The Official MARUSZCZYK CLUB!

[mcnach]

6 hours ago, mrtcat said:

Well sadly I have had to email Adrian and ask him to take my Elwood 5C back and either rebuild it from scratch or give me a full refund. The build quality has been a huge disappointment and I've just noticed a big circular lump has appeared under the paint on the rear of the body. Also the shaping of the cutaway on the back and the rounding of the back edge is very uneven. 

My gripes are:

1. Circular lump has appeared on the back

2. Neck pocket has significant gaps around it

3. The luminlays (which were retro fitted after they missed them on the spec sheet) look like they were fitted by a child

4. The refinish of the neck (after retrofitting luminlays) looks like it's been filed away where the fretboard starts in order to remove overspray.

5. There is wood texture noticeable through the paint.

6. The body shaping is uneven in places.

We will have to wait and see how Adrian responds but I'm hoping he will accept that this isn't up to standard and do the right thing.

Pics can be seen here https://photos.app.goo.gl/LEiDaguYHFM6b3XB7

 

That's pretty poor... and the Luminlay dots... ugh! That's not how it's done :(

[BassApprentice]

Cazpar is coming to the configurator on Monday! 

I've stayed strong so far but I fear for the day the Jazzus configurator comes out! 

Edited July 4, 2018 by BassApprentice

[mrtcat]

Mines been back at Maruszczyk since Tuesday last week and not heard anything from Adrian yet. I'll drop him an email this afternoon to see what his thoughts are.

[Woodinblack]

22 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Mines been back at Maruszczyk since Tuesday last week and not heard anything from Adrian yet. I'll drop him an email this afternoon to see what his thoughts are.

Communication is never much of a strong point with them!

[burno70]

On 04/07/2018 at 18:03, BassApprentice said:

Cazpar is coming to the configurator on Monday! 

I've stayed strong so far but I fear for the day the Jazzus configurator comes out! 

Yup - holding on for a Jazzus.

[pierreganseman]

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Communication is never much of a strong point with them!

Public Peace are currently taking their 1st business holidays in 13 years. Until the 22nd.

[El_JimBob]

Having a little buyers' remorse at the moment...

Whilst I've found Adrian very approachable whilst speccing my instrument, he's been somewhat colder and distant when trying deal with issues my Jazzus has had since I received it. Emailed him a few months ago when I was having problems with the neck, and was pretty much told it must be my fault, as the bass was fine when he received it...

Having decided to put up with the issues for the time being, it's now experiencing quite a severe twist by the headstock end and I've dropped him another email saying I'm pretty upset now. His response? 'why upset? There are much bigger problems in life than this'... I've pulled him up on this and he's claimed he was just trying to cheer me up. Weeeeell, that's not really helping... Anyway, he's offered to look at the neck if I ship it to him, so we'll see what happens... 

[Woodinblack]

I personally would take that more something said in jest that didn't really translate well, rather than a sign he didn't care.

[El_JimBob]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

I personally would take that more something said in jest that didn't really translate well, rather than a sign he didn't care.

Oh, for sure, we discussed that - it just wasn't the right moment for it is all... 

[mrtcat]

Yes I'll also admit to being a bit remorseful now. I've had to chase him after my bass arrived back at his workshop two weeks ago. Whilst we can all see that the luminlays were poorly fitted he has argued that they can't possibly be poorly fitted as the luminlays are 3mm dots that were retro fitted over 2mm dots. He also said that the poor fitting neck pocket should be accepted as after all these are hand built guitars not cnc made parts. 

I'm pretty certain that I'm going to opt for a refund. I don't feel confident that they'd get it right second time around. It's a real shame because the Elwood L I had previously was absolutely perfectly made.

11 hours ago, El_JimBob said:

Having a little buyers' remorse at the moment...

Whilst I've found Adrian very approachable whilst speccing my instrument, he's been somewhat colder and distant when trying deal with issues my Jazzus has had since I received it. Emailed him a few months ago when I was having problems with the neck, and was pretty much told it must be my fault, as the bass was fine when he received it...

Having decided to put up with the issues for the time being, it's now experiencing quite a severe twist by the headstock end and I've dropped him another email saying I'm pretty upset now. His response? 'why upset? There are much bigger problems in life than this'... I've pulled him up on this and he's claimed he was just trying to cheer me up. Weeeeell, that's not really helping... Anyway, he's offered to look at the neck if I ship it to him, so we'll see what happens... 

 

[mrtcat]

Just had a response from Adrian. He accepts there is an issue with the body but says there's absolutely nothing wrong with the luminays. I genuinely can't believe that he really believes that. They look terrible. He has asked me to send a picture of luminlays that look better.

I have asked for a refund but he seems to be getting a bit argumentative over it.

Edited July 24, 2018 by mrtcat
Photo added

[Muzz]

Is he aware this is being documented on a busy bass forum, and therefore not doing his business any good? He might respond differently if he knows this is the case...

[mrtcat]

9 minutes ago, Muzz said:

Is he aware this is being documented on a busy bass forum, and therefore not doing his business any good? He might respond differently if he knows this is the case...

Probably not but I don't really want to appear to be threatening him in any way.

[Woodinblack]

27 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Just had a response from Adrian. He accepts there is an issue with the body but says there's absolutely nothing wrong with the luminays. I genuinely can't believe that he really believes that. They look terrible. He has asked me to send a picture of luminlays that look better.

Its odd that he thinks it looks ok, I haven't seen dots looking that bad. They aren't even flush are they? You only need to look two pages back to find a better example.

Or you can stick some glow on stars on an old neck for the same effect.

 

 

[mcnach]

55 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Just had a response from Adrian. He accepts there is an issue with the body but says there's absolutely nothing wrong with the luminays. I genuinely can't believe that he really believes that. They look terrible. He has asked me to send a picture of luminlays that look better.

I have asked for a refund but he seems to be getting a bit argumentative over it.

 

let me know if you need luminlay pictures that look better... I had mine installed by a local guy and he did a good job. He also said when I approached him "oh, yeah, no problem, that's easy"...

[El_JimBob]

I thought Public Peace/Mensinger just invested in a load of cnc kit a while back (there were videos up somewhere)? No excuse for poorly fitting neck pockets now, surely 

[Woodinblack]

31 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

let me know if you need luminlay pictures that look better... I had mine installed by a local guy and he did a good job. He also said when I approached him "oh, yeah, no problem, that's easy"...

Or me - mine are from Maruszczyk

[mrtcat]

1 hour ago, mcnach said:

 

let me know if you need luminlay pictures that look better... I had mine installed by a local guy and he did a good job. He also said when I approached him "oh, yeah, no problem, that's easy"...

 

58 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Or me - mine are from Maruszczyk

That's really kind gents, thank you. If you did get a chance to send me some pics that would be great. 

I'm going to stand polite but firm because I've not only paid for the bass but also an extra £26 to send the neck back, after they forgot to install the luminlays, and then a further £68 to send the bass back to the workshop in Poland. 

[scrumpymike]

This is a worrying trend.  I had a number of issues with the finish of my last Elwood - including that it was supplied without the Luminlays that I had ordered and paid for!!  I decided not to post anything at the time because a) everybody gets things wrong once in a while and b) Adrian had no hesitation in sorting everything to my complete satisfaction.

The real test of businesses - and the people who run them - is how they respond when things start going wrong.  And the time when stuff typically falls apart is when they are having to expand in response to growing demand.  This is especially true of specialist skills-based manufacturing companies like Adrian's, so I do hope that he is able to manage the change that success has brought upon him.  His command of the English language is limited and I know he doesn't read this forum - hopefully our Pierreganseman is still following this thread and can convince Mr M that he is walking on thin ice at the moment.  Public Peace certainly won't be able to hide bad stuff from the market so their only chance is to respond in a way that can't be faulted.

[pierreganseman]

3 minutes ago, scrumpymike said:

This is a worrying trend.  I had a number of issues with the finish of my last Elwood - including that it was supplied without the Luminlays that I had ordered and paid for!!  I decided not to post anything at the time because a) everybody gets things wrong once in a while and b) Adrian had no hesitation in sorting everything to my complete satisfaction.

The real test of businesses - and the people who run them - is how they respond when things start going wrong.  And the time when stuff typically falls apart is when they are having to expand in response to growing demand.  This is especially true of specialist skills-based manufacturing companies like Adrian's, so I do hope that he is able to manage the change that success has brought upon him.  His command of the English language is limited and I know he doesn't read this forum - hopefully our Pierreganseman is still following this thread and can convince Mr M that he is walking on thin ice at the moment.  Public Peace certainly won't be able to hide bad stuff from the market so their only chance is to respond in a way that can't be faulted.

Hi , i'm still following this indeed. 

To me Adrian is one of the most up to his word person i've ever met. Despite an obvious language barreer I cannot say enough good things about him. He's mentored me into my business and is without a doubt sort of co-responsible for my sort of success. 

 

[NickD]

It's sad to read this. I hope it's all just a blip, and that everything is sorted satisfactorily for everyone.

I do wonder if it's an upscaling issue? BMW bikes were always renowned for build quality until Ewan McGregor did the Long Way round, after which everyone on their Grandmothers wanted  a GS. The sudden increase in demand led to them turning out some real stinky poo for a short while, but they did go out of their way to turn it around.

Both of mine are beautifully made, and I really hope they don't become victims of their own success. I'm gonna wait a little while for my Jazzus I think. 

[burno70]

29 minutes ago, pierreganseman said:

Hi , i'm still following this indeed. 

To me Adrian is one of the most up to his word person i've ever met. Despite an obvious language barreer I cannot say enough good things about him. He's mentored me into my business and is without a doubt sort of co-responsible for my sort of success.  

 

That might be the case but Adrian is vastly experienced with basses and  he knows a good one when he sees is - and therefore a bad one too. He seems like a nice fella but it sounds like he's trying to pass off shoddy workmanship as the buyers problem. Reading these recent threads has completely put be off saving for a Jazzus. Shame really but it sounds like a real hassle if the bass requires any rectification work.

[scrumpymike]

1 hour ago, pierreganseman said:

Hi , i'm still following this indeed. 

To me Adrian is one of the most up to his word person i've ever met. Despite an obvious language barreer I cannot say enough good things about him. He's mentored me into my business and is without a doubt sort of co-responsible for my sort of success. 

 

I was counting on you to jump to Adrian's defence and you haven't disappointed me - which is good!  I too am a BIG fan of his but he needs to look after his customers properly.  You can now tell him that at least 2 Jazzus orders have been put on hold as a result of quality issues that started last year and obviously have not yet been sorted.  I have 2 of his basses but the quality of the second (more expensive) one was so inferior that it didn't look like it had been made by the same company as the first.

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, mrtcat said:

 

That's really kind gents, thank you. If you did get a chance to send me some pics that would be great. 

I'm going to stand polite but firm because I've not only paid for the bass but also an extra £26 to send the neck back, after they forgot to install the luminlays, and then a further £68 to send the bass back to the workshop in Poland. 

Sent.

I would be very angry to have been expected to pay another £90 to send back something to fix their fault, and would have been mentioning the sale of goods act that is european wide. 

So I admire your calmness in dealing with this issue.

[Muzz]

9 hours ago, mrtcat said:

Probably not but I don't really want to appear to be threatening him in any way.

I don't think you're threatening him at all - you're only discussing unresolved issues with a bass from a manufacturer whom lots of people here like (this is Page 99 after all 🙂), and he has an opportunity to make things right for you, which in many cases can turn out to be an even bigger positive for the manufacturer. I had an issue with a Dingwall pickup a while back, and the way Sheldon D resolved the issue reinforced my positive opinion of him and his company.

I hope it all gets resolved for you.