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Dingwall Owners Club

#26,081
Sheldon D. said:
I understand the distaste. I felt the same way when Hamer, Charvel, Schecter and others started doing import guitars. It seemed like they were selling out and the brands lost their authenticity and cool. The other side of the coin in our case has several nuances that aren't obvious.
1. We're still building as many or more Canadian basses as we always have. You're seeing more Chinese basses because there are more customers in that price range. The cool thing is that many of these new customers will eventually move up the food chain to the domestic basses.
2. Without the Combustion, the company would have likely gone under in 2009 with the recession and being forced out of our old shop. The Combustion saved our company.
3. The imports have allowed us to double our workforce and pay better wages and benefits to the team that builds the domestic basses. I realize this is not the case in most companies when they offshore, but for us, we created jobs and made the existing ones better.
4. The imports have allowed us the cashflow to upgrade our machinery and tooling to build better domestic basses.
5. The ABI is relatively similar to a Combustion in terms of materials and complexity and if spec'd as similarly as possible would cost more than double. Of course for the extra money you would be getting increased quality, fit and finish which is why the ABZ and ABI are still our best selling domestic basses. Why do the domestic basses cost so much more? Well, basses are labor intensive which makes the cost of basses tied to wages. Wages are tied to cost of living. When starter houses were $60K, we were able to build Afterburners with a street price of $1200 USD. These days starter houses are in the $300K range in our area.
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Wow. I am extremely grateful for your reply and explanation. I, too, am very thankful you're still here and doing well. Even though I currently only have used basses, you've treated me (and everyone for that matter) like royalty. I hope my purchases lead to someone else buying a new one. I know at least one of them did.
 
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#26,084
Soulvaccination said:
Yes, we still need to meet up. You’re with a jazz type group now? I’d love to come hear you sometime!
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Sure! It’s very fresh to me and as a band it seems they were on a bit of a Hiatus without a bass player for a year or so but I think we should start to come together quick I’m working on learning lots of their original materials.

I believe we put in an application to do the east coulee fest in drumheller so we will be (definitely I will be) woodshedding pretty hard
 
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#26,085
Even the beavers play Dingwalls...

180911.jpg
 
#26,088
Salciniclas said:
@packrat that sounds nice. I probably end up ordering a 6 way stewmac switch and do the same. So you have the D-Bird selection plus "jazz" and neck alone? I can't find the diagrams in here and i'd love to see them or a chematic on what to solder where on the stewmac switch. If there is any way you could help out with that it would be amazing.
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Here’s what I wrote up. I plan to get a screw terminal block to add to the switch and build it put it in my bass shortly and will post more detail pictures then.

image.jpg
 

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#26,089
Salciniclas said:
I guess same thing will happen as it did with Warwick. China/Korea/Asian builds for the Mass and the "real ones" for people who like to heavily invest. As long as quality is right everything is fine. Nowdays the korean Warwicks are really great and also they introduced the Teambuilt, Masterbuilt thing. They just try to produce a fitting glove for everyone. What makes Dingwall special is that they still do the QC in Canada on every Bass, which to me is very impressive.
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They may even spread out like Spector with their handmade US ones, the awesome euros, the cheaper but respectable Korean legends and the funny shaped Ibanez/cort performer series.

But that seems like it would be a distraction so best not.
 
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#26,091
Sheldon D. said:
I understand the distaste. I felt the same way when Hamer, Charvel, Schecter and others started doing import guitars. It seemed like they were selling out and the brands lost their authenticity and cool. The other side of the coin in our case has several nuances that aren't obvious.
1. We're still building as many or more Canadian basses as we always have. You're seeing more Chinese basses because there are more customers in that price range. The cool thing is that many of these new customers will eventually move up the food chain to the domestic basses.
2. Without the Combustion, the company would have likely gone under in 2009 with the recession and being forced out of our old shop. The Combustion saved our company.
3. The imports have allowed us to double our workforce and pay better wages and benefits to the team that builds the domestic basses. I realize this is not the case in most companies when they offshore, but for us, we created jobs and made the existing ones better.
4. The imports have allowed us the cashflow to upgrade our machinery and tooling to build better domestic basses.
5. The ABI is relatively similar to a Combustion in terms of materials and complexity and if spec'd as similarly as possible would cost more than double. Of course for the extra money you would be getting increased quality, fit and finish which is why the ABZ and ABI are still our best selling domestic basses. Why do the domestic basses cost so much more? Well, basses are labor intensive which makes the cost of basses tied to wages. Wages are tied to cost of living. When starter houses were $60K, we were able to build Afterburners with a street price of $1200 USD. These days starter houses are in the $300K range in our area.
Click to expand...

For those of you out of country or do not know, the cost of living in Saskatoon has really gone up in the last while and I just did quick check and it is apparently the 4th most expensive major city in Canada behind Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto (which are astronomically high).
 
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#26,095
AB Nate said:
Crazy thing... I no longer have either one of these....as of this week.

View attachment 3289345 View attachment 3289346
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Hey! That wasn't the plan! The SJ was supposed to go instead.

You didn't know this, but I was secretly biding my time for you to bore of the zebra, and then you'd offer it to me for a faction of its worth. Haha. At least one of the two went home with me. I hope the other found a really good home. And hopefully not too far away, so I can bide my time with the new owner. Biding is best done in close proximity.

Man, that thing played amazing. I love the NG, but you can definitely feel the Canadian difference (and hear it too).
 
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#26,096
BassBH said:
Hey! That wasn't the plan! The SJ was supposed to go instead.

You didn't know this, but I was secretly biding my time for you to bore of the zebra, and then you'd offer it to me for a faction of its worth. Haha. At least one of the two went home with me. I hope the other found a really good home. And hopefully not too far away, so I can bide my time with the new owner. Biding is best done in close proximity.

Man, that thing played amazing. I love the NG, but you can definitely feel the Canadian difference (and hear it too).
Click to expand...

Boston is close right?
 
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