The review model we’ve been sent of the Frog Omega bass from Maruszczyk is headless, you’ll have noticed, but never fear - it’s also available as a headed instrument.
This bass paints the Frog body design in Postbox Red gloss, throws in a high-quality electronics package and red front-facing LEDs for a full-on slapathon... if that’s what you want to do. But surely it offers more than good looks? Let’s find out.
Build
The Frog offers a shallow depth across the whole of its body, and the streamlined headless design and slim neck make for a very sleek instrument overall. The larger top horn is of benefit to the player in terms of how the bass sits, and also gives them something to work against, but there is a noticeable body bias in terms of the overall balance. Still, this simply makes the bass hang at a slight angle, which doesn’t affect its overall playability. The scooped lower cutaway provides fine access to the upper regions of the 24-fret ebony fingerboard. The front and rear body contouring offer the player some comfort, the rear contouring hugging the player’s body snugly.
The strings don’t pass over a nut as such, but a zero fret has been used to accomplish a similar job. Double ball-end strings can’t be used. With the ETS hardware used here, standard strings are held in place at the neck anchor point via a grub screw which clamps down on the end of each string, where the excess string material can be clipped off. The glossy neck has a sleek profile and along with the fine setup, no sharp fret ends, 19mm string spacing and almost flat fingerboard radius, there is much to serve the player.
Mother-of-pearl position markers hide the red LEDs fitted into the ebony fingerboard. A pair of strap buttons sit alongside the body edge and form a useful anchor point when standing the bass up. Truss rod adjustment is located at the body end of the neck, while the two-piece bridge looks substantial and effective. The control setup of volume, pickup pan, bass, treble and LED switch is intuitively operated - so there are no over-complications.
Sounds
Fitted with EMG soapbar pickups and a Delano active/passive circuit (push/pull the volume control to switch between the two modes), the Frog is tonally versatile, with a smoothly voiced midrange that is apparent whether or not the bass is plugged in. Panning between both pickups displays plenty of body and clarity in equal measure, although some may find the clinical nature of the EMG pickups a little too refined. Boosting or cutting the two-band EQ offers up some interesting tones, but be aware that the circuitry is powerful and the tones substantial. The low-end boost is particularly hefty.
The Frog is capable of a very crisp delivery, which will please the slappers and tappers out there - and percussively, this bass is very much on the money. Looks-wise, it probably won’t appeal to the rock or metal brigades, but that’s not to say that this bass can’t crank out a significant amount of power. Using a pick brings a different set of tones to the table, too, and the passive mode is a reasonable fall-back when the battery begins to run down, rather than being an impressive alternative of its own.
In the playability and comfort stakes, this bass is an enticing prospect - we can’t imagine headless bass fans having much to complain about in terms of how it feels and plays.
This is a very impressive bass; great visuals, highly playable and some killer bass tones to boot. Maruszczyk has produced a bass that is a whole heap of fun to play. It’s not cheap, of course, but that’s not to say that £1950 isn’t a more than reasonable pricetag for this eminently desirable instrument.
