@5StringPocket
It is, I wish the color was darker but the tone and playability of this thing is so damn good. The Dbird custom had wenge as well and is super smooth.
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Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
It is, I wish the color was darker but the tone and playability of this thing is so damn good. The Dbird custom had wenge as well and is super smooth.
Hello all,
For those of you who own passive Dingwalls, can I solicit some of your opinions? A few passive Afterburner 5'ers with 2 and 3 pickups have popped over recent months, and I find myself GAS'ing for one, especially after having played a Combustion and NG3 in a store. I was impressed by the comfort of the neck, the strength of the low notes on the E and especially B strings, but I'm in no need of active electronics.
I've combed through a few hundred pages of this thread but there's not much talk of passives. (I wish TB had a slightly better search function).
Thank you!
For those of you who own passive Dingwalls, can I solicit some of your opinions? A few passive Afterburner 5'ers with 2 and 3 pickups have popped over recent months, and I find myself GAS'ing for one, especially after having played a Combustion and NG3 in a store. I was impressed by the comfort of the neck, the strength of the low notes on the E and especially B strings, but I'm in no need of active electronics.
I've combed through a few hundred pages of this thread but there's not much talk of passives. (I wish TB had a slightly better search function).
Thank you!
I had a Dbird with FDVs that was passive. Sounded great and did the things that passives do. If I had a choice from the factory I would want a 4band with passive tone control. I like to have all the controls.
I've got an ABZ5, D-Bird, and SJ5.
All passive.
Run, don't walk, and start hunting in earnest for an Afterburner!
I own a passive AB-1 - the world of boutique, forward-thinking design basses isn’t exactly full of examples with passive electronics - builders either want to finish the arc with an advanced active electronics suite or are maybe are afraid to admit that their instruments don’t sound all that great without electronic help.
A Dingwall passive bass is not like that. It’s a design that still sounds really good with a passive setup, not just “okay”. It’s a modern sound that won’t be mistaken for classic Fender, and it carries a clarity, presence, and depth that could easily fill in for what an active tone would bring to the table. It can all be also reigned in with the tone knob, S/P switches, pickup selection, and playing techniques to cover old-school territory.
Anyway, I can’t imagine that a player that prefers a passive setup would not be able to make a passive Dingwall work for them. It’ll always have a touch of modern smoothness and refined sound, but you can dial that to where you want it.
A Dingwall passive bass is not like that. It’s a design that still sounds really good with a passive setup, not just “okay”. It’s a modern sound that won’t be mistaken for classic Fender, and it carries a clarity, presence, and depth that could easily fill in for what an active tone would bring to the table. It can all be also reigned in with the tone knob, S/P switches, pickup selection, and playing techniques to cover old-school territory.
Anyway, I can’t imagine that a player that prefers a passive setup would not be able to make a passive Dingwall work for them. It’ll always have a touch of modern smoothness and refined sound, but you can dial that to where you want it.
Amen, brother. My four-string Super P is the 'essence' of bass for me. No electronic tone shaping is needed (I don't even have a tone control on it). My active Dingwalls have Glock pre's which I run flat. No boost or cut is necessary...
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I usually bypass the pre in my NG-3. Hoping to get a passive ABZ or AB1 eventually...
I’ve never played an active Dingwall live - I will when my build slot comes up and my Z gets built. I don’t really communicate with any Extreme Rock players, but the clean-tone Dingwall Z players I know that I have stage time with them don’t really use the active EQ that much. Just a dash of salt and pepper. It’s mentioned that the natural Dingwall sound is already dialed in and doesn’t need a big push to work well in the ensemble.
I vary my tone a lot thoughout a gig. for punchy big tones i go active, i get much better growly gritty tones out of a passive setting. No pedalboard, most places I play are just big enough for my feet and my belly. Im on those tone controls a lot.
Maiden voyage for the Z last night.
Damn...I need to buy a rug like that for my band
Thank you all. Definitely on the hunt for a 3 pup version (preferably with a loud, solid body color) now...
I play heavy music with a good deal of slapping thrown in.
The passive Z I just got is perfect.
Previous passive Dingwalls were great as well.
I've recently gone ampless without issue.
Saw that! GLWTS! It’s a gorgeous bass and looks like a player for sure!
Finally got around to wiring everything and it worked on the first try. Man, it's tough to strip those pickup wires, but other than that, all went smoothly. Now I have mismatched knobs, so it's not 100% complete, but it's functionally complete.
- Apr 15, 2010
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My ABZ5 and D-Roc5 standard are both passive. When I plug them in people say they are active and don’t believe me when I say the opposite. These basses are so damn well designed that their tone needs no tweaking.
Passive is the way to go imo. I’ve got a ABZ 4 with parallel/serial switches per pickup, super P 5 with bridge pickup with a parallel/serial pull knob for bridge pickup, and d-roc 4, all passive. I much prefer using the pickup selection/toggles to control the tone as it’s repeatable every time without having to try to find the exact same spot on active knobs. Unless I’m buying a used dingwall that is otherwise perfect but has a preamp, I don’t intend to get active electronics for any future dingwalls I get, and I also don’t intend to have preamps adds to any of my current ones.
I’ve had both the Aguilar and Glock preamps in Supers, and I ran them in passive mode. All the other Dingwalls have been passive. The current Super P has the hybrid tone control. The AB-1 and Dbird have straight up tone roll off controls.
I have fond memories of the BluEQube controls in my early AB’s. I really liked that one.
If I was to order a custom build, I’d skip the active electronics. But it would definitely have P tone pickups, and the hybrid tone control. I think the hybrid (1/2 tone roll off, 1/2 tone scoop) is pretty close to the BluEQube trick. I’d spend the savings from skipping the preamp in the paint shop and let the finishers show off their stuff.
The outlier in my bass stable is the Peavey Cirrus, and it is all active, all the time with the three band eq, and active VFL pickups, all powered by an 18 volt circuit. And those batteries really need to be fresh. It’s a retro modern sound, if that makes sense. Very active, fusion flavored. Fusion is retro now, right?
I have fond memories of the BluEQube controls in my early AB’s. I really liked that one.
If I was to order a custom build, I’d skip the active electronics. But it would definitely have P tone pickups, and the hybrid tone control. I think the hybrid (1/2 tone roll off, 1/2 tone scoop) is pretty close to the BluEQube trick. I’d spend the savings from skipping the preamp in the paint shop and let the finishers show off their stuff.
The outlier in my bass stable is the Peavey Cirrus, and it is all active, all the time with the three band eq, and active VFL pickups, all powered by an 18 volt circuit. And those batteries really need to be fresh. It’s a retro modern sound, if that makes sense. Very active, fusion flavored. Fusion is retro now, right?
100% my finding as well. I’ve been an active preamp tone sort of player for a very long time, but have warmed up to passive setups over the last several years. The passive Dingwall sound definitely has a full-range tonality that reminds the ear of an active electronics suite, but of course is not. This is especially evident on recordings.
I’ll be getting a Glockenklang preamp on my Z because Lee Sklar has them on his Dingwalls and definitely dials them in a bit. I asked him about this on his online clubhouse site. That said, I could easily imagine using little if any preamp at all given the experiences I’ve had so far.
