tone, and so on? I can't remember his name. Is he still here? I think he may have been British?
Depends on what the player wants in a bass. The audience isn't going to know the difference. Once the signal passes through the mains, as someone here said awhile back, it's going to sound pretty much the same as the Squier sounds--like a generic p-bass.
So then, the only justification for either is solely dependent on the player's desires. Truthfully, if I had a good Squier that was set up well and played well, and a good Fodera that was set up well and played well... I wouldn't really care which I was playing. Having a high-dollar Fodera (or whatever else) doesn't really mean much to me. I've had tons of high-end basses over the years and it has always been the case that, at some point, I go back to either a Fender Jazz bass or a Stingray (or Sterling).
But hey, for whoever digs them, well that's why Fodera is in business, right? To hook up with bassists who dig their products.
