Dingwall Owners Club

[retroXvertigo]

So I'm 6 months post custom order (Z), and finalizing specs. I know what I want for woods. I've been playing 3-pickup Dingwalls for about 9 years. 98% of the time I play in the jazz configuration, i.e., neck and bridge pickups together. So I'm going with a pickups ala jazz bass. I will also probably go passive. I don't need a pickup selector other than a blend pot. Anyone play a 2-pickup Dingwall with a blend pot?

I've never played a Dingwall with a blend pot.

I have had an ABI with two pickups, neck and bridge. I actually really enjoyed the option of having the two pickups in series. It's a cool alternative to the scooped parallel sound.

 

[lotusland9663]

A question for the Dingwall brain trust.
I have a Z3-6 with FD3s and a DG pre. An ABII -6 with FD3s and a DG pre and a Combustion 3-6 with SFIIs and a Glock pre. They all sound great in their own way.
I have a bass player friend who is way more in to pedals and sound management than I am. He suggested I add a Sansamp Bass driver for even bigger/better sound.
I play mostly blues, R&B soul type music.
Anyone have any experience/suggestions with this pedal?

 

[DeltaPhoenix]

Anyone play a 2-pickup Dingwall with a blend pot?

My Super J(P) 4 has a blend pot but I am using an ACG/East preamp. It’s essential for this bass.

 

[DeltaPhoenix]

A question for the Dingwall brain trust.
I have a Z3-6 with FD3s and a DG pre. An ABII -6 with FD3s and a DG pre and a Combustion 3-6 with SFIIs and a Glock pre. They all sound great in their own way.
I have a bass player friend who is way more in to pedals and sound management than I am. He suggested I add a Sansamp Bass driver for even bigger/better sound.
I play mostly blues, R&B soul type music.
Anyone have any experience/suggestions with this pedal?

This is a big can of worms. There are all kinds of ways of sounding “bigger”. That Sansamp tends to sound Ampeg-ish, is that the tone you are after? There are newer/other similar type pedals that lean towards other types of tones and have different tone stacks (ex. fender type).

I like and use tube amps and I use pedals but most of them are for effects (octave, fuzz, modulation ,etc) rather than “tone shaping” except for 1 pedal - my Origin Effects Cali 76 compressor. I have rarely had a compressor on my board in the past 15 years; I didn’t want to mess with my dynamics was my thoughts. A good buddy who is into pedals too mentioned it and he called it the “Tone Fatener” and he wasn’t joking. I have it set pretty mild as far as compression goes; IDK what the magic is but OMG it works. I love how my amp and bass sound, with the Cali it sounds like normal but just better and bigger. It’s my only on-all-the-time pedal.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Six weeks ago I did not know the D-Roc standard T-bird series existed. Saw a 5-er for sale on TB. Ended up purchasing a new 5-er here in Canada. About 2 weeks ago I wandered into my local music store and lo and behold, there was a blue purple shift 4 string hanging on their wall. You don't see that everyday I thought about it for a couple of days then went back and brought the 4 string home. Very happy with both basses. Here is a pic of each. Lighting isn't great and ignore the walls. My son started a reno project but did not complete. haha

FYI - I sold one of my Rics and a small drum kit that financed the first purchase. Otherwise, I would be sitting with one Dingwall. At least that's how I reasoned buying 2 within 4 weeks of each other.

View attachment 5253172 View attachment 5253174

Dude!!! You got a lemmy 1/2 stack? How does that sound?

 

[BGroovy]

Any Dingwall owners also play Spectors?

I love the medium C neck profile on my Spector 5. Wondering which Dingwall models might be closest to a Spector neck shape. To me it seems somewhere between a Jazz and Precision. Thinner necks front to back cause hand fatigue for me on longer sessions

 

[Katoosie]

Any Dingwall owners also play Spectors?

I love the medium C neck profile on my Spector 5. Wondering which Dingwall models might be closest to a Spector neck shape. To me it seems somewhere between a Jazz and Precision. Thinner necks front to back cause hand fatigue for me on longer sessions

Had an euro 4 and a droc.
Droc neck was tiny compared to a more baseball bat style neck of the spector.

Had a Warwick thumb 6 string and that was rounder than my ABII 5.

You can see the AB 5 is slimmer than the euro 4 in the pics.

 

[Geddyfleaharris]

Ah! I forgot about Pyramid's custom orders. Please let me know -- I love Pyramid's tape wounds as well!



Where in Ontario? I didn't bother looking at Long & McQuade. Realized they can order the Combustion model which could fit my needs better. Thanks.

A place known as Bass North.

Bass North | Bass Guitar Gear & Accessories Shop | Canada

 

[Geddyfleaharris]

Dude!!! You got a lemmy 1/2 stack? How does that sound?

Great eye! It sounds old school, a bit dark and is LOUD. If a GK rig sounds modern, the Lemmy is the exact opposite of that. I bought it new from Musician's Friend back in 2012. I didn't get the matching 415 cab at the time. I kick myself now for not purchasing the full set up just for posterity. I used to use it at all gigs. Now I only use it at bigger clubs and bigger stages. Plus, it is heavy for moving. I don't have a roadie. lol

 

[singlemalt]

A question for the Dingwall brain trust.
I have a Z3-6 with FD3s and a DG pre. An ABII -6 with FD3s and a DG pre and a Combustion 3-6 with SFIIs and a Glock pre. They all sound great in their own way.
I have a bass player friend who is way more in to pedals and sound management than I am. He suggested I add a Sansamp Bass driver for even bigger/better sound.
I play mostly blues, R&B soul type music.
Anyone have any experience/suggestions with this pedal?

I had the Sansamp bass driver, along with many other preamp pedals. All long gone.
Your guitar buddy has a habit, the expensive pedal habit. Just say no.

A compressor, on the other hand, could be a game changer. I’ve been through a number of compressors, (I had the habit, but I quit) and the Smoothie remains as my one and only stand alone pedal.

I do use multi fx units for amp modeling, spice effects, and other fun. Something like a Zoom B3n, used, will run around $125. Plenty to explore in these little boxes, including models of all the popular bass drive pedals, various compressors, amps, cabs, plus it’s a tuner, looper, and has beats.

I like the all in one, small package over the hassles of a pedal board. Go ahead, light me up!

 

[BGroovy]

I had the Sansamp bass driver, along with many other preamp pedals. All long gone.
Your guitar buddy has a habit, the expensive pedal habit. Just say no.

A compressor, on the other hand, could be a game changer. I’ve been through a number of compressors, (I had the habit, but I quit) and the Smoothie remains as my one and only stand alone pedal.

I do use multi fx units for amp modeling, spice effects, and other fun. Something like a Zoom B3n, used, will run around $125. Plenty to explore in these little boxes, including models of all the popular bass drive pedals, various compressors, amps, cabs, plus it’s a tuner, looper, and has beats.

I like the all in one, small package over the hassles of a pedal board. Go ahead, light me up!

Agreed. The only pedal I feel like I need is a compressor (currently the Empress, works the best with my 5 string active basses). I have an HX Stomp for messing around with weird effects at home. It has patches for the sansamp and Nobel that I use when practicing with headphones. Live for me is just compressor and some EQ shaping on the amp.

 

[lotusland9663]

Thanks all - that simplifies things. I’m sure the compressor on my Bergantino Forte HP is all I need

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

A question for the Dingwall brain trust.
I have a Z3-6 with FD3s and a DG pre. An ABII -6 with FD3s and a DG pre and a Combustion 3-6 with SFIIs and a Glock pre. They all sound great in their own way.
I have a bass player friend who is way more in to pedals and sound management than I am. He suggested I add a Sansamp Bass driver for even bigger/better sound.
I play mostly blues, R&B soul type music.
Anyone have any experience/suggestions with this pedal?

I used to use a SansAmp Bass Driver a long while ago. It is very Ampeg and mid scooped. I think it sounds great with medium-ish plus drive and with a pick. I really does nail that raging tube overdrive sound well. It's a sound I rarely use these days and I am 99% finger player, so not much use for me at the moment, but it could make a comeback one day.

 

[Andyman001]

I used to use a SansAmp Bass Driver a long while ago. It is very Ampeg and mid scooped. I think it sounds great with medium-ish plus drive and with a pick. I really does nail that raging tube overdrive sound well. It's a sound I rarely use these days and I am 99% finger player, so not much use for me at the moment, but it could make a comeback one day.

I still use one @ my Church gig, set with light drive + an old DOD overdrive, also set very light. Some of my basses I have to turn off the DOD, but for my ABZ it sounds really good.

 

[AB Nate]

I’m gonna hit on lots of topics here. Just catching up after a weekend of hunting.

Still haven't set up properly for my band's tuning, but it's going to take me more tweaking than I thought to adjust to the FDVs vs FD3ns.

Does anyone feel that dirt sounds very different on FDVs? The pickups sound great alone and almost make me want to not use dirt anymore, but it's part of my sound on a lot of tracks. Having a hard time articulate the difference well heh

Also, I noticed that the used Z3X I just got has pretty much the same slight marks on the pickups that both my NG-3 and D-Roc have from the strings hitting them a bit while you have the action low and play hard. Do most of you all have the same thing on your pickups, or do you mostly play less hard or have higher action? I've been using the recommended heights and the bass I got seems right in that range, too.

I set my pick up heights in relation to my strings with head phones and DAW after getting my action where I want it. I play fairly hard with my fingers and have pick ups lower than most I bet. I don’t end up with much of any string to pick up contact this way.

Hi guys, I was checking out a 3-pickup Super J the other day, and I was wondering what the actual switching modes are, I found this schematic on the Dingwall site but it is a bit puzzling why the middle pickup isn’t used in any of the positions?
View attachment 5254906

this looks like a mis-label as that would be a selector switch for a 2 pick up model bass. The 3 pickup bass with that switch would run the second position as B/M series

Are we referring to an ABZ neck or a Z? Or are both the same profile?

If so, does the AB1 also share the same profile?

The AB line all share the same profile. The NG line is based off of it.
The ABs and Zs have a compound radius where as the production models do not.
The Z series has a neck different from the others

I think Nate was mentioning that the Z necks are better than the AB ones?
@AB Nate

Better for me perhaps but “better” would not be the correct term. “Different” and personally favourable… especially on a 6. The AB 5 though is a superb neck. For those that like a heftier neck I’d say the Z series may not be the first choice for you.

So I'm 6 months post custom order (Z), and finalizing specs. I know what I want for woods. I've been playing 3-pickup Dingwalls for about 9 years. 98% of the time I play in the jazz configuration, i.e., neck and bridge pickups together. So I'm going with a pickups ala jazz bass. I will also probably go passive. I don't need a pickup selector other than a blend pot. Anyone play a 2-pickup Dingwall with a blend pot?

My AB has a blend but it is running EMG pick ups and the ABC blend control.

A question for the Dingwall brain trust.
I have a Z3-6 with FD3s and a DG pre. An ABII -6 with FD3s and a DG pre and a Combustion 3-6 with SFIIs and a Glock pre. They all sound great in their own way.
I have a bass player friend who is way more in to pedals and sound management than I am. He suggested I add a Sansamp Bass driver for even bigger/better sound.
I play mostly blues, R&B soul type music.
Anyone have any experience/suggestions with this pedal?

As mentioned this is a massive minefield. The HX stomp is a lot of fun to explore different things. One pedal that has intrigued me that I’ve avoided this far is the Darkglass harmonic booster.

Any Dingwall owners also play Spectors?

I love the medium C neck profile on my Spector 5. Wondering which Dingwall models might be closest to a Spector neck shape. To me it seems somewhere between a Jazz and Precision. Thinner necks front to back cause hand fatigue for me on longer sessions

I had an NS5 XL with the medium C profile and the closest resemblance to it in dingwall-land to me would be the NG, Super and maybe an AB. Not the Z!!!

I had the Sansamp bass driver, along with many other preamp pedals. All long gone.
Your guitar buddy has a habit, the expensive pedal habit. Just say no.

A compressor, on the other hand, could be a game changer. I’ve been through a number of compressors, (I had the habit, but I quit) and the Smoothie remains as my one and only stand alone pedal.

I do use multi fx units for amp modeling, spice effects, and other fun. Something like a Zoom B3n, used, will run around $125. Plenty to explore in these little boxes, including models of all the popular bass drive pedals, various compressors, amps, cabs, plus it’s a tuner, looper, and has beats.

I like the all in one, small package over the hassles of a pedal board. Go ahead, light me up!

I run a simple board. HXstomp>Darkglass Infinity. Pedals are fun and I’d love to have a library but I don’t have the time and funds to explore said library

 

[AB Nate]

View attachment 5254487
Wow, this new to me Z3X came in the mail a bit ago, the neck is incredible and the pickups sound vastly different from the FD3Ns I'm used to from my D-Roc and NG-3.

I'll have to adjust my EQ etc to get there, but it's pretty great so far, even just direct into my amp.

One potentially dumb question out of an abundance of caution for you all - how do you adjust the action/string height on the Z3 bridge? I tried adjusting the screws next to where the string sits with the included blue wrench, and it fits, but I couldn't turn it at all. Is the Z bridge locked somehow, and I need to undo that to make adjustments?

Couldn't find anything about it, so I could just be overthinking it... but I really don't want to strip anything as I try to adjust it down to Drop G#

Beauty!
Once you break the loctite you should be ok to adjust things. Start with very gentle and securely trying to raise(CCW)the action. Loosen the strings on this initial attempt to minimize additional tension.

Also, there is a small intonation adjustment screw to be aware of on the backside of the bridge piece if you adjusting that too.

 

[AB Nate]

Today I went up to my buddy Sean's place and we did a pickup swap on my Super J. I replaced the stock FDVs with a full set of SF2s. I'll preface this all by saying that I really did love the sound of this bass with the FDVs, and this was driven entirely by two factors:

1. Curiosity, and;
2. Hoping for a neck-bridge in parallel combination that was closer to a Jazz bass than what the FDVs offered, which I always felt was more Spector'y, or in some ways Wal'y.

The swap was much simpler than I had anticipated with no soldering required due to the Glock preamp using screw terminals for the pickup wires. Dead simple. We kept the same arrangement of N and B pickups as the factory FDVs, such that it goes Neck-N, Middle-B, Bridge-N. We also took measurements beforehand to restore the pickup heights to be the same as the FDVs for as much of an apples-to-apples comparison as possible. Below are my thoughts. First I'll describe the frequency response differences, then the very surprising feel/attack differences, and finally my general feelings on these pickups for use in a Super J.

The FDVs do a good job of what Dingwall describes in their ad copy for these pickups. They feel like updated Fender-style pickups that skew a little more modern than most of what Fender does. As mentioned, the neck-bridge in parallel combination doesn't really sound like an actual Jazz bass, but it's a nice sound regardless. The FDVs have a good but not overly deep bottom end extension, a reasonably high top end extension that feels pretty polite, a bit of a bump in the lower midrange, and what always felt like a slight dip around 500-700hz. It's a nice sound for sure.

The SF2s are a different animal all together. I read an earlier post that described them as being "too MTD" for that particular user. I can see where they're coming from, but I wouldn't totally agree with the MTD comparison. The frequency response difference between the two pickups is largely that the SF2s go both lower and higher, they seem to lack the bump in the lower midrange which presents more evenly, and the slight dip around 500-700hz feels like it's still there. The politeness in the top end on the FDVs is gone with the SF2s, but that's not to say that the SF2s sound super aggressive or snarly up top. It's simply that there's a more even response from the upper midrange to the top of the usable range of the pickups, whereas the FDVs had some sort of dip and swell in the nasty frequencies in the upper midrange. That's a common theme here; The FDVs feel like they're pretty heavily targeted at a specific voice, whereas the SF2s feel much more even through their presentation from top to bottom.

The note attack and general feel of the FDVs was one area where I sometimes struggled. The FDVs are not what I would describe as an "open" sounding pickup. On the contrary I hear them as being compressed, congested, cramped, etc. such that the initial onset of a note's attack was very present, really thumped, and immediately jumped out of speakers in a useful way. By comparison, the rest of the attack envelope of each note felt like it decayed rather quickly. Not quite in the way of comparing fresh rounds to old flats, but the analogy isn't entirely without merit. I feel like the FDVs were designed to highlight the attack of a note in a way that aligns with notions of what "vintage" means when describing tone. They really nailed it with that. A lot of the time I liked that vibe, but there were times, particularly when slapping, that I felt like it was getting in the way.

The SF2s, by comparison, are very different. Much in the way the frequency response is more even, the note attack is more even as well. I did not expect this when making the switch. Every portion of the note seems to come out smoothly and evenly with no aspect of it dominating another. The decay is smooth without any obvious steepness to the drop-off between attack, sustain and release (for lack of better terms to describe what I'm hearing). For my playing style, taste, and choices, this is a MAJOR upgrade. It fixes everything about the one aspect of my bass I never totally loved. Problem solved in a big way, and as a result I'm very happy with the switch.

In general I'd say that the FDVs are a solid choice for anyone who wants their Dingwall to be an updated and refined version of a classic Fender-style instrument. They really nail that vibe in a way that's equal parts modern and vintage. I think the SF2s are a solid choice for anyone who wants their Dingwall to be a very even, open, uncompressed, modern machine that might not be able to do everything, but can get very close. Since I have a passive Super P on order, I wanted my Super J to have the opposite vibe (i.e. modern and active with all the options versus a super simple vintage-inspired passive bass with no added options). I think this achieves that goes more effectively with the SF2s than the FDVs, so I'm quite happy. The real tests will come on my next few gigs. I'm off for a couple weeks, but will be back to gigging a bunch in December. One of our shows is at a very high profile venue that we played in October. I have a board recording from that October show and will get one in December. That will be a fun comparison to see how well the SF2s work compared to the FDVs on actual recorded material. I wouldn't mind trying the FD-3s at some point, but I doubt I'll ever pull the trigger on a set of those given how well the SF2s achieved what I was looking for.

I'll add that the SF2s in the bridge-neck parallel combination still don't sound like a class Jazz bass, but I would say the combination is much closer than the FDVs, particularly when I put each pickup in parallel with itself. I live in bridge-middle parallel with the middle pickup in parallel and the bridge pickup in series 99% of the time, so it's really not that big of a deal.

Addendum: The SF2s are noticeably higher output than the FDVs. Not a big deal either way for me, but worth noting.

View attachment 5254585

View attachment 5254586

What is your signal chain?

 

[silky smoove]

What is your signal chain?

In the testing for the post you quoted: Bass to Trickfish Bullhead 1K into a Trickfish TF212V

My typical live rig, and what I used for additional tests: Bass to Sonic Research ST-300 Mini, Fairfield Modéle B, 3Leaf Octabvre Mini, 3Leaf Proton V4, Line 6 HX Stomp, Pinstripe MISO, to a pair of 64 Audio N8 IEMs either from the headphone out of the HX Stomp, or via a stage split to a Yamaha wireless mixer and Senheiser IEM body packs.

The goal for me, regardless of the route to my ears, is for a mostly clean, fat, articulate and bright but not harsh tone. I don’t like it squeaky clean, but I don’t like the saturation to get to the point of audible distortion. Compression is usually employed somewhere but not in a squishy or effect’y kind of way.

 

[AB Nate]

In the testing for the post you quoted: Bass to Trickfish Bullhead 1K into a Trickfish TF212V

My typical live rig, and what I used for additional tests: Bass to Sonic Research ST-300 Mini, Fairfield Modéle B, 3Leaf Octabvre Mini, 3Leaf Proton V4, Line 6 HX Stomp, Pinstripe MISO, to a pair of 64 Audio N8 IEMs either from the headphone out of the HX Stomp, or via a stage split to a Yamaha wireless mixer and Senheiser IEM body packs.

The goal for me, regardless of the route to my ears, is for a mostly clean, fat, articulate and bright but not harsh tone. I don’t like it squeaky clean, but I don’t like the saturation to get to the point of audible distortion. Compression is usually employed somewhere but not in a squishy or effect’y kind of way.

If you were to compare the trickfish to any other brand more commonly found in North America would it have a good comparison?

I originally was running my IEM signal from my DG infinity as I do when at my DAW but I did some recalibrating and my signal is now receiving the additional flavouring of the WD800 before heading to the mixer. I didn’t think this would have been necessary(not that it is) but the DI from the head(post EQ stage) sounds even better reflecting my tonal goals.

The reason I’m asking is I can pick up what you’re saying in regards to your dingwall pick up selection and settings but I’m curious of your end goal presentation as I don’t think our interpretations of the pick ups are really the same. I definitely do not get a low mid push out of FDVs. I even hear that statement and I automatically think EMGs all day long in comparison. Or even the Bongo humbuckers vs FDVs

 

[silky smoove]

If you were to compare the trickfish to any other brand more commonly found in North America would it have a good comparison?

Not really, IME. I did some tests on the B1K and it’s very flat except for a subtle roll off way up top that’s pretty musical. You can find those tests here: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/club-trickfish.1348946/page-27#post-24752522

I definitely do not get a low mid push out of FDVs. I even hear that statement and I automatically think EMGs all day long in comparison.

I’m not an EMG expert but I do own two basses with EMGs (JVX and JAX respectively), and neither of them have as much content in the low mids as the FDVs. There are many other variables, so it’s not an apples to apples comparison, so take it with a grain of salt.

There’s a record producer in Vegas that calls me to lay down bass tracks a lot. Since getting my SJ he always, and I do mean ALWAYS, requests that I track the same way. Fresh rounds, middle pickup solo, EQ flat, and DI’d through a 1073. For that I run a Heritage Audio TT-73 straight to a MOTU 16A, which is just a bank of converters with no additional preamps. The result of that signal chain is always more abundant in the ~300hz range than any other bass I own. Cutting tracks for him again the night after making the switch and I immediately noticed less going on in the 300hz range, more down lower in the 80-100hz range, and a flatter presentation from about 800hz and up. Both the FDV and SF2 options present a dip centered around 500hz.