Dingwall Owners Club

[lucas303]

Wouldn’t it just be easier to swap out your neck pick up with the new P tone?

I don’t believe your gonna be lacking or missing much that will give you 2 incredibly different sounds having compared the P tone with an FD3 in a previous Z2 I had. The P tone is different but not night and day different IMO.

I hadn't considered that. I was thinking only of adding to what's already there, rather than swapping out one of the existing pickups. I'll give this some thought.

 

[IronSpatula]

Or drill a hole for a separate output jack like Billy Sheehan. (I'm definitely not going to do that thou gh.)

Just to be clear, you don’t have to physically remove the preamp from the bass for your plan to work. It just won’t get power when a TRS cable is inserted, but the bass will likely still work in passive mode. And your P-tone, being in an independent circuit, would be passive anyway.

 

[AB Nate]

I hadn't considered that. I was thinking only of adding to what's already there, rather than swapping out one of the existing pickups. I'll give this some thought.

It’s an option. Of course customization is fun and you’d get points for originality but I think and correct me if I’m wrong, you could do the signal splitting to different effects down stream of the bass but using the same pick up setting.

Either that or get some addition components (3x pickguard, perhaps a 3x switch as well) and go that route. It’s really not much more work then what your talking about if you already are opening up the control cavity....

Just thoughts.

 

[VolverseLoco]

Wouldn’t it just be easier to swap out your neck pick up with the new P tone?

I don’t believe your gonna be lacking or missing much that will give you 2 incredibly different sounds having compared the P tone with an FD3 in a previous Z2 I had. The P tone is different but not night and day different IMO.

See, that's the way I feel about this whole active/passive and 'dark glass' tone capsule thing versus the regular tone capsule. There is no big difference in all of this, nothing you cant do elsewhere in your signal chain with EQ/parametric EQ adjustments.

 

[lucas303]

Just to be clear, you don’t have to physically remove the preamp from the bass for your plan to work. It just won’t get power when a TRS cable is inserted, but the bass will likely still work in passive mode. And your P-tone, being in an independent circuit, would be passive anyway.

So let's say I disconnect the wire that connects the preamp to the ring...I'll still have the use of the passive tone knob and the pickup switching knob, right? It would also be a super easy thing to undo...just solder that one wire back to the ring...?

 

[AB Nate]

See, that's the way I feel about this whole active/passive and 'dark glass' tone capsule thing versus the regular tone capsule. There is no big difference in all of this, nothing you cant do elsewhere in your signal chain with EQ/parametric EQ adjustments.

It’s more about the application in many cases. For recording, I’ve come around to the mindset a passive signal in is perhaps my preferred method now where as live jam situation it’s nice have versatility at your fingertips.
That said the DGTC flavour is somewhat unique and adds its own character where as the EMG in combustion’s is quite uncolored(IMO) but offers EQ adjustment on the fly.

that said a tone knob on a P bass and many players are satisfied with that alone. I’m warming to it!!

 

[IronSpatula]

So let's say I disconnect the wire that connects the preamp to the ring...I'll still have the use of the passive tone knob and the pickup switching knob, right? It would also be a super easy thing to undo...just solder that one wire back to the ring...?

Everything that works without batteries in the bass should work when you disconnect the power lead. That would be an easy way to check. And yes, disconnecting that one wire would be easily reversible.

There’s no passive tone in a stock NG by the way.

 

[IronSpatula]

See, that's the way I feel about this whole active/passive and 'dark glass' tone capsule thing versus the regular tone capsule. There is no big difference in all of this, nothing you cant do elsewhere in your signal chain with EQ/parametric EQ adjustments.

I agree. A lot of guys seem to think the DGTC is somehow more than an EQ, but I’m not hearing it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good sounding preamp and if you want those EQ controls right there on the bass, that’s totally valid. But the bass sounds like the same bass in passive mode.

 

[EMoneySC2]

I agree. A lot of guys seem to think the DGTC is somehow more than an EQ, but I’m not hearing it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good sounding preamp and if you want those EQ controls right there on the bass, that’s totally valid. But the bass sounds like the same bass in passive mode.

I always felt like the Darkglass preamp added some extra bite to the sound of my NG-2, even with everything at noon. I never took the time to figure out what I was perceiving, but it always felt like it added something.

 

[BurningSkies]

Since in passive mode the preamp is effectively out of the circuit, I don't see what you're gaining by not just getting a P-Tone and a 3X switch and running it 'bridge only' passive.

 

[lucas303]

Since in passive mode the preamp is effectively out of the circuit, O don't see what you're gaining by not just getting a P-Tone and a 3X switch and running it 'bridge only' passive.

I apologize for being dense but I'm not entirely following what you're suggesting.

 

[BurningSkies]

I apologize for being dense but I'm not entirely following what you're suggesting.

There are two different switches available for use with 3-pickup dingwall models. Your NG2 has a standard 2X switch and there's either a D-Bird or the 3X. The 3X allows you to use 'neck only' and 'Bridge only' options. Hardly any soldering, given the switches are screw-plate not soldered pickup connections. Want to get fancy about it? Keep your Darkglass, stack the two mids, then use the extra hole for a vintage tone roll off that would work in passive mode (or active mode for that matter.

 

[lucas303]

There are two different switches available for use with 3-pickup dingwall models. Your NG2 has a standard 2X switch and there's either a D-Bird or the 3X. The 3X allows you to use 'neck only' and 'Bridge only' options. Hardly any soldering, given the switches are screw-plate not soldered pickup connections. Want to get fancy about it? Keep your Darkglass, stack the two mids, then use the extra hole for a vintage tone roll off that would work in passive mode (or active mode for that matter.

Thanks for the explanation. Part of the appeal of adding the third pickup for me, though, is running it on its own channel via TRS cable.

 

[BurningSkies]

Thanks for the explanation. Part of the appeal of adding the third pickup for me, though, is running it on its own channel via TRS cable.

There's pluses and minuses to that. You'll either have to do body work, remove the preamp, or reconfigure the control set so that you have a second output that's where one of the knobs once was. You also lose a lot of tonal ground for not being able to do any of the pickup blending. Also, on the back side of things, there's a lot of ways to split, crossover and re-eq your signal once it leaves the bass, rather than having to have to different signal paths from the bass.

 

[VolverseLoco]

I always felt like the Darkglass preamp added some extra bite to the sound of my NG-2, even with everything at noon. I never took the time to figure out what I was perceiving, but it always felt like it added something.

I believe you, its most likely emphasizing a certain frequency and the width of that frequency, translation = bite. I found a way to accomplish that same thing with my parametric EQ pedal without the DGTC as I don't have it and wasn't going to buy it, but you have it, so use it..enjoy it!

Thanks for the explanation. Part of the appeal of adding the third pickup for me, though, is running it on its own channel via TRS cable.

Without drilling any new holes, and I think you want to keep your active circuit intact, you could probably get a DoublePoleDoubleThrow switch to replace the active/passive switch, so that when you switch to active it would then engage the battery as well, but your have to remember to turn it off when not using it. Then you could free up your jack receptacle and run your 3rd pickup right out that jack using the ring like you want.

 

[lucas303]

Without drilling any new holes, and I think you want to keep your active circuit intact, you could probably get a DoublePoleDoubleThrow switch to replace the active/passive switch, so that when you switch to active it would then engage the battery as well, but your have to remember to turn it off when not using it. Then you could free up your jack receptacle and run your 3rd pickup right out that jack using the ring like you want.

I'm going to switch to passive and play that way for a few days to see if I can live with passive-only. If I can, then I don't need to worry about trying to keep the preamp connected if I add the third pickup. (I almost never use the tone controls on the preamp anyway...99.9% of the time they're just set flat and left that way.) That's assuming that I can simply disconnect the wire that goes to the ring part of the output jack. I'll open the control cavity tonight and take a look, but I'm obviously not an expert on the electronics side of things.

 

[VolverseLoco]

I'm going to switch to passive and play that way for a few days to see if I can live with passive-only. If I can, then I don't need to worry about trying to keep the preamp connected if I add the third pickup. (I almost never use the tone controls on the preamp anyway...99.9% of the time they're just set flat and left that way.) That's assuming that I can simply disconnect the wire that goes to the ring part of the output jack. I'll open the control cavity tonight and take a look, but I'm obviously not an expert on the electronics side of things.

I think you can live well without active. Just turn the volume up somewhere else to make up for the lower passive volume and make EQ adjustments somewhere else when in passive only mode that you would have made by turning the 3 tone knobs on the bass. When will you be starting construction? lol..

 

[spiritbass]

I prefer the active tone on my NG-2 to the passive. There is a noticeable difference to my ear. I'll admit that I'm an 'active guy'. I prefer a brighter tonal palette than most and always run with the preamp on. I run my Glock two-band preamps flat, but I actually use the DGTC for tone shaping, especially to cut bass, which opens up the tone very nicely. I find all three eq points useful.

 

[singlemalt]

On the two Super P Dingwalls I’ve owned with preamps, with both the glock and Aguilar, I rarely engaged the preamp. And then mostly by accident.

I much preferred the passive mode.

The P tone pup, on the other hand, I rated as a “must have” option. If there was one available for my Dingwall, I’d install it.

If a P tone wasn’t an option, I’d usually rewire to series to move in the direction of the P tone. Bridge pups usually get rewired to series for more volume, and often the two series pups combined in parallel was the sweet spot for me.

I never bothered with series/parallel switches because too many options isn’t good for me. The single pickup Super P is right up my alley, I have trouble enough choosing between the scooped or regular side on the tone control.

The only active bass I have left is the Cirrus, which has no passive option. The three band eq stays at the detents, and I might roll the blend either way.

I’m still figuring out the three pup setup on the Dbird, but I sure like the bridge pup.

 

[BurningSkies]

I think you can live well without active. Just turn the volume up somewhere else to make up for the lower passive volume and make EQ adjustments somewhere else when in passive only mode that you would have made by turning the 3 tone knobs on the bass. When will you be starting construction? lol..

It's not really about volume. In fact, Dingwall preamps are set to be the same level whether active or passive. Each preamp sounds different, even flat, and then having EQ available at the bass can be a real bonus, when you're on stage and don't want to visit your amp every time you want to change the EQ.