Save yourself a lot of money and don't go anywhere near a Dingwall bass.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
I had worries about the fanned fret thing, too, on account of having smallish hands. My other main player is a Musicman Caprice which is just such an amazing playing 34” bass, so the idea of 37” was a little daunting.
What I have found is that my Dingwall plays really easily, and I have have had no issues switching back and forth. I regularly switch between my NG2 and Caprice throughout my band’s set list and I have no issues whatsoever with it.
Great rig! Definitely no issues there.
If it’s brand new the pick ups should say FDV perhaps on the front covers if they are FDV.
Otherwise you can pop one out and it will say on the back. Im having my first experience with FDVs in the house compared to FD3s and I’m really trying to map out the sound differences I’m experiencing bass to bass and how much of it is the pick ups.
A thought perhaps to start with could be to run with it on passive for a while and play with the selector until you really get to know the pick up selector sounds. By taking the DGTC out of the equation for now as well, maybe it will help you focus on figuring out the other issues you are having with the clanging. Perhaps packrat nailed it with the string tree. I’m actually wondering if it’s just kinda the nature of the longer scale and the difference in what we are each looking for as bass players with different styles.
What style of music do you play? Maybe a super series is more up your alley with your playing style? Just putting some thoughts out there.
When it comes to settings if you have FDVs, from what I can tell they do have a strong presence in the mids already and the series setting on those 2 pickups is probably the most mid present Setting you can choose. Upping the low mids on top of all of this might really be over loading he frequencies.
In a loud heavy band I love that setting on the selector but I’ve found other settings I enjoy more in less aggressive music.
Perhaps giving the Dingwall nickels another chance or the payson reducedcore a shot for strings. They will increase the tension and tone.
The pick ups shouldn’t be too low. To each their own of course but in those set up videos Sheldon does walk through appropriate heights. I do think having them on the lower vs the higher side works for my ears but still within the recommended ranges. Holding the string down on the 24th fret I measure approx an 1/8” from pick up to bottom of string.
Final thought and no offense to your tech but perhaps a different tech might be worth a shot. These basses come set up pretty awesome straight outta the box I would think a strong majority of the time. I went through a couple of techs before finding the one to work on my dingwalls. Even the local authorized Dingwall tech is not the guy who works on mine.
Maybe there is something helpful in here for ya. Don’t get discouraged yet.
Hey, thanks very much for all your thoughts and suggestions - very much appreciated!
I’ll try to unpack some of this.
Style wise, I play heavy alternative rock getting into shades of metal and punk. From what I understand, the NG2 is kind of tailor made for this. I mostly play finger style, and I don’t do much picking, although I have been fooling around with a pick as of late.
I do suspect the clanging thing may be at least partly an issue with my technique, although I’m really not sure how or why. I suppose I do ding in a little with my strumming, but this seems to happen with very little encouragement sometimes.
As far as my tech is concerned, I have absolutely no doubts about his abilities. He knows more about stringed instruments, electronics, and just generally about musicianship when it comes to the functioning of guitars and basses than any person I know, and he gives a really personalized experience. I have spent many hours in his workshop getting things adjusted with all of my basses. He’s also been doing this for like 30 years and was recently featured in our local news for having worked on over 50,000 instruments in town. Pretty well every musician here knows him and most take their instruments to him.
Suffice it to say, I’d have a hard time imagining going to anybody else
Out of the box, he immediately identified that the neck had a significant bow and needed adjustment, as well as some other tweaks to address a few dead / buzzy frets. It also had a couple of strings which needed to be intonated.
He also commented that he didn’t like the way it had been strung at the machine heads because it had been done in a way which was prone to slipping and also to breaking strings, so he re-did the bindings.
When I changed to the white tapes, the neck required some additional adjustment, likely due to the summer we’ve had, and it is possible that could be happening again and causing the clanging. He had to file the nut in order for the tapes to fit due to their heavy gauge.
I don’t recall him doing anything to the string tree, however.
I really do need to put some thought into the string situation as I’m really jut not loving these white tapes. I guess I could try going back to the Dingwall nickels, but they really didn’t do it for me either.
You might be onto something. This is potentially a very serious issue. If you are not controlling the temperature of your bass room, I'm guessing you might not be controlling the humidity either. What ranges from high to low has your bass had to endure in terms of temperature and also humidity? The temperature stability is somewhat important, but humidity stability is hugely important. Big humidity swings will absolutely cause the bass to move all over the place, especially the neck since it has a fingerboard that is full of slices which allow humidity in. Moisture enters the wood of the fingerboard through the fret slices, and the fingerboard expands while the neck, being solid, does not absorb as much water, therefore does not expand at the same rate. This causes a reverse bow in the neck, which causes the strings to hit the frets and/or pick-ups when playing, which then requires loosening the truss rod. Then when the moisture leaves, the truss rod is too loose and the action becomes too high because the next straightens back out.
It is also very telling that you have had similar issues before with other basses.
If you are going to invest money in musical instruments that are made of wood, then you also need to invest $15 or $20 in a gauge to measure temperature and humidity where you are keeping the instruments, and then you also need to invest in the necessary equipment (humidifier and heater for winter, dehumidifier and air conditioning for summer) to keep the temperature and humidity within a narrow range, especially the humidity. You should ideally try to keep the bass between 40% and 55% humidity at all times, ideally staying right about the middle of that range and not moving much at all. My music room is kept at a constant 47% humidity and 68F and it never changes from that. I can pick up any instrument any time and it will be perfectly in tune and the action will be perfect and I never have to touch any truss rod, ever. I have a few nice guitars, so to me the investment in that equipment was well worth it. I realized I needed to make that investment after the bridge started lifting on one of my Taylor acoustic guitars due to the humidity swings and I had to get it repaired in order to not have a $3,000 piece of firewood.
For humidication in winter, I use a Venta Airwasher because it is impossible to "over-humidify" since it uses natural evaporation and it's quiet and it does not coat everything in the room with white powder like many misting humidifiers do. For dehumidification in summer, anything that is rated for the square footage are that you have is fine. I like it to be completely maintenance free by having a drain hose in the back that either empties into a drain or empties into a condensate pump which then automatically pumps the water into a drain when the pump gets full of water.
Last edited:
We are are currently out of stock on the Payson FGWFlats. We do have the Payson Fanned True Flats in stock. If you’re looking for a little more tension to get the action lower, you might want to try the Payson Fanned NS-Reduced Core Sets as @AB Nate suggested.
Save yourself a lot of money and don't go anywhere near a Dingwall bass.
I’m assuming by this you mean that owning 1 Dingwall will lead into wanting and owning more?
That’s very sound advice, since for me 1 is never enough!!
Last edited:
Hey, thanks very much for all your thoughts and suggestions - very much appreciated!
I’ll try to unpack some of this.
Style wise, I play heavy alternative rock getting into shades of metal and punk. From what I understand, the NG2 is kind of tailor made for this. I mostly play finger style, and I don’t do much picking, although I have been fooling around with a pick as of late.
I do suspect the clanging thing may be at least partly an issue with my technique, although I’m really not sure how or why. I suppose I do ding in a little with my strumming, but this seems to happen with very little encouragement sometimes.
As far as my tech is concerned, I have absolutely no doubts about his abilities. He knows more about stringed instruments, electronics, and just generally about musicianship when it comes to the functioning of guitars and basses than any person I know, and he gives a really personalized experience. I have spent many hours in his workshop getting things adjusted with all of my basses. He’s also been doing this for like 30 years and was recently featured in our local news for having worked on over 50,000 instruments in town. Pretty well every musician here knows him and most take their instruments to him.
Suffice it to say, I’d have a hard time imagining going to anybody else
Out of the box, he immediately identified that the neck had a significant bow and needed adjustment, as well as some other tweaks to address a few dead / buzzy frets. It also had a couple of strings which needed to be intonated.
He also commented that he didn’t like the way it had been strung at the machine heads because it had been done in a way which was prone to slipping and also to breaking strings, so he re-did the bindings.
When I changed to the white tapes, the neck required some additional adjustment, likely due to the summer we’ve had, and it is possible that could be happening again and causing the clanging. He had to file the nut in order for the tapes to fit due to their heavy gauge.
I don’t recall him doing anything to the string tree, however.
I really do need to put some thought into the string situation as I’m really jut not loving these white tapes. I guess I could try going back to the Dingwall nickels, but they really didn’t do it for me either.
Just a thought, keep an eye on your right hand position, it is easy to get closer to the bridge on the high strings, farther on the low strings than you think you are playing.
good luck.
+1!
I've bought two Canadian Dingwall basses unheard and unplayed, and been blown away completely each time. Everything just feels right. Fanned frets feel odd for all of five seconds.
Attachments
Hey, thanks very much for all your thoughts and suggestions - very much appreciated!
I’ll try to unpack some of this.
Style wise, I play heavy alternative rock getting into shades of metal and punk. From what I understand, the NG2 is kind of tailor made for this. I mostly play finger style, and I don’t do much picking, although I have been fooling around with a pick as of late.
I do suspect the clanging thing may be at least partly an issue with my technique, although I’m really not sure how or why. I suppose I do ding in a little with my strumming, but this seems to happen with very little encouragement sometimes.
As far as my tech is concerned, I have absolutely no doubts about his abilities. He knows more about stringed instruments, electronics, and just generally about musicianship when it comes to the functioning of guitars and basses than any person I know, and he gives a really personalized experience. I have spent many hours in his workshop getting things adjusted with all of my basses. He’s also been doing this for like 30 years and was recently featured in our local news for having worked on over 50,000 instruments in town. Pretty well every musician here knows him and most take their instruments to him.
Suffice it to say, I’d have a hard time imagining going to anybody else
Out of the box, he immediately identified that the neck had a significant bow and needed adjustment, as well as some other tweaks to address a few dead / buzzy frets. It also had a couple of strings which needed to be intonated.
He also commented that he didn’t like the way it had been strung at the machine heads because it had been done in a way which was prone to slipping and also to breaking strings, so he re-did the bindings.
When I changed to the white tapes, the neck required some additional adjustment, likely due to the summer we’ve had, and it is possible that could be happening again and causing the clanging. He had to file the nut in order for the tapes to fit due to their heavy gauge.
I don’t recall him doing anything to the string tree, however.
I really do need to put some thought into the string situation as I’m really jut not loving these white tapes. I guess I could try going back to the Dingwall nickels, but they really didn’t do it for me either.
Another thought based on an experience I had...
I have had a real hard time bonding with NG2s. I had a couple of them and just never could love it the way I loved a combustion. It sounds like I have a similar play style and genre. Primarily use fingers never ever using a pick just because I think it would be like teaching an old dog.
The difference between the 2 for me came mostly down to pick up placement. I preferred having a pick up in the neck position. I have an NG3 now that it really really enjoyable. Sorry ...... long winded. Perhaps pop off the pick guard and move the middle pick up to the neck position and see if that does anything for you. If it does you could always upgrade your bass to a 3 pick up model.
Also, you bought it new riggt?
Where did you get it from?
Your bass showing up the way out did... I’m sure Sheldon would have really liked(but not) to have heard about it. QC is super important at Dingwall and they are very diligent about making every instrument leave the shop in tuned and ready to rock condition. Not that they want to be bombarded with peoples issues but reputation matters to them.
Is there a middle man between it leaving the shop and reaching you?
I do believe in lemons no matter the brand. I haven’t seen a true Dingwall lemon yet but I’ve found some that weren’t to my taste.
The above statement points to having subjected the bass to high humidity. Although I was obviously not at the factory, I can pretty much assure you that the truss rod was set properly and the bass was set up great and playing great when it left the factory. So either somebody else touched the setup before it got to you, or else the bass absorbed a bunch of moisture from the air either at your place or en route to you. If it was as extreme as having some frets not set correctly, that would point to one or more fairly extreme humidity change cycles, which can actually cause frets to come partially unseated. Based on my experience with 14 Dingwalls, including four NG2's, it would not have left the factory in that state.
Yes, I noticed that the factory strings the basses with an artistic looking spiral wrap on the tuners in which there is a gap between the wraps (a wrap gap?) instead of having them butted right up against each other. I have always felt the "correct" way is to wrap them so that each wrap is exactly touching the previous wrap (to help stay in tune), but not overlapping, and the wraps start at the top and go down, so that the last wrap is right next to the headstock before it makes its way over to the nut. That said, I have never experienced any problems with having the strings wrapped the way they are from the factory.
Yeah, I've wondering if the NG3 upgrade might be a good idea for me, as I do prefer playing on the neck pickup when possible. Moving the front pickup certainly could be an option if not for the fact that I'd need a different pickguard. I wonder if I could get an NG-2 pickguard with the regular Combustion pickup configuration. I think I would rather do the NG3 thing, honestly.
I did buy it new - ordered through Long & McQuade here in Canada. I don't believe L&M are official dealers, but the bass guy there has connections and has been ordering them like crazy for our bass playing community. As far as I am aware, nobody touch it between the factory and me. In fact, me and the bass guy literally unwrapped the cardboard box together, so I know nobody else had touched it.
I had it into my tech within a few days of receiving it, and while it is entirely possible that there were some temp /humidity variations in my bass room during that time, I don't know that I would call them extreme by any means. It has been a weird, hot summer, though, so who knows.
Yeah, I couldn't really comment on how it left the factory, only how it was when I received it. It is entirely possible that traveling between Ontario and BC it could very well have encountered some pretty severe changes in temperature and humidity that might explain the setup out of the box. It wasn't in a horrible state or anything, but there definitely were some dead frets due to the neck bow, etc.
I'm a little disheartened by the notion that just by hanging in my music room the setup could change that much in a relatively short period of time, and I don't know if that might be something inherent to multi-scale basses or what.
As far as I understand it l and m are the only official dealer in Canada. You should be able to deal with any issues through them and then straight to Saskatoon where Dingwall is from. L and m should step to bat for you if it’s a lemon. Dingwall I’m sure would also step up to rectify it. I had a concern on the one I had just purchased used and it went to l and m which in turn ended up sending it back to Dingwall directly. I’ve got it back now and it’s really really awesome. Very satisfied.
It’s deffinitely not a normal issue. Calgary has severe “mood”swings with out chinooks and what not. I very rarely need adjustment. On top of that Dingwall prides themselves on making basses that made for harsh climates I’m sure. They select woods and such that can withstand the climate changes we have in Canada on purpose. I don’t think that should be your issues. Not that severely and suddenly.
Just for the heck of it you could move that pick up and just run it without the pick guard for a bit. Or track down a used combustion pick guard. I think there was a couple on reverb not long ago.
I guess I find the notion of it being a lemon pretty hard to swallow, but it's certainly possible. I wish I knew how to tell. It would honestly make me feel a lot better if I did pick up another NG2 and it was totally different. I think there may be another one at L&M right now (which actually has my name on it because I changed my mind about the colour after ordering the one I have right now). Maybe I'll see if I can take that one out for a bit and see what's what.
I'm a little stumped on the string issue right now, to be honest. I love the feel of flats, and the reduction of string noise, but I also like to be able to dial an aggressive tone with presence in a heavy rock band. The Ernie Ball Cobalt flats seem to really be my favourite strings for these purposes, and if there was anything sort of similar to those that Payson makes I would jump on that.
I guess I would also opt for something with less floppiness so as to avoid any banging on the pickups.
Which of your sets would you recommend? Are any of your flats a little on the brighter side like the cobalts, or would the reduced cores be better?
It's called DAS. Dingwall Acquisition Syndrome. I have two gorgeous ABI's and I still want an ABII and a Z3. Do I even need two ABIs? No, do I need an ABII and/or a Z3? Hell no! But just try and stop me!!
