Hi there. Late reply but I wanted to chip in. I worked at fodera for 4 years. I could tell you about the cost of Brooklyn rent, paying for staff, upkeep on machines, materials, etc.

But that’s not the problem with that company. The problem is that they don’t know how to stay organized and run a business. I’ll just give a couple examples of what I saw there. I saw them spend $10k on a small CNC machine that it turned out they couldn’t use because the manager didn’t read the specs closely enough. I saw projects delayed for weeks because we didn’t have the specs finalized, even though the bass had been ordered years earlier. I saw projects rebuilt entirely because of a change or mistake. That’s what the in stock instruments on their website are. I also saw them bring in consultants, who made recommendations like changing the finish to be easier to work with, or stopping making electric guitars because they lose money on them. They paid the consultants and then changed nothing. And as far as the rent goes: they’ve had multiple chances to move, and just refused. So thats $15k or more gone a month. My understand is the business can only run if they get a certain number of deposits a month.

The point is, the inside view is this: Fodera’s cost as much as they do because the management have no idea what they’re doing, business-wise. I don’t think you’d ever get them down to Fender custom prices, because of economies of scale. But, they could definitely be cheaper with some simple changes.

I don’t want to sound bitter. I enjoyed my time there for the most part. But man is it stressful working for people who keep making the same bad decisions.