mcgraham

PM'd - next week ain't so hot, but we can certainly try and sort something out soon. You're of course welcome to give the fretless another go I do love that thing to bits... not literally of course... that would defeat the purpose of it. Out of interest, what size frets are on this beast?

Oh and we still need to organise a meet up!

The shot of the bass in that full-body clamp rig shows it for the beast that it is... it's an absolute monster of a bass! I love it! P.S. All this talk of custom basses is making me really relish playing bass - such a wonderful instrument.

Just bought a pedal from my namesake here. Very very positive. Fantastic transaction, super speedy delivery, great communication... even a note inside awaiting me when I opened it up! Thanks bud! This seller is highly recommended!

Plus One for hotrox. Quality shop.

Ghost_bass - Thanks for your input! Sounds like a good time at your mate's house. Just goes to show that different people like different things and there's no accounting for taste I have heard some stories of one or two Fodera's not being quite up to par for one reason or another, which for the price just amplifies the irritation of a slight problem. For example, an Epiphone with a rough finish patch would irk you slightly but you'd expect that, a US Fender less so, a custom shop Fender would annoy a fair bit, but for $10,000+ you'd expect it to be positively without blemish - you'd expect miraculous customer service, and the slightest detraction from that would be a massive deal. Which goes to show that it's not all easy going for them... just like law firms, the higher the profile, the more vigilance and utmost care needs to be taken. There must be a huge amount of pressure to performand deliver 100% of the time... no respite.

Oi! Ped gets my invoice every month just like everyone else!

Don't get me wrong Max, I am most definitely with you in the sense that it's a ludicrous amount of money to spend on a flippin pickguard... I just had to disagree with your assertion that it was '$500 for a pickguard'. I too am a lawyer so am quite picky that way. Long and the short of it is that Fodera are skilled craftsman, they can charge x amount upwards provided people are willing to pay for that 'upwards' addition. Fortunately for them, there are people willing to do so, so they charge what they charge because they can. These prices can appear greed-motivated, but before jumping to that conclusion I would ask you to consider another luthier's pricing scheme. Jon Shuker charges relatively little for his work (yay! I hear many of you cry, including myself). However, as a result he is in extremely high demand... to the point he takes on more work than he can perhaps handle for a given time duration. Consequently, to meet the demand/work orders he has received and ensure the quality is up to par, he has to work longer hours and also typically delivers late (quite substantially late I might add). Now, if he upped his prices, less work would come his way which means he would have less orders but (ideally) the same amount of cash inflow relative to before. He would be more capable of finishing the orders he has taken on in the quoted time and meet QC he sets himself. You might say 'he could just say no to additional work?'. He could, but that runs the risk of no repeat business, and it means he has to make an active response to every query even if it's in the negative. However, by increasing prices, this will automatically mean less people make requests - hence provided an automatic filter process to reduce work orders/requests time spent responding to emails in the negative, without running the same risk as above. My point is that supply/demand serves a key role in maintaining a healthy business with the right workload level to income ratio.

While we're on the topic of great basses Molan, you have an AMAZING collection and I salute you for your fine choices

Sorry Max, I'm going to have to disagree with you again. I don't think it's accurate to say that they are not charging you $500 merely for a pickguard. They are charging you $500 to: - draw a template for the pickguard for your [i]totally custom [/i]bass (e.g. to fit around pickup routings, complement the bass, perhaps a push-fit attachment? to allow removal without mounting holes) - make the pickguard from scratch (this could mean ordering in material that could sit around unused for a while if no-one else orders one, unlikely but other businesses suffer the same problem and set prices higher to compensate) - shape it (e.g. bevels etc) and ensure it fits correctly (to a higher standard than mass produced pickguards that may not exactly fit/complement a given bass) - drill pilot holes to mount... or ensure it push fits correctly so you could leave it on, or remove it without leaving any holes. Another point I thought of is, with Fender basses for example, the height difference between the last fret and the body is HUGE without the pickguard. However with non-pickguarded basses the height is comparable to the height between the last fret and the top of a pickguard (my W&T between an example). Therefore, Fodera may make the clearance between the last fret and body greater (relative to their normal non-pickguarded basses) to ensure the pickguard fits and doesn't interfere with playing. I've played some basses where the last fret is very low relative to the body, and having a pickguard fitted would intefere with playing. In short, I can imagine if they normally make necks having a fretboard height that has low body clearance, then this could require a different design of the custom bass from the outset. Mark

[quote]That makes sense when you're providing a service. Not when you're purchasing a product. I appreciate that the guys at Fodera are incredibly skilled craftsmen. But you're not getting the full force of that skill applied to the pickguard. There's only so many ways to cut plastic.[/quote] I can totally see why you'd say that, but I disagree in this case. Products and services in the custom world are intertwined and you can't separate one from the other in quite the same way as a ready made product in the supermarket. When you ask them to make a pickguard, they will have to spend x units of time making it. Now, irrespective of how hard that is relative to making a bass, that is still [i]their [/i]time and you are paying for a highly regarded luthier's time to make something. I also work in a unitised work environment, where my work charges by the hour. There are some jobs that will take me an hour that are small but quite hard work, and there are others that will take me an hour that are relatively easy but simply time consuming - we still charge the same for both jobs regardless of difficulty because however long it took me is however long it took me, there's more to the equation than perceived difficulty of the job (assuming I wasn't arsing about for 50mins ).

Cheddatom, it clearly depends on what DI or PA connection means are available when you get to a venue... and if you're not bringing your own then there could be massive variations in quality of DI. I've played places before with what could be classed as good equipment... yet, when I used their DI there was seriously frustrating bottom end tone suck that meant my bass sound was practically nonexistent - tone nazi or not if the low end isn't there it isn't there. Then I switch to my high quality personal DI box and, voila, low end is there (as it should be) and tone quality is back. Mark

I've said this before on a few other threads but the best bass sound I ever heard was a simple Bongo 4H into a Mesa M2000 into a Schroeder. Stupidly room filling and seriously punchy, cut through the mix and sat in it so well at the same time.

Very good point urb. I think Janek G over at TB has advocated the same thing - there's no shortcut or substitute for hours and hours of focused repetitious practice.

Many factors are involved in this IMO: Supply, demand being the most obvious. Workmanship, quality, customer service, overheads, repute, exclusivity, etc, coming afterwards. Ultimately you pay for what you get. Sometimes people are willing to pay more for the repute attached to the label than you they are for the workmanship, quality, materials, or detail in the actual item itself. You could well ask what makes one person's time worth more than another person's time? e.g. McDonald's worker vs solicitor, what about a rural based solicitor vs a London based solicitor, or even a generic London-based solicitor vs a highly reputable London-based solicitor?

Last thing was Wizard pickups for my Vigier Surfreter - the bridge and neck sounds (together and separate) are exactly what I was after (the previous DiMarzios were a bit muted), but the middle pickup is out of phase. I need to go back into the cavity and alter the HB wiring to fix it... bit of a mixed bag of good and bad there but nothing unfixable Before that it was was a Catalinbread Pareidolia - lots and lots of amazing sounds in it, but still trying to work out preferred 'default' setting. Prior to that it was the Surfreter guitar itself.

Has your friend considered that they don't necessarily have to play the B string up the 3rd octave? In any case, your friend could always bring their thumb round the front of the neck for reaching the low B up there...