Mokl

A few years back I took one of Marcus' Foderas off him (a nice VW Monarch, hello Marcus!), and my journey with this bass has been an interesting one so far. It does have some annoying flaws, the lacquer has cracked in a few places (and continues to do so), and initially the neck needed very regular adjustments to keep it where I like it, although it has settled now. There are a few high spots on the frets too, although I have been working slowly on the setup over the last few years and it is close to where I want it now (I say slowly because it is the mother of all masking jobs to protect the board everytime I fancy a tinker with the fret file!) . To be fair though, the action as I have it is barely over 1mm - 1.5mm at the 24th fret, so a little choking and buzz is hardly worth condemning the instrument for! My bass has a slightly unusual fingerboard wood too, which I think has exacerbated the problem. These things might bother me if I thought I would ever get rid of the bass, but frankly, there is no chance of me ever doing that. I rang Fodera when I first had the bass with a query and spoke to Vinnie himself. He could not have been more courteous or helpful, and he seemed genuinely concerend with my enquiry. One thing I have found is that the bass has required a lot of "playing in", and has only recently started to really show it's pedigree and true tone. It was only about a year old when I got it, I think, so this might have something to do with it. I have gone through periods of really being unsure about whether I liked it or not, but now I have really gotten used to the feel of it, and the instrument seems to have "opened up", I really do love it. The tone and playability, for me at least, are outstanding. So far as the comments about gigging this bass are concerned, this is by far the most versatile bass I have owned, and the easiest to get a consistently great sound out of, both onstage and front-of-house. I would never have invested so much in an instrument without doing my darnedest to get my moneys worth, so it get's played out at every opportunity with my functions band and anything else that crops up. It would be a crime to have this sat at home doing nothing IMO. I do worry about it getting stolen, because I know that I would struggle to replace it, not least because of it's value, and also because I don't know what I would select as an alternative. On a final note I must say that I also like the way it looks; it looks classy without being oestentatious. I don't feel a complete twit when I pull it out of the case and strap it on, like I'm trying to make a statement or something. When I turn up to band practise with with the Fodera the band often comment on how great it sounds, whereas with some of the other high end stuff I've had they've mabye noticed the looks... but not always in a positive way lol!

Looks great! How are you getting on with the Audere, was it worth the dosh in your opinion? I'm waiting for Parcel Farce to deliver mine to me as we speak. I've heard good things about it, especially the pickup blend feature.

There is that guy who manages to play the bass one handed, he is absoultely amazing! The problem you will face is that you'll have to flip the bass over (or buy a lefty bass) and learn to fret the neck with your dominant hand. I wouldn't hold out much hope of being able to use your left hand for plucking if it is giving you as much pain as you say it is - it is often the plucking hand which experiences the most tendon and wrist problems.

[quote name='AM1' post='360457' date='Dec 21 2008, 08:23 PM']F_ck that - doctors are C*nts![/quote] errrr....

I'd lay right off the playing and get it checked out by a doctor asap. Trying to play through it may just exacerbate the problem and make recovery a much more drawn out process. It may be something very minor, but I would urge you to get it looked at - for peace of mind if nothing else. Good luck!

Thinking of you, Sister Sledge.... for an audition I've got coming up. Great bass line.

Apparently Chandlers have recently installed a new and improved plek machine. I haven't tried it but am seriously considering it for one of my basses.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='315185' date='Oct 26 2008, 04:47 PM']Personally i dont think it was rude and i would have had a come back to it, but then i wasnt there. If you go in to a shop with an attitude (and im not saying you did but im sure you had an idea about what people think of that shop) then you probalby will be on your guard and we all know the BC is a very easy target. Walk out by all means and i wasnt really haveing a go at you for doing that, it was more the way everyone chips in with "brick the place" etc. I find threads like this tend to escalate with people who werent there or have never even met these people giving opininons on everything form how they should die to whether his perents were married before he was born. Im all for reading about good and bad shop staff but when it gets personal and i find it then looses the point. I find you above post very childish though. so you expect people to be polite to you but you would go in to a shop with that attitiude. Im guessing you wouldnt really do that but im also guessing you would like to. How about this. Dont go back there. That way you have the satifaction of not maiking them any profit. This is just my opinion. I know im the only one with it so ill bow out of this. Hope you get the bass you wanted at some point, It will help make up the numbers ;-)[/quote] I happen to agree with you, FWIW. If we don't calm down there's gonna be a basschat lynch mob descending on the Bass Cellar soon lol!

I know there has been a lot of bashing of The Bass Cellar on here recently, and it would seem that most of it is rightly so. However, do you think you might have misconstrued a joke? I mean, I think your bass collection is amazingly cool, but if you wonder into a shop and start talking about the huge number of instruments you own, then perhaps it is only realistic to expect that you might expose yourself to the potential of a couple of cheeky comments - especially in a music shop!? Of course I wasn't there, but I have worked in retail. Dude, I can tell you, sometimes it blows. EDIT - just read your above post re the converstation, but still wondering if the guy may just have been joking (perhaps he's not a natural comedian!) lol!

Hmmm, I think I prefer the look of this version to the original one. I think the headstock looks great, I think it nicely balances the whole appearance of the instrument.

Holy cack! What a beast

I have this problem with two of my basses, and it's very annoying! On the one I don't even bother putting the truss rod cover on, so frequently do I have to adjust it. When I had a Lakland I found the neck pretty stable, although I did need to tweak it now and again. I also tend to notice the relief changing, even if it's only by a small amount, because I run a very low action - are you the same? EDIT: I should mention that my bass was a Skyline series.

I don't profess to be an expert, but I don't have a double jointed thumb and can pull this off okay, in fact I tend to keep my thumb fairly straight. I try to keep my thumb and wrist pretty much still - the movement coming almost entirely from my forearm. I found that it helps to imagine that the outside tip of my thumb is a plectrum stuck on the end of my arm, and I'm trying to pick cleanly up and down through the string. It does feel a bit weird at first, but once you have it down you can pretty much strum along as you wish. I don't think that you should be hitting the string with your knuckle on the up, although if it works for you who is to say it is wrong?! I still haven't mastered up, down + pluck on the same string... my plucking finger always seems to mute the string before I can perform the pluck and thus makes it sound disjointed. I've tried varying hand positions but can't quite nail it. Don't know if anybody can shed any light on this?

PM'ed

A Worcestershire venue would be great for me - I might actually be able to attend as I live just across the border. Sorry to hear the sad news.

Wow, that was a mega-bargain!

LOL, the Crack Converters near me has a second hand Qwik Tune guitar tuner for £29.99. You can get them new for a tenner!

Mein gott! It makes me feel ill to think of one of my basses ending up in one of those places. The place I work in is very closely located by two of these types of shop, and while there is plenty of legitimate stuff in them, there is no doubt in my mind that a substantial quantity of the stock is of dubious origin. You see the same dodgy-looking dudes waiting outside for the doors to open most mornings. Having said that I've picked up a couple of bargains there myself, but nothing I felt was dodgy - and in one instance the original sales receipt was supplied (bicycle!).

I personally favour fret lines. Why make life difficult for yourself I say?! Anything that helps with tuning has to be a bonus IMO, I truly detest the sound of badly intonated fretless bass. I don't play my fretless that much, so I really appreciate the lines (on my bass they're quite faint - almost wish they were more visible!), but I guess if you are a more regular fretless player then you would memorise the positions pretty quickly. The bass sounds cool anyway, I hope it fills your expectations.... which, being a Status, it surely will