“Where No Man Has Gone Before” – The Marleaux Spock Bass Guitar

Details

Let’s start with the neck, because this bass has a fairly traditional neck type and construction. It’s a three-piece maple neck with thin “smoked oak veneer” laminations between the maple bars, attached to the body by five bolts, has a zero fret and an ebony string guide (instead of a nut, given the zero fret). The maple fingerboard has a compound radius going from 12” at the first fret to 16” at the last. It employs a dual-action truss rod, and is carbon-reinforced. Where it departs from the typical is it has 28 frets packed into its medium 32” scale, where most basses would have 20-24 frets over a long (34-35”) scale. The headstock has a veneer that matches the fingerboard (and pickup cover). The tuners are Schaller, but have wooden knobs, instead of the usual chrome.

The body is where it gets really interesting and is where the magic of this unique bass guitar lives. The “body” is really just a wooden “frame” with a wooden center block. Over the top of this frame is this new material called “Marleaux Logic Mesh.” Developed in cooperation with the Clausthal-Zellerfeld Technical University and funded by the German Ministry of Economics, this new material seems to be some kind of lightweight translucent fiber mesh impregnated or saturated with some kind of resin. It is formed into an arch top shape as it’s hardened, and then bonded to the body/frame. It has a little bit of give to it, but it’s strong and rigid enough to be plenty durable for a gigging musician (though not strong enough to support the string tension at the bridge). The center wood block is also carved to match the arch shape, and the bridge is mounted with the mesh between it and the block, which provides the bulk of the support against the string tension. The laminated wood/steel tailpiece is fully floating, as if the top was suspended like an acoustic instrument, such as a string bass (though that’s where that similarity ends). Flipping the bass over, the back is completely open, such that you can clearly see and feel the back of the mesh. I even considered putting some lights in there at a gig (lol). The center block provides all the things a typical electric solid body bass would provide … a neck pocket, covered electronics cavity, battery compartment, and a place for all the controls. Yep, all the controls are inside the bass, accessed by reaching in from the back side. The bridge is a combination of wood and metal inserts, where the adjustment screws thread in. The adjustment screws’ heads meet perfection to “cradle” the string like a saddle would, and you simply raise and lower them together to change string height. The inserts they thread into also look like they slide back and forth a bit to adjust for intonation.

Now is also a good time to bring up Marleaux’s “Regio Tone Wood.” In cooperation with the Lower Saxony State Forests/Germany, woods are sourced locally using sustainable/renewable practices, and then aged in Marleaux’s own shop for eventual use in an instrument. The body, pickup cover, and laminated tailpiece all utilize this wood on the Spock.

“Here at Marleaux Bass Guitars, we also know. For over 20 years, we have carefully selected locally grown tone woods from the Lower Saxony region.

We’ve emulated the masters of old, air drying these hand-picked cuts of maple, birch, alder, ash, chestnut, linden, and walnut for many years to achieve rich, distinguished, mature sound qualities. And, like the old masters, we use traditional methods to fashion the highest quality, hand-made musical instruments.”

This bass uses a “Marleaux BC3” preamp specifically made for this bass and its tapped dual coil pickup. It’s a three-band 9v preamp with boost/cut controls at 50Hz (bass), 500Hz (midrange), and 8kHz (treble). Bass and treble are both +/-14dB, whereas the midrange is +/-12dB. The coil-tap switch offers series, parallel, and sing-coil modes. There is also an active/passive switch. Other than that, there is a master volume control and passive tone control, though the passive tone control only operates in passive mode. The strap buttons are Schaller.

Fit and finish

It’s really hard to write this chunk without sounding like a total shill for Marleaux, but I simply can’t find ANYTHING I could possibly nitpick about in the construction and finish on this bass. Fitments like the preamp/control module in the center block are superb, the finish has no streaks or runs of any kind, all the joints, such as the neck pocket, are excellent, the fretwork is great, etc., etc., etc. If there are any flaws or glitches in the execution of this bass, I simply can’t find them.

On the gig

On the gig, a few things stood out pretty quick. First, at a feathery 6.8lbs, this thing is so light you could wear it for the gig and also at breaks and never get shoulder fatigue. Second, you will get a LOT of looks … especially if you put some blinky lights in the body like I thought about (if it was my bass, of course, which this one is not). Finally, the control access. This is where the bass really gives up ease of use for its huge “cool factor.” I didn’t realize how much I tweak controls from song to song until I gigged this bass. I play in cover bands most of the time, and I’m just particular enough that I try to emulate the original recording’s bass tone as much as practically possible, so I’m working the pickup configuration (or blend in some cases) and EQ pretty frequently. This bass makes that a bit difficult. Other than that, the neck profile, medium scale, and relatively narrow string spacing is super comfortable, especially for fingerstyle, and it takes a great setup, so it pretty much plays itself.

From a tonal standpoint, I was really impressed with its tonal palette. The single-coil mode gets a surprising amount of bite for a pickup that’s not right by the bridge, the series mode is earthy and thick (great for rock and roll), and the parallel mode is great for funk. I also liked the EQ voicing, except for the treble control. While I felt the bass and mid controls were really usable and helpful, I felt the treble control was voiced too high. At 8kHz, it’s way up in the stratosphere for a bass guitar, in my opinion. It was most useful as a cut, but even then, I still wish it was voiced just a bit lower for my personal taste, or maybe it’s a shelving thing. Either way, I wanted more control in the range between the mid and the treble for my personal tastes.

The Bottom Line

For a single pickup bass, it has a pretty impressive breadth of great tones available, and could easily accommodate about any style of music, and it’s a super lightweight joy to play, but if I had a gauge that had function at one end, and art at the other, the needle would definitely be more on the art side, primarily because of the control placement to support its “super cool” design innovation.

1-5 (unacceptable to impeccable)

Low: Rich and full.
Mids: Edgy and focused.
Highs: Shimmery at the very high end of sizzle.