I will get mine soon, it should be finished in about a month or so. Feel free to PM me in private in a month and I will let you know if mine came and what my opinion on the build quality is.
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The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!
- Thread starter ulasengin
- Start date
I got mine a couple months ago and it turned out great. I missed something on the couch pic and Adrian was very accommodating getting it fixed. Absolutely no build issues or even a need to take it to a tech. I don't know if you'll ever find a consensus on something like this, because there will always be problems sometimes, and there will also always be owners who don't know what they are talking about, so even a Fodera will get complaints now and again.
If you get a "bad" instrument, my feeling working with Adrian and the vast majority of posts here both indicate that he will work to resolve it. The overwhelming majority of experiences also seem to be that you won't get a bad one to begin with.
Got my couch pic ! I should have it by next week.
Adrian will send it after making a video on Monday.
Wow that neck front and back is amazing!
only problem I see, is you're gonna need more knobs...
I actually wondered if matching headstock on a roasted neck and trans finish would be roasted or not, I'm glad to see how they did it. Looks like a neat bass.
All right everybody. I got the bass.
Now I understand why some people complain that the action might be too low, but ill get into everything I can for the moment.
The finish / pickups and setup seems perfect for me out of the box. I have ordered the toneformer pre-amp just to make sure I can get the sound I want, but it seems that the bass already has a perfect sound out of the box.
The 18v pre-amp seems to have a lot of headroom and does not color the tone at all.
This definately feels like a new bass ( in a bad way ) - people will know that a bass will sound better after a year or so, but even so, it's the best bass I have played ( ibanez were the most highend i've ever tried ).
The hardware doesn't feel cheap and it doesn't sound like the L would make it sound hollow. For me it sound almost as a solid body bass .
The weight is 3.7 kg's ( 32 inch - with preamp and two batteries, alder body , maple burl top, white ebony , roasted maple neck and carbon rods ).
Now to everybody's concern regarding the low action / string buzz.
I must say I was veery anxious that this will not happen to me and at the same time curious about how I would perceive the bass. The action and the setup is as I would probably use - which is somewhere between Marcus Miller and Scott Devine's setup. This means that the neck is almost straight.
Playing with an almost straight neck can have its disadvantages and on my sire , before I set it up, it did sound different. After getting used to it, I prefer playing it like this ( with an almost straight neck ).
If I would be playing rock, I would put a bit more bow on the neck and raise the action a bit.
You can get a fretbuzz sound if you press on the wrong side of fret,but it's the same on very bass with an almost straight neck. I think people could just put more bow in it since they might have brought a bass and never set it up and got used to more bow in the neck.
Another thing I must mention is the pickups. The pickups ( nordstrand clean and clear ) makes it so I don't really have to force my hand to get a certain sound. This would makes me play faster and lighter - which can also have a disadvantage - if your technique is not clean at all, you will hear everything unless you cut some frequencies.
Please note that this is only my opinion and it's only 1 bass. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will try to answer.
So far : I really like the bass and it's a lot better then expected.
Now I understand why some people complain that the action might be too low, but ill get into everything I can for the moment.
The finish / pickups and setup seems perfect for me out of the box. I have ordered the toneformer pre-amp just to make sure I can get the sound I want, but it seems that the bass already has a perfect sound out of the box.
The 18v pre-amp seems to have a lot of headroom and does not color the tone at all.
This definately feels like a new bass ( in a bad way ) - people will know that a bass will sound better after a year or so, but even so, it's the best bass I have played ( ibanez were the most highend i've ever tried ).
The hardware doesn't feel cheap and it doesn't sound like the L would make it sound hollow. For me it sound almost as a solid body bass .
The weight is 3.7 kg's ( 32 inch - with preamp and two batteries, alder body , maple burl top, white ebony , roasted maple neck and carbon rods ).
Now to everybody's concern regarding the low action / string buzz.
I must say I was veery anxious that this will not happen to me and at the same time curious about how I would perceive the bass. The action and the setup is as I would probably use - which is somewhere between Marcus Miller and Scott Devine's setup. This means that the neck is almost straight.
Playing with an almost straight neck can have its disadvantages and on my sire , before I set it up, it did sound different. After getting used to it, I prefer playing it like this ( with an almost straight neck ).
If I would be playing rock, I would put a bit more bow on the neck and raise the action a bit.
You can get a fretbuzz sound if you press on the wrong side of fret,but it's the same on very bass with an almost straight neck. I think people could just put more bow in it since they might have brought a bass and never set it up and got used to more bow in the neck.
Another thing I must mention is the pickups. The pickups ( nordstrand clean and clear ) makes it so I don't really have to force my hand to get a certain sound. This would makes me play faster and lighter - which can also have a disadvantage - if your technique is not clean at all, you will hear everything unless you cut some frequencies.
Please note that this is only my opinion and it's only 1 bass. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will try to answer.
So far : I really like the bass and it's a lot better then expected.
Thanks for the detailed review flameknight00. Did you order direct from the company or through a dealer? Asking because a dealer might have done the setup.
It seems that I do have some slight fret buzz on the first 5 frets if I'm not paying attention to my technique.
Below is a talkbass thread where they discuss this :
Is there such thing as a neck that's TOO straight?
tl;dr : some prefer some slight bow, some say a straight neck is best and you should clean up your technique
I think that it depends on your preference and there is no clear answer to the question.
Again - this is just my person preference, maybe some who had issues with their bass , the issues were legit.
Below is a talkbass thread where they discuss this :
Is there such thing as a neck that's TOO straight?
tl;dr : some prefer some slight bow, some say a straight neck is best and you should clean up your technique
I think that it depends on your preference and there is no clear answer to the question.
Again - this is just my person preference, maybe some who had issues with their bass , the issues were legit.
My experience mirrors yours regarding setup. They come too low for some folks, but I would MUCH rather have a bass that I need to bring the action up on slightly, than receive one that cannot be made low enough. I agree also that mine seemed setup almost too low at first, but quickly cleaned up with some playing. I have only handled one bass with a lower action that I can recall, and it was Anthony Wellington's Fodera.
I think if you get the 14" or flat fingerboard, it will also be foreign to some people. But, I can say my Elwood is pretty much the "easiest" playing bass I own. I play it side by side with my G&L or my main axe, which both nice basses and nicely setup, and it's really apparent how easy it is to play.
My experience may not be indicative of others', of course.
I used to have a good bow and a very high action - used to play like that on every instrument I've owned.
The sound is deeper, more powerful and cleaner. I even felt like in some cases I would warm up easier and build up proficiency.
Then I got a V7V sire with maple and ash body - so, since I got a bass similar to Marcus Miller, I wanted to learn to how to slap ( since there would be no way I could have the same slap tone on a fretless jazz bass with very high action ).
After a couple of months of playing my sire, I have set it up like Scott suggested in one of his videos ( relief of 1 bank card and as low action as I could get). It took a while to get used to, but since I played a fretless, I just needed to pay attention.
The Maruszczyk bass action is even lower then that, but the difference is not that big. It seems a bit harder to fretbuzz on the Maruszczyk and I think it's because of the zero fret. I like it this way and will not set it up any different until I get new strings.
The sound is deeper, more powerful and cleaner. I even felt like in some cases I would warm up easier and build up proficiency.
Then I got a V7V sire with maple and ash body - so, since I got a bass similar to Marcus Miller, I wanted to learn to how to slap ( since there would be no way I could have the same slap tone on a fretless jazz bass with very high action ).
After a couple of months of playing my sire, I have set it up like Scott suggested in one of his videos ( relief of 1 bank card and as low action as I could get). It took a while to get used to, but since I played a fretless, I just needed to pay attention.
The Maruszczyk bass action is even lower then that, but the difference is not that big. It seems a bit harder to fretbuzz on the Maruszczyk and I think it's because of the zero fret. I like it this way and will not set it up any different until I get new strings.
Has anybody ever inquired about (or ordered) changes to body size/shape?
Overall, I'd just like to see a slimmer profile Elwood or Jake body available, like the Warmoth "dinky" series. I think this would also appeal to the lightweight crowd since it would reduce some bits of weight, although probably not so that much. I like grabbing the bass by the upper bought, for example, which is quite substantial on the Elwood.
Overall, I'd just like to see a slimmer profile Elwood or Jake body available, like the Warmoth "dinky" series. I think this would also appeal to the lightweight crowd since it would reduce some bits of weight, although probably not so that much. I like grabbing the bass by the upper bought, for example, which is quite substantial on the Elwood.
They are lighter, but do they have substantially different body dimensions? Website photos look like the body is very similar.
