- Feb 3, 2005
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- 10,197
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- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
Played the Dbird at rehearsal. Absolutely my favorite bass to play. The neck is a dream. Still sort of figuring out what pickup combo I like best.
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Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
I'm on the fence like I said in earlier posts. On the face of it, I'd prefer the normal 3X pickup selection. I'll judge the Combustion 3X on its merits whenever it arrives though and let my ears be the judge.
Maybe it can be rewired...guessing it'd be the same solderless system.
You want to email the dingwall tech address and let us know what they say. Could be cost of switch from them and some fiddling.
- Sep 3, 2006
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- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
Yeah, on a Canadian D-bird the Wenge neck is IMO the way to go. Yours almost played itself. Quite frankly I had to force myself to only check it out to make sure everything was perfect and then not play it anymore. The neck just felt SO right.
- Sep 3, 2006
- 4,358
- 6,117
- Disclosures
- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
Yes, let your ears tell you. I think you may want to just leave it the way it is. I like this setup.
- Feb 3, 2005
- 7,331
- 10,197
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
It is so nice, that I found myself contemplating during rehearsal that I need one for standard tuning outside the use of my main band! I was kind of struggling with the tone options though due to factors outside the bass itself. After years of dealing with a variety of rental spaces for rehearsal that all sucked for various reasons, we rehearse at our drummer's house. It is a dedicated bedroom, so great. The knock is it is small and it can get loud. For some reason last night, we were just stupid loud. In such a small room, it can kind of be overwhelming. Plus, I am selling some gear, so had to bring my Fender tube rig there, which normally isn't in the room. On top of that, I had the new Tech 21 DP3x with me for the first time. All those changing variables and I have no clue what pickup setting I'll settle on for the band.
This talk of DBird pickup selector vs standard pickup selector just makes me disappointed that with three pickups you only have four pickup configurations. Seems like a bit of a waste. Luckily they've made it easy to rewire but that sounds like a lot of effort for something that must be possible with another knob or something.
The more I play my 3x's, the more I realize that those 4 options cover a lot of ground. I haven't yet found myself wanting other options. When I first ordered it, I gave a bit of thought on swapping in a 6 position rotary instead to give me 2 more options - my thinking was that there were surely things I'd be missing out on and would "need" or at least want. So far, that hasn't been the case at all.
This is compounded even farther with the series/parallel switches. Combined with the 4-position rotary and you can pretty much do everything.
This is compounded even farther with the series/parallel switches. Combined with the 4-position rotary and you can pretty much do everything.
If anyone needs more options, 5 and 6 way rotary switches are out there.
I rewired my NG3X using the D-bird 4 way rotary and have everything I need.
Heck, I don't need the four way, I could just hardwire all three pickups in series and put in a dummy knob, that's where it stays all the time!
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I rewired my NG3X using the D-bird 4 way rotary and have everything I need.
Heck, I don't need the four way, I could just hardwire all three pickups in series and put in a dummy knob, that's where it stays all the time!
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Me as well! I prefer the neck/bridge parallel jazz position, and rarely stray from that. Occasionally, I will try the neck solo or the MM setting on the 3x or the series or neck solo on the 2x), but I usually go right back to home bass (pun intended
) for most of the stuff I do. That may change now that I have gotten myself into another band. But I jammed with the new band on Saturday and was just so happy with the tone in my favorite setting, EQ flat.I find that Sheldon and crew get where the sweespots are, and they have dialed those in so well that I just don't wish I had more settings. But that's just me. Ymmv of course.
I'm in three different recording-only kind of projects (one does recording for some video productions, two "bands" if you will), so I lay heavily on the switches and rotary depending on what is asked. So far, I haven't been asked for anything that I wasn't able to dial in very quickly with the options I have.
Does anyone have or know where I can get a picture of a two pickup SuperP 5 in natural with a black pickguard a rosewood board? I am sure I have some one, but cannot find it.
Eh, I can almost guarantee that just because you have 6 (or more) options, you may only use 2 or 3 regularly. Most pickups that sound great in a series or parallel configuration tend to lack, or at least concede something, in the other. I think that the relative ease of switching is probably more useful than the extra positions, because you can essentially have a "favorites" list of the best combinations.
Just my 2 cents, I think the different pick selector options plays a part in differentiating the D-Bird from the Afterburner-style basses. Dingwall maybe wants more differentiation between the basses than their body shape and finish options.
I don't think that's the case, because you can get the D-bird switching on ABs (my AB6 3x has it, from factory). I think it's literally just different options.
