Dingwall Owners Club

[BurningSkies]

I often struggle to understand not taking the best instrument one has to shows. My Prima Artist is (and has been for a few years) THE bass I pick up when I'm heading out to a show, unless I need 6 string, or need 3x pickup bass. I bought the basses to play, and, the P.A. plays (and most often sounds) the absolute best... I can't imagine leaving it at home and taking something out that I'll get less enjoyment from.

I understand this perspective...then stopped understanding it. When most of ours shows were within 2 hours drive and not as plentiful, I took the Rastaburst with me. For many years it was my ONLY live bass. And all was good. We played a lot of rooms but knew all the people at the clubs, engineers, most of the fans, etc. It was 'safe'.

...then we were out longer and further and playing a whole lot of unknown rooms with people we'd never met. Both bands and club/festival/stage crew and fans were complete strangers. Often at a festival we'd have to load at a van-load point and some production people would be out of sight driving our gear to the stage. Or on the occasion of 'eating out' it was untenable to bring our instruments with us, or any other number of issues. Also the more we played, both tiny & large stages, the chance of an instrument becoming damaged grew exponentially. Beyond that, even with travel in a van with hard case there's the rigors of the road to consider...accidents do happen. And while we always made a point to grab our instruments at every dive motel or 'friends couch' place we stayed...there are times when the van is packed and we can't be right there. These could happen in small no-name towns or in places like NYC, Boston, DC, etc.

Once we ramped up, I also made the move to insure with musicians' insurance my gear. I had to get a list together off all my road stuff, serial numbers and replacement values. I emailed Sheldon to find out what the replacement on the Rastaburst was...and the answer was 'well...we don't even do a bunch of those options and features anymore, but probably $12,000-14,000." This was a handful of years ago now (2017)...so add to that value now.

...THAT is the point that I moved to get a specific 'road' bass. Because not only the risk of damage & theft to a bass that I'm pretty emotionally attached to, but the sheer value and lack of actuall replaceability. There literally IS no other Rastaburst.

The same conversation that started with the value of the Rastaburst turned into a "should I buy an Afterburner or an Combustion/NG." Sheldon thought I'd get along with an EnnGee Just fine, and I really have.

It really only makes sense to me if the bass being left at home is super rare (like Bill’s Rastaburst) or you’re playing some place really sketchy.

...and you really can't live with your bass on your back ALL the time. It doesn't even have to be a dive bar. Festival settings are just as bad or worse, with easy backstage access and way too many people drifting around.

Way back when I first started road work in the early 1990's I learned...about my second gig in NYC, my guitarist's Kramer was stolen from a secure backstage gear cage in a well known name venue.

 

[VolverseLoco]

Sometimes time works to make you think about things. I am trying to save myself from hacking up my 4 string Combustion to put the rectangle EMG's in it (EMG40-JCS). So this is whats really in the 40JCS, and that is a single one of these pickups (EMG JCS). So I was wondering, can I buy 2 empty Dingwall round edge pickup shells and put one of these in each of the shells? I would naturally grind off the square corners and screw mounting holes off these EMG's jazz ones. Has anyone known anyone who has made this work?

 

[J Posega]

Sometimes time works to make you think about things. I am trying to save myself from hacking up my 4 string Combustion to put the rectangle EMG's in it (EMG40-JCS). So this is whats really in the 40JCS, and that is a single one of these pickups (EMG JCS). So I was wondering, can I buy 2 empty Dingwall round edge pickup shells and put one of these in each of the shells? I would naturally grind off the square corners and screw mounting holes off these EMG's jazz ones. Has anyone known anyone who has made this work?

View attachment 4280886

It's probably possible. I doubt anyone has done it. You could measure the routes and see if the pickups fit without routing, and then have a pickguard made. Or a set of pickup rings. Or 3D print some pickup shells.

 

[AB Nate]

Sometimes time works to make you think about things. I am trying to save myself from hacking up my 4 string Combustion to put the rectangle EMG's in it (EMG40-JCS). So this is whats really in the 40JCS, and that is a single one of these pickups (EMG JCS). So I was wondering, can I buy 2 empty Dingwall round edge pickup shells and put one of these in each of the shells? I would naturally grind off the square corners and screw mounting holes off these EMG's jazz ones. Has anyone known anyone who has made this work?

View attachment 4280886

others have been able to purchase the rounded shells. With some careful mutilation you could probably make it work. Lol. Even cut rectangles out of the top of the new shells and just epoxy the pick ups to the rounded shells insides. With some finesse it may look kinda cool.
Have you confirmed they will cover the angles spacing?

 

[BurningSkies]

others have been able to purchase the rounded shells. With some careful mutilation you could probably make it work. Lol. Even cut rectangles out of the top of the new shells and just epoxy the pick ups to the rounded shells insides. With some finesse it may look kinda cool.
Have you confirmed they will cover the angles spacing?

Break out the magnetic film for testing.

 

[AmazingMumford]

Way back when I first started road work in the early 1990's I learned...about my second gig in NYC, my guitarist's Kramer was stolen from a secure backstage gear cage in a well known name venue.

In the early 90's, my current lead guitarist's favorite guitar somehow fell out of the band van on Mass Ave. (a major four-lane road) in Boston/Cambridge. Apparently, mistakes were made...by others.

On arriving home to unpack, the guitar's absence was discovered, and there was an emergency trip to retrace the route. Fortunately, it was the middle of the night, so traffic was light, and they soon came upon the intact guitar case, apparently unscathed, lying in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, when they opened the case, they found that the neck had been splintered into "hundreds" of pieces. Accidents happen.

Incidentally, he still has the guitar, although the neck is now more glue than wood, he's hundreds of dollars poorer, and he only plays beater guitars at our gigs.

No Dingwalls were injured in the making of this post.

 

[BurningSkies]

In the early 90's, my current lead guitarist's favorite guitar somehow fell out of the band van on Mass Ave. (a major four-lane road) in Boston/Cambridge. Apparently, mistakes were made...by others.

On arriving home to unpack, the guitar's absence was discovered, and there was an emergency trip to retrace the route. Fortunately, it was the middle of the night, so traffic was light, and they soon came upon the intact guitar case, apparently unscathed, lying in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, when they opened the case, they found that the neck had been splintered into "hundreds" of pieces. Accidents happen.

Incidentally, he still has the guitar, although the neck is now more glue than wood, he's hundreds of dollars poorer, and he only plays beater guitars at our gigs.

No Dingwalls were injured in the making of this post.

I've made many a trip down Mass Ave...Grew up on the North Shore spent a lot of time in and out of Boston & Cambridge and that whole stretch of colleges and universities. Definitely don't want to leave your instrument laying out there...

 

[AB Nate]

In the early 90's, my current lead guitarist's favorite guitar somehow fell out of the band van on Mass Ave. (a major four-lane road) in Boston/Cambridge. Apparently, mistakes were made...by others.

On arriving home to unpack, the guitar's absence was discovered, and there was an emergency trip to retrace the route. Fortunately, it was the middle of the night, so traffic was light, and they soon came upon the intact guitar case, apparently unscathed, lying in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, when they opened the case, they found that the neck had been splintered into "hundreds" of pieces. Accidents happen.

Incidentally, he still has the guitar, although the neck is now more glue than wood, he's hundreds of dollars poorer, and he only plays beater guitars at our gigs.

No Dingwalls were injured in the making of this post.

Sounds like it got left on the top of the van!!!

 

[AB Nate]

Break out the magnetic film for testing.

View attachment 4280995

This is cool. What exactly is that?and where from?

 

[VolverseLoco]

others have been able to purchase the rounded shells. With some careful mutilation you could probably make it work. Lol. Even cut rectangles out of the top of the new shells and just epoxy the pick ups to the rounded shells insides. With some finesse it may look kinda cool.
Have you confirmed they will cover the angles spacing?

That is a neat use of science with the magnetic film! So this is whats supposed to be in the EMG35-JCS that I have already and want this exact pickup in my Dingwall. The 35 is a 4 string size and the 40 in this picture is the 5 string size but same guts. Its a single bar really. So thats whats in the Jazz Bass version that I want to grind down and put in the Dingwall pickup shells. I would think it should be fine and cover all the strings when mounted at an angle. This would be the 5 string EMG that I would make fit cause the Dingwall shells are of the same length.

 

[lowphatbass]

others have been able to purchase the rounded shells. With some careful mutilation you could probably make it work. Lol. Even cut rectangles out of the top of the new shells and just epoxy the pick ups to the rounded shells insides. With some finesse it may look kinda cool.
Have you confirmed they will cover the angles spacing?

“Careful Mutilation”

 

[BurningSkies]

This is cool. What exactly is that?and where from?

It's magnetic viewing film...it allows you to see magnetic fields visually. Available in a bunch of places, like Amazon, etc.

I didn't take this picture, it was sent to me by someone in reference to a different fanned bass that's having issues with the pickups and their magnetic field in relation to the strings (notably, being too short to capture the motion of all the strings evenly), and I think the person who did do the experiment wanted to stay out of any of the back and forth about it.

 

[NOLA Bass]

I take all my basses to gigs. I don’t buy anything to collect. I don’t worry about scratches or dings. However, I gig mostly locally. If touring or in certain situations, I totally get having something more easily replaceable like an NG2 or Combustion.

 

[Bad_tattoo]

So, I rewired my combustion pups into parallel. What joy! now I can use the same amp settings as with my other basses
I'm completely on board with the 'more output is more better' philosophy, but I'm starting to wonder why combustions are set up in series by default. For me, the b+m series setting especially was completely uncontrollable before, now it's much easier to tame and switching from other pickup positions isn't quite as drastic. I don't have to halve my input gain when switching from other basses, either.

I'm hearing series connection to be 'fatter midrange + more output', but to my ears dingwalls got plenty of both already? Is there another reason they come wired like that?

Obviously having the 3x s/p miniswitches is king, and they're still getting modded on there eventually

 

[Ryno1330]

So, I rewired my combustion pups into parallel. What joy! now I can use the same amp settings as with my other basses
I'm completely on board with the 'more output is more better' philosophy, but I'm starting to wonder why combustions are set up in series by default. For me, the b+m series setting especially was completely uncontrollable before, now it's much easier to tame and switching from other pickup positions isn't quite as drastic. I don't have to halve my input gain when switching from other basses, either.

I'm hearing series connection to be 'fatter midrange + more output', but to my ears dingwalls got plenty of both already? Is there another reason they come wired like that?

Obviously having the 3x s/p miniswitches is king, and they're still getting modded on there eventually

I use all the settings (parallel and series) for different things. I get what you're saying about the B+M in series being "big" and I don't use it at home playing alone as much but man in a live setting it cuts through both the low and high spectrum so well. Live I pretty much use it or the middle or neck solo as the best fit for our mixes.

 

[BurningSkies]

So, I rewired my combustion pups into parallel. What joy! now I can use the same amp settings as with my other basses
I'm completely on board with the 'more output is more better' philosophy, but I'm starting to wonder why combustions are set up in series by default. For me, the b+m series setting especially was completely uncontrollable before, now it's much easier to tame and switching from other pickup positions isn't quite as drastic. I don't have to halve my input gain when switching from other basses, either.

I'm hearing series connection to be 'fatter midrange + more output', but to my ears dingwalls got plenty of both already? Is there another reason they come wired like that?

Obviously having the 3x s/p miniswitches is king, and they're still getting modded on there eventually

I think that part of the situation was that originally the pickups DID come default wired in parallel...then about 2006-2007 guys started cracking theirs open to access the coils to 'mod' them and the overall feedback was that everyone loved the coils in series sound, so that became a default for what they did. I had a pre-4L Afterburner that sounded (and I'm sure still sounds) great.

Both sounds are good, but different. The series coils are more modern low mid punch, closer allied to a P-bass and the parallel are a little more wide with a bit of scoop.

Overall output doesn't mean much to me. I use a 2500w RMS amplifier and I also have a pedalboard with multiple gain stages available, I lower my pickups on all my Dingwalls and also don't have my volume knob turned up all the way.

On my basses that don't have toggles I default to series, but my Fretless might actually benefit from parallel...but with so much wiring on board (2 preamps, custom layout, and 6x piezo saddle wiring) I just don't want to go in and mess with it.

 

[Sheldon D.]

So, I rewired my combustion pups into parallel. What joy! now I can use the same amp settings as with my other basses
I'm completely on board with the 'more output is more better' philosophy, but I'm starting to wonder why combustions are set up in series by default. For me, the b+m series setting especially was completely uncontrollable before, now it's much easier to tame and switching from other pickup positions isn't quite as drastic. I don't have to halve my input gain when switching from other basses, either.

I'm hearing series connection to be 'fatter midrange + more output', but to my ears dingwalls got plenty of both already? Is there another reason they come wired like that?

Obviously having the 3x s/p miniswitches is king, and they're still getting modded on there eventually

The originals were all wired with coils in parallel. We evolved to the way things are now due to customer comments and needs.

 

[VolverseLoco]

others have been able to purchase the rounded shells. With some careful mutilation you could probably make it work. Lol. Even cut rectangles out of the top of the new shells and just epoxy the pick ups to the rounded shells insides. With some finesse it may look kinda cool.
Have you confirmed they will cover the angles spacing?

Do you/anyone know where have others been able to purchase the rounded shells? I wrote Dingwall and they replied they don't sell the shells. I did get the exact measurements back from EMG and I can EASILY fit their single coil Jazz JCS pickup into the Dingwall shell with some careful grinding/dremil mutalations, if only I knew where to buy the shells. This would solve the whole shootin match for me and not require complete and total chance of devastaion should I plunge my router in her.

 

[IronSpatula]

Do you/anyone know where have others been able to purchase the rounded shells? I wrote Dingwall and they replied they don't sell the shells. I did get the exact measurements back from EMG and I can EASILY fit their single coil Jazz JCS pickup into the Dingwall shell with some careful grinding/dremil mutalations, if only I knew where to buy the shells. This would solve the whole shootin match for me and not require complete and total chance of devastaion should I plunge my router in her.

Hasn’t Nordstrand made pickups for Dingwalls using those shells? I could swear someone on here put big splits or big singles in a recent Dingwall.

 

[gidbass]

Hasn’t Nordstrand made pickups for Dingwalls using those shells? I could swear someone on here put big splits or big singles in a recent Dingwall.

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For Sale - Nordstrand Big Split for Dingwall 5 string