molan

Having 'retired' in October '20, I got a call out of the blue from an ex-colleague (who I barely knew) just 2 weeks later, who offered me a freelance contract for an unspecified period. Fast forward to March '22 and I'm still freelancing for them. They pay me decent money, it's 100% working from home & they even give me 45 days a year paid holiday (freelancers are never usually paid for holidays). I talk to the guy who offered me the contract almost every day and we've become good friends. One thing I've discovered is that he used to be a bit of a rocker & played in a gigging band for many years. He shared a picture and he's playing a black Stingray. He no longer has a bass but has randomly mentioned a couple of times that he wouldn't mind playing again. Anyway, my contract should finally finish in July & I thought about maybe buying him a bass & small practice amp as a 'thank you' present. I looked at new Stingrays but they have rocketed in price over the last few years & used ones have doubled since I last owned one. I can get a new Ray4 for just £265 in Europe (my employers are based in Germany) - from what I'm reading here, this would be a pretty decent present for someone. I just can't make up my mind if I'll look like a 'cheapskate' if I don't buy the 'real thing' 🤔

I think my current cheapest bass is worth about £250 vs my most expensive being around the £7,000 mark. They are all playing instruments and I don’t particularly care how much they cost if they do whatever job I want from them. If I’m playing at home then I guess I’d normally grab one of the more expensive ones simply because they tend to be nicer to play. For rehearsals I like to grab whatever takes my fancy from week to week. Whilst gigging basses tend to sit in the mid-range somewhere. Mind you, I currently have way too many basses 🤦‍♂️

I’ve had PJs that didn’t really work for me and others that I liked a lot. The best example I can think of is the ‘classic’ Fodera setup that you see on a Monarch 4 with EMG PJ pickups and a Pope pre. I have no idea, from a technical perspective, why this combination works but it’s definitely my favourite PJ setup.

I also like really thin and narrow necks. My Ritter is the thinnest I own. My Sei PJ is probably next. Interestingly, both are slightly shorter scale length as well, 33.3” & 33.5” respectively. With the higher end Foderas all being custom builds, I’ve seen all sorts of neck profiles. My old 83 and 86 were much narrower than ‘standard’ and great to play. The 83 was a JJ and I had a feeling it was based on a slinky early 60’s Fender. The 86 sounded nicer though. I also had one from around 2010 that had a very thin neck. I did see Monarch with huge baseball bat of a neck ad well. I think Vinnie & Joey will build almost anything - although Joey told me they built something once they knew wouldn’t work but the customer insisted. As soon as he tried it, he realised they were right and it needed a huge amount of work to sort. Joey said there’s a kind of ‘invisible line’ that they wouldn’t cross after that experience.

This is exactly it for me. There are certain basses that allow me to play things that I simply can’t on other ones. Fodera happens to be one of these. Ritter and Sei are the other two builders who do the same for me although, oddly, I tended to struggle a little more with my Alembics. That simple playability, in turn, increases my confidence and make my playing more fluent.

Body is smaller as well - both in terms on length and width. I think this keeps everything looking in a good general perspective. Sometimes you see a shorter scale neck on a regular body and it can look a little 'wrong'. The fretboard is lovely. In a crazily good condition as well, not a mark on it! It has a surprising amount of tonal variation as well. Really deep & thumpy with the tone backed off but bright and poppy with it on full.

Here you go. Pictured next to a 72 for size comparison. It's a little creamier coloured than it looks in most of the pics. The inner parts of the cutaways have really darkened in colour. I had a feeling this might clean off but I quite like the aged look 😁 From the serial number it's a classic JV era '82 - '84. I seem to remember reading these were Japanese domestic market only but no idea if that's actually true!

I have a, pretty rare, JV series Precision with a 32” scale. Strung it with a set of TI flats and it’s a lot of fun to play!

Had a ‘proper’ Yin Yang for a while as well:

The £12K one at the Dog & Duck” Paul Smith shirt was an inheritance from my best mate & it somehow became my gigging outfit for a while 😂

I managed all Fodera custom orders into the UK for a few years. It was always really interesting to sit in the middle between musicians and luthiers and try to interpret what each were saying and, more importantly, wanted from an instrument. I ended up owning at least five and each one was hugely different from each other. Not sure I ever had a favourite but there was one stunner that I ordered personally which was reviewed professionally. I loved that bass but was offered ‘silly money’ for it and sold it. Most expensive bass I’ve ever gigged down the local pub though 😂 I still have one that comes out to be played now and then. It’s from the New Standard series, predecessor to the Standard range. Sits somewhere between the customs and the Standards. Not especially flashy in terms of woods but it’s really nice to play and certainly one of the basses that ‘allows’ me to play better. Not to the degree that my Ritter does but certainly makes a difference in how fluently I can manage bings that might otherwise be a bit tricky for me.