Just Thumpin' said:
It is a question of how high you set the bar. If an instrument does not meet our standards we will not put it in the hands of a customer. Sometimes when you stretch, you fail.
We very often try new construction methods, new wood combinations and new designs. Not every one of them will work. Cutting up an instrument that did not work has nothing to do with having our collective experience being worth nothing, quite to the contrary, it has everything to do with wanting to push the envelope further and using that experience to do so.
To my point, we recently completed an instrument that is a Hybrid Electric-Acoustic. You can see some photos of it here:
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It took us over three years to decide its final design and several hundred hours to build. It ended up sounding simply extraordinary. That said, if it did not meet our standards for the way it should sound we would have cut it up and started over...it is this kind of situation that my post referred to, NOT a bunch of us sitting around scratching our heads wondering why an Alder bodied Rosewood FB bass doesn't sound quite like it should...
I find your cited example interesting in that it substantiates my perspective. You point to an acoustic hybrid as an experiment which might have failed and been abandoned. New construction techniques and all that. Fits right in with my view that boutique basses, on the whole (and as I have observed in another thread), are more about fine cabinetry than instrument making skill and are over-hyped as more than what they are.
I will admit that I havent followed with fanatic devotion the history of Fedora. It seems to me, though, that most of the instruments I've seen are solid body, not acoustic. These are, to me, obviously, two very different disciplines. In a recent Bass Player issue Ken Smith, another very respected boutique builder, plainly states that he doesn't consider bass builders to be luthiers, which is absolutely in line with my perspective. While it is easy to conceive that you are in a middle ground between the two, that still doesn't justify the glory associated with the outcome, nor more importantly the price, IMHO. Others see things differently, as is their right, but argue strenuously to defend their ego in making that choice as much as the value you deliver, again, IMHO.
I have no quibble in esthetics and the personal choices people make in satisfying their desires for them. I surely agree with few of them as I see them expressed, however. That is my choice. Far and away the most beautiful bass guitar I've ever seen was a Victor Bailey koa four string Fender Jazz for sale a while back here on TB. I see most/many boutique basses as amorphous blobs of little appeal, at least those which aren't blatant copies of Leo's original masterpieces, and in those copies which are low volume production I find distaste as well. Art should be original, not mere refinement. If you want to build a better production Fender, go to work for Fender or pitch your own tent with your originality. Just don't expect my delight at your outcome, no matter the effort it took.
The exotic woods which were once the mark of boutique builders have become so common that I've grown immune to their real beauty. Rarity, or rather the lack thereof, has diluted the appeal. I own an exoticly grained Jazz body I'm pursuing as a custom build, but I honestly have seldom if ever seen such graining, and that rarity is what fuels my imagination, not the belief that I'll be building an infinitely better mousetrap, just that I'll be building exactly what I want that I can't get elsewhere.
I have to add that I was very surprised to see that Fedora has added a PLEK machine. To me, it detracts from the mystique which is supposed to be associated with your products and again causes me to question what the hullabaloo is about. Anybody who has the cash can duplicate that outcome. Those who exert the craftsman's care reputed to be your hallmark shouldn't need one. While I cannot attest to the veracity of the comment, I've read that supposedly the Sadowsky output is so good that the PLEK would be redundant. Hmmm...
Please understand that I have no particular axe to grind with Fedora. You've never run over my dog nor broken my sister's heart. I do see and appreciate the passion you put into your work. Certainly you seem like a nice enough fellow, and I admire your willingness to step into the public forum to face the slings and arrows of the general public. I may, however, question the wisdom in that, but you've made the choice and it will be what it will be. Make a bigger target get more shots. I've seen that Mr. Smith was once active here but isn't any longer as far as I can tell.
The rabid devotees of the boutique market so much as accuse me of being a musical Luddite incapable of the appreciative discernment of the qualities upon which I comment. While they are certainly entitled to their opinion, they are wrong but I am secure enough and mature enough to not engage that battle for it is senseless. The reason I make my views public is so that those who are maturing through their reading of TB can appreciate that hype is everywhere and that critical thought can and should be applied when the Emperor (no pun intended, but it sort of works) announces the delivery of a new set of clothes.
iJazz - More could be said but I'll leave it at that.
