Dingwall Owners Club

[been_effected]

I'd be happy to start with just the normal deal though I wouldn't turn down an Artist model. Last I looked on the old page there was a general notice about being nationally touring, etc. The new system has a questionnaire, so once the ink is dry... These days most of my public use is NG and Combustion though a good reasonable priced AB or something like that would be a cool thing.



People don't realize the long game...and that part of the recipe for success is just perseverance. We watch bands we know make bad management mistakes all day long. We also watch those bands burn out or lose their base along the way. Aiming not to do any of those things.

Good to see a long term approach being taken. Wish you all the best with it.

 

[NaH]

I'd be happy to start with just the normal deal though I wouldn't turn down an Artist model. Last I looked on the old page there was a general notice about being nationally touring, etc. The new system has a questionnaire, so once the ink is dry... These days most of my public use is NG and Combustion though a good reasonable priced AB or something like that would be a cool thing.



People don't realize the long game...and that part of the recipe for success is just perseverance. We watch bands we know make bad management mistakes all day long. We also watch those bands burn out or lose their base along the way. Aiming not to do any of those things.

I see that with very popular already nationally touring bands. In the past you hadn't made it until you were doing a crazy number of shows and you toured every year. Nowadays they'll do a select number of shows and either group them over a couple months or spread it way out. They'll tour an album for 3 years sometimes.

 

[jakka1]

Unleashed my Super J from the rooftop down on an unsuspecting crowd below last night. My band had our CD release party later that night, so the bar owner decided to let us go up on the roof and play a couple of songs while dropping down a big 5'x18' banner down the front of the building promoting the show. We gave the crowd below that was there for the Artwalk a quick surprise taste before packing the house at the club later that night. Good times... fun experience!

 

[spiritbass]

View attachment 3399310
Unleashed my Super J from the rooftop down on an unsuspecting crowd below last night. My band had our CD release party later that night, so the bar owner decided to let us go up on the roof and play a couple of songs while dropping down a big 5'x18' banner down the front of the building promoting the show. We gave the crowd below that was there for the Artwalk a quick surprise taste before packing the house at the club later that night. Good times... fun experience!

Cool (literally!) shot!

 

[BurningSkies]

Good to see a long term approach being taken. Wish you all the best with it.

Thanks. Our current booking person and I have been on the same page. A handful of people in the band hadn't done this before (this is my second round), and just wanted to hit hit hit. They're coming around to our thinking now. 100 shows a year for a few years is pretty hefty when you have to work full time as well.

Ideally, if I can get within 70% of what I make at my day job...I'll quit. My wife has benefits (I've covered her in the past for some stints out of the market). But a few of us own houses and have a certain level of stability. We're not 20 year olds living in our parents' basements

 

[AB Nate]

View attachment 3399310
Unleashed my Super J from the rooftop down on an unsuspecting crowd below last night. My band had our CD release party later that night, so the bar owner decided to let us go up on the roof and play a couple of songs while dropping down a big 5'x18' banner down the front of the building promoting the show. We gave the crowd below that was there for the Artwalk a quick surprise taste before packing the house at the club later that night. Good times... fun experience!

Do you have any photos of the banner being dropped or vid? Cool experience! (Maybe not literally?)

Cool (literally!) shot!

I don’t know the temp but I don’t think that is snow!!

 

[BurningSkies]

I see that with very popular already nationally touring bands. In the past you hadn't made it until you were doing a crazy number of shows and you toured every year. Nowadays they'll do a select number of shows and either group them over a couple months or spread it way out. They'll tour an album for 3 years sometimes.

That's probably a few levels up from us currently. What we do see with national club/theater touring acts we know and work with is often they'll announce a 'tour' and it will be a few runs (3-4 day chunks) across a month or so, or even 3-day weekenders book-ending a week or two out. So you'd get a tour that's got 25 shows but not really full road time.

We did that last spring... 4 days mid/southern atlantic, back to the North east for 8 dates, then back home and a regional run of 5 dates that we hubbed out of our home town (I actually worked my usual days and played those nights out for that piece).

Throw together a nice admat announce a tour and you've got a thing.

 

[AB Nate]

Thanks. Our current booking person and I have been on the same page. A handful of people in the band hadn't done this before (this is my second round), and just wanted to hit hit hit. They're coming around to our thinking now. 100 shows a year for a few years is pretty hefty when you have to work full time as well.

Ideally, if I can get within 70% of what I make at my day job...I'll quit. My wife has benefits (I've covered her in the past for some stints out of the market). But a few of us own houses and have a certain level of stability. We're not 20 year olds living in our parents' basements

Living the dream man! I agree, I wouldn’t want to “over expose” my projects either. Been there and done that. A young band is always eager to get out and have fun and play lots of shows but honestly..... I don’t really want to go out and see them over and over again unless they are absolutely amazing. Here and there is great but playing crappy bars every weekend doesn’t help a band IMO.
Make em count.

 

[AB Nate]

Living the dream man! I agree, I wouldn’t want to “over expose” my projects either. Been there and done that. A young band is always eager to get out and have fun and play lots of shows but honestly..... I don’t really want to go out and see them over and over again unless they are absolutely amazing. Here and there is great but playing crappy bars every weekend doesn’t help a band IMO.
Make em count.

Of course on a larger scale the exception to this is bands like Archspire who probably toured 70-80% of last year but we are talking Australia,Japan, Europe, USA... the good stuff. Canada too but that just means lots of driving for a couple shows...

 

[BurningSkies]

Living the dream man! I agree, I wouldn’t want to “over expose” my projects either. Been there and done that. A young band is always eager to get out and have fun and play lots of shows but honestly..... I don’t really want to go out and see them over and over again unless they are absolutely amazing. Here and there is great but playing crappy bars every weekend doesn’t help a band IMO.
Make em count.

Routing counts. We're down in VA/NC next week. We had a Saturday headliner lined up in Hartford CT at the end of the run...it would have been worth it if it was a 'real festival' and as headliner in a town we do pretty well in and hit regularly. But the festival fell apart and they offered us a venue gig instead. It would have had a few hundred people, but is that worth a 13 hour drive? No. So no trip to CT from NC.

The other thing is that people need to get over the hype a bit. For us here in the North East, that's touring CO or CA. Awesome places...but if you're going there and don't have a following and no one has heard of you and you're not playing specific events...you're losing. You're busting to get all across the country to play empty bars and clubs. Make it worth the trip, or don't go. Wait until there's demand. Nothing kills a band like a bunch of empty rooms and an empty bank account with no sleep.

We play with a good regional soul act from time to time. Their lead singer announced "we're touring the West Coast this summer" to us in the green room at a show, mostly as an ego-stroke. Our reaction was 'cool, didn't know you had a following out there...' and they don't.

Similarly, we're not too far from NYC...but don't play there often. No point unless you've got a draw or a good event/bill you're on. Too much competition, too many other shows or other social things on a given night. Until there's a good reason, don't bother.

Of course on a larger scale the exception to this is bands like Archspire who probably toured 70-80% of last year but we are talking Australia,Japan, Europe, USA... the good stuff. Canada too but that just means lots of driving for a couple shows...

I'd like to get there. Someday.

 

[johnsonabq]

The bird is getting closer.

 

[jakka1]

Do you have any photos of the banner being dropped or vid? Cool experience! (Maybe not literally?)

I don’t know the temp but I don’t think that is snow!!

no... definitely not snow. I think it was upper 70s yesterday. Perfect weather!

There were several photographers and a drone buzzing around so I expect some more footage to come.

 

[invisiman]

Any recommendations for light tension/lower gauge strings? I was using light (.04) DR Hi Beams on my single scale basses, and I'd like to find something that fulfills my desires for a "light and zingy" string as well as they did. The stock strings on my NG-2 sound fine, but I miss the feeling of the lighter strings.

Along the same lines, will it cause any issues for the bass if I were to pair a standard Dingwall B-string with lighter strings for the other four? That would likely open up some other options as well.

 

[singlemalt]

I found DR Pure Blues VW set, 90-40 will work on my AB -1 four string. E string just makes the nut. They feel great and sound really nice. Better on the fanned fret than on my Cirrus. More balanced with the Dingwall, as expected.

I’ve got some GHS Boomers 90-35 coming but I don’t know yet if they will reach.

I used to use a Dingwall B and lighter four string sets in my Super P 5. Then I went to E-C so any set would work for the super series.

Check with Fret Nation for longscale light strings. Jason will make sure there is enough winding length.

Sometimes it’s an issue if the ball end isn’t tapered, you’ll need shorter saddle screws to get action low enough.

I’ve run TI flats on the longscale Dingwalls and I thought they were awesome.

 

[Waltsdog]

Any recommendations for light tension/lower gauge strings? I was using light (.04) DR Hi Beams on my single scale basses, and I'd like to find something that fulfills my desires for a "light and zingy" string as well as they did. The stock strings on my NG-2 sound fine, but I miss the feeling of the lighter strings.

Along the same lines, will it cause any issues for the bass if I were to pair a standard Dingwall B-string with lighter strings for the other four? That would likely open up some other options as well.

I’ve been on a search for something similar and the only lighter gauge strings that are made specially for the long scales are Kallium.
My current plan is to go with some DRs or GHS and keep my Dingwall B rather than risk it with Kallium.

 

[xnewyorka]

Any recommendations for light tension/lower gauge strings? I was using light (.04) DR Hi Beams on my single scale basses, and I'd like to find something that fulfills my desires for a "light and zingy" string as well as they did. The stock strings on my NG-2 sound fine, but I miss the feeling of the lighter strings.

Along the same lines, will it cause any issues for the bass if I were to pair a standard Dingwall B-string with lighter strings for the other four? That would likely open up some other options as well.

I know you asked about strings, but your truss rod setting has a huge influence in your action as well. Do you have the neck as flat as you can get it without buzzing below the 6th fret? If not, tighten it up a bit and see how that helps the string feel. Once you tighten it up, you might need to raise the saddles a little, depending on where you have them currently.

The reason I make this suggestion is that my NG2 has the stock strings on it and it feels very light and zingy, but that is because I did a setup as described above on it.

 

[been_effected]

Thanks. Our current booking person and I have been on the same page. A handful of people in the band hadn't done this before (this is my second round), and just wanted to hit hit hit. They're coming around to our thinking now. 100 shows a year for a few years is pretty hefty when you have to work full time as well.

Ideally, if I can get within 70% of what I make at my day job...I'll quit. My wife has benefits (I've covered her in the past for some stints out of the market). But a few of us own houses and have a certain level of stability. We're not 20 year olds living in our parents' basements

You're also working in a market that is large enough to support bands like you at that level, which is amazing. The differences between the American and Australian music industries never ceases to amaze me. The American one is just simply...so much larger. The concept of doing 50 shows a year over here as an originals band and staying on-shore would be unheard of, there just isn't the population or venue density to handle that without overplaying yourself.

At the peak of the previous band I was in, I think we likely averaged about half that number in a year. And we were busy as hell. Crazy.

 

[invisiman]

I know you asked about strings, but your truss rod setting has a huge influence in your action as well. Do you have the neck as flat as you can get it without buzzing below the 6th fret? If not, tighten it up a bit and see how that helps the string feel. Once you tighten it up, you might need to raise the saddles a little, depending on where you have them currently.

The reason I make this suggestion is that my NG2 has the stock strings on it and it feels very light and zingy, but that is because I did a setup as described above on it.

I did lower the action on the bass when I got it, to as low as I could get it without getting constant clanking due to my inconsistent fingerstyle technique. That definitely eased up the strain on my fretting hand, but I find it's my plucking hand which takes the brunt of the abuse from high tension strings. Maybe it's a sign that I should put more effort into improving my technique...

 

[AB Nate]

Any recommendations for light tension/lower gauge strings? I was using light (.04) DR Hi Beams on my single scale basses, and I'd like to find something that fulfills my desires for a "light and zingy" string as well as they did. The stock strings on my NG-2 sound fine, but I miss the feeling of the lighter strings.

Along the same lines, will it cause any issues for the bass if I were to pair a standard Dingwall B-string with lighter strings for the other four? That would likely open up some other options as well.

I’ve been on a search for something similar and the only lighter gauge strings that are made specially for the long scales are Kallium.
My current plan is to go with some DRs or GHS and keep my Dingwall B rather than risk it with Kallium.

I believe @Bassheart365 mentioned using payson medium lights as his preferred string.

They sound..... light......

 

[singlemalt]

I’m exploring the super light side of strings. There’s a pretty active thread on super light string sets going on right now with lots of suggestions.

Throwing a longscale Dingwall into the mix definitely narrows the choices down. I really liked the Payson medium light and reduced core sets. They will perfectly, no adjustment needed.

But I’m also looking for very light, nickel, rounds.

TI Jazz flats were my first set of really light slinky feeling strings. I’d always subscribed to the bigger is better theory.

TI’s sounded like crap at first, I really had to lighten up in the right hand. And surprise, the Dingwalls sounded better with a lighter touch.

With the super light strings, I’m getting better sound and clarity, more low end growl without mush. There’s plenty of beef in the sound.

And for slap, it’s been amazing.

Let me know what you find.