The Ugly Duckling/Freak Thread

Mike_NL · October 5, 2023, 5:58pm

MikeC · October 5, 2023, 6:49pm

We’ll never hear the end of it.

MC-Canadastan · October 6, 2023, 7:12pm

The bass for bottom feeders.

MikeC · October 6, 2023, 7:42pm

But it has an enticing bouquet.

Nebel · October 7, 2023, 12:55pm

I’d slap that bass…

MikeC · October 7, 2023, 5:14pm

You have to spank it.

howard · October 9, 2023, 12:29am

Now for some true butt ugly:

Yes you are seeing correctly, that’s a Monarch on the headstock. I don’t know what they were thinking. So you are looking at the ugliest $15k instrument I have seen in a while.

The wood grain is actually exquisite, I am sure the craftsmanship is amazing, and I still would drag this thing out back and shoot it out of kindness.

That color + that burst + that whalehead + the lower horn + the aircraft carrier fretboard… just ouch. I generally love unusual shapes in instruments but the whole package has to work. This… no.

Why, Fodera? Why?

This same bass could actually work out just great as a 4-string with a different color. It’s a Matt Garrison signature, and in the color I have seen him with online, the Foderas look fine, even as 5’s. Like this is still not my thing, but WAY BETTER, very nice looking actually:

booker_t · October 9, 2023, 1:10am

Not my color either, but just so that we here in the forum have correct information, my 4 string models are all Monarch (butterflies). “For the most part”, 5’s and customs fall into Emperor, and in this case “Imperial” (butterfly) models.

howard · October 9, 2023, 1:23am

Ahh yes excellent point, that is an Imperial, specifically a Matthew Garrison Signature Imperial.

It’s really amazing what a difference the color makes. The second one looks quite nice to me.

booker_t · October 9, 2023, 1:25am

Except for the extra string

howard · October 9, 2023, 1:26am

Well yes (and the corresponding huge fretboard).

Barney · October 9, 2023, 1:51am

*Anthony Jackson has left the chat

howard · October 9, 2023, 1:53am

hahaha. No, his look way better. Except they need to lose two strings.

howard · October 10, 2023, 12:23am

Relatively bad burst
IMO ugly use of Tort over the burst
Horrible condition
No care whatsoever since the '60s
Expected to fetch over $6000

itsratso · October 13, 2023, 4:49am

Moonshine · October 14, 2023, 2:02am

Now that’s Fugly.

That boat anchor bridge is a rare (for good reason!) Fender piece, I believe that it was made by Kahler, but I could be wrong. Dig the bridge, the bass, not so much.

eric.kiser · October 15, 2023, 12:13am

@Moonshine is that resonator bass one of your builds? You should post that over in the bass porn thread. It’s beautiful.

John_E · October 15, 2023, 1:33am

@eric.kiser - wasn’t it you that wanted one a while back?

eric.kiser · October 15, 2023, 2:33am

That was me.

Moonshine · October 15, 2023, 4:17pm

Yes it is. Resonators, basses in paticular have long been a passion of mine. I’ve built a few both acoustic and electric/acoustic. I have a couple new projects in the design phase.

Here are two that I built 20+ years ago, I still use the green one, it has gone through several pickup changes over the years. The yellow (the Beast) is currently apart as I installed a baffle in the body and making pickup mods. This one is pretty wild.

Thank you for the kind words, I will add these two to the bass porn thread. I have some video of me playing the Resolectro (the green bass), if I can figure out how to download video I’ll post it. Lol.

The Beast is 5 1/2" deep, a few years ago I built a stand so I could play it as an upright.