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Basses with diagonal offset frets

#23
Vibrato ALWAYS takes you out of tune, since you're raising and lowering the pitch--and as far as I can tell, vibrato is no different on a my dingwall than on my fender


The only thing I dislike about the dingwall is the overly bright tone--but that has nothing to do with the fanned frets. I really can;'t see a downside to it. It's maybe a tiny bit harder to play the fanned frets at the extreme positions--down at the low C and up past the 20th fret. But it's more than made up for by the improived string feel and articulation
 
#25
PB+J said:
Vibrato ALWAYS takes you out of tune, since you're raising and lowering the pitch--and as far as I can tell, vibrato is no different on a my dingwall than on my fender


The only thing I dislike about the dingwall is the overly bright tone--but that has nothing to do with the fanned frets. I really can;'t see a downside to it. It's maybe a tiny bit harder to play the fanned frets at the extreme positions--down at the low C and up past the 20th fret. But it's more than made up for by the improived string feel and articulation
Click to expand...


Too bright? My main gig is a reggae band, and I don't find it any brighter than any of my other basses. I do like I would with most of my basses and roll off the treble most of the way (just a little in there for definition). I get plenty of good low boom out of it.
 
#26
Umm, it's not like I haven't found the tone knob, burning skies. I've been doing this a while now.

Yes, I find it to be too bright, and turning the tone knob down doesn't get me where I want to be, but you have to learn a new bass. This basss is very bright acoustically. I've ordered some different strings to try out
 
#28
I posted this above--it seems like it will be hard but it's really not. I played a 2.5 hour gig the first time I used mine, and I only made two mistakes that were caused by the fanned frets--rattled a low "C", and muffed an octave lick at the ninth fret.Otherwise, it's a piece of cake. And I've had no trouble at all switching between basses

IMHO fanned frets are a really good idea, especially for five strings
 
#29
PB+J said:
Umm, it's not like I haven't found the tone knob, burning skies. I've been doing this a while now.

Yes, I find it to be too bright, and turning the tone knob down doesn't get me where I want to be, but you have to learn a new bass. This basss is very bright acoustically. I've ordered some different strings to try out
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I used to think my ABI was too bright (I even started a thread about it in the Dingwall forum). Eventually I realized that I was still eq'ing it like I did with my old basses. After spending a little time tweaking the eq, I've found a setting that's a pretty good balance across all the pickup positions, and I basically just use the pickup selector and bluEQube to tailor the sound to the style I'm playing. Also, when I first got the bass I used the series position almost exclusively. Now that I've had it for a while, I find myself using all the pickup combinations. There is a lot of versitility in there, but you have to use it.
 
#30
Malicous-
as you read above its very easy to get comfortable on fanned frets, infact most people don't even notice it. When you look straight on at the bass the fanning is obvious, but from playing position, you really don't notice a difference, 7th fret is parallel. Way up the neck its can require you to look.
Honestly it will take you longer to read this thread then feel comfortable on the fanned frets.

As for swiitching back-n-forth. Its also a piece of cake, there are many Dingwall owners who play on a parallel fret bass and switch to a Dingwall. For me the only adjustment came w/ the 5 string and having a 37" scale length for a "B" string. This requires a slight stretch at the 1st postion due to longer fret spacing. The SuperJ basses have a 34"E string to a 32" G, no changes required there
 
#31
malicous said:
How hard is it to get used to? And one you do get used to it, is it hard to switch off between a fanned fret and tradish bass?
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I took to FF immediatley. Chords took a little adjustments but I find most are actually easier now.

I haven't touched my 34" 5 string fretless since I got the Dingwall.

To those who think the ABI-5 are too bright, perhaps it's the all maple that's doing it. My ABII-5 has walnut & bubinga body w/a jatoba neck & I'm getting all the lows I need in passive mode.
 
#32
Are you confusing brightness with clarity? I like the extra clarity they put out. All the notes have better definition on a Dingwall and it's pretty disappointing when you switch back to a 34" or 35" scale bass.

PB+J, have you considered trying flats on your Dingwall? There are a few people that have tried them with success. Maybe that will tame the brightness issue you have.
 
#33
I use an avalon U5 for a preamp, and most of the time run it flat. My bandmates all said, at our last gig, that the bass sounded great but they wanted a little more bottom. The U5 has a couple settings that roll off highs and mids, and that made a differencde. I mmay just needd to get use to it.

I've ordered some nickel rounds and some ground rounwounds, to see if that tames it a little, and if not I may try some flats. i love TI flats on my j-bass, but an extra long five string set is like 60-70 bucks
 
#35
We finally finished that one. Pulled the frets, filled the slots, coated the board with epoxy, modded the bridge with height adjustable RMC saddle carriers and added an RMC 3-band pre-amp. It's the nicest fretless we've ever done. Now we're thinking of putting it into production down the road.

Sorry for the low quality pics.

Blues Cat, thanks for the tip on the Strobostomp.
 

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#37
Sheldon D. said:
We finally finished that one. Pulled the frets, filled the slots, coated the board with epoxy, modded the bridge with height adjustable RMC saddle carriers and added an RMC 3-band pre-amp. It's the nicest fretless we've ever done. Now we're thinking of putting it into production down the road.

Sorry for the low quality pics.

Blues Cat, thanks for the tip on the Strobostomp.
Click to expand...

I had a feeling that one needed to go fretless :bassist:
 
#40
Sheldon D. said:
We finally finished that one. Pulled the frets, filled the slots, coated the board with epoxy, modded the bridge with height adjustable RMC saddle carriers and added an RMC 3-band pre-amp. It's the nicest fretless we've ever done. Now we're thinking of putting it into production down the road.

Sorry for the low quality pics.

Blues Cat, thanks for the tip on the Strobostomp.
Click to expand...

Sheldon, you mentioned making a thin bodied version as well. Are you still considering that?
 

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