Nice! Have you played the Delano Xtenders before? I have them in my fretless and love them, nice and clear tone.
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The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!
- Thread starter ulasengin
- Start date
FullumMusic
Commercial User
- Oct 13, 2022
- 2,010
- 5,689
- Disclosures
- Audio/Music software developer, contracted with a company you've heard of and deving my own stuff.
Thanks. No, i haven't played the XTenders yet. But i watched a bunch of videos online of them, especially on the Maruszczyk youtube channel and they sound exactly like you said: Very clean and clear. And for a fretless, that's what i want. I can always dirty up or darken/brighten the sound downstream. I also thought about getting an onboard Pre because the allure of active electronics is strong and i've heard the XTenders can be a bit lower output than average pups. But, decided passive should be fine. Between the 2 pup positions, plus the 2 humbucker switches, plus my trickfish bullhead .5K, i'll be fine. (I also produce electronic music, so Ableton + all my crazy plugins, i can get any tone i need. Don't need active. Also no batteries. I already have a bass with EMGs and another with a Bart Pre. I'm over it, batteries in basses.)
Also, i'm not ashamed to admit i also picked the XTenders because the oval shape fit the flow lines of the Frog so well.
That, plus i'm always game for anything different, interesting, or unique.
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2ndBassGuitar
Commercial User
- Jan 17, 2008
- 1,250
- 1,692
- Disclosures
- Dealer for Phil Jones Bass, Lakland, Brubaker Basses, Maruszczyk Instruments
Interesting 3 way trade on Saturday involving these three basses. BG wanted a bass with Multiscale (he had the Butterscotch Elwood) CM was looking for a different neck contour and a passive bass (he had the Multiscale Elwood), and I love the butterscotch quilted maple Elwood passive bass with a roasted maple neck and Indian rosewood fingerboard ( I had the 7 lb swamp ash passive Frog 5 natural).
Everyone wins - that is way it should be on every successful deal.
2ndBassGuitar
Commercial User
- Jan 17, 2008
- 1,250
- 1,692
- Disclosures
- Dealer for Phil Jones Bass, Lakland, Brubaker Basses, Maruszczyk Instruments
Thanks. No, i haven't played the XTenders yet. But i watched a bunch of videos online of them, especially on the Maruszczyk youtube channel and they sound exactly like you said: Very clean and clear. And for a fretless, that's what i want. I can always dirty up or darken/brighten the sound downstream. I also thought about getting an onboard Pre because the allure of active electronics is strong and i've heard the XTenders can be a bit lower output than average pups. But, decided passive should be fine. Between the 2 pup positions, plus the 2 humbucker switches, plus my trickfish bullhead .5K, i'll be fine. (I also produce electronic music, so Ableton + all my crazy plugins, i can get any tone i need. Don't need active. Also no batteries. I already have a bass with EMGs and another with a Bart Pre. I'm over it, batteries in basses.)
Also, i'm not ashamed to admit i also picked the XTenders because the oval shape fit the flow lines of the Frog so well.
Many people on this forum do not go through dealers when they order their custom built Maruszczyks, but there are reasons for going through a dealer. The first bass I ever ordered (Frog 4A) had the Delano oval Xtenders installed, along with a 2 band Delano pre amp. I found the sound often too modern sounding for my taste. After having 30 basses built, I realize that I really prefer 3 band pre amps. I thought about having new pickups installed, however I discovered that there are not any other pickups around with the same size as the Xtenders, so it would have been difficult to swap pickups. I recently sold this bass before I could swap out to a 3 band preamp.
Last year I ordered a 5 string Frog that had Xtenders along with a 3 band Noll Pre amp, and it sounded awesome. I am planning to order a Frog 4A headless Multiscale with a fancy top soon (just have to decide what top/colour) that will have the Xtenders and a 3 band Noll or Darkglass, for my personal use.
FullumMusic
Commercial User
- Oct 13, 2022
- 2,010
- 5,689
- Disclosures
- Audio/Music software developer, contracted with a company you've heard of and deving my own stuff.
I went through the distributer here in NYC. I figure, he already has a relationship with Adrian, and i don't have to be another name in Adrian's inbox asking obnoxious questions he's answered a million times. He can just get the bass made. Whereas the dealer has an existing relationship with Adrian, knows the process and can answer my questions, and has experience ordering and shipping Configuratored instruments to the US already. Also, he's only a quick subway ride away. Also also, i don't trust getting deliveries to my building. He can get it delivered to his little headquarters and i can come pick it up.
I hear what you're saying about the 3 band pre. I really thought about getting one, but i told myself, there's a 4 band EQ on my amp with selectable center frequencies. Between that and my DAW/Plugins, plus the humbucker switches, i have tons of tone shaping. With my Carvin 6 string, i pretty much set my 3 band EQ where i like it and that's where it lives, which, if i think about it, makes the onboard Pre kinda redundant. I guess it means not having to change the EQ on my amp for each bass i play. But, hey, if i absolutely need an onboard, i can add one later with stacked pots or something.
I do like the idea of keeping a bass simple. You can buy a preamp pedal and use it on all your basses. Technology changes and maybe what was state of the art 10 years ago is outdated, noisy etc.
But in the end, I like to have control on my bass. I travel a lot and have to play on different bass rigs. I don’t want to experiment on a new amp on the fly.
I try to set up an amp as flat as possible and use my onboard pre to get it in the ballpark. I bring my own DI (RNDI) and it’s simple! No checked luggage!
I’ll walk over to the drummer’s wedge and see what my bass sounds like. It’s a fairly good representation of what it sounds like at FOH. I usually don’t use a lot of eq anyway but some rooms may call for it.
I adjust my hand position to fit in the mix more too. Too boomy, I play closer to bridge. Too thin, then closer to neck.
I don’t want to run over to amp and tweak in the middle of a song. Having an onboard pre is quicker but I don’t want the bottom to drop out for even a second! The audience may not know what the bass player is doing but they know when you stop!
Are you certainly sure. I see that the saddles have 4 screws. 2 at the front for level the string eight. One on the right side to adjust the string Spacing and a 4th one on the left side that could be to lock the saddle.Well I guess it depends on your tech and patience skills.
The ETS is a nice 2-part bridge, but there’s nothing holding the saddles in place so it’s easy to intonate and then really easy for them to move out of place while tuning after intonation, if you don’t hold them in place during this process. On the flip side string spacing is fairly easily adjusted.
View attachment 4937448
Of these options, I like the monorails but fixed string spacing is the trade off
View attachment 4937455
I spoke to Adrian about the pickups for the custom Frog with an alder body, wenge top and katalox fingerboard that I want to order. Between Aguilar AG 4J-HC, Nordstrand Big Splits and Zen Blades 4, he rightly recommend watching their videos but would take the Zen 4.
My memory may be spotty here (or downright wrong), but wasn't Adrian having "supply" issues with Nordstrand because they were being dick-ish? I thought someone here had a build a month or two back that was delayed due to Nordstrand supply issues. When calls were made, it was determined there were no supply issues but Nordstrand was squeezing Maruszczyk to order more to have on hand and Adrian wasn't biting (ie, Nordstrand was supplying bigger builders first... not necessarily a bad business move but maybe a little cutthroat).
Hopefully someone can set me straight on my memory if I'm wrong.
Thankfully I love Delanos which are located right there in DE.
Ah that’s good to know, neither of the 2 basses that I owned with this bridge had the saddles ‘locked’. So during adjustments, I thought both screws on the top/back were height adjustment equally (although I kept them fairly low)
The one on the front locks the saddle insert. 
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It was TK and mine that were delayed last year (mine +3mos = 6mo delivery) due to this issue (may have changed my now).
Essentially retail/customers were prioritized over builders. Builders were expected (by Nordy) to have 6mo supply on hand (unrealistic).
Man, did anybody notice the price increase in the configurator? It's a pretty significant increase. On average I'd say 20-25% for most options.
Not complaining... still more than worth it, and a similar Fodera, Fbass etc would cost 3x as much.
Still... the build that Randy quoted me as $2600 delivered is $3000 now.
Not an issue. I removed most of the "superfluous" options I had wanted, like the side dot luminlays. And I'm just gonna go w/ Abalone dots now (before, I was going for custom wood block fb inlays). Taking the roasted 3-piece down to a regular 3-piece. Much simpler configuration now... but I can still get a walnut burl top w/ extenders in a Frog headless. But even stripped down, this $2800 config is still $200 more. Ouch.
I may just go Bubinga top to get some of the other options back... (I'm probably lying through my teeth as soon as I see a new top hit the wood collection).
Not complaining... still more than worth it, and a similar Fodera, Fbass etc would cost 3x as much.
Still... the build that Randy quoted me as $2600 delivered is $3000 now.
Not an issue. I removed most of the "superfluous" options I had wanted, like the side dot luminlays. And I'm just gonna go w/ Abalone dots now (before, I was going for custom wood block fb inlays). Taking the roasted 3-piece down to a regular 3-piece. Much simpler configuration now... but I can still get a walnut burl top w/ extenders in a Frog headless. But even stripped down, this $2800 config is still $200 more. Ouch.
I may just go Bubinga top to get some of the other options back... (I'm probably lying through my teeth as soon as I see a new top hit the wood collection).
Also some new options that weren't in the configurator before, like Wenge tops...
Man I can’t live without Luminlay side dots
for $50
Man I can’t live without Luminlay side dots
Lol I dig. But when everything else goes up 25%, you gotta shave somewhere. Roasted 3-piece went from $80 to $100, walnut burl top went from $120 to $150, Xtenders went up, pre amp went up. Luminlays gotta go.
And I **just** told The Woman yesterday, baby, I can get this shipped to our door for $2600! (Oops!)
I have Zen blades spec'd in my 6 string frog. We will see if there is any holdup. I am only about 5 weeks in though.
