- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
As many here know, I'm not shy in letting people know that I believe that the best basses in the world are currently being built in Saskatoon Canada.
The back story goes like this. Back in 2004 I was increasingly frustrated with my basses and my playing (technique). The tone and feel of my Fender (and fender inspired instruments) was leaving me cold. I will always love my 73 P, but I felt that there were design flaws inherent in the bass that were limiting "my tone", and how I played the instrument. Because of how I heard notes on different strings and locations on the neck of ANY of my basses, I built my lines to balance the tone, volume, timbre. I was also subtly crippling my right hand due to the technique I was using to get where I wanted with playing ergonomics.
It was time for a change, time for the jump to a 5 string (for the first time in 20 years of playing!) and time for me to find something that was 'forward thinking' in design. I looked around for quite a while, and the bass that I chose, the bass that MADE SENSE was from Sheldon Dingwall. The fanned multi-scale fretboard evened out the tone across the neck, balanced out volume, and ALL the design aspects had been scrutinized (compound radius, asymmetric neck profile, custom pickups/shells, very simple yet effective switching and controls).
I bought my AB1 in June. It was pretty much everything advertised. The biggest difficulty was learning 5 instead of 4, but I gigged with the bass within 48 hours of getting it. Since it arrived on my doorstep in 2005, I can count the number of times I've played other basses...on one hand. I still comment and receive comments when playing about how astounding it sounds.
By the fall of 2005 I had made a decision to go 'all the way'...to place an order for a CUSTOM bass from Sheldon. I started looking over options in September, and placed my order in November. The wait stretched out as Sheldon announced the Super-J basses a month or two later.
But now we're here!
My new Zebra series bass ...I'll refer to it as a Zebra-Voodoo for reasons that are obvious, is now in production. Sheldon has agreed to let me post pictures of the progress as things come through! First off, the original specs:
-Dingwall Zebra-1 5 string bass.
-custom 'Voodoo' retro body style (this is the 'old' style body that's been retired for a number of years).
-dual density swamp ash body
-spalted, flamed maple 'premium select' grade top wood.
-maple neck (multi-lam), with maple fretboard.
-FD-3 MachII(4L) pickups (split coil, neo magnets)
-Pickup switching (parallel/series for each), along with the usual 4 way pickup selector for Neck, Series, parallel and bridge.
-hybrid active/passive treble control
-OBP-1 preamp
-Matching pickup covers, headstock.
-custom neck inlays
-custom 3 color burst finish (noo...not the usual 3 colors)
-***Surprise new features?!?!
In a nutshell, it's pretty much everything and the kitchen sink! I figured that for this 'big splurge' I would get every thing I wanted. I've alsy been loyal to the idea and not bought or looked sideways at another bass since I placed this order.
Along the way, Sheldon's been offering some very cool and unique ideas of his own. I've gotten a few emails with 'I've been thinking..." and its meant that hopefully this bass will have some very cool, never seen stuff going on! I'm pretty willing to try out new ideas because I'm excited to see how they work out.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I got an email with this, my top now mounted to the swamp ash body.
Invalid Link Removed
The top has been stabilized with cyano-acryllic and you can see that the wood for the pickups has been taken out and reserved for their covers.
The back story goes like this. Back in 2004 I was increasingly frustrated with my basses and my playing (technique). The tone and feel of my Fender (and fender inspired instruments) was leaving me cold. I will always love my 73 P, but I felt that there were design flaws inherent in the bass that were limiting "my tone", and how I played the instrument. Because of how I heard notes on different strings and locations on the neck of ANY of my basses, I built my lines to balance the tone, volume, timbre. I was also subtly crippling my right hand due to the technique I was using to get where I wanted with playing ergonomics.
It was time for a change, time for the jump to a 5 string (for the first time in 20 years of playing!) and time for me to find something that was 'forward thinking' in design. I looked around for quite a while, and the bass that I chose, the bass that MADE SENSE was from Sheldon Dingwall. The fanned multi-scale fretboard evened out the tone across the neck, balanced out volume, and ALL the design aspects had been scrutinized (compound radius, asymmetric neck profile, custom pickups/shells, very simple yet effective switching and controls).
I bought my AB1 in June. It was pretty much everything advertised. The biggest difficulty was learning 5 instead of 4, but I gigged with the bass within 48 hours of getting it. Since it arrived on my doorstep in 2005, I can count the number of times I've played other basses...on one hand. I still comment and receive comments when playing about how astounding it sounds.
By the fall of 2005 I had made a decision to go 'all the way'...to place an order for a CUSTOM bass from Sheldon. I started looking over options in September, and placed my order in November. The wait stretched out as Sheldon announced the Super-J basses a month or two later.
But now we're here!
My new Zebra series bass ...I'll refer to it as a Zebra-Voodoo for reasons that are obvious, is now in production. Sheldon has agreed to let me post pictures of the progress as things come through! First off, the original specs:
-Dingwall Zebra-1 5 string bass.
-custom 'Voodoo' retro body style (this is the 'old' style body that's been retired for a number of years).
-dual density swamp ash body
-spalted, flamed maple 'premium select' grade top wood.
-maple neck (multi-lam), with maple fretboard.
-FD-3 MachII(4L) pickups (split coil, neo magnets)
-Pickup switching (parallel/series for each), along with the usual 4 way pickup selector for Neck, Series, parallel and bridge.
-hybrid active/passive treble control
-OBP-1 preamp
-Matching pickup covers, headstock.
-custom neck inlays
-custom 3 color burst finish (noo...not the usual 3 colors)
-***Surprise new features?!?!
In a nutshell, it's pretty much everything and the kitchen sink! I figured that for this 'big splurge' I would get every thing I wanted. I've alsy been loyal to the idea and not bought or looked sideways at another bass since I placed this order.
Along the way, Sheldon's been offering some very cool and unique ideas of his own. I've gotten a few emails with 'I've been thinking..." and its meant that hopefully this bass will have some very cool, never seen stuff going on! I'm pretty willing to try out new ideas because I'm excited to see how they work out.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I got an email with this, my top now mounted to the swamp ash body.
Invalid Link Removed
The top has been stabilized with cyano-acryllic and you can see that the wood for the pickups has been taken out and reserved for their covers.
.
