Fodera Basses

Fodera doesn't do quantity. Vinnie Fodera and Joey Lauricella have been building basses by hand in Brooklyn since 1983, and the workshop still turns out somewhere around 350 instruments a year. That's it. If you've ever wondered why a Fodera commands the price it does, that's your answer: a small team of luthiers, wenge/maple neck-through construction, obsessive attention, and a waiting list that used to run into years.

We're now official authorized Fodera dealers in Europe, one of a very short list on the continent. This is a big deal for us, and a bigger deal for anyone in Europe who's been shopping Fodera the hard way (US import, VAT surprises, customs, luck of the draw). If you've been eyeing an Emperor, Monarch, Yin Yang or Imperial, or if you want to spec one from the Custom Shop, this is your address now.

The Models We Cover

• Emperor - the reference. The single-cutaway silhouette, the wenge neck-through, the Fodera sound. Available as Standard, Standard Special, and full Custom Shop.
• Monarch - the double-cutaway sibling. Same DNA, different balance. Anthony Jackson's contrabass lineage lives here.
• Yin Yang - Victor Wooten's signature. The bass with the inlay you already know, and the tone he made famous.
• Imperial - the vintage-J side of the Fodera catalogue. Not as loud in the branding, delivers just as hard.
• Presentation series - top-tier woods, top-tier appointments. The showpieces.

Standard, Standard Special or Custom Shop

Fodera runs three tiers:

• Standard - the most accessible way in. Fixed spec, still built by the same hands in the same Brooklyn workshop.
• Standard Special - a curated menu of upgrades on top of the Standard chassis: string count, pickup config, finish.
• Custom Shop - anything. Every top wood in stock, every option on the menu, waiting list included. This is where we go deep with you.

We've been through the Fodera options list enough times to walk you through it without wasting yours. Whether you want a ready-to-ship Emperor Standard or a Custom Shop Monarch with a set of tops that hasn't been made twice, this is the place to have that conversation.

Why It Matters

Fodera is one of those brands where the reputation actually understates the instrument. Once you've had a wenge-neck-through Emperor in your hands, other basses start to feel like they made compromises somewhere. That's not marketing, that's what happens when a small workshop with 40+ years of practice hand-builds every neck, radiuses every fingerboard, and voices every pickup.

Browse above to see what we currently have in stock. Want to start a Custom Shop conversation, or check waiting-list status on a specific spec? Get in touch - we respond fast.