My new Maruszczyk---"nitro gloss"?

[Radchenko]

Hello,

My new custom bass arrived today.

Good things:

The neck is beatiful and plays nice. Tinted vintage birdseye maple. East Indian rosewood. Good choice. Clay dots.

The weight I think is 3'4 kg, very light. The Bass is chambered.

Nordstrand NPJ4SV passive. My personal preference. Great punchy sound, passive.

Hipshot A Styles and Hipshot tuners. Also my choice, really good.

------

Quickly started a conversation with Adrian about the body finish (I started a little bit rough and I feel sorry for that).

I selected nitro finish. But the finish look shiny and sliding. My expectations were very different. Looks like gloss and I don't like It.

I tell him about that and he said me it's "nitro gloss", 

Play them, you will see how great the bass is and in a half year is the shine over.

I don't know if this is normal, what do you think please?.

The bass cost me 2100€ plus 30€ for an extra black pickguard. (Softcase).

I'm ok about everything except the body finish. When I use the configurator I select nitro finish. Not nitro shiny gloss finish.

Also looks like it has a slightly fissure between neck and body.

I'm expecting the next answer of Adrian about that.

Maruszczyk only make this nitro finish with gloss?.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Radchenko]

[Sibob]

Yeah Nitro starts similar to Poly, in that it's relatively 'shiny'...or gloss. But Nitro will wear and dull, whereas a Poly finish will endure, and instead of wearing naturally, chip off when damaged.

I think lots of people expect a Nitro finish to look like a 'vintage' Fender, but remember that even a '63 Precision was once new and shiny  

Si

Edited July 3, 2020 by Sibob

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

2 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Yeah Nitro starts similar to Poly, in that it's relatively 'shiny'...or gloss. But Nitro will wear and dull, whereas a Poly finish will endure, and instead of wearing naturally, chip off when damaged.

Si

+1 

I may be overstepping my knowledge here, but that neck joint merely looks to me like the final polish of both neck and body was done with neck on. Just a bit gunky and easily resolved. You’re right to be annoyed after what it cost you, but it looks like you have a really nice bass there. I would enjoy it, wear it in and get that gloss dulled ASAP. 🤘

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Oh and that neck 😍

[Sibob]

And bloody hell their prices have gone up! I remember paying £800 for a chambered 33" Jake P/JJ in Shoreline Gold maybe 5 years ago?!

Nice basses though.

Si

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

5 minutes ago, Sibob said:

And bloody hell their prices have gone up! I remember paying £800 for a chambered 33" Jake P/JJ in Shoreline Gold maybe 5 years ago?!

Nice basses though.

Si

Yes, I thought that, but I’m guessing there are few “options” with that build 😀

[Sibob]

10 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Yes, I thought that, but I’m guessing there are few “options” with that build 😀

I just spec'd my old bass up again, and give or take a few quid, it came to £1299. Glad I gave them a try when I did haha

Si

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 minute ago, Sibob said:

I just spec'd my old bass up again, and give or take a few quid, it came to £1299. Glad I gave them a try when I did haha

Si

Mmm, that is a bit of a leap, but as a business model, I think they have done the right thing. They made quality basses for a really good price some years back and have gradually increased their prices whilst clearly maintaining their sales (and quality). I’m sure they are carefully monitoring price against sales so one does not impact on the other. Still competitive and I guess Moollon is they one they should be watching. I wonder how much impact the UK coming out of Europe has had.

[erisu]

3 hours ago, Radchenko said:

This is worrying really. I've been pondering whether to order a Maruszcyk Elwood bass and been reading the bigger thread we have here that some users have received their basses with some defects. If this doesn't happen on a £300 instrument then it shouldn't happen on a £2k+ instrument.

I've also wanted to order a Nitro finish on the Maruszcyk too. Not fussed if it's shiny or what not but I believe the finish should wear nicely the more you play it like some folks mentioned above.

Be interested to see what Adrian has to say about that hairline defect.

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Sibob said:

I just spec'd my old bass up again, and give or take a few quid, it came to £1299. Glad I gave them a try when I did haha

But the euro equivalent of £1299 5 years ago was £970, so if you paid £800 it has gone up 20% in 5 years. Just we trashed our money a few years back.

[Sibob]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

But the euro equivalent of £1299 5 years ago was £970, so if you paid £800 it has gone up 20% in 5 years. Just we trashed our money a few years back.

I suppose that sounds fairly reasonable. Oh well, as you were, back to this nitro sunburst beauty 😊

Si

[Cuzzie]

Nitro will dull, but you don’t always need to finish and buff nitro to a gloss - certainly I haven’t when doing nitro finishes. That colour is nicely done

Mark around the neck pocket wouldn’t bother me, but I am less bothered about stuff like that.

If you want to take some sheen off the neck finish just gently rub with some 0000 steel wool, that take the stickiness and shiny ness off and make it a better feel.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Cuzzie

[Radchenko]

Thank you for your help,

I think on monday Adrian will give me an answer 🙂

[ezbass]

15 hours ago, Sibob said:

Yeah Nitro starts similar to Poly, in that it's relatively 'shiny'...or gloss. But Nitro will wear and dull, whereas a Poly finish will endure, and instead of wearing naturally, chip off when damaged.

I think lots of people expect a Nitro finish to look like a 'vintage' Fender, but remember that even a '63 Precision was once new and shiny  

Si

This ^^^.

[LukeFRC]

19 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

+1 

I may be overstepping my knowledge here, but that neck joint merely looks to me like the final polish of both neck and body was done with neck on. Just a bit gunky and easily resolved. You’re right to be annoyed after what it cost you, but it looks like you have a really nice bass there. I would enjoy it, wear it in and get that gloss dulled ASAP. 🤘

+1 

looks normal to me. It looks like what I expect a quality nitro finish to look like. I’m convinced the matt fender style nitro is as much about saving the cost of polishing, and risk of possible rub through than anything else. 

[Ian McFly]

Nitro being more fragile, could that hairline crack be due to that? Like, the neck may have put some pressure on the neck joint at some point and the varnish just slightly cracked?

Not something you want from your brand new bass... but it happened to my ex-US Jazz Bass years ago and it wasn’t even a nitro finish...

[Radchenko]

Hello,

One more question,

Is a regular thing that the strings, specially E string, doesn't cross between the magnets?.

Thank you.

[LukeFRC]

On 03/07/2020 at 22:39, Radchenko said:

it seems level here. I wonder if it took a slight knock in postage and the neck has moved a bit - would also explain the stress cracks to the finish you showed. 

[LeftyJ]

Looks great, except for the large black area at the tummy cut! I always associate that with cheap basses with veneer bodies where they want to cover up the glue joints. I think it's a shame they do that on a 2100 pound custom bass. 

[therealting]

5 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Looks great, except for the large black area at the tummy cut! I always associate that with cheap basses with veneer bodies where they want to cover up the glue joints. I think it's a shame they do that on a 2100 pound custom bass. 

THIS. I can’t stand it. 

[Burns-bass]

I’m not sure if people are zooming in on the neck picture but that’s a crack in the finish that shouldn’t have passed QC. If it was damaged in transit that’s still the manufacturers responsibility to fix it or replace it.

I bought an FSR US jazz from a U.K. shop and it had the tiniest mark on it that was impossible to see unless you shine a light on the bass. The seller told me while packaging it up to send it to me and they offered me a £200 discount on retail and a new set of strings. 
 

Its so disappointing when you receive something new that doesn’t match expectations. I think you’re right to speak to the builder. I’m sure there’s an amicable solution.

[Radchenko]

46 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

it seems level here. I wonder if it took a slight knock in postage and the neck has moved a bit - would also explain the stress cracks to the finish you showed. 

If you zoom the picture Adrian took to me I see the same unpairing with the magnets on E string:

[Grahambythesea]

19 minutes ago, Radchenko said:

string:

I think this is a problem of the neck width. Did you specify a width like a Jazz? P pickups are generally designed to fit wider Precision type necks. If you look at the Moollon in the next thread, the strings are perfectly central to the poles.

[Burns-bass]

1 minute ago, Grahambythesea said:

I think this is a problem of the neck width. Did you specify a width like a Jazz? P pickups are generally designed to fit wider Precision type necks. If you look at the Moollon in the next thread, the strings are perfectly central to the poles.

This discussion goes on forever. There’s no need for the string to be over the middle of the pickup poles and on most basses it doesn’t. It’s not a failure of the builder or a shifted neck.