The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!

[Five Six Seven]

Folks

One solution to cure the stress of the unknown and to shorten the waiting duration is to order an "Exhibition" bass (for much less money), and so I did.
This one arrived today, and let me tell you (and certify you) that the quality is there.
Fretwork is fantastic, Woodwork is wonderful, in fact anything is great with this bass.
Just had few moments to play with (been busy with work) and it plays like butter (I understand now what it means). LOL
The Delano's are awesome very clear and well defined.

View attachment 2870729 View attachment 2870730 View attachment 2870731

That is drop-dead gorgeous!!!

 

[Five Six Seven]

So, Adrian just emailed me that my off-the-rack Elwood Absolution 6a-24 has shipped. Totally pumped! Of course, idiot that I am, yesterday I cut my right forefinger on -- of all things -- a broken clamp that you use to keep a bag of potato chips closed. Oh, the irony! Naturally, I could give a flying f*ck that the injury makes my typing-heavy job more difficult.... But what if my finger is still jacked up when my new Maruszczyk arrives??? Quel dommage! as French people say. A bassist must have his/her priorities....

 

[Fat Freddy]

Blood on the Frets.........

Hmmm....Has anyone used that as an album title?....If not...Consider it copyrighted

 

[Five Six Seven]

Blood on the Frets.........

Hmmm....Has anyone used that as an album title?....If not...Consider it copyrighted

Ha! Awesome! If Pete Townsend hasn't already copyrighted it, it's gotta be yours!!!

 

[Five Six Seven]

Ha! Awesome! If Pete Townsend hasn't already copyrighted it, it's gotta be yours!!!

Now that I think of it, Pete's would prolly be "blood on the pickups" given his "windmill" tendencies! Better check with Alex Lifeson, though. I seem to recall a moment in the Rush documentary where they show a clip of him playing La Villa Strangiato live with a bandage on a finger on his left hand, after he had cut himself somehow. Still totally nailed it!

 

[Five Six Seven]

I totally agree. When I asked if there would be any progress reports on my build I was met with a big fat "Nope!". Transparency is key, never want to keep your customers guessing, but at the same time I realize that these guys have been operating at a much smaller scale for years so the recent attention they've been getting from the world must not only be overwhelming but completely foreign so they may just be unaware that certain practices may need to be reevaluated to meet demand.

Yeah, these are all such valid points, on both sides. We live in a different world now, and it's freaking disconcerting. In the past, I NEVER purchased a bass without putting my hands on it. But that was just the reality of the system: the only place to acquire instruments was a music store. I remember driving from South Jersey to Philly to try out a Washburn Bantam, the cheap wooden Steinberger copy of the time. I drove the 60 miles, put my hands on it for a spell, and decided to buy it because I had actually played it and liked it. Years later, I did an all-nighter from Vegas to Phoenix, through a brutal snowstorm in Flagstaff, to try out my first six-string: an Ibanez SoundGear model. Tax refund check in hand, I braved white-outs and perilous highways to buy a bass. But I had no other choice, frankly, because the local music stores didn't have anything equivalent. Now, however, you can't find these kinds of instruments (custom-made, high-end) at the local music store, which invariably is Guitar Center. Their stock "caters to the masses," so you'll never see something like a Maruszczyk there. I recently had a chance to visit NYC. I have a friend there who's in a fairly prominent indie band. I asked him: Hey, I'm looking for a new bass, something killer and different, where should I go in the city? His response? Dude, pretty much all of the music stores on 48th Street are gone. There is no more music retail in NYC. So, for better or for worse, this is what we have now.

 

[raphaeld]

That is drop-dead gorgeous!!!

Thanks 567, indeed Solid workhorse right there. and let me tell you that the photos on Maruszczyk's site don't do her (them) justice. Even the ones he send me in our emails were a bit far from the real thing.
This thing is beautiful, it even has a flamed maple top AND back. The neck is very soft under your fingers, almost like velvet.

So, Adrian just emailed me that my off-the-rack Elwood Absolution 6a-24 has shipped. Totally pumped! Of course, idiot that I am, yesterday I cut my right forefinger on -- of all things -- a broken clamp that you use to keep a bag of potato chips closed. Oh, the irony! Naturally, I could give a flying f*ck that the injury makes my typing-heavy job more difficult.... But what if my finger is still jacked up when my new Maruszczyk arrives??? Quel dommage! as French people say. A bassist must have his/her priorities....

Time to "Slappa da bass" then!!

Enjoy yours, I'm pretty sure you will!

 

[Pierre Ganseman]

being a player way before being a retailer... i fully understand the need and urge to see pictures. I mean ... too cool ..
Maruszczyk did around 500 customs in 2017. Imagine the time to sort pictures for that ...

At the moment the company is looking to grow production in 2018 to meet demand and keep delivery time under control. Factory just got expanded.

Its literally ridiculous , i met Adrian the 1st time around 2 years ago and his house was FILLED UP with Basses (around 400 i guess) or something. Right now its emptier and emptier..... and emptier ... and emptier................ Starting from 4 Basses in 2005, and 3 Luthiers. I love the way it turned out and find it very inspiring.

Truth is the music retailing business based on the old model. Shop , rent ... etc ... is in agony..... New model with 95% online is now the only way to go further.

On another note , i just had a bass stuck into US customs for 2 weeks because of a leather strap. Apparently falls under "animal parts certification" , Wildlife an Fisheries or whatever dpt took the strap out and delivered the Bass..... that's a 1st , after 50+ basses shipped to the USA....

 

[DavetheDude]

being a player way before being a retailer... i fully understand the need and urge to see pictures. I mean ... too cool ..
Maruszczyk did around 500 customs in 2017. Imagine the time to sort pictures for that ...

At the moment the company is looking to grow production in 2018 to meet demand and keep delivery time under control. Factory just got expanded.

Its literally ridiculous , i met Adrian the 1st time around 2 years ago and his house was FILLED UP with Basses (around 400 i guess) or something. Right now its emptier and emptier..... and emptier ... and emptier................ Starting from 4 Basses in 2005, and 3 Luthiers. I love the way it turned out and find it very inspiring.

Truth is the music retailing business based on the old model. Shop , rent ... etc ... is in agony..... New model with 95% online is now the only way to go further.

On another note , i just had a bass stuck into US customs for 2 weeks because of a leather strap. Apparently falls under "animal parts certification" , Wildlife an Fisheries or whatever dpt took the strap out and delivered the Bass..... that's a 1st , after 50+ basses shipped to the USA....

Awesome! A well deserved growth, and I sure hope it continues that way.

Have you got any idea how many luthiers there are at the moment and how many are planned with the growth of production?

 

[Pierre Ganseman]

Awesome! A well deserved growth, and I sure hope it continues that way.

Have you got any idea how many luthiers there are at the moment and how many are planned with the growth of production?

13 or 14 cannot remember. Not more people but more space for time being apparently.

In old place apparently while X was using machine Y , Z couldn't use machine B....etc ...

in new place all machines can be used at all times apparently

and yes awesome success story. Adrian said not more people , he seems to find the responsibility to have 18 people under his wing enough for time being but who knows what future will bring

 

[gln1955]

13 or 14 cannot remember. Not more people but more space for time being apparently.

In old place apparently while X was using machine Y , Z couldn't use machine B....etc ...

in new place all machines can be used at all times apparently

and yes awesome success story. Adrian said not more people , he seems to find the responsibility to have 18 people under his wing enough for time being but who knows what future will bring

Thanks for the great information. Adrian deserves all of his success, building great basses at appropriate cost.

 

[Pierre Ganseman]

Thanks for the great information. Adrian deserves all of his success, building great basses at appropriate cost.

Indeed. As far as I know him, which is relatively well now i suppose.... the goal will never be to charge 5000 Dollar for a JB5 and make 1000% on your cost. As long as the employees are paid on time and the money is there to keep the biz going, I've found he literally doesn't really care, his goal is to make it affordable for as many as possible while keeping the biz going. at least in my opinion. That's what I have understood.

He once told me that to be able to produce around 1000 basses per year would be optimum.

 

[David Sutkin]

I love this thread

 

[Five Six Seven]

I love this thread

Yeah, me too. Cheers to all of you and thanks. I've been staring at Reverb.com till I'm glassy-eyed for months now trying to find a new bass to buy. Driving my GF absolutely insane: "Just buy a freaking bass, already!" I dithered and dithered, then started narrowing it down.... I had a moment where I was sorta keen on an Xotic J-bass-style six-string; even found one at a reasonable price. Then I realized (holy cow!) that they were all 22-fret necks! Not that that's a bad thing! But I'm just so used to 24-fret necks at this point.... All the while I had been stalking the Maruszczyk website and checking in here.... I gotta say: nearly everything I saw on Public Peace and Reverb and Talkbass from Maruszczyk was freaking gorgeous! I mean, the finishes and the configurations alone.... I would totally KILL for a 6-string version of a Mr. Tee! Seriously. Swamp ash body with classic tobacco sunburst finish, maple neck and fretboard....

 

[Five Six Seven]

Thanks 567, indeed Solid workhorse right there. and let me tell you that the photos on Maruszczyk's site don't do her (them) justice. Even the ones he send me in our emails were a bit far from the real thing.
This thing is beautiful, it even has a flamed maple top AND back. The neck is very soft under your fingers, almost like velvet.


Time to "Slappa da bass" then!!

Enjoy yours, I'm pretty sure you will!

Yeah, the thing that wowed me about the pics was how flawless it looks. I mean, it's almost an ideal version of that finish, like some kinda Platonic Ideal floating around in space somewhere. I grew up around basses like that, and my first was a cheap Sears catalog plywood version from who knows where that attempted to look like that but was clearly a "copy of a copy of a copy" (to continue the Plato analogy). That thing that you got.... Damn! Looks like it sprang fully formed from the mind of Bass-Zeus! Very cool.

 

[David Sutkin]

I gotta say: nearly everything I saw on Public Peace and Reverb and Talkbass from Maruszczyk was freaking gorgeous!

Yes sir, SAME STORY, Reverb, Talkbass, Public Peace, etc. everything I could find on Maruszczyk basses.... I watched every Public Peace bass demo video I could find, eating them all up one at a time, I started hearing "Hello, Adrian here" in my head!

Then one evening I watched a video of a solo bass cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" on a Mensinger Joker (shout out to Fat Freddy) and the next day I bought my first Maruszczyk bass, a beautiful, all black FROG... true story.



Thank the bass gods that I don't dig short scale basses, otherwise I'd already own a Joker

 

[Five Six Seven]

Okay, so I'm going to be a total loser neurotic for the next week: My Elwood is en route, I have a tracking number, and it's currently in Moenchangladbach, Deutschland, soon to be stolen by pirates or plunged into the sea in a freak airplane disaster a la Tom Hanks in "Castaway." I literally just imagined Hanks awakening as the FedEx plane hits the water, only to find himself "full fathom five" (as Shakespeare sez) as the plane's engines explode around him. But wait! What does he spy floating to the bottom of the fathomless ocean? My bass! And with his last breath he freaking grabs it before ascending to the surface! Problem is... he drags it with him to that island and, rather than fixating on a soccer ball, learns to play Donna Lee flawlessly while I sit here stateside and mourn the premature loss of my bass. Day-um!

 

[Five Six Seven]

Yes sir, SAME STORY, Reverb, Talkbass, Public Peace, etc. everything I could find on Maruszczyk basses.... I watched every Public Peace bass demo video I could find, eating them all up one at a time, I started hearing "Hello, Adrian here" in my head!

Then one evening I watched a video of a solo bass cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" on a Mensinger Joker (shout out to Fat Freddy) and the next day I bought my first Maruszczyk bass, a beautiful, all black FROG... true story.



Thank the bass gods that I don't dig short scale basses, otherwise I'd already own a Joker

Oh, man! No kidding! That is a stunning bass! The flame and that matte finish! And I love that bridge! And Adrian is a really great player, in my humble opinion, and those videos are super useful. My favorite moment: "And that's the sound."

 

[Fat Freddy]

Yes sir, SAME STORY, Reverb, Talkbass, Public Peace, etc. everything I could find on Maruszczyk basses.... I watched every Public Peace bass demo video I could find, eating them all up one at a time, I started hearing "Hello, Adrian here" in my head!

Then one evening I watched a video of a solo bass cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" on a Mensinger Joker (shout out to Fat Freddy) and the next day I bought my first Maruszczyk bass, a beautiful, all black FROG... true story.



Thank the bass gods that I don't dig short scale basses, otherwise I'd already own a Joker

"And that's the sound"....

Ooops...a bit late....Stereo?.....

 

[David Sutkin]

Okay, so I'm going to be a total loser neurotic for the next week: My Elwood is en route, I have a tracking number, and it's currently in Moenchangladbach, Deutschland, soon to be stolen by pirates or plunged into the sea in a freak airplane disaster a la Tom Hanks in "Castaway." I literally just imagined Hanks awakening as the FedEx plane hits the water, only to find himself "full fathom five" (as Shakespeare sez) as the plane's engines explode around him. But wait! What does he spy floating to the bottom of the fathomless ocean? My bass! And with his last breath he freaking grabs it before ascending to the surface! Problem is... he drags it with him to that island and, rather than fixating on a soccer ball, learns to play Donna Lee flawlessly while I sit here stateside and mourn the premature loss of my bass. Day-um!

Waiter, I'll have whatever he's having please!