Dingwall Owners Club

[BurningSkies]

My Dingwall experience for shipping basses:

Two basses shipped boxed in gig bags came through just fine. The oldest style Dingwall Levy's bag and a Protec Contego.

One bass that was shipped in it's original SKB Freedom case as provided by Dingwall: damage to the case & scarring to the headstock 'tip' from being dropped hard on end while in shipping.

I've also shipped a few out over the years and done hard case (SKB ATA) where I packed the case inside to make sure shifting would not give any momentum for damage.

 

[ab2112]

The flip side of the coin is that, when the time is right, I'll get to pick one out again, and with so many beautiful Dingwalls starting to pop up, that's gonna be a lot of fun

 

[xnewyorka]

The flip side of the coin is that, when the time is right, I'll get to pick one out again, and with so many beautiful Dingwalls starting to pop up, that's gonna be a lot of fun

That's the right attitude -- when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
With that kind of attitude, you will go places!

 

[spector_boogie]

Officially BACK in the club... Nabbed the Ferrari Yellow ABI 5 in the Classifieds. Now all I need to do is send it to Sheldon & Co. and have a matching headstock painted on! First NBD in probably 10+ years, so looking forward to this monster.

 

[TolerancEJ]

I have had 3 shipping boxes get pretty well mangled up by FedEx lately, two of them looked like they had a forklift fork driven right through the box. Thanks to pure luck, all of the damage missed the areas of the boxes where the basses were. The third one was simply smashed, and the gig bag completely protected the instrument.

FedEx also damaged a non-Dingwall bass that was shipped in a hard case a few months ago. The case itself was cracked from a sharp impact. The bass was fine, but the $400 case needed to be replaced. I filed a claim, and they denied it saying that there was insufficient protection around the case. Luckily, the builder was kind enough to send a new case, which costs as much to ship empty as it does with a bass in it.
I guess as they are feeling the crunch from and increased shipping volume due to covid-19, they are getting more and more careless with packages. I continue to insure everything for full value and keep my fingers crossed. I've actually started thinking about even insuring things for more than full value just to tack on something additional for the pain and suffering that is sure to occur if they do actually damage something. If they do damage a Dingwall, it's not like I can just snap my fingers and get another one like it right away -- it will take months in most cases.

I ordered a bass from zZounds a few years ago, the box arrived with a broomstick-sized hole straight through the box. Luckily that was to the side of the neck and it didn't appear to connect with the bass.

 

[reddavid]

Officially BACK in the club... Nabbed the Ferrari Yellow ABI 5 in the Classifieds. Now all I need to do is send it to Sheldon & Co. and have a matching headstock painted on! First NBD in probably 10+ years, so looking forward to this monster.

Congrats! That looks like a great bass. I wouldn't touch that beautiful Wenge headstock...

 

[spector_boogie]

Congrats! That looks like a great bass. I wouldn't touch that beautiful Wenge headstock...

I had someone tell me that's what I should do, but I agree- the wenge in person is just stunning, having had one with a 'one piece' wenge neck before. Should be here Monday!

 

[whirledpeas]

I had someone tell me that's what I should do, but I agree- the wenge in person is just stunning, having had one with a 'one piece' wenge neck before. Should be here Monday!

Looks perfect to me. I wouldn’t change a thing!

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

I'm sorry to hear this. Can you send your serial number to [email protected] so that we can look into this?

Thanks.

I just did.
Thank you for caring !

In any case unless you can use the data to improve the production process or something, there is not much to look into, since the fix it's great and it gets played every week

 

[Digity]

Sheldon actually spoke to this issues a few pages back in this thread - apparently the costs were prohibitive and basses were still getting damaged anyway

Because they were in generic hard cases that didn’t perfectly fit the instrument. He says at the end of the post that the best method is a perfectly fit hard case. I understand it’s money, but I find it hard to believe if they were offered when purchasing a Dingwall that lots of people wouldn’t mind the slightly higher price. When you’re paying thousands already what’s another couple hundred.

 

[Selta]

Because they were in generic hard cases that didn’t perfectly fit the instrument. He says at the end of the post that the best method is a perfectly fit hard case. I understand it’s money, but I find it hard to believe if they were offered when purchasing a Dingwall that lots of people wouldn’t mind the slightly higher price. When you’re paying thousands already what’s another couple hundred.

"Another couple hundred" for a LOT of people is the difference between affording it (even on streched credit) or not. There's quite a vocal amount of people who complain about the "high" prices of Combustions/NGs already.

 

[Digity]

Congrats! That looks like a great bass. I wouldn't touch that beautiful Wenge headstock...

Agreed.

"Another couple hundred" for a LOT of people is the difference between affording it (even on streched credit) or not. There's quite a vocal amount of people who complain about the "high" prices of Combustions/NGs already.

Options are a good thing bud.

 

[Ryno1330]

I've been very fortunate to have about 25 instruments make it completely unscathed. My 2 Dingwalls were packed beautifully. I really feel for those that haven't been as fortunate.

As an aside my only issue was a completely original 1968 Fender Pro Reverb that the baffle and speakers fell out of (screws tore out of the baffle from impact) but it was a 50 year old OSB baffle and a lot of weight in those speakers moving during shipping.

 

[BurningSkies]

I actually negged the 'included' gig-bag with my NG3 since I have a hardshell I use on the road plus a few good/nice gigbags around. I think everyone (shop & retail outlet) were surprised. I'm cool with whatever will come with my Super-P this time around since it's a different beast, I think. But at some point, I don't need 973874937 different cases and such around my music room or in our storage. I generally travel with one bass and that one is in a HSC, the others stay at home on either my 5-space rack in the music room or on individual Hercules stands.

 

[Lowendtech]

I actually negged the 'included' gig-bag with my NG3 since I have a hardshell I use on the road plus a few good/nice gigbags around. I think everyone (shop & retail outlet) were surprised. I'm cool with whatever will come with my Super-P this time around since it's a different beast, I think. But at some point, I don't need 973874937 different cases and such around my music room or in our storage. I generally travel with one bass and that one is in a HSC, the others stay at home on either my 5-space rack in the music room or on individual Hercules stands.

The new Pro gig bags that come with the Canadian Basses are really nice. And comes with a Tick like attachable accessory bag.
Highly recommended.

 

[BurningSkies]

The new Pro gig bags that come with the Canadian Basses are really nice. And comes with a Tick like attachable accessory bag.
Highly recommended.

People may not realize how really basic the old 'Dingwall' Levy's gig bags were... I have and use one without problem, but my preference has been the Contego I have if I need to use a bag for anything more than local. Interested to see what they've got going now.

 

[Lowendtech]

People may not realize how really basic the old 'Dingwall' Levy's gig bags were... I have and use one without problem, but my preference has been the Contego I have if I need to use a bag for anything more than local. Interested to see what they've got going now.

Some pics for you.

 

[BurningSkies]

Some pics for you.

Nice one!

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

Yeah this new gigbag looks very nice.
I have two of the older model unfortunately and well .. it's a gigbag, nothing special to it really.

 

[Lowendtech]

Forgot a couple more. Nice handle and bag bumper guards. Not quite as cool as the solid rubber bumper on my Mono Vertigo but nice to have.