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.
This model is called Elwood and it is one of Maruszczyk's most successful designs. Obviously this bass is based on a classic design but with some modern appointments.
As you can see in the pictures this is a 4 string bass and apart from being really nice (we love the quilted maple top), it is also lightweight (weighs in at just 3.47kg).
Scale is 34" which coupled to the 40mm nut and 18mm spacing at the bridge make it really comfortable to playt
The beautiful ebony fingerboard with pearloid block inlays looks great and adds definition and punch.
The neck sports 21 frets and there's unrestricted access up to the last one.
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 nots 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. Also the zero fret allows the bass to be easily converted to tenor tunig (EADGC) without having to make a new nut. Cool!
Maruszczyk basses always use top notch electronics. In this case we get a set of Delano JC4 Alnico which sound great. Deep and clear and completely noise free. We also love the new Maruszczyk Toneformer preamp which performs flawlessly and offers 2 bands of EQ. To top it all, the Treble Pot acts as a Passive Tone in that mode so you can also get that traditional treble cut that you'd find on a passive bass.
String to string balance is exceptional.
To sum up: a High End 4 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.