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Dingwall Owners Club

#20,881
packrat said:
I'm pretty comfortable with parallel-fretted 4-string basses, and have been gradually spending more time playing 5s with a medium or long scale Dingwall 5 (otherwise a 35" scale parallel). I'm curious how people find the long scale 4-string to play and in tone when restricted to a 4-string approach to pieces (without the crazy cool B)
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You still get the same amazing piano like tone across the entire instrument. The specific major advantage is that you can play notes on the E string that you would normally play on the A string because of the big loss in timbre when playing up the neck on the E string on a monoscale bass.

Or to put it in practical terms instead of theoretical terms, the Dingwall just sounds way better, as @MDBass says below. :)
 
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#20,882
packrat said:
I'm pretty comfortable with parallel-fretted 4-string basses, and have been gradually spending more time playing 5s with a medium or long scale Dingwall 5 (otherwise a 35" scale parallel). I'm curious how people find the long scale 4-string to play and in tone when restricted to a 4-string approach to pieces (without the crazy cool B)
Click to expand...
@MDBass is primarily a 4 string guy, though I think he plays in BEAD tuning.
 
#20,883
packrat said:
I'm pretty comfortable with parallel-fretted 4-string basses, and have been gradually spending more time playing 5s with a medium or long scale Dingwall 5 (otherwise a 35" scale parallel). I'm curious how people find the long scale 4-string to play and in tone when restricted to a 4-string approach to pieces (without the crazy cool B)
Click to expand...
I am mostly a 4-string guy. Just because we don't have the low B doesn't mean there are not advantages to the 4-string fan fret. I have been a long-scale 4-string guy for a long time and the fan fret is icing on the cake. Sustain, ergonomics, and articulation.
 
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#20,884
packrat said:
I'm pretty comfortable with parallel-fretted 4-string basses, and have been gradually spending more time playing 5s with a medium or long scale Dingwall 5 (otherwise a 35" scale parallel). I'm curious how people find the long scale 4-string to play and in tone when restricted to a 4-string approach to pieces (without the crazy cool B)
Click to expand...

Yep, only fours for me, and I tune them to everything from standard and BEAD to various drop tunings including drop C# and Drop G#.

The difference in clarity and note heft is still pretty dramatic on the fours, as the E string scale is over two inches longer than standard: my NG-2 beat out a boutique Jazz costing many times more on a reggae session not that long ago, and the difference was borderline comical.

The engineer and I tried the NG first, loved it, and then tried the Jazz just in case before tracking: I might have played all of ten notes before we looked at each other and went "Nope: the other one".

The D-Bird actually feels like a standard scale in terms of the reach to the nut due to the design, which is pretty cool, though you do sacrifice a significant amount of upper fret access when compared with the NG or AB lines.
 
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#20,885
I'm primarily a 5 and 6 string guy. The NG-2 works great for me. However, if I were in the market for a 4 string, the D-bird would definitely be near the top of my list. I tried on out here in Seattle a few months back and was very impressed. The pickup configuration, along with the passive electronics allowed for some monsterous tones.

Bones
 
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#20,886
Happy Easter‼️
FB8C76BF-D1E2-4BDD-B49F-D691EEBF0092.jpeg
 
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#20,887
packrat said:
I'm pretty comfortable with parallel-fretted 4-string basses, and have been gradually spending more time playing 5s with a medium or long scale Dingwall 5 (otherwise a 35" scale parallel). I'm curious how people find the long scale 4-string to play and in tone when restricted to a 4-string approach to pieces (without the crazy cool B)
Click to expand...

Like a dream, really. Seriously, they are just as satisfying, enough for me that I don't own any parallel basses anymore. There are times I prefer the 4 and times I prefer the 5. If there is a passage with a lot of quick movement, I tend to pick my 4. Could be that it is the Super series, could be the TI Flats I have on there. But tone wise I'm not lacking anything other than the occasional wish for a deep note to end on (and with drop D tuner I have a little of that).
 
#20,888
packrat said:
I'm pretty comfortable with parallel-fretted 4-string basses, and have been gradually spending more time playing 5s with a medium or long scale Dingwall 5 (otherwise a 35" scale parallel). I'm curious how people find the long scale 4-string to play and in tone when restricted to a 4-string approach to pieces (without the crazy cool B)
Click to expand...

The tone on Dingwall has been one of the more divisive things, in my experience, but if you enjoy the tone of a 5er, a 4-banger sounds pretty much the same. I don't really change my approach when playing it but I do a lot of chords and harmonics so I have to think a little more with a fanned-fret bass in the upper registers, I'm used to parallel frets.
 
#20,889
DiabolusInMusic said:
The tone on Dingwall has been one of the more divisive things, in my experience, but if you enjoy the tone of a 5er, a 4-banger sounds pretty much the same. I don't really change my approach when playing it but I do a lot of chords and harmonics so I have to think a little more with a fanned-fret bass in the upper registers, I'm used to parallel frets.
Click to expand...

Curious about what is divisive about Dingwall tone in your experience? When I first owned Dingwalls (5-6 years ago), I was gigging with a Combustion and then AB 1.5 5ers using an Orange AD200B and various dirt pedals (B7K, IE pedals, Mountainking Electronics, etc) as well as a ton of other pedals. I found that I EQed my Dingwalls differently than I did my EBMM and Warwick basses but I could still get them to growl and found the tone very pleasant.

I have only been playing my (new to me) AB2 6er at home plugged directly into an Ampeg PF-50T and I am stunned by how much I enjoy the sound. The notes are very lively sounding, just pure. I am sure I will fuzz out soon but I haven't been drawn to it yet. Maybe some of my taste has changed and I can always patch a super complex signal chain in my modular synth so the simplicity of a cord into an amp has fun, refreshing and sounded great. (IMO, IME, etc)
 
#20,891
DeltaPhoenix said:
Curious about what is divisive about Dingwall tone in your experience? When I first owned Dingwalls (5-6 years ago), I was gigging with a Combustion and then AB 1.5 5ers using an Orange AD200B and various dirt pedals (B7K, IE pedals, Mountainking Electronics, etc) as well as a ton of other pedals. I found that I EQed my Dingwalls differently than I did my EBMM and Warwick basses but I could still get them to growl and found the tone very pleasant.

I have only been playing my (new to me) AB2 6er at home plugged directly into an Ampeg PF-50T and I am stunned by how much I enjoy the sound. The notes are very lively sounding, just pure. I am sure I will fuzz out soon but I haven't been drawn to it yet. Maybe some of my taste has changed and I can always patch a super complex signal chain in my modular synth so the simplicity of a cord into an amp has fun, refreshing and sounded great. (IMO, IME, etc)
Click to expand...

I personally enjoy the tone of my Dingwalls but the two most common complaints I hear are probably the tone and right-hand placement issues, that is why I said it was divisive.
 
#20,892
packrat said:
Out of curiosity How many folks here have ABZs with fancy wood tops? I've got an order coming up later this year which is specced standard plain wood. What wood top did you choose?

Thanks
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I'm curious about this as well. All of my ordered ABZs are standard ash with no top. I did it partially because I was trying to keep the cost down and partially because these are workhorses, meant to be played in seedy dive bars, lol! Having said that, a couple of my current bases do have flamed maple tops. I really don't feel it adds anything other than aesthetic appeal. I do drool over the flamed maple/koa/redwood tops I see, but, in the end, I know my needs don't include fancy tops.

I guess part of my reasoning is that even though I dig fancy tops, they sorta don't fit what I do...:bag::ninja:
 
#20,893
I don’t really think people do X tops on ABZs. It pretty much becomes an ab1 at that point. X top equals a different finish as well from my understanding. Part of the ABZ platform is the raw grain finish of the body I think
 
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#20,895
AB Nate said:
I don’t really think people do X tops on ABZs. It pretty much becomes an ab1 at that point. X top equals a different finish as well from my understanding. Part of the ABZ platform is the raw grain finish of the body I think
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20180325_202806.jpg
A totally shameless plug to show my ABZ - red black burst with wenge neck n fb. :) (not sure what that discoloured red is near the top right - its in brand new condition other than the logo on the pickup wearing a bit).
 
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#20,898
AB Nate said:
I don’t really think people do X tops on ABZs. It pretty much becomes an ab1 at that point. X top equals a different finish as well from my understanding. Part of the ABZ platform is the raw grain finish of the body I think
Click to expand...

I sort of agree. The main difference, I believe, is the ABI has an Alder body. If you wanted Ash, I could see someone ordering an ABZ with a top...
 

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