Dingwall Owners Club

[The_Owl]

I was really lucky in acquiring my ABHS. If anyone was following the Dingwall Owners Group on FB, they would have seen the bass show up for sale a while ago in June, along with a natural ABZ.

I needed to sell my Super P5 to fund the ABHS. Literally five minutes after posting a for sale ad on the Swedish equivalent of TB, I got a message saying "I'll take it". I arranged to have him pickup the bass, three days later I'd bought the ABHS. Apparently, the buyer of my SP5 had already been interested in the bass since I had posted pics of it. Sometimes the stars align just right...

 

[J Posega]

I've just been brought on board to cut bass tracks for a friends prog metal album. We're currently negotiating payment or publishing credit, and I finally bit the bullet and ordered up some fresh strings for both my basses. Too bad I already used up a free trial for the Darkglass plugin, because this is the perfect opportunity to apply some B7K grind to the big ABZ sound. That's OK, I'll track clean & compressed and let their engineer take care of adding some extra stank to it.

 

[lilstryer]

Well. Gentlemen. Presenting to you.....Combustion #13.

A couple of months ago, I came across this and decided to take it on. After a setup, quite a few adjustments, it's playing AWESOME now! Just thought I shared it with you guys.

 

[Bassheart365]

This weekend I had a very memorable Dingwall expedition!!!

The whole thing started back in the beginning of June, late May. A couple of bass enthusiasts discussing these important bass matters determined that this basses destiny was to be in my life. I’m most thankful to one of our fellow Dingwall enthusiasts, that was willing to part with it and that I was able to rally the funds.
Next step... planning the details.

Fully insured shipping + “other fees” talleyed up pretty quick to be a considerable amount. I’ll leave some of the details out of this story for simplicity/implicity but we started weighing some other options and thought if a possible a meet and greet was in order.
Long and short of it was we decided we could both be in Montreal at the same time.
Done!!!

So if I’m going to Montreal to meet a friend and pick up a bass.... I had better take my wife on this little weekend sabbatical. Now it’s a holiday instead of a UPS payment.
Now the scheming begins.
Flights! Air miles. Check.
Accommodations! Wife’s coworker would love to have us! Check.

Plan in place.... all in $300 plus some food, drinks and maybe a cab ride. Boom. Screw you UPS!

Well. As it turns out my favorite tech band will be on tour in the area at the same time and passing up home on this tour. Well then.
Logistics dictated Friday night in Ottawa would work best....
Hmmm. What about the budget?!?
Ok.
Rental car for the duration is cheap enough compared to a cab ride or 2. Done.

Accommodations in Ottawa for Friday night.
Points built up for my wife’s work trips. Done.

Now it’s just cover and drinks.
Not sooo bad but the budgets doubled.... oh well. Still cheaper then UPS.

She’s turning into quite the little trip. Thursday to Sunday. Friday in Ottawa. Getting booked. Lol. Saw and got to converse with 2 of my fav bass players Jared smith and Dominic “forest” lapointe.
Epic night in Ottawa followed by an incredible time back in Montreal the next day.

Met with our fellow John and his wonderful family. We had a great little stroll through old port and too quick but great visit.

The wife and I ended up spending a portion of our afternoon in a tattoo parlor. Hahah. Now the budget has tripled...... now pretty much on par if she was shipped to me.

Got to the airport a bit hungover the next day.... oops.
But this is where I’m going to tell you folks something that might be highly interesting.

NO WAY Was this baby going under the plane. NO. WAY.
I was told the entire way along from staff. Not gonna happen. I get to the flight attendant at the plane. Now I should also mention we boarded early as we “ needed assistance”. Anyways.

The FA tells me I should check the guitar. I very respectfully tell her.
“I can’t. “”It’s not possible”. “It is a $10000 instrument” and it’s not going to be 10’ away from me.
She said”I understand”. I pulled a box of Lindt chocolates from the gig bag and handed them to her and said ” thank you for understanding.”
She said, “ no problem. We’ll figure it out.

This is a FULL flight mind you as well. We did check our 1 small carry on bag to also pull away.

The rest of the flight, we were VIPS!!! It was crazy!! They loved us. That little box of chocolates and some polite respect was everything to the entire crew. They even showed appreciation in other ways!! I’ll keep that secret though. Even on our way off the plane the pilot thanked us!!! Lol. It was truly amazing.
1 last thing I will share with you guys is that 1 of the FAs told me, “ there is no rules that state you CANNOT take your guitar on board”. She also said you will encounter one day that non cooperative FA but still she cannot stop you from boarding with your guitar and just be nice and respectful.

I know this is a long post and I’m sorry for that.
it was a truly memorable weekend that all revolves around this one bass guitar and I will never forget that. Thanks to Dingwall I met a new great friend from across the continent and had an epic adventure.
I’d say there is gonna be a bit of sentimental attachment to this one lol.
If you made it this far that’s for reading through. Lol.

Here is some Dingwall porn mixed with my newest strap creation which funnily enough was started before any of this escapade began but it sure was a match meant to be.

Cheers crew.

View attachment 3091882 View attachment 3091883 View attachment 3091884 View attachment 3091885 View attachment 3091886 View attachment 3091887 View attachment 3091888 View attachment 3091889 View attachment 3091890 View attachment 3091891 View attachment 3091892

More photos of the strap can be found here
Nates leathercrafting thread.

Congrats on this beautiful Z3 Nate.

 

[Lowendtech]

This weekend I had a very memorable Dingwall expedition!!!

The whole thing started back in the beginning of June, late May. A couple of bass enthusiasts discussing these important bass matters determined that this basses destiny was to be in my life. I’m most thankful to one of our fellow Dingwall enthusiasts, that was willing to part with it and that I was able to rally the funds.
Next step... planning the details.

Fully insured shipping + “other fees” talleyed up pretty quick to be a considerable amount. I’ll leave some of the details out of this story for simplicity/implicity but we started weighing some other options and thought if a possible a meet and greet was in order.
Long and short of it was we decided we could both be in Montreal at the same time.
Done!!!

So if I’m going to Montreal to meet a friend and pick up a bass.... I had better take my wife on this little weekend sabbatical. Now it’s a holiday instead of a UPS payment.
Now the scheming begins.
Flights! Air miles. Check.
Accommodations! Wife’s coworker would love to have us! Check.

Plan in place.... all in $300 plus some food, drinks and maybe a cab ride. Boom. Screw you UPS!

Well. As it turns out my favorite tech band will be on tour in the area at the same time and passing up home on this tour. Well then.
Logistics dictated Friday night in Ottawa would work best....
Hmmm. What about the budget?!?
Ok.
Rental car for the duration is cheap enough compared to a cab ride or 2. Done.

Accommodations in Ottawa for Friday night.
Points built up for my wife’s work trips. Done.

Now it’s just cover and drinks.
Not sooo bad but the budgets doubled.... oh well. Still cheaper then UPS.

She’s turning into quite the little trip. Thursday to Sunday. Friday in Ottawa. Getting booked. Lol. Saw and got to converse with 2 of my fav bass players Jared smith and Dominic “forest” lapointe.
Epic night in Ottawa followed by an incredible time back in Montreal the next day.

Met with our fellow John and his wonderful family. We had a great little stroll through old port and too quick but great visit.

The wife and I ended up spending a portion of our afternoon in a tattoo parlor. Hahah. Now the budget has tripled...... now pretty much on par if she was shipped to me.

Got to the airport a bit hungover the next day.... oops.
But this is where I’m going to tell you folks something that might be highly interesting.

NO WAY Was this baby going under the plane. NO. WAY.
I was told the entire way along from staff. Not gonna happen. I get to the flight attendant at the plane. Now I should also mention we boarded early as we “ needed assistance”. Anyways.

The FA tells me I should check the guitar. I very respectfully tell her.
“I can’t. “”It’s not possible”. “It is a $10000 instrument” and it’s not going to be 10’ away from me.
She said”I understand”. I pulled a box of Lindt chocolates from the gig bag and handed them to her and said ” thank you for understanding.”
She said, “ no problem. We’ll figure it out.

This is a FULL flight mind you as well. We did check our 1 small carry on bag to also pull away.

The rest of the flight, we were VIPS!!! It was crazy!! They loved us. That little box of chocolates and some polite respect was everything to the entire crew. They even showed appreciation in other ways!! I’ll keep that secret though. Even on our way off the plane the pilot thanked us!!! Lol. It was truly amazing.
1 last thing I will share with you guys is that 1 of the FAs told me, “ there is no rules that state you CANNOT take your guitar on board”. She also said you will encounter one day that non cooperative FA but still she cannot stop you from boarding with your guitar and just be nice and respectful.

I know this is a long post and I’m sorry for that.
it was a truly memorable weekend that all revolves around this one bass guitar and I will never forget that. Thanks to Dingwall I met a new great friend from across the continent and had an epic adventure.
I’d say there is gonna be a bit of sentimental attachment to this one lol.
If you made it this far that’s for reading through. Lol.

Here is some Dingwall porn mixed with my newest strap creation which funnily enough was started before any of this escapade began but it sure was a match meant to be.

Cheers crew.

View attachment 3091882 View attachment 3091883 View attachment 3091884 View attachment 3091885 View attachment 3091886 View attachment 3091887 View attachment 3091888 View attachment 3091889 View attachment 3091890 View attachment 3091891 View attachment 3091892

More photos of the strap can be found here
Nates leathercrafting thread.

Congrats @AB Nate
Cool story. And an even cooler bass.

 

[dazmond]

Thats a combustion??! Wow

I was actually floored when it came in ahead of schedule. I am in love with these new Combustion colors.
and...nice tractor...we used to have one almost just like it.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Thats a combustion??! Wow

Yup.
I could not let that beautiful wood grain and color be covered up by the black pickguard so I removed it.
It will stay off.

Thanks for enjoying it. drool

For you Rush Fans it is serial #2112.

 

[dazmond]

YeP. DGTC. it is incredible. Intimidatingly incredible. Like taking a pretty, rich girl on a date when your a broke arse 16yr old

I know the feeling. Every time I play my ABII

 

[J Posega]

Slightly tangential to Dingwall ownership, but involving the use of Dingwall basses:

Do those of you that play prog metal ala Periphery stick to primarily the roots, or do you venture out?

I've been listening to Periphery and other prog bands since Misha and Tobin Abasi were posting clips on MusicianForums as they started laying the foundation for the modern prog metal sound with their Line 6 Pods.

Contrary to my love of listening to prog metal, I've never really played it. My home-base as a bass player has been rock, funk, and pop for the better part of the last several years, so my comfort level with crazy triplet riffs in odd time signatures is fairly low.

I've been brought on board to track bass for a friends prog metal band and gave everything a listening through; lots of tricky sections if I was gonna play roots following the guitar riffs.

My primary references for prog metal bass players are (of course) Nolly, as well as Mark Mitchell on Scale the Summit's "V", Jon Stockman, Amos Williams, and Jacob Umansky.

Nolly is mostly a roots guy, Mitchell is often playing a lot of counterpoint and complex parts, Stockman is somewhere in the middle, and Williams seems to be a groovier roots guy, but with a lot of double thumbing, slap & pop.

Obviously, it's up to the band to dictate to me what their expectations are as the hired gun, but I'm interested to hear other prog metal guys perspectives. Personally, I'm more comfortable doing something somewhere in between playing straight guitar-following-roots and throwing in a little more harmony/counterpoint/Geddy-esque riffing.

I have two weeks to return 10 tracks of bass.

 

[IvanBassist]

Slightly tangential to Dingwall ownership, but involving the use of Dingwall basses:

Do those of you that play prog metal ala Periphery stick to primarily the roots, or do you venture out?

I've been listening to Periphery and other prog bands since Misha and Tobin Abasi were posting clips on MusicianForums as they started laying the foundation for the modern prog metal sound with their Line 6 Pods.

Contrary to my love of listening to prog metal, I've never really played it. My home-base as a bass player has been rock, funk, and pop for the better part of the last several years, so my comfort level with crazy triplet riffs in odd time signatures is fairly low.

I've been brought on board to track bass for a friends prog metal band and gave everything a listening through; lots of tricky sections if I was gonna play roots following the guitar riffs.

My primary references for prog metal bass players are (of course) Nolly, as well as Mark Mitchell on Scale the Summit's "V", Jon Stockman, Amos Williams, and Jacob Umansky.

Nolly is mostly a roots guy, Mitchell is often playing a lot of counterpoint and complex parts, Stockman is somewhere in the middle, and Williams seems to be a groovier roots guy, but with a lot of double thumbing, slap & pop.

Obviously, it's up to the band to dictate to me what their expectations are as the hired gun, but I'm interested to hear other prog metal guys perspectives. Personally, I'm more comfortable doing something somewhere in between playing straight guitar-following-roots and throwing in a little more harmony/counterpoint/Geddy-esque riffing.

I have two weeks to return 10 tracks of bass.

In my opinion the BIG 3 are:

1) Go along with the guitars.
2) Don't go along with the guitars (counterpoint)
3) Go along with the drums

From there you can play (or not play) some stuff depending on what you want to accentuate in the music.

Now, a lot of the newer prog stuff are mostly unison lines. If you end up going with that approach maybe try to look at how you are playing those notes. You can play exactly the same notes as the guitars/keys/whatever are playing, but still play them differently thus giving the song a different feel.

Focus on note duration, articulation and time

 

[Selta]

Slightly tangential to Dingwall ownership, but involving the use of Dingwall basses:

Do those of you that play prog metal ala Periphery stick to primarily the roots, or do you venture out?

I've been listening to Periphery and other prog bands since Misha and Tobin Abasi were posting clips on MusicianForums as they started laying the foundation for the modern prog metal sound with their Line 6 Pods.

Contrary to my love of listening to prog metal, I've never really played it. My home-base as a bass player has been rock, funk, and pop for the better part of the last several years, so my comfort level with crazy triplet riffs in odd time signatures is fairly low.

I've been brought on board to track bass for a friends prog metal band and gave everything a listening through; lots of tricky sections if I was gonna play roots following the guitar riffs.

My primary references for prog metal bass players are (of course) Nolly, as well as Mark Mitchell on Scale the Summit's "V", Jon Stockman, Amos Williams, and Jacob Umansky.

Nolly is mostly a roots guy, Mitchell is often playing a lot of counterpoint and complex parts, Stockman is somewhere in the middle, and Williams seems to be a groovier roots guy, but with a lot of double thumbing, slap & pop.

Obviously, it's up to the band to dictate to me what their expectations are as the hired gun, but I'm interested to hear other prog metal guys perspectives. Personally, I'm more comfortable doing something somewhere in between playing straight guitar-following-roots and throwing in a little more harmony/counterpoint/Geddy-esque riffing.

I have two weeks to return 10 tracks of bass.

I float around, depending on the tune. Definitely a lot of root playing, but in some sections, or whole songs, doing something else is the way to go. It doesn't even have to be counterpoint, as you can break away harmonically as well as rhythmically -- it just depends.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Slightly tangential to Dingwall ownership, but involving the use of Dingwall basses:

Do those of you that play prog metal ala Periphery stick to primarily the roots, or do you venture out?

I've been listening to Periphery and other prog bands since Misha and Tobin Abasi were posting clips on MusicianForums as they started laying the foundation for the modern prog metal sound with their Line 6 Pods.

Contrary to my love of listening to prog metal, I've never really played it. My home-base as a bass player has been rock, funk, and pop for the better part of the last several years, so my comfort level with crazy triplet riffs in odd time signatures is fairly low.

I've been brought on board to track bass for a friends prog metal band and gave everything a listening through; lots of tricky sections if I was gonna play roots following the guitar riffs.

My primary references for prog metal bass players are (of course) Nolly, as well as Mark Mitchell on Scale the Summit's "V", Jon Stockman, Amos Williams, and Jacob Umansky.

Nolly is mostly a roots guy, Mitchell is often playing a lot of counterpoint and complex parts, Stockman is somewhere in the middle, and Williams seems to be a groovier roots guy, but with a lot of double thumbing, slap & pop.

Obviously, it's up to the band to dictate to me what their expectations are as the hired gun, but I'm interested to hear other prog metal guys perspectives. Personally, I'm more comfortable doing something somewhere in between playing straight guitar-following-roots and throwing in a little more harmony/counterpoint/Geddy-esque riffing.

I have two weeks to return 10 tracks of bass.

It sounds like you have some good players to mold yourself after. In my previous prog metal act, I was rarely hitting straight 8s. I had a lot of chord work, counterpoint, double-tapping, melody, the odd harmony guitar run, and, sadly, the odd bass solo. (I am not that into bass solos in rock but the band insisted.) If it had fit, I would have included slap. My 3/4-finger plucking was on point in those days, I don't use the skill much anymore. Obviously, you cannot overlook the roots but I feel you really need to understand the extensions when playing prog. Polyrhythms also came up often in our jam space discussions.

 

[Charlzm]

Slightly tangential to Dingwall ownership, but involving the use of Dingwall basses:

Do those of you that play prog metal ala Periphery stick to primarily the roots, or do you venture out?

I've been listening to Periphery and other prog bands since Misha and Tobin Abasi were posting clips on MusicianForums as they started laying the foundation for the modern prog metal sound with their Line 6 Pods.

Contrary to my love of listening to prog metal, I've never really played it. My home-base as a bass player has been rock, funk, and pop for the better part of the last several years, so my comfort level with crazy triplet riffs in odd time signatures is fairly low.

I've been brought on board to track bass for a friends prog metal band and gave everything a listening through; lots of tricky sections if I was gonna play roots following the guitar riffs.

My primary references for prog metal bass players are (of course) Nolly, as well as Mark Mitchell on Scale the Summit's "V", Jon Stockman, Amos Williams, and Jacob Umansky.

Nolly is mostly a roots guy, Mitchell is often playing a lot of counterpoint and complex parts, Stockman is somewhere in the middle, and Williams seems to be a groovier roots guy, but with a lot of double thumbing, slap & pop.

Obviously, it's up to the band to dictate to me what their expectations are as the hired gun, but I'm interested to hear other prog metal guys perspectives. Personally, I'm more comfortable doing something somewhere in between playing straight guitar-following-roots and throwing in a little more harmony/counterpoint/Geddy-esque riffing.

I have two weeks to return 10 tracks of bass.

I play in a hard rock/prog metal band (light on the metal) but have been writing and listening to more modern djent/prog metal stuff.

It depends on what the band is after, but my approach is always:

Stay out of the guitars' way - double their lines and riffs as necessary
Stay out of the vocalist's way - assuming there is a singer, you don't want to fight him for attention
Lock in with the drummer - you might find some cool things he is doing that the guitars are not
Play the hell out of anything left - slap/pop, tap, chords/double stops, arpeggios - whatever doesn't violate the above

 

[J Posega]

In my opinion the BIG 3 are:

1) Go along with the guitars.
2) Don't go along with the guitars (counterpoint)
3) Go along with the drums

From there you can play (or not play) some stuff depending on what you want to accentuate in the music.

Now, a lot of the newer prog stuff are mostly unison lines. If you end up going with that approach maybe try to look at how you are playing those notes. You can play exactly the same notes as the guitars/keys/whatever are playing, but still play them differently thus giving the song a different feel.

Focus on note duration, articulation and time

Definitely agree that articulation is key here, even just to bass playing in general. The length and attack of a note can dictate the whole feel of the song.

I float around, depending on the tune. Definitely a lot of root playing, but in some sections, or whole songs, doing something else is the way to go. It doesn't even have to be counterpoint, as you can break away harmonically as well as rhythmically -- it just depends.

I definitely remember your bass parts moving around a lot.

It sounds like you have some good players to mold yourself after. In my previous prog metal act, I was rarely hitting straight 8s. I had a lot of chord work, counterpoint, double-tapping, melody, the odd harmony guitar run, and, sadly, the odd bass solo. (I am not that into bass solos in rock but the band insisted.) If it had fit, I would have included slap. My 3/4-finger plucking was on point in those days, I don't use the skill much anymore. Obviously, you cannot overlook the roots but I feel you really need to understand the extensions when playing prog. Polyrhythms also came up often in our jam space discussions.

I'm a two finger player primarily, three fingers for triplets, as well as pick, slap/pop, tapping, and recently had a revelation with double thumbing.

As I listened to the tracks and noodled along, I found extensive sections that had lots of motion in the guitars but stuck to particular key centers so that even as I droned on a single note, I found some interesting harmonies and rhythmic variations to hit.

 

[J Posega]

I play in a hard rock/prog metal band (light on the metal) but have been writing and listening to more modern djent/prog metal stuff.

It depends on what the band is after, but my approach is always:

Stay out of the guitars' way - double their lines and riffs as necessary
Stay out of the vocalist's way - assuming there is a singer, you don't want to fight him for attention
Lock in with the drummer - you might find some cool things he is doing that the guitars are not
Play the hell out of anything left - slap/pop, tap, chords/double stops, arpeggios - whatever doesn't violate the above

Staying out of everyone's way is a great point.

The hard part is that they're in California and I'm in the UK, so communications are a bit difficult. I'll probably be sending snippets and clips of various ideas and hope they get back to me in a timely fashion, otherwise I'll just be compiling various takes with different ideas for them to choose from in the end.

 

[IvanBassist]

Definitely agree that articulation is key here, even just to bass playing in general. The length and attack of a note can dictate the whole feel of the song.


I definitely remember your bass parts moving around a lot.

I'm a two finger player primarily, three fingers for triplets, as well as pick, slap/pop, tapping, and recently had a revelation with double thumbing.

As I listened to the tracks and noodled along, I found extensive sections that had lots of motion in the guitars but stuck to particular key centers so that even as I droned on a single note, I found some interesting harmonies and rhythmic variations to hit.

This is not prog metal, but I find Nick Schinz's approach and sound throughout the whole album spot on. It is definitely in my top 5 heavy albums of the past couple of years

 

[Charlzm]

Staying out of everyone's way is a great point.

The hard part is that they're in California and I'm in the UK, so communications are a bit difficult. I'll probably be sending snippets and clips of various ideas and hope they get back to me in a timely fashion, otherwise I'll just be compiling various takes with different ideas for them to choose from in the end.

Are there demos with bass parts?

 

[J Posega]

This is not prog metal, but I find Nick Schinz's approach and sound throughout the whole album spot on. It is definitely in my top 5 heavy albums of the past couple of years

I'll give this a listen for inspiration, thanks!

Are there demos with bass parts?

The bass parts on the demos are barebones, all roots. Very well played by the guitarist, so I'm aware that by asking me to track new bass parts he's essentially saying, "Look, this is what I can do, and I'm sure a seasoned bass player can add some nice spice to this."

 

[IvanBassist]

I'll give this a listen for inspiration, thanks!

The bass parts on the demos are barebones, all roots. Very well played by the guitarist, so I'm aware that by asking me to track new bass parts he's essentially saying, "Look, this is what I can do, and I'm sure a seasoned bass player can add some nice spice to this."

Hope it helps!

I think it'd be interesting to know how you end up tracking the project. Not only the way you approached things but also your signal chain

 

[BrBss]

This is not prog metal, but I find Nick Schinz's approach and sound throughout the whole album spot on. It is definitely in my top 5 heavy albums of the past couple of years

Havok is one of my favorite "modern" thrash bands. Great live, too.