Global Bass Online March 2001
Global Bass Online March 2001
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FODERA MODEL 2000 PREAMP by Sebastián Caffini A sign of a new
trend in the music industry: In recent years the market has been invaded by more
and more preamps encased in small boxes, about the size of a footpedal or even
smaller, like the one we’re evaluating in this test. Why would this be?
The trailblazer in this trend is renowned NYC luthier Roger Sadowsky, pioneer in
offering “outboard” preamps. This means, preamps to be used outside the body
of the instrument. After the huge repercussion he achieved among bassists as the
mastermind behind Marcus Miller’s sound (for which he heavily modified the
’70s Fender Jazz Marcus often plays), good old Roger had the great idea of
offering the same electronic circuitry (which is also standard in the
instruments Roger builds under his name) inside a metal box pretty much similar
to this one you see here. That way, he
hoped to supply a solution to those bassists who were unwilling to modify a
vintage instrument or unable to go all the way to Manhattan to have the work
done in their basses. In the case of the
product reviewed in this test, the story is similar: Vinnie Fodera & Joe
Lauricella are also two very respected New York luthiers, who’ve built their
world wide fame on the instruments. These creations are certainly impressive,
played by monsters players such as Anthony Jackson and Victor Wooten. Now, they offer
this preamp designed by bassist Mike Pope, which we’re evaluating thanks to
the courtesy of our friend Danny Ianniruberto, bass player for Argentine
progressive/synth rockers NEXUS. Danny bought it in NYC during the last band
tour, and graciously lent it to us for this review. List price is $299 US, but
you’ll surely score a better deal if you pay in cash. The
environment: we
divided this test in two parts. First, we plugged into a Hartke Model 3500 head
matched with two Hartke XL series cabinets, a 1x15 and a 4x10; after that, we
tested the unit by recording some tracks directly to hard disk in our home
recording setup (pretentiously named “Seba Sound Systems”), consisting of
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 software running into a 500Mhz Pentium III PC. In both cases we
used my main bass, a Modulus VJ4 with Bartolini passive pickups and a Moon AC-1
active preamp. In both cases, also, we set the instrument controls in flat
position and the volume controls all the way up. During the “plugged into the
amp” test stage, we also disengaged the Hartke’s graphic EQ and set the bass
and treble rotary controls in flat position. Description: The device, as it says in the user’s manual (which was very
thorough), is made in the USA, although in the inside of the metal box it reads
“made in Canada” (which probably refers to the case only and not to the
components). As you can see in
the above picture, the controls in the Model 2000 are pretty intuitive: bass,
middle, treble and general gain, plus two step-on switches that let you bypass
the mid control (mid bypass) or the entire circuitry (on/off). It should be noted
that both the bass and treble control offer boost only, so the flat position for
those controls is achieved by rolling the knobs completely counterclockwise; the
mid control, on the other hand, offers both boost and cut, so the flat position
is located halfway of the knob’s range of movement. The only
disadvantage, although minimal, we found in the unit’s design is this: it only
works with 9 volt batteries (two of
them, which makes for a 18 volt circuit that yields a better signal-to-noise
ratio). This means it is not possible to plug directly into AC through a
transformer, and to change batteries it’s necessary to remove the four screws
that hold the bottom plate |
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