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Dingwall Owners Club

#29,341
BurningSkies said:
Speaking of basses arriving. This was oddly like 'new Dingwall day' for a bass I've owned for a year and even played out here and there.

View attachment 3430089 In...safe and sound from shipping. I did sent it in my Gator ATA case, but always a bit nerve wracking. From the outside it won't look too different from stock.

View attachment 3430090 Neck with Luminlay lines, markers and side dots. The last inlay job, the lines were not high enough contrast for my liking in dim lighting situations. This should help. One of my requests from Mo was to get the action as far down as possible. This Combustion even from its earliest days didn't have a really low action (I remember when the original owner got it and he and I did some troubleshooting). Mo worked to get the neck as straight and flat as possible. I'd gotten it down to 'playable but not pleasurable' on the first round. Now its way closer to 'Dingwall-action.'

View attachment 3430093 You can now see here that the neck has been refinished too. The last time it was 'treated' with a C/A job, but this is a full on urethane satin neck finish. Seriously looks so nice and is so smooth and nice feeling. You can see that Mo worked hard at cleaning up where the frets had been removed. Some had been over-heated and discolored a bit, and with any stuff like this you do get some tear-out. Really nice job of minimizing.

View attachment 3430097 Look at these fatties! I've really come to like the dual-contrast luminlay side dots and these are the big honkers...thick black wide diameter. Beautifully installed. I've found within the past few months of Luminlay side dots; they work brilliantly. You can always see just enough to know where you are. They're not LED bright but they don't need to be, and the black/white do a great job in even low light settings.

View attachment 3430101

Forgive the ratty looking pickup shells. I need to sand/polish them a bit more. You can't see the untold hours of work to modify this bridge. The Graphtech saddles needed some alteration to fit correctly. The metal 'sleds' that hold those saddles are drilled out so the piezo wires will pass through, then the actual base pieces are also not only drilled but have oblong openings for the wires to pass but also so you can adjust the intonation and the wiring doesn't pinch or hamper adjustment. Then under each piece, the wood is drilled out to a common 'tunnel' that runs underneath for all the wires to make it to the control cavity. All invisible and seamless. It took a few tries. Turns out there's a high failure rate on Graphtech piezo saddles...and we found out the hard way on the final assembly.

Electronics have the same footprint except for the added switch...It still has a DG-TC installed, the standard volume/4-way and Bass/low-mid/high-mid. The mids are now stacked and the treble is push/pull for the DG bypass switch.

The old 'high mid' knob is now a piezo preamp/bridge volume with a push/pull piezo tone shift.

The two switches...the first is a 3-way that gives you magnetic setup (just like a standard Dingwall) or piezo setup (bridge only with associated preamp); and the middle position is both systems...which with the second volume means you can bring in the piezo underneath the magnetic or bring the magnetic up underneath the piezo. The other switch is a true bypass for both preamps. It allows the bass to go completely passive and not need any battery to function.
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All good stuff... but how does it sound? Play?!
 
#29,342
reddavid said:
All good stuff... but how does it sound? Play?!
Click to expand...

I'm sitting at work right now. :) Tonight will be me and it on the couch unamplified. Tomorrow I have some time to plug in and turn it up before packing for my gig. I'm going to assume that for right now it acoustically sounds similar to how it did back in March when I last held it. Though the lower action, neck work and graphtech saddles may change it around the edges.
 
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#29,343
BurningSkies said:
Reminds me of my original Afterburner 1. I had it 'delivered to my house' signature required, knowing there'd be no one home...and that UPS would hold it and once they made the attempt I'd go in and have it held at the facility for pickup that night.

...I was watching the tracking and refreshing every 5 minutes all day from my office...only to see it go to 'Delivered-Signed'. Funny knowing that my roommate was at work and so was I. I called him and he rushed home (being in the neighborhood and closer to the house). It was on our doorstep, about 10 feet away from a busy urban street and sidewalk.

When I checked on the signature, it was no one that we knew and certainly not one of our neighbors (I'd lived there for a decade or more at that point). UPS forged a signature and left a $1700 bass on the doorstep.
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:eek: :rollno: :sour:
 
#29,344
BurningSkies said:
When doing inlays I chose the blue because they supposedly have better persistence though are not nearly as bright to start with as the green is.
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When I ordered my Luminlays, I ordered a bunch of rods, but mostly green and one blue. I tested them out last night giving them the same charge and then going back to check them in the dark after 20 minutes or so and found them to be about the same brightness.

I have done two in green (SP5 and Combustion). I am debating on what to do with my white SJ5, which is my #1. I am 50/50 at this point. Both look almost white in regular conditions and both would look okay.
 
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#29,345
Smallmouth_Bass said:
When I ordered my Luminlays, I ordered a bunch of rods, but mostly green and one blue. I tested them out last night giving them the same charge and then going back to check them in the dark after 20 minutes or so and found them to be about the same brightness.

I have done two in green (SP5 and Combustion). I am debating on what to do with my white SJ5, which is my #1. I am 50/50 at this point. Both look almost white in regular conditions and both would look okay.
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They should just cut out the middle man and make all the Canadian Dingwalls stock with Luminlay side dots.
 
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#29,346
I don't know if the photos came out how well you actually see it person, because the green is notably brighter after charging.

With no charge side-by-side:
DSCF4051.jpg


After a fresh charge:
DSCF4053.jpg


After 30 minutes:
DSCF4057.jpg
 
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#29,347
reddavid said:
All good stuff... but how does it sound? Play?!
Click to expand...



This is quite a lovely bass to play now. The neck and action feels really really nice. I don't remember the neck being so smooth and and easy before but...yeah, all of a sudden this one just is super sweet and nice. Mo nailed the leveling. It sounds even up and down the neck, no notes are howling or plunking which sometimes happens with fretlesses. This was totally worth the time and money and effort. It's become an entirely different bass to play.
 
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#29,352
#29,354
AB Nate said:
I wonder.... do black lights affect luminlay?

Can we see a photo of the control cavity @BurningSkies? Fantastic machine you have there.
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Yep. Black light charges it and makes it fluoresce it’s brightest. I use a 10w led uv light to charge. Here’s mine in a lit room:
66B104D2-FFA2-4063-BD47-CFFAB32CF718.jpeg
 
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#29,355
Peter Lufrano said:
How long do you shine your black light on them for your “initial charge”?
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The shot of the fretless in a semi dark room above was just after I'd run the 10w blacklite over the neck for about 15-20 seconds up and down. It won't stay that bright for long but the persistence makes it so that even at low-glow its enough. I've also found that with regular stage lighting, they recharge so if you have only momentary darkness they'll be recharged a bit.
 
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#29,358
singlemalt said:
Man, Mo does great work!

That is super clean.
Click to expand...
AB Nate said:
I wonder.... do black lights affect luminlay?

Can we see a photo of the control cavity @BurningSkies? Fantastic machine you have there.
Click to expand...

The cavity is PACKED. I'm not going to pull off the back right now due to not wanting to disturb all the wiring, but it has all the piezo bridge wiring (one set for each saddle) which sum before going to the second preamp...Luckily Mo took a shot before he closed it up:

image1.jpg
 
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#29,359
singlemalt said:
I waited around all day for my Super J 5. Nobody else was home to sign for it.

I saw the Brown truck go by and figured any minute now. Brown truck goes by again, and, nothin.

Tracking goes from “out for delivery” to “delivered”!

Rut roh!

So I wander over to my neighbor’s house, just a block over, and there’s my Super J sitting in his carport. Nobody home.

Good thing we live in the sticks.

I get the neighbor’s car parts and drum stuff all the time.
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Interesting that most of these stories involve UPS. I got a bass today as well (will post soon) and saw the UPS truck at the corner. I rushed downstairs and he was gone. Came back about 30 minutes later. I asked him about it. Turns out he had to get it from another driver as it was loaded on the wrong truck. This one also didn't require a signature. Glad I made it a point to be home.

Worst one (and forgive me if I told this story already) was when I bought a bass and it was left on the porch without ringing the doorbell (I was home and got it right away), but taped on the package was "Bass Guitar $XXXX" written on it. (aka "STEAL ME NOW!") Guy I bought it from said the intern packed it and he reamed him out then called UPS and yelled at them (as it was supposed to get a signature).
 
#29,360
BurningSkies said:
The shot of the fretless in a semi dark room above was just after I'd run the 10w blacklite over the neck for about 15-20 seconds up and down. It won't stay that bright for long but the persistence makes it so that even at low-glow its enough. I've also found that with regular stage lighting, they recharge so if you have only momentary darkness they'll be recharged a bit.
Click to expand...

What sort of flashlight is that, please? I play a lot of scenes where that'd be useful.
 
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