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 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 Singlecut fretless 5 string bass and one of the most striking features is the incredibly low weight of just 3.5kg.
The use of a set-in neck plus Singlecut design make for an instrument with a great sustain. The beautiful ebony fingerboard adds definition so you get the perfect blend of sustain and attack. Of course it is the perfect board for a fretless instrument.
The neck sports 2 full octaves and there's unrestricted access up to the last one. Scale is 34" which coupled with a 45mm nut and 18mm spacing at the bridge create an incredibly comfortable feeling.
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 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.
Maruszczyk basses always use top notch electronics. In this case we get a single Bassculture splittable humbucker (model 48MB) with wood cover. This pickup sounds great. Deep and clear and completely noise free. There's a Single-Series-Parallel switch for each pickup, making this a really versatile bass. Actually it proves that when things are well done you don't need too many elements. The amount of sounds that this bass is capable of producing is really impressive considering it is 100% passive and there's only one pickup. Well done!
String to string balance is exceptional. The Low B is strong and clear, just the way it should be.
To sum up: a High End fretless 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.
Maruszczyk Sputnik 5p Fretless
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