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Dingwall ABZ - Tone Possibilities

maguire

maguire

Nov 24, 2010
604
21
New Hope PA
#1
I've had my ABZ 5 for about 6 months and I am thrilled about the neck profile, the B performance, the feather weight. It's an amazing bass.

I only find it lacking in tone flexibility. I feel like the stock electronics make some great tones, but all of them are very similar. And unfortunately, they aren't necessarily relevant to the music I've been playing. I'd like to get more out of the tone on this bass. Specifically I'd like to get more grit and sustain.

Can anyone give me some advice here? Upgrade or replace the electronics? Run it through some kind of pedal? Or am I just trying to make this instrument something that it is not?
 
#2
I just purchased my first ABZ 5 and i actually find i have an amazing amount of tone flexability.
My first question is how do you setup your amp? I find that certain setups allow for wider flexability.
I'm currently playing through a Markbass TA500 and i prefer a lot of midcut in my tone. Especially since this is a Swamp Ash bass with a midcut the tone of the wood really comes out. I get a really nice gutteral growl when using the bridge pickup and i can outsustain anyone i my band. Try some of your amp settings first.
 
#3
Hey Xxyion, thanks for the advice. I really need to learn the subtleties of using the amp EQ correctly with this bass. I think your right that this may be the root of my problem with the ABZ5.

In retrospect I can hear a lot of treble/bass variety from turning the tone knob, but maybe its the pickup switching that I find lacking. Is the word "voice"? Maybe I'm looking for more variety in voice.

I have an Ampeg solid state PF500 with good mid control (on an Ampeg 410 cab). I also have a Markbass Micromark (but that has very few controls).

I am dangerously close to selling it, but I'm having second, third and fourth thoughts. The problem for me is that it is very easy to find a buyer for a used Dingwall! I really want to make the EQ and amp work for me because I love everything else about this bass.
 
#4
Play with your amp EQ and the pickup selection on your bass; I personally remember being surprised by how grindy a favored neck pickup sounds, but you gotta dig in. That's the only way to get grind with any gear. Doesn't the ABZ have a series option, too?
 
#5
I find the ABZ incredibly toneful. Every switch position offers different sounds. Do you play with only one plucking-hand or pick position? You might want to consider a tube amp if you want 'grit' or 'growl' or just an overdrive pedal.
 
#9
Some good progress on this topic:

I got some good advice and took some action. You can get some extra oomph from the ABZ by doing a couple of things.

1. Wire the neck pickup in Series (stock is parallel) (as recommended by superfunk) - Thanks superfunk!
2. Swap in an ABZ P-Tone pickup.

I re-wired the neck pickup today and the voice of the bass opened up quite a bit. Before it was clean and constrained, now it is a bit more rugged and powerful. The volume levels are higher and the bass definitely belts out the notes. It's like taking the leash off of your dog to let him run free.

Very pleased with this direction. Next I am going to try the ABZ P-Tone pickup in the neck position to try to get a bit more of the P Power.

If you think the ABZ tone is too tame - don't give up on it, there are definitely some simple electronics options! Thanks to the guys at Dingwall, this ABZ will be sticking around with me for a while.
 
#11
Extremely easy. You basically remove two neck pickup wires from the selector pot. Then you solder them together. I don't want to get in any trouble here so to be certain that's a simplification - don't just choose any two wires! Get the wiring diagram!

I got a wiring diagram from Dingwall at 5PM, rushed home, fed the dog, plugged in the soldering iron at 6:30 and had the wiring done by 7. I'm not a soldering expert but it was a simple job and I made clean work of it.

Send me a PM with your email and I'll pass along the diagram if you're interested. Or you can ask Dingwall directly - they got back to me in less than 6 hours.
 
#17
Here are my findings for different easy tonal possibilities for Dingwall ABZ 5 String. Ill try to use some colorful words to explain the sound quality instead of "treble, mid and lows" type of descriptions. Hopefully that will give a better feeling of the sound.

Dingwall ABZ5

1. Stock FD3 pickups - Stock Setup
- Neck PU - Stock J - parallel
- Bridge PU - Stock J - series
Tone Impressions: Clean, Clear, Refined, Controlled, Strong Attack with Less Sustain


2. Stock FD3 Pickups - Rewired Setup
- Neck PU - Stock J - series
- Bridge PU - Stock J - series
Tone Impressions: Grittier, Louder, but retaining the stock sound and punch. Seemingly a bit more sustain.

3. New Pickups
- Neck FD3 P-Tone - series
- Bridge FD3 - Stock J - series
Tone Impressions: Full tone, Strong, Punchy, Loud, Slightly Overdriven, more saturated tone, more mid, more everything (except control). Ther eis less contrast between the volume of the attack and the sustain after the attack because teh sustain is just much louder than when in stock configuration.

4. Payson Nickel Wounds
- tighter string tension, fuller spectrum buzz of sound.

I was trying to give my Dingwall a boost. The series Neck pickup configuration got it to a great place. The P-Tone pickup got it all the way there - and then some. After throwing on a fresh set of Payson nickel wounds the bass sounds even more unleashed.

This is the sound that I was after. Maybe someday Ill want to bring back that controlled stock tone, so Im retaining my stock pickup. This is like having two basses in one amazingly crafted bass body and neck.
 
#18
I am intrigued by your ideas, I do love my ABZ tone, but it is so mid heavy, I find only 2 of the 4 mid settings are even tolerable for me without being too muddy/mid heavy. I really only like the one spot so I never turn my knob from 2nd from the jack.

I will probably re-wire the pickups this weekend, see how I like the results.

I was thinking about getting Sheldon to re-finish my ABZ, it is flat black which is kind of boring for me, I was also thinking of having him route in and install the active pickups. I prefer passive, and I love the passive Dingwalls tone, but I would like to get the neck bridge pickup solo'd with a blend knob.
 
#19
Hey Diabolus.

The easiest thing to do is wire that neck pickup in series - it's going to sound hotter. Then you'll know if you're going in the right direction.

I was also considering the active path, but I really don't think i need to make that investment anymore. The passive is working fine for me now.

My ABZ was pretty much getting lost in the mix when playing with the band - it just keep up with my guitarist who plays heavy and saturated with saturated effects. I needed my Rickenbacker to break through. Now the Dingwall also does the trick. Im very pleased about that because I love 5 strings and I love the smooth playing of the Dingwall neck. The rick might be obsolete to me at this point :)

Please follow up if you try any new configurations.
 

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