The Tale of the Maruszczyk Elwood 5a Absolution (Syfon bass)

[basexperience]

1 hour ago, Aidan63 said:

is the original truss rod made of left hand thread bar ? Is it straight or curved ? Was the slot flat top and bottom or curved ? What's the tpi or thread pitch ?

Just trying to get my head around how it worked compared to say the original Fender truss rod design, as opposed to the more modern design type Martin is using to replace it.

I traded my Maruszczyk back through BD a good few years ago, never had any problems but it was incredibly sensitive to adjustment, forget your 1/4 turn adjustment, you'd move it just 5' and the neck relief would move by 5 thou 

If you look at the picture, you can see the original rod is threaded so it tightens anticlockwise (the head was attached to the top of the rod as you see it in the picture, I think). It looks pretty straight to me in that pic. I can see why it *was* sensitive, the threading at both ends presumably means you get a lot of travel for a small amount of adjustment at the head. What I can say for sure, is that I knew all along it was a reverse action rod, and I never got the neck flat.

 

@Manton Customs - did the old rod channel show signs of compression where the rod was mounted internally? I'm curious, too.

Edited April 10 by basexperience

[Manton Customs]

Curved channel, straight rod, some compression around the anchor. 😃 

[basexperience]

I'd always rather have a rod which needs a little more turning to achieve the desired result (within reason) as this allows for finer adjustment - if you're a picky bugger like me who loves the neck totally flat with pretty much no relief at all, it makes all the difference. I'd also imagine a rod with a rather rapid adjustment might get "stiff" faster, as presumably you require more force per unit of relief (the forces here remain the same, it's kind of like gears on a car - I'd like first gear on my truss rod, not 3rd)

[Woodinblack]

My action is a bit to high on my elwood at the moment, it has put me off adjusting the truss rod!

[basexperience]

On 11/04/2025 at 14:06, Woodinblack said:

My action is a bit to high on my elwood at the moment, it has put me off adjusting the truss rod!

Don’t be put off - critical to me finding out I had a problem was discovering I couldn’t adjust things to my liking. I’d say it sounds like very small adjustments, then give it time to settle, and critically remember the anticlockwise reverse action on the rod. 
 

I’ve thought about this a lot, and I wonder if the old rod design could even get the neck as flat as I wanted it. I’d had the bass around 2 years at that point, and it had never been quite as ludicrously flat as I keep other basses… 

 

I can say that getting the bass fixed has been a great adventure in itself!

[basexperience]

I’ve had an update from Robin at @Manton Customs - neck is back together, everything is great, all that remains is the cosmetic job to ensure the new binding looks in keeping with the slightly aged binding on the rest of the bass (this thing has binding on all the edges!). So that’ll take maybe another 2-3 weeks. 
 

really looking forward to getting it back. Being able to play it like the Rikkers will be amazing. 

[basexperience]

Another update - THE BASS IS BACK! Arrived very early at 8am yesterday, and after a little time to warm up in the house and a couple of setup tweaks for relief and action, this bass is now 100% where I want it. Low, low action, fast to play, great tone, and looks amazing.

 

Robin has done a great job of getting the finish right - you have to look really closely to tell it's had work done to it at all - the neck binding in particular is a lovely piece of work, blending back into the original around the headstock.

 

Truss rod now works in the normal direction, with a seriously long key available (nice one!), the carbon rods are in there doing their job, and the whole bass just feels so much better. Thanks @Manton Customs!!

 

If anyone would like to see some pics of the completed article on here, let me know. Cost was seriously reasonable considering what's been done here - the bass overall cost to me is still a lot less than a new one, and I can have confidence that it won't need work like that again.

 

It really is a stunning instrument.

[Obrienp]

Wow! Stumbled across this thread by accident. I had no idea that there are issues with Maruszczyk truss rods. I had seem comments about the quality of the screws used but truss rods? I also hated the standard bridge and it took ages to find a drop in replacement with screw adjustment for the intonation.

 

Touch wood the rod on my Elwood 4a 32” has been OK so far. It has very little relief and I haven’t touched it since I bought it secondhand. It’s my main gigging bass for the Blues/Rock band I play in and I would be gutted if the rod broke. I’m not sure I could afford the kind of repair/upgrades you have had.

 

BTW I think the Glockenlang preamp is the standard active offering. It certainly seems to be the unit used in my bass and the spec sheet doesn’t have a specific mention of a non-standard preamp.

 

Anyway, I’m really pleased for you that you have your bass back intact and with the action where you want it. It really is a beauty!

[Woodinblack]

6 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

BTW I think the Glockenlang preamp is the standard active offering. It certainly seems to be the unit used in my bass and the spec sheet doesn’t have a specific mention of a non-standard preamp.

 

There is no standard, when configuring your bass it is there as an option to what preamp you want.

[Obrienp]

7 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

There is no standard, when configuring your bass it is there as an option to what preamp you want.

Right. I didn’t have the joy of configuring this one but apart from the bridge, it is what I would have chosen. TBH I mostly use it passive anyway.

 

I had a play at configuring a medium scale Jake on Public Peace with two soap bars, chambered body and lots of other “name” parts. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price! Now I know the truss rod could be dodgy I certainly won’t be pulling the trigger.

[basexperience]

1 hour ago, Obrienp said:

Right. I didn’t have the joy of configuring this one but apart from the bridge, it is what I would have chosen. TBH I mostly use it passive anyway.

 

I had a play at configuring a medium scale Jake on Public Peace with two soap bars, chambered body and lots of other “name” parts. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price! Now I know the truss rod could be dodgy I certainly won’t be pulling the trigger.

I'd certainly ask what truss rod they're using now. This bass was made in 2014, I think - I bought it from Quent: manufactured in 2014, so it's an 11 year old bass now. I'd hope they have improved things since then.

 

 

[Manton Customs]

4 hours ago, basexperience said:

Another update - THE BASS IS BACK! Arrived very early at 8am yesterday, and after a little time to warm up in the house and a couple of setup tweaks for relief and action, this bass is now 100% where I want it. Low, low action, fast to play, great tone, and looks amazing.

 

Robin has done a great job of getting the finish right - you have to look really closely to tell it's had work done to it at all - the neck binding in particular is a lovely piece of work, blending back into the original around the headstock.

 

Truss rod now works in the normal direction, with a seriously long key available (nice one!), the carbon rods are in there doing their job, and the whole bass just feels so much better. Thanks @Manton Customs!!

 

If anyone would like to see some pics of the completed article on here, let me know. Cost was seriously reasonable considering what's been done here - the bass overall cost to me is still a lot less than a new one, and I can have confidence that it won't need work like that again.

 

It really is a stunning instrument.

Thank you very much, glad you’re enjoying the bass! 😁 

Edited 7 hours ago by Manton Customs