The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!

[RyoCanCan]

That's great! Thats going to be a sick bass. Were you able to et all of the custom ideas you had into the build?

Yeah, Adrian said they're all possible which is just awesome. Thought there'd be some friction but everything was okay

 

[mallninja]

Just got my couch photos from Randy.
The order was placed Aug 9-ish.

It's a lefty Elwood L5a-24, 34" fretless neck with 18mm spacing, Delano pickups and Maruszczyk pre-amp.

 

[swartzfeger]

Just got my couch photos from Randy.

WOW!!!

 

[twangcat]

Just got my couch photos from Randy.
The order was placed Aug 9-ish.
View attachment 4918874
It's a lefty Elwood L5a-24, 34" fretless neck with 18mm spacing, Delano pickups and Maruszczyk pre-amp.

Gorgeous! Congrats.

 

[Shibata]

Just got my couch photos from Randy.
The order was placed Aug 9-ish.
View attachment 4918874
It's a lefty Elwood L5a-24, 34" fretless neck with 18mm spacing, Delano pickups and Maruszczyk pre-amp.

Looks great! That neck kind of makes me regret not choosing a roasted maple neck on my 6 string Frog build.

 

[Shibata]

My Frog 5 string is all set up and plays unbelievably good. It is so comfortable and easy to play. Words cant describe how happy I am with this bass!

 

[mallninja]

Gorgeous! Congrats.

Thank you!

Looks great! That neck kind of makes me regret not choosing a roasted maple neck on my 6 string Frog build.

Thanks! I mainly chose roasted maple hoping it's less affected by humidity changes than regular maple neck. We'll see.

 

[Oliver Stein]

It's a lefty Elwood L5a-24, 34" fretless neck with 18mm spacing, Delano pickups and Maruszczyk pre-amp.

Looks great! Would like to hear the sound once you got it!

 

[BaileyMan]

Indeed it is the most important how it feels to your fingers and hands. After years you can do it by eye. However what I like of measurements is that if you own several basses all of them will feel the same. In particular if you use the same strings.

Agreed.it is all about how it feels. Knowing those measurements and using tools gets me there faster.

 

[BlueTalon]

It's a lefty Elwood L5a-24, 34" fretless neck with 18mm spacing, Delano pickups and Maruszczyk pre-amp.

I ordered my Frog with 18mm spacing, Delano pickups, and a Maruszczyk preamp. No experience with any of those, just my intuition to guide me. I couldn't be happier with the result.

 

[scott sinner]

My Frog arrived today!
Key, non obvious specs:

• Ash body
• Eye Poplar top
• Transparent white
• Macassar Ebony Fingerboard
• Delano JMVC 4 FE/M2 and MC 4 FE/M2

Objective details:
This bass came, all the way from Deutschland to the USA and you could have gigged with it immediately. Intonation was spot on. Action was comfortably low.

Neck and fretwork - I prefer quite low action and I am particular about my strings so I set it up with my own strings and it took a quarter turn of the truss rod to compensate, to give just a sliver of relief. I lowered the action to my silly level, 1.25mm on the g and 1.5 on the e at the 12th. There is no fret buzz anywhere at those specs playing moderately. Going beast mode, the fret buzz is nice and even across the frets. Nothing fizzling out.

QA type stuff - everything seems neatly put together. No little gaps, no loose hardware. Pickup height was good, didn't need to adjust. Electronics seem like good build quality.

Subjective details:
Sound - Sits somewhere between my beloved Warwicks and a more classic bass. Neck position could even be mistaken for a rather modern J with the tone rolled a hair. Pretty damn growly in the middle and aggressive even on the bridge. So in short, nicely versatile.

Neck - there are satin finishes and then there are satin finishes that are smooth as silk. This is a silky smooth neck finish.

Appearance - I really wanted something with stark contrasts but still a hint of detail. It did not disappoint for what I was aiming for. I didn't really know exactly how it would turn out to have a clear white gloss over a figured wood, but it was quite true to the configurator. It may be hard to see in the picture, but the darker specs aren't any issue with the finish. If you look in the light, it is utterly even and smooth. That's just how the grain of the wood interacted. I like it. It was definitely the look I wanted. In lower light, you can mistake that it is just off white, but in full light you see the detail. A cool little trick of the eye that combines with the glow in the dark inlays. My drummer said it looked like a French sweet. He wasn't allowed to lick it...he did ask.

Ergonomics and stuff - I don't know. I've never had an instrument feel uncomfortable. Maybe someone would ask. Preemptive answer. idgaf. Neck dive - also don't know. I am usually holding the damn necks. Weight. I'm blessed with super human strength. Not sure.

Overall
Overall, totally happy with it. Would definitely consider getting another Maruszczyk.

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A few weeks in beyond initial honeymoon and a chance for the bass to settle to its new climate, still blown away by this guy. I've been able to play it in a few band practices and it sits nicely within our context. I did end up switching from my usual steel DR loriders to nickel which took off a little hi mids and added low mids making it sit a bit more like my other basses without adjusting any tone knobs on the amp, though, the timbre in a more characteristic sense is still like I noted above.

 

[FullumMusic]

A few weeks in beyond initial honeymoon and a chance for the bass to settle to its new climate, still blown away by this guy. I've been able to play it in a few band practices and it sits nicely within our context. I did end up switching from my usual steel DR loriders to nickel which took off a little hi mids and added low mids making it sit a bit more like my other basses without adjusting any tone knobs on the amp, though, the timbre in a more characteristic sense is still like I noted above.

I just scrolled back to take a look at the pics and holy isht, that thing is so pretty I'm physically in pain because I stopped looking at it.

I really need to get on putting in an order for a frog before I start playing with the configurator some more.

 

[bmusic]

Hello all. Relatively new to the club, having just picked up this Mensinger Joker from the classifieds earlier this year. What a beautiful creature.

I have a question for you experienced M fans about the Maruszczyk Toneformer pre. The hiss in the mid EQ, once I boost it more than a hair past the detent, is pretty unbearable. Disclaimers at this point might include the fact that I usually play passive basses, and my wife's claims (spurious, I tell you!) that I suffer from OCD. But for real: my StingRay doesn't wheeze like this when I jack up the treble. Is this just something that people live with? Does anybody ever swap out the Toneformer for something else?

 

[Bartrinsic]

Hello all. Relatively new to the club, having just picked up this Mensinger Joker from the classifieds earlier this year. What a beautiful creature.

I have a question for you experienced M fans about the Maruszczyk Toneformer pre. The hiss in the mid EQ, once I boost it more than a hair past the detent, is pretty unbearable. Disclaimers at this point might include the fact that I usually play passive basses, and my wife's claims (spurious, I tell you!) that I suffer from OCD. But for real: my StingRay doesn't wheeze like this when I jack up the treble. Is this just something that people live with? Does anybody ever swap out the Toneformer for something else?

View attachment 4920828 View attachment 4920829

Do you get hiss with the treble knob also? Do you hear hiss when turning the preamp on with all knobs at detent? If there is a specific problem with the mid knob, it could be a pot issue. My experience is that Toneformers aren't the quietest preamps--middle of the pack on that metric. I've replaced mine with Nordstrand 3b or Trickfish/Pope. Other quieter onboard preamps include Glock and John East. Anyway the best preamps are offboard pedals or amp/rack preamps. I keep my onboard preamp off mostly, but will have it set to an alternate EQ like a slap scoop or use it as a trim on-stage if I can't get my tone right otherwise.

 

[bmusic]

Do you get hiss with the treble knob also? Do you hear hiss when turning the preamp on with all knobs at detent? If there is a specific problem with the mid knob, it could be a pot issue. My experience is that Toneformers aren't the quietest preamps--middle of the pack on that metric. I've replaced mine with Nordstrand 3b or Trickfish/Pope. Other quieter onboard preamps include Glock and John East. Anyway the best preamps are offboard pedals or amp/rack preamps. I keep my onboard preamp off mostly, but will have it set to an alternate EQ like a slap scoop or use it as a trim on-stage if I can't get my tone right otherwise.

There is a base level of noise that appears, yes, when I engage the pre. I'm not hearing any noise increase when I raise the bass or treble pots.

And—not knowing the wiring schematic, I don't know if this is relevant—I notice that this mid pot raises/cuts the noise even with the volume pot all the way down.

 

[swartzfeger]

Hello all. Relatively new to the club, having just picked up this Mensinger Joker from the classifieds earlier this year. What a beautiful creature.

I have a question for you experienced M fans about the Maruszczyk Toneformer pre. The hiss in the mid EQ, once I boost it more than a hair past the detent, is pretty unbearable. Disclaimers at this point might include the fact that I usually play passive basses, and my wife's claims (spurious, I tell you!) that I suffer from OCD. But for real: my StingRay doesn't wheeze like this when I jack up the treble. Is this just something that people live with? Does anybody ever swap out the Toneformer for something else?

No idea b, and this is completely irrelevant -- but that's a beautiful bass you have there. Semi- and f-holes aren't my thing but that bass is gorgeous.

 

[bmusic]

No idea b, and this is completely irrelevant -- but that's a beautiful bass you have there. Semi- and f-holes aren't my thing but that bass is gorgeous.

Hard agree!

I'll go farther than that. Basses with batteries are not my thing. 5'ers are not my thing. And the medium scale definitely limits my string choices. But I couldn't resist its visual charms. And it's a very well-made piece, to be sure.

 

[Barticus]

There is a base level of noise that appears, yes, when I engage the pre. I'm not hearing any noise increase when I raise the bass or treble pots.

And—not knowing the wiring schematic, I don't know if this is relevant—I notice that this mid pot raises/cuts the noise even with the volume pot all the way down.

It's worthwhile to reach out to them and ask what is the base level boost is for this preamp (it says additional +6db with extra 9v) I've had a custom John East preamp in a bass that had +18db and if the volume was above 70% it was noisy as heck.

So it may be due to the design or maybe it's a grounding issue? I know there are other members here that have that preamp so they should be able to chime in and tell you how theirs operates.

 

[Bartrinsic]

Hard agree!

I'll go farther than that. Basses with batteries are not my thing. 5'ers are not my thing. And the medium scale definitely limits my string choices. But I couldn't resist its visual charms. And it's a very well-made piece, to be sure.

It does sound like there might be a fault in the pot, preamp or installation. I'm used to the added hiss when turning on the preamp, but that always goes with more hiss from a treble boost, so to have an offending mid pot is unusual. I try not to judge a bass based on dodgy electronics. Due to laziness, I'm not an expert on fixing preamps. My approach at this stage would be 1) Keep it off and save up for a Nordstrand pre-wired 3b with the same number of knobs and switches or 2) switch it to a passive harness and use chicago screws (grounded!) to close the extra holes. Like you, I don't have a lot of tolerance for hiss, even though it only matters for recording.

 

[Metalmongrel]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I just placed an order for a custom solid body Joker B before Christmas. Here's a screen shot of the configuration:

Adrian mentioned that Walnut Burl (shown above on the configurator) is often not deep enough to be used on a Joker due to the contours, so he proposed using Laurel Burl instead.

Here's the Laurel wood that I chose:

Some other features include:

- Delano single coil JSBC 4 TF "Times Square" pickups (I'm looking for a clear/bright sound with lots of high frequencies).
- Passive electronics to keep things simple.
- 32" scale
- Hipshot A-style bridge with string through body option so I can use some 34" scale strings
- 3 piece flame maple neck, maple finger board.
- Alder body
- 3-ply (white black white) binding.
- 38mm nut.

Looking forward to April/May!