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Dingwall Owners Club

#40,201
DingwallSuperPJsmall.jpg
Super J with close up of headstock.jpg


this one?

Smallmouth_Bass said:
I remember that one. I am not sure that red painted carve it is a carve out. It might be painted or filled in wood. I seem to remember there was at least one SuperJ 4-string (might have been a P/J) with a natural burl top that had a painted scoop or some sort of figured wood or something.
Click to expand...
 
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#40,202
BurningSkies said:
Yeah...questionable source there. ;)

The Voodoo was introduced at NAMM 1993 (Winter NAMM so, January).

This guy was apparently there as a witness to the whole sordid affair:

"The first complete bass I built was the prototype for the original Voodoo Bass that evolved into our current Z-series. That was completed at 7:30 AM on January 13th 1993."

Bass Musician Magazine’s Year of the Luthier – Sheldon Dingwall

I know that the first Production voodoo basses made it to customers before the end of 1993.
Fernand Bos purchased his late 1993.
Click to expand...
Interestingly that same dude recalls differently elsewhere:
There he says that their first show was NAMM 1994 :)
(yeah, still slowly working along on the Dingwall Club Wiki...)
 
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#40,203
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#40,204
BurningSkies said:
Shows you how that era's information really is all over the place.
https://dingwallguitars.com/images/PDF/Dingwall-Z3-Review-Issue2.pdf

Refers to the first fanned fret bass coming along in 1993. :)
Click to expand...
But that makes sense. You are not going to have a booth at the 1994 NAMM if you haven't started building basses the year before, right? The difference I was pointing out was about which year was the first NAMM that Dingwall exhibited at :)
In the wiki I now state that they likely started in 93.
 
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#40,205
dirkhh said:
But that makes sense. You are not going to have a booth at the 1994 NAMM if you haven't started building basses the year before, right? The difference I was pointing out was about which year was the first NAMM that Dingwall exhibited at :)
In the wiki I now state that they likely started in 93.
Click to expand...

From the website:
"Where we got involved…
was back in 1992. I was looking to improve the B string on 5 string basses. I was approaching it from the piano point of view where by scale length controls the harmonic content of the string and is very influential on the tone of the piano. When I saw the first photo of a Novak guitar in guitar player magazine I was blown away and realised this was the perfect application for a 5-string bass to achieve the balance of harmonics on every string and an even tension on every string. Within two months of that I ran into Ralph at a luthier’s convention in South Dakota. We became quick friends and decided on the spot that I would pursue the bass end of things and he would pursue the guitar end of things. And on a handshake, we went about our ways. I went home and developed the original Voodoo bass and took the first sample to NAMM in 1993. From that point on we went into production and have been building fan fret bass guitars ever since. "

Which would dovetail with some of the first basses sold being late 1993.
 
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#40,206
BurningSkies said:
From the website:
"Where we got involved…
was back in 1992. I was looking to improve the B string on 5 string basses. I was approaching it from the piano point of view where by scale length controls the harmonic content of the string and is very influential on the tone of the piano. When I saw the first photo of a Novak guitar in guitar player magazine I was blown away and realised this was the perfect application for a 5-string bass to achieve the balance of harmonics on every string and an even tension on every string. Within two months of that I ran into Ralph at a luthier’s convention in South Dakota. We became quick friends and decided on the spot that I would pursue the bass end of things and he would pursue the guitar end of things. And on a handshake, we went about our ways. I went home and developed the original Voodoo bass and took the first sample to NAMM in 1993. From that point on we went into production and have been building fan fret bass guitars ever since. "

Which would dovetail with some of the first basses sold being late 1993.
Click to expand...
The more I read this, the more I see the difference between "took the first sample to NAMM" (maybe to show to others) vs "the very first tradeshow we did in 1994" (which implies being an exhibitor). Sadly, there are no archives to be found of exhibitors at the 93 and 94 shows...
But I think this all indicates that they started building fanfretted basses in 1993
 
#40,207
BurningSkies said:
From the website:
"Where we got involved…
was back in 1992. I was looking to improve the B string on 5 string basses. I was approaching it from the piano point of view where by scale length controls the harmonic content of the string and is very influential on the tone of the piano. When I saw the first photo of a Novak guitar in guitar player magazine I was blown away and realised this was the perfect application for a 5-string bass to achieve the balance of harmonics on every string and an even tension on every string. Within two months of that I ran into Ralph at a luthier’s convention in South Dakota. We became quick friends and decided on the spot that I would pursue the bass end of things and he would pursue the guitar end of things. And on a handshake, we went about our ways. I went home and developed the original Voodoo bass and took the first sample to NAMM in 1993. From that point on we went into production and have been building fan fret bass guitars ever since. "

Which would dovetail with some of the first basses sold being late 1993.
Click to expand...

dirkhh said:
The more I read this, the more I see the difference between "took the first sample to NAMM" (maybe to show to others) vs "the very first tradeshow we did in 1994" (which implies being an exhibitor). Sadly, there are no archives to be found of exhibitors at the 93 and 94 shows...
But I think this all indicates that they started building fanfretted basses in 1993
Click to expand...

perhaps 94 was just the official “we are dingwall and hear us roar” landmark
 
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#40,208
Doing a quick database search...Academia does have some benefits.

Bass Player Vol. 12, Issue 10 (Oct. 2001):
dirkhh said:
The more I read this, the more I see the difference between "took the first sample to NAMM" (maybe to show to others) vs "the very first tradeshow we did in 1994" (which implies being an exhibitor). Sadly, there are no archives to be found of exhibitors at the 93 and 94 shows...
But I think this all indicates that they started building fanfretted basses in 1993
Click to expand...

Currently digging through databases to see what I can turn up further...just for fun.


Bass Player Oct. 2001
Sheldon unveiled his new 5-string at the 1993 NAMM show. The first Voodoo had a red sassafras body, a three-piece maple neck with a pan ferro fingerboard, and Bartolini pickups. Although some bassists found the fanned-fret neck scary, many were won over by the instrument's commanding sound.

...also some funky local press from the 90's that's pretty fun to see...
 
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#40,216
Waltsdog said:
Nope, mine was not in the shipping room picture they posted today. It is a blue 5 string PJ the rest of the details will be revealed when it gets here :)
Click to expand...
Awesome. That green one is noice.... for a 4 string I mean. Lol. For some reason I had it in my head you were going 4

well since it’s a 5 string I can’t help but be a bit more excited to see it!
 
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