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An alternative Dingwall SP1 from Tagima ~ Predator 5-UQ $709.99
- Thread starter Yahboy
- Start date
The strings on it currently are nothing fancy - they're Musician's Friend house brand of strings. They sound pretty good to my ears though & last as long as anything else I've use. I use these just as my "daily drivers" without having to spend too much. I've got too many basses in my stable - that's a lot of mouth to feed, lol. But, when there's an important gig or I'm doing some recording in a studio setting, I'll usually throw on some D'Addarios.
I agree with the stock strings - they were a bit stiff feeling & mine sounded a bit dull. That's no ding against Tagima from me though. I've yet to be wowed by any brand's stock strings - not that I can remember. They're almost universally utilitarian & unremarkable, IMO. So, kinda par for course on the stock strings. I felt pretty meh about them, as expected really.
Yeah, that white lithium grease worked wonders for the tuner gears - wow, night & day difference! I guess maybe these things come in contact with salt water air along the way or something - who knows. Just needed to grease the gears & they're very nice now! It's got me motivated to treat all my basses with open gear tuners now.
Good eye on the Reverb seller - I get the impression that Tagima has built up enough stock & started filling orders only very recently. I've been watching pretty closely ever since I got wind of these when this thread start. Only in the last 2 week or so have I seen anyone start having stock ready to ship. I agree about going thru Reverb Sellers like Butler Music and others - the advantage being you can usually haggle a lit bit on the price/make an offer, etc. Might save a little bit of coin than going it direct.
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If you zoom in you can see the gap between the D & G bridge pieces is slightly larger than the others. Poor craftsmanship especially for a $2200 bass. Give me an SP1 all day compared to any of these Tagimas.
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Hard to tell for sure, but Dingwall has their share of imperfections too (in fact they ALL do), and it doesn't take a lot of effort to search around the internet for the receipts. I would expect better than poor craftsmanship myself for a $2,695.00 Dingwall myself. See how that works, just sayin'
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Works out fine on my Dingwall NG3.Hard to tell for sure, but Dingwall has their share of imperfections too (in fact they ALL do), and it doesn't take a lot of effort to search around the internet for the receipts. I would expect better than poor craftsmanship myself for a $2,695.00 Dingwall myself. See how that works, just sayin'
I think the Rupture 5 is gorgeous but why use that as the main photo of the model on their website?
It probably speaks volumes about their quality control. JMHO
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@stingray69 How much does your Predator weigh? Seems like there was one earlier that was a shade below 9 lbs. It would be awesome if they were all in that range.
I think they will all be hovering in that range. I just weighed mine - comes in at 9lbs, 3oz. Not too shabby for a 5-string with a P-bass body shape.
I love this color , but i believe Predator 5 has more colour option ....A few more random pics...
I haven't peeled the plastic off the pickguard yet.
Random headstock pic...
Sparkly...
Bolivian Rosewood fretboard...
one of the sexy color combo with black anodized pickguard.
My Ibanez SRMS725 has same 34-35.5' scale as Predator 5.The strings on it currently are nothing fancy - they're Musician's Friend house brand of strings. They sound pretty good to my ears though & last as long as anything else I've use. I use these just as my "daily drivers" without having to spend too much. I've got too many basses in my stable - that's a lot of mouth to feed, lol. But, when there's an important gig or I'm doing some recording in a studio setting, I'll usually throw on some D'Addarios.
I agree with the stock strings - they were a bit stiff feeling & mine sounded a bit dull. That's no ding against Tagima from me though. I've yet to be wowed by any brand's stock strings - not that I can remember. They're almost universally utilitarian & unremarkable, IMO. So, kinda par for course on the stock strings. I felt pretty meh about them, as expected really.
Yeah, that white lithium grease worked wonders for the tuner gears - wow, night & day difference! I guess maybe these things come in contact with salt water air along the way or something - who knows. Just needed to grease the gears & they're very nice now! It's got me motivated to treat all my basses with open gear tuners now.
Good eye on the Reverb seller - I get the impression that Tagima has built up enough stock & started filling orders only very recently. I've been watching pretty closely ever since I got wind of these when this thread start. Only in the last 2 week or so have I seen anyone start having stock ready to ship. I agree about going thru Reverb Sellers like Butler Music and others - the advantage being you can usually haggle a lit bit on the price/make an offer, etc. Might save a little bit of coin than going it direct.
34-35.5' scale somewhat panic on string choice especially flatwound bass string . Finally i end up with NYXL MS set , great string to string tonal balance and stiffness balance.
I believe Predator 5 love NYXL MS set too....
That's what I like about the 34-35.5 scale, it's not as drastic as a longer scale, so most of your favorite strings will usually still fit. Thanks for the confirmation on which D'Addario models should work! I'll keep that in mind when it's time to buy a set.
Great bass BTW, I had an SRMS805 that I wish I had kept. It was my first fanned fret bass.
Impulsively last weekend I bought one on Reverb. It arrived Tuesday and I’ve had a few nights with it and I have a few initial thoughts on it.
To echo what someone else said - the stock strings that came with it were stiff and I felt like the tension for my hands just wasn’t right. I wasn’t discouraged though - I bought it sight unseen and I’m kinda handy. After I loosened the B string the bone nut flaked off right where the string straddles the nut. I managed to replace the strings with my own set and immediately saw an improvement in playability and gave it a more thorough setup. Kinda struggled with the mono rails and adjusting string heights. Can’t seem to turn the set screws tight enough and I feel like the hardware and strings will jump right off their saddles if I pluck too hard. It’s my first experience with the mono rail bridges so maybe I’m just not used to it.
Aside from those 2 caveats, this base punches above its weight class. The EQ is musical, the output could be a touch louder. Having the switch to go from active to passive I great. Frets are rolled nicely, neck is not too slim and definitely not like chunky p bass. Wish it was half a lb lighter but I have a 3 inch gravity strap and that should help. This is gonna be a good mod platform for me.
To echo what someone else said - the stock strings that came with it were stiff and I felt like the tension for my hands just wasn’t right. I wasn’t discouraged though - I bought it sight unseen and I’m kinda handy. After I loosened the B string the bone nut flaked off right where the string straddles the nut. I managed to replace the strings with my own set and immediately saw an improvement in playability and gave it a more thorough setup. Kinda struggled with the mono rails and adjusting string heights. Can’t seem to turn the set screws tight enough and I feel like the hardware and strings will jump right off their saddles if I pluck too hard. It’s my first experience with the mono rail bridges so maybe I’m just not used to it.
Aside from those 2 caveats, this base punches above its weight class. The EQ is musical, the output could be a touch louder. Having the switch to go from active to passive I great. Frets are rolled nicely, neck is not too slim and definitely not like chunky p bass. Wish it was half a lb lighter but I have a 3 inch gravity strap and that should help. This is gonna be a good mod platform for me.
