Maruszczyk is one of the brands that we've been exclusive dealers for in Spain for a longer time. We've always loved these instruments and it is great to see that they do not just rest on their laurels but keep improving and growing. Every year we get a lot of new Maruszczyk basses and it is great to see that the quality and number of options just keep improving but the price tag remains incredibly affordable.
Adrian Maruszczyk is a professional bassplayer and a true visionary when it comes to bass designing. The headquarters of his brand are located in Aldenhoven, Germany. Maruszczyk's motto is "From Player to Player" and it basically means that they are bassplayers who really understand what bassplayers need and can react to those needs really fast. Just check Public Peace's Youtube channel and you'll find Adrian himself doing most of the demos of his basses. We love this personal approach.
The basses are built in a small factory in Poland and Adrian Maruszczyk is really on top of the whole production system. For him it is simple: "if my name is on the bass, it has to be good".
All the hard work for years has made these instruments to be considered as some of the best European made basses.
What other brands call "Custom Shop", "Custom Built", "Masterbuilt", etc., means just standard at Maruszcyk basses. This means you won't be charged extra money just because a paticular component of piece of wood is a bit different. You just pay what you get for. We love this honest attitude. Also each bass is made to order, meaning they are actually all Custom Shop Basses. No standard series here or runs of dozens of similar instruments. In short: these are Custom Shop basses at Standard series pricing.
PLEASE NOTE: When you order a new Maruszczyk bass you have two options:
1.- Order the instrument you see in our webshop (immediate delivery)
2.- Order a custom bass from us. We'll guide you through the whole process and will give you a quote of the bass with the specs you need. We ask for a 30% downpayment to start the building process. The balance due needs to be paid when the bass is finished and prior to shipping it to you. You can use Public Peace's configurator to get an idea of the options and pricing of your bass but this configurator doesn't show all the options so we recommend you contact us for advice. Also we've ordered dozens of Maruszczyk basses over the last few years so we are well acquainted with the different options available and you can benefit from our professional advice. Just send us an email and we'll help you out. Lead time is 10-12 weeks once the firm is order.
This model is called Sputnik and it is one of Maruszczyk's original designs. Obviously this bass takes a bit from here and there but the end result is an original design with some great appointments.
As you can see in the pictures this is a 5 string bass and one of the most striking features is the incredibly low weight of just 3.45kg.
The use of a set-in neck plus Singlecut design make for an instrument with a great sustain. The beautiful bird's eye fingerboard adds definition so you get the perfect blend of sustain and attack. In this case the maple fingerboard has been "smoked" so you get less moist and a cool color. Cool.
The neck sports 24 frets and there's unrestricted access up to the end. Scale is 33" which coupled with a 45mm nut and 18mm spacing at the bridge create an incredibly comfortable feeling. Lightweight Wilkinson tuners help keep the bass balanced. It might not seem much, but 33" scale instead of 34" really makes a difference. Basically you get less stretch and easier reach but without losing any punch at all. In this case it works just fine both for BEADG or EADGC tuning. Great.
Using a separate bridge and tailpiece is a great idea to transmit more of the string's vibrations to the body and the angle at the break point also helps heep the bass in tune.
Following the German Tradition (Höfner, Framus, Marleaux, Sandberg, etc.) there's a zero fret. There are two main advantages for using this: first of all, open strings will sound the same as fingered ones. But most importantly, a zero fret means perfect string height at the nut. A poorly cut nut can either damp the string's vibration and even cause buzz if the grooves are too deep or it can make the notes up to the 5th fret (aprox) sound sharp if the strings sit too high on it as you have to press harder than needed to make the note ring. An added advantage of the zero fret is that if you decide to use an alternate tuning such as EADGC you don't need to change the nut.
Maruszczyk basses always use top notch electronics. In this case we get a set of active EMG 75X pickups. EMG's design has a very low ratio or resistance to inductance which increases the low end response. At the same tiem, radiused ceramic bar magnets ensure a tight mid-range pucnh with increased dynamic high end response. Compared to standard EMG pickups, these X series exhibit added headroom and response, making them even more musical to the human ear. A 9 Volt battery is needed for these pickups to work. Regarding the electronics, this bass has passive Volume (x2) and Tone pots and we really think this is all you need. Frequency response is full and clear. The passive Tone pot is handy in case you need to get a more traditional sound.
String to string balance on this is exceptional. The Low B is strong and clear.
To sum up: a High End 5 string bass that is gorgeous, lightweight, versatile, powerful and has an amazing low price tag.
This bass comes with a quality padded gigbag, tools and documents.