Delano

[mr80htz]

I have their version of the MM 5 pickup in a fretless warwick..passive. 3 way switch single coil, series, and parallel. Awesome product.

 

[Solipsistik]

The chorus thing is normally because your pickup height is off. I think it's too close to the strjngs if I remember correctly.

Funny you say that, I was just thinking that it's time to do a full setup on it, since it's now had months of playing. I deliberately avoid that until there's at least 25 hours of playing on a bass, just to let everything "settle" and the bass to experience some temperature and humidity changes in the wild. Those more skilled and/or motivated than me might do it differently.

Right now, I'm playing it as it came from the box. And honestly, the quasi-chorus sound was kind of nice, doing some fifth chords for a song intro (Blow at High Dough by the Tragically Hip).

 

[Solipsistik]

I did some experimentation last night with the Delano pickups / Preamp on my Maruszczyk. I've been focused on muting strings and learning to transpose to the fifth string with this bass, and not much on the tone etc. though I have used the treble quite a bit, some songs need more, some less, and a bit of mid helps with some. But really, very limited.

Well, let me tell you, I compared it to the Spectra Pro last night. I had to boost the Spectra considerably to match the base tone of the Frog and I had to actually raise the volume a bit on the amp to compensate for the Jackson Nordstrom pickup/preamp being less loud. Now, recall that there is NO discernable difference between active and passive modes on the Maruszczyk when the preamp is not boosting tones - that was surprising, and this clearly comes from a combination of the pickups and the superior circuitry in that bass. When you start boosting frequencies with the Sonar preamp it is a revalation - you need a lot of amp and cabinet to properly recreate that tone and it can go all the way to complete clip. I hadn't done this before, as I said, having played many years with active basses, I just wasn't that curious to max out the preamp and find out where the limits are.

Compare this to a Spector Euro that I wanted to own, but played for an hour and totally walked away from, and it's revealing that people think the Darkglass & Tonepump preamps in Spectors are top dog, and yet I played that bass completely maxed out on both tone controls, because it just didn't sound like the Spector you hear on recordings without it. That's the point at which the Delanos start - I run them usually serial + parallel either neck or bridge depending on how deep I want the sound and where I'll be plucking / picking, and that flexibility is also amazing.

Anyway, I did this for this thread and ... these have to be the most powerful and best-sounding pickups I've played through. Specifically the Delano XTender pickups with the Sonar 3/S preamp. I daresay that they may be too hot for some people's liking, but the tone flexibility with the switches and triple EQ can get you almost anything.

 

[Johnboybass71]

Nice basses man and yes my low b sounds really good too

I did some experimentation last night with the Delano pickups / Preamp on my Maruszczyk. I've been focused on muting strings and learning to transpose to the fifth string with this bass, and not much on the tone etc. though I have used the treble quite a bit, some songs need more, some less, and a bit of mid helps with some. But really, very limited.

Well, let me tell you, I compared it to the Spectra Pro last night. I had to boost the Spectra considerably to match the base tone of the Frog and I had to actually raise the volume a bit on the amp to compensate for the Jackson Nordstrom pickup/preamp being less loud. Now, recall that there is NO discernable difference between active and passive modes on the Maruszczyk when the preamp is not boosting tones - that was surprising, and this clearly comes from a combination of the pickups and the superior circuitry in that bass. When you start boosting frequencies with the Sonar preamp it is a revalation - you need a lot of amp and cabinet to properly recreate that tone and it can go all the way to complete clip. I hadn't done this before, as I said, having played many years with active basses, I just wasn't that curious to max out the preamp and find out where the limits are.

Compare this to a Spector Euro that I wanted to own, but played for an hour and totally walked away from, and it's revealing that people think the Darkglass & Tonepump preamps in Spectors are top dog, and yet I played that bass completely maxed out on both tone controls, because it just didn't sound like the Spector you hear on recordings without it. That's the point at which the Delanos start - I run them usually serial + parallel either neck or bridge depending on how deep I want the sound and where I'll be plucking / picking, and that flexibility is also amazing.

Anyway, I did this for this thread and ... these have to be the most powerful and best-sounding pickups I've played through. Specifically the Delano XTender pickups with the Sonar 3/S preamp. I daresay that they may be too hot for some people's liking, but the tone flexibility with the switches and triple EQ can get you almost anything.

Thanks for the info. I have another maruszczyk with bass culture pickups in it and it sounds great but I think its missing the depth that the delanos have. Maruszczyk basses should be getting alot more attention than they are and hopefully that will change

 

[Solipsistik]

Thanks for the info. I have another maruszczyk with bass culture pickups in it and it sounds great but I think its missing the depth that the delanos have. Maruszczyk basses should be getting alot more attention than they are and hopefully that will change

Just adding say 1/3 more bass with the control - deep doesn't even describe it, it's a whole new level of bass tone. Like I said, likely too much for lesser rigs, this thing needs something special to play through if you're going to use the preamp in a major way. If I get some time later on today I will take a quick and dirty video of it in action and compare it with at least one other bass.

 

[Johnboybass71]

Just adding say 1/3 more bass with the control - deep doesn't even describe it, it's a whole new level of bass tone. Like I said, likely too much for lesser rigs, this thing needs something special to play through if you're going to use the preamp in a major way. If I get some time later on today I will take a quick and dirty video of it in action and compare it with at least one other bass.

Sounds good man ill try to do a video this weekend of mine

 

[Solipsistik]

Dammit... Nordstrand. I kept typing in Nordstrom and I don't know why. Ugh.

So... I did record a demonstration of the two basses but as I feared, the microphone on the phone doesn't really pick up the differences as well as I would like. The video demonstrates clearly that I neither see myself as a marketable Youtube creator nor a director, nor a videographer. This is likely of no value to you, and contains no playing of bass, just sounding of notes to demonstrate.

In short, I suck at this.

Here it is all the same: (EDIT! re-upload flipped to normal)

 

[Malak the Mad]

Dammit... Nordstrand. I kept typing in Nordstrom and I don't know why. Ugh.

So... I did record a demonstration of the two basses but as I feared, the microphone on the phone doesn't really pick up the differences as well as I would like. The video demonstrates clearly that I neither see myself as a marketable Youtube creator nor a director, nor a videographer. This is likely of no value to you, and contains no playing of bass, just sounding of notes to demonstrate.

In short, I suck at this.

Here it is all the same:

Actually, as far as non-DI/microphone recordings go, it doesn't sound bad. My only constructive criticism is to highly recommend you turn the phone sideways like a TV or movie screen. (Fun biological fact; that's how human vision works…horizontally. But, don't take my word for it. Just ask the next person you see who's eyes are spaced side-to-side instead of over/under.)

 

[Johnboybass71]

Sounds great the maruszczyk sounds alot better and full nice tone.

 

[Solipsistik]

Actually, as far as non-DI/microphone recordings go, it doesn't sound bad. My only constructive criticism is to highly recommend you turn the phone sideways like a TV or movie screen. (Fun biological fact; that's how human vision works…horizontally. But, don't take my word for it. Just ask the next person you see who's eyes are spaced side-to-side instead of over/under.)

You're completely right of course. It's like I intentionally made it worse. LOL

What the phone mic doesn't pick up is the difference in volume. I believe the software/hardware of the phone is deliberately normalizing the levels to avoid distortion and perhaps help with the quieter parts. The Maruszczyk is slightly louder at neutral than the Jackson with some boost, and significantly louder with boosting frequencies. Probably louder than my Warwick, which fulfills its reputation as a true thumper of a bass.

 

[Solipsistik]

Just a note: I didn't even know that the delano setup on my Maruszczyk has DIP switches to set midrange frequency etc. The Sonar 3M/S has these switches in the electronics cavity:

These pickups and preamp are truly amazing. The bass is as loud and "wider" sounding in passive mode than the Nordstrand pups on my Spectra Pro will deliver without using most of its EQ boost.