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NBD: Maruszczyk Elwood Fretless

J_Bass

J_Bass

Supporting Member
Feb 7, 2008
4,857
19,542
Porto, Portugal
#1
Hello TB!

I had this bass made for me and i have had it for a couple of weeks. I must say, I love this bass! I never had a fretless, but wanted one almost since I started playing bass, in 1999.

Now, I thought that it was time to buy a new toy for me and I don't regret it a little bit. It plays wonderfully, I love the sound, the way it fits when I play it, I can't really explain it, but it just feels right, it's awesome!

It just seems that I need to do no effort to play it, it has lots of ressonance, I can feel every note in my body. Maybe it's because it's new and I am in the honeymoon fase, but I have never felt something like this with the other basses I've played.


So, here are the specs:

Maruszczyk Elwood Fretless 4 strings.

Alder body, Ash on top and bottom, 3 tone sunburst, nitro finish.

Birdseye maple, tinted vintage neck, nitro finish.

34'', 21 "frets", 38mm, 12º radius Rosewood fingerboard with black lines and side dots.

Nordstrand Big J Blades Warm and Wooly pickups.

Standard bridge 19mm spacing, hipshot ultralight 1/2 tuners, passive VVT knobs, Schaller security locks, all black.



So, here are the pics, lots of them:

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Thank you for reading!
 
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#8
JRA said:
that's what counts! really nice looking! congrats on your new instrument! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Thank you!


BassmanM said:
Well, we already drooled over this one in the Maruszczyk club. :cool::thumbsup:

If you haven't played fretless in the past, how are you getting along with it and what are you playing?
Click to expand...

Hello, thanks!
Well, with the fretted bass I play everything I like, different genres. Things like Rage Against the Machine, The Clash, Dire Straits, Green Day, some Blues, some Jaco, Herbie Hancock, Chic, things like that.

With the fretless I'm playing songs I already know, so that I can focus on the instrument and not on learning the song.

I love playing bass lines, but I also truly believe that the bass is a full grown instrument by now and I am looking forward to explore the fretless as a melodic, solo instrument. I have been listening to a lot of Michael Manring lately and I love the way he makes the instrument sing.

Now, I am focusing on playing correctly all the notes on Spain (Chick Corea) and The Chicken (Jaco). I know these tunes very well and I know how they are suppose to sound, so I am trying to get my fingers on the exact position on the fingerboard. I find that it's not so difficult to get the notes sound "alright", but I am already aware that it will take a long time to get it perfect. It's a difficult instrument, the fretless. Particularly above the 9th fret. The distance of the lines gets smaller very rapidly and if you are doing Continuum, for instance, you do the initial part of the melody on the 9th-11th frets, then, on the part you have to repeat the same melody one octave above, the space between the notes is very different, so it's difficult to get it perfect. This is just an example.

This is my objective for now, get to know the fingerboard, memorize the amount of stretching I have to do on the different parts of the fingerboard (1st-7th fret; 7th-12th, 12th-16th, 17th-21st). Stretching is not a problem for me, I have had classical formation on piano since I was a child, so I am used to it. Because of this, I learned to play the bass using the left hand like on the piano, all the fingers, one finger per fret. The problem is the amount of the stretch doesn't stay the same, I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

After this I want to focus on some basic Bach and I want to learn So What with Miles solo. I want to learn these two songs, fresh on the fretless, but I need to know the instrument well before that.

With the fretless, when I'm noodling (I do this a lot, ahah), I am discovering a huge variety of tones! The right hand alone is capable of inumerous tones! I am learning how to play smoothly, on the fingerboard, for example. Also trying to get familiar with the natural harmonics and the "false" harmonics". When you do a simple 1/2 note riff like A-C-D-E-D-C-A (A on the 7th fret of the D string, the others on the G string), if you do a false harmonic above the neck pickup and don't move your right hand, the harmonics that resonate along with the "main notes" give a different riff that the main one. If you move the right hand accordingly to the left hand, then the false harmonics stay like the main riff. These are examples, and for most of you this isn't news at all, but I have never been able to do this so easily and so clear with a fretted bass.


So, yes, this is what I am finding fascinating about the fretless, no limits. I am seeing things on the instrument that I wasn't aware with the fretted bass. Even the 1/4 tones are insteresting!


I realized I went to long on the answer, ahah, I'm sorry about that!
 
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#9
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