I think I'm going to my fourth build!
Somebody help me!
Somebody help me!
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The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!
- Thread starter ulasengin
- Start date
I'm settling on last details with Adrian, because there are some things I want that are not possible to put in the configurator.
This thing will be a beast!
It will be my forever bass (hahahahaha, I can't say that without laughing! Even my wife laughed, haha!).
Ok, it won't be a beast, it will be a normal bass.
This started with me falling in love with a Sandberg I saw online.
But going through their website, and then the configurator, and then their price, and then their waiting time, made me look for another solution.
I was looking for something similar in a shape of a Serek, but the waiting time (and cost) does not work for me. I don't want to wait a year for a custom bass.
So, I paused and thought.
What are the best basses that I ever owned?
Why did I sold them?
The answer is easy. The best basses I ever owned (build quality, attention to detail) were the Sputnik and the Serek. Between German Masterbuild Warwick, German Sandberg, USA and Japan Fender, Serek, Yamaha, Hamer, British Sei, Ibanez, etc., the Sputnik and the Serek stand apart.
I sold the Sputnik in a guilt crisis for having too many basses and for it being a 5 string, and sold the Serek because it was shortscale. The others are gone, too.
Why did I sell them all and just kept a 40yo Yamaha Pulser and a Yamaha BBPH?
Because I'm stupid and keep buying things that are not going to get me my favorite tone.
I am a P tone player. I like growly, fat, angry, unpolite tone. Like the bass is a heavy smoker and when he talks, you can tell that throat has seen better days. That's my preferred tone.
So, a P bass it is. But I need more. P pickups are so different. I want power.
So I searched and found the right pickup for me.
The DiMarzio Relentless P pickup. It's made to the instructions of Billy Sheehan.
Great sounding pickup, but I wanted more. More fatness available, please.
Easy. Put the Relentless set, then. A P pickup and a neck pickup. That will do it!
So, I basically just copied a Yamaha Attitude. Not on purpose, but that's where it went.
The rest is anesthetics only.
Matte finish, solid vintage white, matching headstock, tinted vintage neck and fingerboard. Neck, flamed maple, fingerboard, birdseye maple. Blaco blocks, vintage white binding. One knob (stacked volume/tone), one three way switch.
Gold hardware (because, yeah) and black pickup covers.
And that's it! I'm hoping it will sound like a beast, we'll see!
The inspiration:
The pickups:
The sound I want:
And now, the mockup of the Jake BS1:
You can see I blacked out the P pickup and added a black neck pickup, with my amazing windows paint skills.
And now, the wait!
This started with me falling in love with a Sandberg I saw online.
But going through their website, and then the configurator, and then their price, and then their waiting time, made me look for another solution.
I was looking for something similar in a shape of a Serek, but the waiting time (and cost) does not work for me. I don't want to wait a year for a custom bass.
So, I paused and thought.
What are the best basses that I ever owned?
Why did I sold them?
The answer is easy. The best basses I ever owned (build quality, attention to detail) were the Sputnik and the Serek. Between German Masterbuild Warwick, German Sandberg, USA and Japan Fender, Serek, Yamaha, Hamer, British Sei, Ibanez, etc., the Sputnik and the Serek stand apart.
I sold the Sputnik in a guilt crisis for having too many basses and for it being a 5 string, and sold the Serek because it was shortscale. The others are gone, too.
Why did I sell them all and just kept a 40yo Yamaha Pulser and a Yamaha BBPH?
Because I'm stupid and keep buying things that are not going to get me my favorite tone.
I am a P tone player. I like growly, fat, angry, unpolite tone. Like the bass is a heavy smoker and when he talks, you can tell that throat has seen better days. That's my preferred tone.
So, a P bass it is. But I need more. P pickups are so different. I want power.
So I searched and found the right pickup for me.
The DiMarzio Relentless P pickup. It's made to the instructions of Billy Sheehan.
Great sounding pickup, but I wanted more. More fatness available, please.
Easy. Put the Relentless set, then. A P pickup and a neck pickup. That will do it!
So, I basically just copied a Yamaha Attitude. Not on purpose, but that's where it went.
The rest is anesthetics only.
Matte finish, solid vintage white, matching headstock, tinted vintage neck and fingerboard. Neck, flamed maple, fingerboard, birdseye maple. Blaco blocks, vintage white binding. One knob (stacked volume/tone), one three way switch.
Gold hardware (because, yeah) and black pickup covers.
And that's it! I'm hoping it will sound like a beast, we'll see!
The inspiration:
The pickups:
The sound I want:
And now, the mockup of the Jake BS1:
You can see I blacked out the P pickup and added a black neck pickup, with my amazing windows paint skills.
And now, the wait!
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I like it....I know what you mean about that P Sound.
I recently swapped out some standard humbuckers for the Delano SBC5 HE/S-4 pickups, and could not be happier with the P-Tone these put out. I wired the pickups Single Coil (Reverse P) / Series Humbucking / Single Coil (Standard P). I love the Reverse P and Standard P switched positions.....very growly.
I recently swapped out some standard humbuckers for the Delano SBC5 HE/S-4 pickups, and could not be happier with the P-Tone these put out. I wired the pickups Single Coil (Reverse P) / Series Humbucking / Single Coil (Standard P). I love the Reverse P and Standard P switched positions.....very growly.
My Mensinger Pike fretless 32p arrived this week and it looks, sounds, and plays exactly as I'd hoped, and weighs in at 7.7 lbs with perfect balance. I had a bit of a wrinkle with the custom ramp - I spec'd it to run flush to the fingerboard, and while aesthetically perfect, it was causing the high F on the G string to "ramp out" to an F#. Randy at Bass Spotlight provided some guidance and I was able to sand down just enough of the backside of the ramp to create clearance, and all is good! I ordered with rounds, and am considering Pressurewounds or something similar (not all the way to flats) to save my fingers and board as I practice vibrato technique - any suggestions welcome.
Attachments
Looking for feedback from lightweight 5-string owners. I've seen some light ones (specifically, the 34" scale Elwood 5P in all white color scheme like Larry Graham) and wanted to know how the balance is. Any neck dive or is the lightweight body matched nicely to a light neck? With some of the bigger production basses you might luck out on a light bass only to find it's just the body that is light and the neck drops sitting or standing. Not sure how big the operation or how hands-on Adrian is with each bass, esp considering the price.
@TideSwing : I have an Elwood 34" L5p that's just over 8 lbs. It has an unroasted maple neck with carbon rods and standard Wilkinson tuners, and I wouldn't call it divey with a strap, but it hangs slightly more parallel to the ground than than my 34" L4P, 32" L5A, and 32" L4P and wants to dive sooner while sitting. From all my conversations, you can't specify a light body or neck; you can just spec them to increase probability of lightness. I now use a wide neoprene strap on the 34" L5p and it stays in place and without excessive shoulder pressure.
Looks great!
Are sound clips coming soon?
Caveats - I'm a guitarist learning bass, and I've had a fretless for 2 days ;-). This is a raw track with no processing other than the Mustang Micro studio preamp setting that fed Garageband.
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Sounds good, the tone and mwaaaah sound pretty good... nice and warm!
Possible factors to optimize balance:
- Elwood L instead of Elwood C
- 32" scale length instead of 34"
- ash body instead of swamp ash (maybe?)
- roasted neck
- carbon rods
- high-mass bridge
- Hipshot Ultralite tuners
Check out @micguy's posts. He builds his own Warmoth 5-string basses, and has posted a lot about building balance into his instruments.
This is "Rick" (I name my basses). It got its name because my first bass was a Rickenbacker, and there were a couple of things i liked about that bass - the bridge pickup location and the comb filtering of a pickup in that location being one of them:
Anyway, as you see, it has just the one pickup - not a lot of mass there. The body is roasted swamp ash, selected for light weight - Warmoth will, if you pay them for it, sell you a body make from a super light blank (you have to call them and ask for it). Everything on the bass that can be aluminum is aluminum - the bridge (Hipshot), the knobs, the neck mounting plate, the electrosocket for the jack, and the tuners (again Hipshot). So it's as light as you can make the thing wihtout carving away wood (I have done that to certain instruments), and people think that that means it'll neck dive. In this case, totally wrong. It's 7.18 pounds, you can put it on a strap, take your hands off, and jump up and down, and it'll stay put.
There is no real secret - taking weight off the neck and having the upper horn long enough is what makes the thing balance. In addition to the aluminum tuners, the neck is roasted maple and has graphite reinforcement rods - Warmoth offers steel or graphite for their reinforcement rods, and with the steel rods, this bass wold probably neck dive. As it is, it's a complete joy to play. Yes, a roasted neck with graphite reinforcement rods costs more. Given the results, though, it's a bargain.
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Yep it's possible to do this with a Maruszczyk bass as well and the question was in reference to a Maruszczyk not buying the right/light parts, although maybe the OP is open to that. If you spend five minutes in the configurator you'll see that you can select any of these options to benefit weight and balance.
Both of the basses I have on order right now are swamp ash bodies (for lighter weight) with a roasted maple necks with carbon reinforcements. Although mine both will be headless which means the balance will be fantastic with no headstock or tuning keys at the end to pull down the neck.
The OP asked about the size the shop, which is still pretty small but keep in mind that Adrian is not the builder, as much as the designer and QA.
This link was posted earlier in the thread (so sorry for posting again), but good for reference here if you're looking to see what their shop environment looks like.
When I had my Frog built, one of the things I asked for was an extra-slender neck. (I was trying to replicate the feel of the neck on a '74 Rickenbacker 4001 that was stolen from me long ago.) I ended up with a neck that is 1mm slimmer from front to back than a standard Frog neck. I didn't do that with weight savings or balance in mind, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.
If you like slender necks, that might be an option for you.
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Seeking Input of the best specs for Fretless 5.
I like the 3 peice neck of the Frog with graphite bars, but the Elwood L looks fine also.
Was leaning towards the Bass Culture pickups as I like that you can split them and have wood covers,
but wonder if maybe the Nordstrand Big splits although less felxible and cool looking would sound the best.
I was thinking passive, and using an outboard preamp or eq, but open to what preamp others have liked and think would fit.
Leaning Alder (light and classic), thought of Swamp ash but do not want to lose mids, and everything elxe is too heavy.
Rosewood top wood with matching headstock.
Thinking Katalox for the fingerboard, but had thoughts about ebony.
I play a little bit of everything. Jazz, singer/songer wirter, world music, and etheral music.
After 40 years of playing, this would be my first custom order and I am guessing I am ot the only one that goes back and forth on options.
I love my old Modulus fretless but went back to 34 inch as I have gotten older.
Thanks.
I like the 3 peice neck of the Frog with graphite bars, but the Elwood L looks fine also.
Was leaning towards the Bass Culture pickups as I like that you can split them and have wood covers,
but wonder if maybe the Nordstrand Big splits although less felxible and cool looking would sound the best.
I was thinking passive, and using an outboard preamp or eq, but open to what preamp others have liked and think would fit.
Leaning Alder (light and classic), thought of Swamp ash but do not want to lose mids, and everything elxe is too heavy.
Rosewood top wood with matching headstock.
Thinking Katalox for the fingerboard, but had thoughts about ebony.
I play a little bit of everything. Jazz, singer/songer wirter, world music, and etheral music.
After 40 years of playing, this would be my first custom order and I am guessing I am ot the only one that goes back and forth on options.
I love my old Modulus fretless but went back to 34 inch as I have gotten older.
Thanks.
I love the Frog shape, both because it's well balanced and because it's unique.
I got a Katalox fretboard on mine, and I'm very happy with it. It's about as hard and as dark as ebony, but at a fraction of the price. I'd happily get another bass with a Katalox fret/fingerboard. I like having a bass with a feature few others have.
The rest of it, you're just going to have to figure out. I'm confident that whatever you order, you'll be happy with the result.
Another vote in favor of Katalox here. Got it on my Frog and it's great.
Regarding swamp ash vs alder, I wouldn't worry too much about how it affects your midrange. I've got two custom builds (one of them my Frog), both with swamp ash bodies, and they sound vastly different, due more to my pickup and string choices than anything else. Plus if you've got a preamp somewhere in your chain you'll easily be able to shape your sound.
For context I've got a passive PJ with Aguilars and tapes, and my Maru is an active Frog with Delanos, a Toneformer preamp, and flats. I've also got a Two Notes Le Bass on my board.
Agree with Katalox, it is one I considered as I've owned other basses with it.
I have a fretless Paddock 5 (headless) on order which is essentially the single cut version of the Frog, which I also have as a headless. I prefer the style, feel and balance of the Frog/Paddock body over any FSO.
I stayed with swamp ash for a light weight body and good tone and went with a quilted Maple top. I considered Ebony (all 3) and katalox and went with white ebony.
Since it's fretless, I wanted a piezo which I ordered the headless ETS 2-part bridge with Richter pre-amp. For magnetic pickups I went with Nordstrand Zen Blade's with 3-way switches for each and also added in a passive tone control for passive playing.
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