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Dingwall Owners Club

#34,661
seedokebass said:
The Combustion showed up today!

View attachment 3731751

The green is quite a bit different in person than the pictures on Reverb, but like it quite a bit. Everything seems to be in order so far aside from the high action:
View attachment 3731754

It's not bad in first position but it gets springy up the fretboard. I'm going to start with lowering the saddles and figuring out what size wrench I need for for truss rod.

This bass does have an EMG 3 band with sweep and volume/balance controls. They're a little scratchy and I think the knobs are tightened down a little too much as they don't feel the smoothest.

It seems pretty different tonally from my NG2 in the first few minutes plugged in. It seems weird having a blend control vs rotary, even after just having the NG2 for a short time.
Click to expand...
Please no, wait, don't touch the saddles yet. You need to tighten the truss rod by at least a half turn, maybe even a turn or more. Tighten the truss rod until the action looks good below the 6th or 7th fret. Then start looking at the saddles.
Do you know how to check the relief? Tons of information on TB as well as great YouTube videos explained this process. Make sure you learn it from someone qualified. I believe Sheldon even did some videos on it, but I don't have the links.
As far as the knobs go, get the correct size Allen wrench, loosen the set screws, place a business card under the knob, then tighten up the set screw with the knob resting on the business card, then remove the business card. Problem solved.
 
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#34,663
xnewyorka said:
Please no, wait, don't touch the saddles yet. You need to tighten the truss rod by at least a half tuen, maybe even a turn or more. Tighten the truss rod until the action looks good below the 6th or 7th fret. Then start looking at the saddles.
Do you know how to check the relief? Tons of information on TB as well as great YouTube videos explained this process. Make sure you learn it from someone qualified. I believe Sheldon even did some videos on it, but I don't have the links.
As far as the knobs go, get the correct size Allen wrench, loosen the set screws, place a business card under the knob, then tighten up the set screw with the knob resting on the business card, then remove the business card. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
 
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#34,664
I lowered the B saddle and it feels a bit better. I think I see why it seems so high near the end of the fretboard... Take a look at the A and E string saddles.
20200304_193900.jpg


I wonder if someone with a mega heavy right hand owned this bass.
 
#34,665
seedokebass said:
I do :)

The B string saddle was up pretty high. The rest were low as they'd go. There's too much relief at the moment so I'm going make some small adjustments and give it some time to settle.
Click to expand...
Yes, after shipping you should wait at least 24 to 36 hours before putting too much credence into the truss rod setting.

When you receive a bass with improper settings like that, you immediately need to realize that somebody who did not know what they were doing was messing with it, so you do have to at least rough in the saddles to be approximately in the right zone. They should be set so that the curvature of the string heights is following the radius of the fingerboard. and you can start them all out approximately in the middle of their range, or wherever they need to be applying common sense, but until you get the truss rod set properly, you really don't need to spend a lot of time on the saddles other than making sure that they are all good relative to each other and relative to the fingerboard radius.
Sounds like you are on the right track now, have a little patience, and 48 hours from now you will have yourself a completely different instrument, one that you will be very delighted with, I'm pretty sure.
In fact, it may make others Green with envy. :-)
 
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#34,666
seedokebass said:
The Combustion showed up today!

View attachment 3731751

The green is quite a bit different in person than the pictures on Reverb, but like it quite a bit. Everything seems to be in order so far aside from the high action:
View attachment 3731754

It's not bad in first position but it gets springy up the fretboard. I'm going to start with lowering the saddles and figuring out what size wrench I need for for truss rod.

This bass does have an EMG 3 band with sweep and volume/balance controls. They're a little scratchy and I think the knobs are tightened down a little too much as they don't feel the smoothest.

It seems pretty different tonally from my NG2 in the first few minutes plugged in. It seems weird having a blend control vs rotary, even after just having the NG2 for a short time.
Click to expand...


Don’t quote me on it but in recent did it imo I want to say the truss rod wrench was 9/64th. It’s not too far back in this forum..... or maybe time flies... maybe it was a Canadian model......

nevermind. Carry on.
 
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#34,668
seedokebass said:
I lowered the B saddle and it feels a bit better. I think I see why it seems so high near the end of the fretboard... Take a look at the A and E string saddles.
View attachment 3731829

I wonder if someone with a mega heavy right hand owned this bass.
Click to expand...


Those shims under the bridge pieces came factory. As the bass has aged, if necessary, I do believe it is ok to remove them if required.
 
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#34,669
seedokebass said:
I lowered the B saddle and it feels a bit better. I think I see why it seems so high near the end of the fretboard... Take a look at the A and E string saddles.
View attachment 3731829

I wonder if someone with a mega heavy right hand owned this bass.
Click to expand...

I’d also speculate that the preamp is aftermarket. Can we see a pic of the inside of the control cavity.

I’m not to knowledgeable about the older combustion’s but I don’t believe they ever came with stacking pots on any preamp?

please correct me if I’m wrong anyone
 
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#34,670
I saw a post mentioning 9/64th but it was too big. 1/4" fits just fine which surprised me, I figured it'd be metric. I actually started with metric but nothing fit.

So the aluminum spacers were factory? I never would have guessed, it feels like it raises the strings way too much! I don't need super low action but that was too high for anyone IMO.

Gut shot is coming.
 
#34,675
seedokebass said:
Gut shot for you @AB Nate
View attachment 3731901
Click to expand...
Looks clean enough so that’s a positive.

here is what’s the bridge on my old combustion. The only shim I have on is under the B. I took 1 or 2 out previously.
They were only installed as needed from the shop if I understand correctly. Not every bass will have then and then not under the same strings either.

4621C662-9835-4BAA-8DFF-CFB1B804C671.jpeg
 
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#34,677
AB Nate said:
Looks clean enough so that’s a positive.

here is what’s the bridge on my old combustion. The only shim I have on is under the B. I took 1 or 2 out previously.
They were only installed as needed from the shop if I understand correctly. Not every bass will have then and then not under the same strings either.

View attachment 3732118
Click to expand...

Were your shims radiused like that or did you do it yourself? Mine were a little less "refined"
20200304_195254.jpg
 
#34,679
Charlzm said:
I'm disappointed that my Combustion (when it arrives next month) will not have a "3 pickups on" setting. I never solo pickups, so I am thinking rewiring will be in order.

Instead of:

  1. Bridge
  2. Bridge/middle series
  3. Bridge/neck parallel
  4. Neck
How about:

  1. All on (parallel)
  2. unchanged
  3. unchanged
  4. All on (bridge middle parallel, neck) - kind of like a MM with an extra p/u?
Just a thought. I'm sure someone more knowledgable will come along any second and explain why this won't work. :)
Click to expand...

You can't rewire the circuit board on the rotaty switch, but you can buy an empty rotary switch and build the 6 way that i've posted schematics for a couple of times.

B>
 
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#34,680
seedokebass said:
Were your shims radiused like that or did you do it yourself? Mine were a little less "refined"
View attachment 3732210
Click to expand...


I just had to double check, oddly enough, only the B string one is rounded on the back. The rest look identical to yours, and,... there is a few more under those bridge pieces. Not just the B but the B was the only one I could see last night with my half arsed quick peek. It’s been a while since I did the set up on it.
 
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