The Fodera active preamp circuit is made from the finest components available.  It was conceived by all the great players who are part of the Fodera family and designed by bassist Mike Pope.   You won't find many other preamp designers standing onstage with Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, or Chuck Loeb which is why they don't have the unique perspective that Mike Pope has.  He has helped us to continue our tradition of building instruments born of real world experience.  The Fodera preamp circuit can be found ONLY in Fodera basses.

Our preamp is made up of two discrete sections, one active and one passive.  They are optimized to work with each other seamlessly.

The Passive Section

The first section is entirely passive and consists of a Master Volume and Master Tone (vintage style high end roll off) on a concentric (stacked) control, and a pickup Blend control.  The Blend control is custom made for Fodera to allow both pickups to operate in a "full on" state when the control is centered.  At the same time, it offers the user a smooth taper from one pickup to the other, allowing a true "blending" compared to other blend controls which act more like pickup selector switches.  When the bass is in the active mode, the entire passive section of the circuit is still used.

The Active Section

Putting the bass in the active mode simply inserts the preamp in between the passive section and the output jack.  The active controls are Bass, Midrange, and Treble.  They are all cut and boost style controls with center notches.

Switches

• The power switch for the preamp is actuated by inserting a guitar cord into the jack.  Unplugging the cord turns the power off.

• The switch closest to the Treble control is the On/Off or Standby switch.  Up is standby.

• The switch nearest the output jack is the Active/Passive switch.  Down is active.

Note:  When the bass is in the Passive mode it is ENTIRELY passive.  The preamp will, however, continue to draw a small current from the batteries, so it is best to unplug the bass when it not being played for a period of time.

Coil Tap:

If the instrument as dual coil humbucking pickups in it, there is a third switch which acts as a coil tap.  Down is humbucking, up is single coil.

Note:  Single coil pickups hum.   When a humbucker is tapped, it hums unless it is blended with another pickup via the blend control.

Batteries:

The preamp is powered by two nine volt batteries to give a total supply voltage of 18VDC.  Current drain is extremely low allowing unusually long battery life.  We have had reports of 6 months if the bass is not left plugged in when not being played.

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