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Dingwall Owners Club

#23,001
xnewyorka said:
Very interesting! What type of strings and what gauge did you have on there? Can you elaborate a little in concrete terms on what you mean by less musical?
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Dunlop Super Bright Nickel - medium light gauge. 35" G string is to tight for my liking. I don't know the physics of it, but a G string is strung pretty tight to begin with. When you add another inch to that, you add tension and I assume it doesn't vibrate with the same intensity or range as a shorter 34" string, hence a less appealing tone to my ear anyway. Plus I do a fair amount of popping on the G string. It needs to be pliable to have a good snap to it.
 
#23,002
BigDrew said:
Thanks. Does the color of the writing or the shape mean anything? Both are new basses if that helps.
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I’d guess like xnewyorka said that the 5er is new old stock. Dingwall stopped with the square shells last year I believe. The square shells were used in the ABZ, and the combustion lines. Would assume there are FD3s.

The rounded shells where on the other lines of dingwalls until this year when they switched to rounded covers on all basses this year.

The 4 string “could” have fd3s or fdvs
 
#23,003
BigDrew said:
Thanks. Does the color of the writing or the shape mean anything? Both are new basses if that helps.
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The square pickups are just the old style and they are almost certainly both FD3s (check the backs as someone said above), the new rounded shells will generally have the type of pickup written on them if they are anything other than standard: FDV, P-tone etc.
The colour of the writing makes no difference, your square pickups probably have the gold logo.
 
#23,005
I'm just loving this bass so much, thought I'd post a couple pictures from my church gig this morning! Hope everyone had a great weekend, back to the grind tomorrow...


image.jpeg
image.jpeg
 
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#23,014
Energy said:
Didn't spoil me. Yeah, I love my AB-2 5/3X because it can do things no other bass can do. If the gig demands a five string bass, I grab the Dingwall, there's no alternative.
But for a decent Fender sound I still use a decent Fender.
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I haven't sold any basses because of the Dingwall, even though both the Stingray as well as the Spector Rebop deliver a sound that comes quite close to it. They still sound different and I would miss them. My P-Bass isn't going anywhere and I'd be dumb to sell the Wal or the Rick.

Still, the last two music store visits were quite disappointing, just about every bass left me "meh" in terms of playability and neck feel. After arriving home I picked up the NG-2 and it just rocked, it was so much better than literally anything they had to offer in thoses stores.
With all of those nice basses I have, I still grab the Dingwall 90% of the time when praticing at home or just noodling for fun.
 
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#23,015
BigDrew said:
Thanks. Does the color of the writing or the shape mean anything? Both are new basses if that helps.
Click to expand...
The square pickups have not been in production for quite a while. It is possible it has FDVs but maybe/probably not as there was a transition period where a person could get FDVs in square shells. Square & Round, if they both have FDVs, or both FD3s, sound exactly the same.
 
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#23,016
Bassheart365 said:
Dunlop Super Bright Nickel - medium light gauge. 35" G string is to tight for my liking. I don't know the physics of it, but a G string is strung pretty tight to begin with. When you add another inch to that, you add tension and I assume it doesn't vibrate with the same intensity or range as a shorter 34" string, hence a less appealing tone to my ear anyway. Plus I do a fair amount of popping on the G string. It needs to be pliable to have a good snap to it.
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We have an expensive 5-string parallel fret bass that plays like butter, but I was shocked A/B ing it with the 5-string Dingwall. The low B just wasn't there. What helped IMMENSELY was using a hex core for the low B string and standard round wound for the remaining strings.
 
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#23,017
BigDrew said:
Thanks. Does the color of the writing or the shape mean anything? Both are new basses if that helps.
Click to expand...

Pickup shape doesn't necessarily mean anything. Over the past handful of years, there's been a few shapes for shells that have held various FD series coils. It more or less had to do with ease of production and/or who or where pickups were being made at a given time. The curved end rectangular pickups are pretty much a Dingwall design, while the wider rectangular ones are more of a stock size (think EMG, etc.). There's an even older square shoulder variant of the Dingwall pickup shape that matched something closer to a Bart soapbar's dimension.
 
#23,018
BurningSkies said:
Pickup shape doesn't necessarily mean anything. Over the past handful of years, there's been a few shapes for shells that have held various FD series coils. It more or less had to do with ease of production and/or who or where pickups were being made at a given time. The curved end rectangular pickups are pretty much a Dingwall design, while the wider rectangular ones are more of a stock size (think EMG, etc.). There's an even older square shoulder variant of the Dingwall pickup shape that matched something closer to a Bart soapbar's dimension.
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Yeah - some of them looked a lot like these, which were made by "SGD", whoever that is:
Skjold NOS BC-4/5 2010 Black Sidewinder pickup set made by SGD
 
#23,019
Energy said:
Didn't spoil me. Yeah, I love my AB-2 5/3X because it can do things no other bass can do. If the gig demands a five string bass, I grab the Dingwall, there's no alternative.
But for a decent Fender sound I still use a decent Fender.
Click to expand...

It's funny. I've gotten 3 new basses this year. It's been sort of an unexpected set of circumstances.

First was the NG-3 that I bought so I could 'retire' the Rastaburst from general road work. It's been fantastic, and I've found a real appreciation for these basses.

Second was a standard Combustion (v4) that a local friend/player decided was not the bass for him. I didn't really expect to buy it but when a friend deal for a Dingwall comes up locally, you take it. It's given me a respect and appreciation for the true 'entry level' of Sheldon's line. I have it set up as close to the NG as possible. So far it's only been to rehearsal and used at home, but I'm going to try it out on stage this weekend.

Third bass this year? Steinberger Spirit XT-25. I never thought I'd ever buy a parallel fret bass again. I never thought I'd have a Gibson made anything (besides maybe a vintage LP-Jr.), and I never thought I'd have a 34" 5-string ever again. But I got an offer to fly to the islands for a gig in a few weeks to run riddim for a band, and the offer was too good and seemed like a great chance to 'step out' and take a few chances on stage. Also, there's enough cash in the gig to have a decent payday but also grab this. They promised me a bass on stage and I certainly don't trust that I'll get there to find one or find one that's worth playing (or a 5 string!).

The Steinberger has been strangely addictive and fun to play. It totally messes with both my right and left hand positions. I specifically have only used it to learn the material for this gig so I don't learn it 'Dingwall style' then have a hard time breaking my muscle memory on the gig. The fit and finish is certainly not Dingwall quality, but given the bass was sub-500$, I'm not surprised nor complaining. It does sound better than I expected. It has an action that's as good or better than expected. And for a specific genre and era of reggae, it really is pretty spot on. I've been churning 80's style Radics and Sly&Robbie stuff with it, and it's brilliant.

Will it replace any of my Dingwalls? No. But I can fly with it without checking my bass and without fear of damage. It may end up on the road with us as a backup, given the bulletproof passive electronics, 3pc neck and super compact size.
 
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#23,020
xnewyorka said:
Yeah - some of them looked a lot like these, which were made by "SGD", whoever that is:
Skjold NOS BC-4/5 2010 Black Sidewinder pickup set made by SGD
Click to expand...

That's David Scwhab (Probably Schwab Guitar Design, IIRC).

Sheldon's 'rectangular' pickups were made in house by Dingwall for the better part of a decade (FD-1, FD-3 variants). Previous to that he used a variety of Barts both stock and 'custom' (again IIRC). With my Voodoo-Prima 5 string, when I went to size it up for FD-3's we discovered it didn't have the same size as many others of that era. It ended up matching the older square shoulder big-logo Dingwall shells...for a 4 string! Luckily Sheldon and the shop had a set of NOS shells on hand, and while Carey Nordstrand wouldn't wrap a set of 5's for me in that size/shape, the Dingwall shop did do it for me, although it was a difficult fit.
 
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