❌SOLD❌ Fodera Emperor Standard 5-String Bass Maple, 2019

The Fodera Emperor Standard 5-String Bass is an extremely well designed, hand built bass originating in Brooklyn, New York. These exceptional instruments are intended to meet the needs of demanding professional bassists.

The Certificate of Authenticity for this Fodera Emperor Standard 5 example is dated 12/3/19, and the documentation describes it as having an Ash body with two-tone Flame Maple cap, and bolt-on 24-fret Maple neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard and the truss rod in ‘Normal’ orientation, accessed at the body end of the fingerboard. The rear of the head is stamped with the serial number and is signed by Vinny Fodera and Joey Lauricella, the two founders of the company. The metal hardware is gold plated. Tuners are Fodera branded, butterfly key models and the bridge is a 5-saddle Fodera design.

The Fodera Emperor Standard 5 control cavity is very cleanly shielded with copper foil. The electronics include Seymour Duncan dual coil passive pickups, running through the Fodera Standard 3-band EQ, with 18v power provided by a pair of standard 9v batteries. These are accessed through the real control cover.

Here is the builder on the Fodera Emperor Standard 5 electronics:

“Designed in collaboration with Seymour Duncan, our passive Dual Coil pickups were designed to provide a punchy and focused tone with a natural and smooth upper midrange. Compared to an active soapbar style pickup, the tone is warmer and more organic. Wired in parallel, these pickups offer a noise-free single coil sound with added body and weight yet come with the added flexibility of full single-coil operation providing the snap, warmth, and mid-range punch of classic single-coil Jazz Bass pickups.”

Fodera ships their basses with proprietary stainless steel round core, round wound strings. This bass is strung with the Medium gauge set.

Here is Fodera on their strings:

“Unlike other custom builders, we make our own strings. Crafted by just three people in small batches, our Fodera strings have been developed in collaboration with some of the finest bass players in the world. They have been continually refined over the past fifteen plus years to ensure that they are the perfect complement to our handcrafted instruments or any other bass on which they may be used!”

And Fodera on the Emperor Standard itself:

“Our newly refreshed Emperor Standard model blends the aesthetics, tone, playability and pro-player reliability bass players have come to expect from Fodera. By building just one configuration, with no options, we are able to offer the same legendary Fodera quality of our custom instruments at a very competitive price point. The Emperor Standard was designed using a combination of tone-woods, the added range of a tight and responsible low-B, and our ergonomic Emperor body shape to create a combination that works for virtually any gig and playing situation. It features a hand-selected alder body with a figured walnut top, matched with our incredibly stable, 3-piece quarter-sawn hard rock maple neck with a Pau Ferro fingerboard to deliver warm, tight lows, transparent mids and just enough top-end to make for an incredibly balanced sonic palette. It also offers a 24-fret, PLEK’d compound-radius fingerboard, providing the effortless playability Fodera has become known for as well as the powerful sustain and resonance from our fully adjustable, custom designed, bell-brass bridge.”

The original black rectangular hard shell case is included, and contains the Certificate of Authenticity and information sheet.