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Fodera vs other high end basses

#141
nostatic said:
I was talking about the quality, not selection (though the web site is quite bad since you mention it). A brand new Smith ( as in this year) I purchased had uneven seams on the back of the neck. The response from Ken was "wood moves!" Um, ok. I sent it back at a loss. Stark contrast to current Fodera customer service. I don't have any experience with their past so I can't comment on that but some people seem to love to piss on them for things that happened a decade or two ago.
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Describing what your experience is isn't "pissing" on anyone and if it is then you experience can be described as the same. I would hope Fodera's customer service is MUCH better than what I experienced because when you think about it, it's kind of whacky.

No builder is perfect. A key point for me is how they react to issues. In my personal experience over the past few years, Fodera has been great. As have a number of other builders.
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No builder is perfect nor is everyone's experience with the builder the same.
 
#142
Just Thumpin' said:
I was a customer of Fodera's before I became a partner here and absolutely know that the shop was understaffed and under-trained from a customer service standpoint prior to 2009. My goal in joining Fodera in late 2009 was to ensure that the customer service experience was on par with the experience people generally associate with playing our instruments.

How long ago was your bad customer service experience with us? Also, please always feel free to contact me directly if there's something that you'd like to discuss about Fodera. We are very committed to the customer experience. My email is:

[email protected]

Kindest regards,

Jason
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Jason, thanks for the invitation but it's not necessary. I know that amongst your many customer experience tasks, protecting the name of the brand on forums such as this is one of them. I get that and if I needed to contact you directly, I'd PM you, call you, or just show up to the shop. :D Understand that I'm merely describing what happened to me, my experience, which was quite bizarre when you think about it. My hope is that the "cultural" practices that were in play at that time no longer exist because that was just crazy.

The Emperor 5 that I owned was a quality instrument but so are the other basses that I own/owned and play/played and that's the point of this thread. Looking at what has been written by some participants in this thread, it's clear to me that they haven't had their hands on a lot of quality basses, looked at them side by side, gigged them for months and determined what they're good for an what they aren't good for.

It's easy to get seduced by the hype of the brand(any brand not just Fodera) to the point that your brain isn't working the way it should be and the result is that you get a bass that you think should work for what you do and you're scratching your head to figure out why. :D
 
#144
JAUQO III-X said:
I own a 1976 Alembic series 1 with LED's and a dimmer knob on it and this was all original on it from Alembic in 1976.
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I wasn't sure when they started doing them, my 1980 Series II has them but I don't have a dimmer knob. :D The LED's aren't a gimmick either, if it's really dark the LED's can be a life saver for hitting notes cold.
 
#146
iwearpumas said:
I hope you got your money back. I hate that excuse "wood moves."
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And it does. But, by contrast, I have a Sadowsky with a shrunken fingerboard (though there's no fret sprout - you can just feel the seam where the neck and fretboard connect). I mentioned it to Roger Sadowsky and, without hesitation, he told me that, although it was probably nothing to worry about, he would fix it at his shop free or pick up the tab if I had a local luthier do it. With guys like Roger Sadowsky and Mike Tobias (the two builders mentioned in this thread with whom I have the most experience) I have the utmost confidence that they will take care of any problems should they arise and will not just dismiss my concerns.
 
#148
Solution - don't buy it.

That bass arguably is collectible. A typical VW without the special wood and nos preamp is $7650 new.

But here's another comparison. Monarch 4 standard is built in Brooklyn, bolt-on neck, Duncan pups, Pope preamp and is $4750. A Sadowsky NYC is the same or more depending on top wood. So is one over-priced?

If you want to talk about what I consider to be overpriced, let's look at old Fenders. I've lot track of the number of bad 60's and 70's Fenders I've played that are now selling for a lot of money. Great if your collecting, but if you actually play? I'll pass. That said there are some great examples as well, but it is highly variable.

Buy what you like, play what you love. Cost does not equal value.
 
#149
nostatic said:
I was talking about the quality, not selection (though the web site is quite bad since you mention it). A brand new Smith ( as in this year) I purchased had uneven seams on the back of the neck. The response from Ken was "wood moves!" Um, ok. I sent it back at a loss. Stark contrast to current Fodera customer service. I don't have any experience with their past so I can't comment on that but some people seem to love to piss on them for things that happened a decade or two ago.

No builder is perfect. A key point for me is how they react to issues. In my personal experience over the past few years, Fodera has been great. As have a number of other builders.
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had the same thing with my emperor elite with a 5 piece neck and was essentially told the same thing. wood moves. they always offered to fix it but being in cali, that got expensive. i sent it to them once and had it fixed but it ended up happening again. feeling the seems was a total ocd thing with me and that bass and would bug me to the point where i had periods of not wanting to take it out of the case.
 
#150
I love Vic Wooten. The bass is overpriced for me. But someone will buy it. The ad oversells the bass, and until you play it, I don't care how "fantastic" it plays or sounds. Just because someone says it plays fantastic it doesn't mean squat. But is it "fantastic" for you for 15 grand?
 
#151
Go for it. It is your decision. You seem to have enough experience to know what you have and do not have. One of the important parts of growing older is knowing what you don't want, a point that is as important as knowing what you do want. I went up market this year and it is obscene to have that much fun with your hands!
 
#152
sricabla said:
But is it "fantastic" for you for 15 grand?
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Does a Picasso look good to you for a couple million? I don't much like Picasso - I certainly don't think he was a better painter than many whose work sells for considerably less - but that's how "value" works in the marketplace. I don't think there's much point in arguing about whether one bass is more "worth it" than another. For some folks owning a Fodera is about status or exclusivity more than anything else and they may very well get their money's worth based on the joy of simply owning one alone. For other people it's all about tone and playability. For some it might be the look of the wood and the design. All are valid reasons, in my opinion, to cherish an instrument.
 
#155
iwearpumas said:
Just throwing it out there, I have never heard anyone say that Fodera has an inferior tone.
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It is possible to get an "inferior" tone out of pretty much any bass, including Fodera. Someone here on TalkBass was critical of the tone from a particular Fodera (it might have been Jauqo), but who knows what kind of rig it was being played through.
 
#156
Munjibunga said:
It is possible to get an "inferior" tone out of pretty much any bass, including Fodera. Someone here on TalkBass was critical of the tone from a particular Fodera (it might have been Jauqo), but who knows what kind of rig it was being played through.
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It wasn't me but I have heard a Fodera or two that for what ever reason wasn't sounding to kool but that could have been a dieing battery as the culprit. But it's not unrealistic for any bass not to sound good(sound is subjective).

What's most interesting about this thread is that some people are trying very hard to make Fodera basses for every one when no bass is for every one.


MTD's sound awesome but not for every one, craftsmanship is right up there with Fodera as well as so many other basses on the market today.


Ken Smith, great bass all around and it would be unfair to say that Smith is not a contender in the super boutique bass world when the quality and craftsmanship is right before our eyes.

If Brubaker had the proper machine behind him he would rival Fodera.

Dingwall's quality is killer but the fanned fret system sets a lot of players back,

If Dingwall offered a none fanned model I think it would put the brand in a whole different zone.

There are a lot of great brands out there.

And sound is subjective.
 
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#157
I have owned an older fodera myself... Great basses, top of the snelve, I sold it tho, I couldn't gig the thing, I was too worried people where expecting me to really know what I was doing all of a sudden, I am not a pro bassplayer, I mean you better get your chops down once bringing those kind of basses with you... ITs too beautique for my taste I'm really glad I don't have it anymore, I settle for a secondhand tobias or old precision bass, feels much much more at ease with those don't have that pressure, and can just be an avarage to good bass player:) I find putting in far over 10 grand for a new bass a bit weird but thats just me... Making music is about having fun, those get far too serious for my taste...
 
#158
Brams77 said:
I have owned an older fodera myself... Great basses, top of the snelve, I sold it tho, I couldn't gig the thing, I was too worried people where expecting me to really know what I was doing all of a sudden, I am not a pro bassplayer, I mean you better get your chops down once bringing those kind of basses with you... ITs too beautique for my taste I'm really glad I don't have it anymore, I settle for a secondhand tobias or old precision bass, feels much much more at ease with those don't have that pressure, and can just be an avarage to good bass player:) I find putting in far over 10 grand for a new bass a bit weird but thats just me... Making music is about having fun, those get far too serious for my taste...
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Couldn't agree more. and the reality is a good bass player can sound amazing on a $200 squier.
 
#159
My reason for buying fodera and fodera only from now on is the customization. I have only asked at a couple of other companies, who declined, so I can't say for sure, but I don't think many other top bass companies offer as many options as fodera. Can any other company say they will do any (reasonable) scale length, string spacing, pickup combination, number of pickups, changes to their preamp, body shape (modify any shape to fit you exactly), neck shape (will even match your favorite neck) and even a sliding pickup system. And most of those options are not an upcharge. They have been the first company that will listen to and do exactly everything my OCD desires can come up with.
 

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