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NBD: Maruszczyk Jake 4 custom


mcnach
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[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1442533698' post='2867683']
She's a stunner mate, congrats! Any chance of a sound sample?

Btw, just checked out your band via your signature link and love them! Grabbed myself a copy of your album :)
[/quote]

Wow, thank you!!! :)
We've got a new album coming out in two weeks :P :lol:

I'm not really set up to record nicely at the moment... incredible, I know. I should figure something out. I only ever do very rough recordings on a Zoom H2 that I keep as a "notebook", to record ideas and work out basslines to new songs we come up with etc, but I've been meaning to sort out my recording situation, I'll get something done. Even if it's not great quality, at least I can compare it to a couple of Precisions, Stingrays and the other Jake, perhaps...

I got home about 30min ago, after a 10-midnight gig at a new venue that opened today in Edinburgh called Stramash. It was a double whammy of awesomeness. First, the venue: really good! It's still a bar, but a hybrid between a typical dedicated music venue and a bar. The equipment provided (drumkit, two Orange guitar heads + 412 cabs, and an Orange Bass Terror 500 with a 410 cab) was nice enough, the stage was elevated about 5 feet, it was of a decent size, and with ample space behind for bands to hang out, leave cases, drink beer away from the mere mortals below :lol: Unheard of for a bar, in Edinburgh. Attendance was pretty good too.
Second... I got to play my new bass. It's my new favourite bass without a doubt. It's very comfy, the neck is just right... I'm glad I got the dimensions/profile right and that they were able to achieve my specs to the millimetre. It's so light as well, in a good way. And sound-wise... *exactly* what I was aiming for. These strings are not my favourite, they are nickels and too new (I like steels after they lose their initial zing), but the bass sounded fantastic. That extra definition was there, without getting into bridge pickup territory (which my other Jake, a P/JJ, or my Stingray excel at), just modifying the Precision sound a touch. It sounded big, it sounded fat, but with definition... and I did slap a little bit. The pops were definitely Precision (on D and G strings), which is great as it's a sound I really like... but the slap sounded "chunkier" and less flabby than on a Precision. Maybe it can be improved, but this is a success, for me. I love the sound, I love the feel... This is definitely now my #1 bass. :)

Oh, third awesomeness! There is this brother and sister, Polish, who have been coming to most of our local gigs for quite a while now. I have only spoken to them briefly before today. Today, the girl was gesturing at me "I'm watching you". :blush:
She came to me during our break to hug me and tell me how much they love our band, but especially the bass. It turns out she's learning to play bass, and was learning the bassline to the song we played when she did the "I'm watching you" thing. Ah, now it made sense! :) She's learning to play, by learning my basslines! How cool is that??? :yarr:
She said the other day, her brother and her learnt one of our songs and recorded a version of it.
Really humbling... To hear/see someone so into our music, it makes me feel a little self-conscious now, knowing that she's paying extra attention to what I play (she was saying she learnt the bassline from the album, but noticed I play something different live... which is the case for nearly everything we've recorded... Typically the recordings were made soon after writing the songs, with whatever bassline I had at the time in mind, and then it's changed over time sometimes a lot)... I feel selfconscious, but also quite chuffed. It makes a difference from the 50 year old drunk male spitting in my face about how his mate used to play bass, a proper bass, a real Fender :lol: (I got that once playing my Stingray, apparently my little bass sounded ok, but I should try a Fender one day).

I love my red Maruszczyk.

Picture taken a couple of hours ago:

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[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1441894600' post='2862733']
I went for the standard Jake design with a number of variations:

Passive electronics - volume/tone
Ash body
Maple neck/fingerboard, vintage tint glossy lacquer
3mm diameter side dots
43mm spacing at the nut and 21mm deep at 1st fret (wide and wide spacing, but not chunky in cross-section)
Hipshot ultralite tuners
ETS bridge (20mm spacing, top-loading)
Delano PMVC 4 AL-H pickup

The pickup is in reverse orientation and slightly closer to the bridge than normal. Essentially, the DG coil is about 5mm closer to the neck than the standard Precision DG, and the EA coil just below it. I was playing with pickup placements a while ago on an old OLP, and that was roughly one of the positions I liked a lot. It was fat, but a bit more defined than a Precision, yet it still share a lot with the Precision. If I moved it closer towards the bridge then it started getting too much into Stingray territory, even using P type pickups, so that looked like a good place for a "hybrid". I love the Precision, but I miss the extra definition I get on a Stingray. This is my attempt to get something that would sit in between.

Oh, it also has my band's logo on the headstock :P
[/quote]Interestingly that pickup placement is pretty much bang on where a Warwick Streamer (stage 1) has it.

Love the bass- and not wanting to distract you from playing it, but reading the thread and seeing what you're going for tonally - if you've not tried one add a G&L L1000 onto the GAS list... ;)

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[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1442558222' post='2867707']
Interestingly that pickup placement is pretty much bang on where a Warwick Streamer (stage 1) has it.

Love the bass- and not wanting to distract you from playing it, but reading the thread and seeing what you're going for tonally - if you've not tried one add a G&L L1000 onto the GAS list... ;)
[/quote]


A G&L L1000 has always been attractive. But... I have to say, those pickups are not really doing it for me. I have a love hate relationship with my L2000 (probably why I have butchered it beyond recognition! :lol:) and I think it it's down to the pickups. One day I love it, the next I can't stand it. Fickle? Moi? :P

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[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1442563579' post='2867738']
Looks fantastic :-)

... Aren't you the guy who claimed not to like precisions? ;-)

I'm waiting on my £8.80 (delivered) Harley Benton arriving. Would be interesting to compare them ;-)
[/quote]


I have said many many stupid things in my life, what made you think I had stopped? :lol:

Yeah, who would have thought that I would become a fan of Precisions? But with this one I'm straying a little away from them, as I hope you can hear for yourself soon. Did you figure out the intonation issues on your G&L? Let's PM :)

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