Richard Bona

We have had the great pleasure of working with Richard Bona for over ten years. He is one of the most wonderfully musical people we know and is constantly writing, touring, singing, recording and performing -- whether on his own, as a much in demand sideman, or as a first call session player.

Interestingly, Richard's original Fodera was actually purchased used in 1998 at the Sam Ash on 48th Street in New York City. He was recording a session locally and wanted a five-string so that he would no longer need to de-tune his Jazz Bass. Asking for "the best 5-string bass that you have in the store," Richard was handed the instrument that has since become synonymous with his musical voice. Richard calls this Imperial "Bassey." In the late fall of 2010, we completed an exact replica of Bassey for Richard so that he could always keep one of his beloved Foderas in his studio and tour with the other.

The Richard Bona Imperial is constructed of an all Ash body (a mixture of Northern and Swamp Ash) with a non-solid Olive top, 3-piece Maple neck and Birdseye Maple fingerboard. Both Bassey and Richard's newest Imperial utilize EMG soapbar pickups, a Roland MIDI system and our onboard Fodera / Pope preamp (however, Richard does NOT use the tone controls, preferring to run the bass passively). The standard configuration available for sale also includes our own Fodera / Pope internal preamp (WITH tone controls), but leaves the MIDI system as an available option.

"I searched it, and I found it. It's my sound and tone", says Richard, "In the end It ALL come down to BASS Sound. It's ALL in Markbass!"

This limiter is seen on Richard Bona's pedalboard.

In this video Richard Bona talks about his use of loopers, and demonstrates his vocal mastery with the help of an RC-30 loop station.

On this photo an MXR Stereo Chorus pedal is seen on Richard Bona's pedalboard.

The Taurus product website lists the gear Richard Bona uses.

The Taurus website lists the gear Richard Bona uses.

The Taurus website lists the gear Richard Bona uses.

The Taurus website lists the gear Richar Bona uses.

I come from a very plain sound background. I use to never use effects before. One day I went to a shop in Japan, and the guy who built my fretless bass introduced me to the Roland V-Bass. I tried it for the first time, and I freaked out. I really play fast; in the past I tried some bass synths, and those systems could not pick up my playing at certain speeds. So with V-Bass, that was the first time that a system could keep up with the speed that I was playing. I got hooked up with the V-Bass, and it’s awesome.

I love the GR-20. I combine it with the V-Bass live onstage, parallel. Many sounds are special in there, ya know. I grew up listening to Weather Report; I had a chance to play with Joe Zawinul for two years. So the GR-20 has some of those old-school sounds in it that I love. The horns are great. And there’s some really good distortion sounds. You’d be surprised. After every show people come to me and ask, “How do you get that distortion. It’s unbelievable.” I’m used to it know, but most people don’t realize how much you can do with the bass to make it sound like a guitar and other instruments. I only use about ten sounds, no more than that. And I give them each a number from one to ten, so I don’t have to think a lot about what’s going on. It’s very easy that way. Same with the V-Bass; onstage I have only about six sounds that I use, but they work great for the kind of music that I’m doing.

The product website insists that Richard Bona uses this pedal.

The photos in this interview show that Richard Bona uses this volume pedal.

Photos from the interview on Johnnydemarco.com show Richard Bona using the DigiTech JamMan looper.

In this interview Richard Bona mentions this delay.

This tuner can be seen on Richard Bona's pedalboard.

The Taurus website lists the gear Richard Bona uses.

The product website insists that Richard Bona uses this looper.

The product website insists that Richard Bona uses this pedal.

This photo of Richard Bona's pedalboard shows this volume pedal.

In this video of Richard Bona performing at Alacran Studios, can be seen playing his new signature bass make in collaboration with Markbass, the Kilimanjaro 5-String. The Kilimanjaro 5 features a two-piece swamp-ash body with a selected AAAA solid flame maple top, while the same maple can be found on the headstock as well. The neck is bolt-on quarter cut Canadian Maple, and measures out to around 22mm in thickness. The flame maple fretboard spans out to 34” long, with 24 frets which make for a pleasantly accessible upper register.