- Feb 3, 2005
- 7,331
- 10,197
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
Glad to hear the SFII has been good for you! I can't wait to take it to practice tomorrow.
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Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
Wellllllllll I had the first rehearsal for the fill-in I'm doing next week. The ol AB1 was ridiculous chugging down in F standard.
At one point, it turns out, there's a quick riff that goes down to E. Like, E0, 20Hz stuff
quick flip of the hipshot and I was there though.
This bass is pretty much going to permanently be in F or F# standard going forward. I filed the nut when I put the new strings on, and put all the effort into a full setup... and I'm really, really lazy. The Zs and Prima will be my drop-A and standard tuning basses, so it feels OK to have the ol AB on these duties.
Looking forward to next week - got some woodshedding to do, but it'll all come together.
At one point, it turns out, there's a quick riff that goes down to E. Like, E0, 20Hz stuff
quick flip of the hipshot and I was there though.This bass is pretty much going to permanently be in F or F# standard going forward. I filed the nut when I put the new strings on, and put all the effort into a full setup... and I'm really, really lazy. The Zs and Prima will be my drop-A and standard tuning basses, so it feels OK to have the ol AB on these duties.
Looking forward to next week - got some woodshedding to do, but it'll all come together.
Yep, let’s hear it for bridge cable basses.Wellllllllll I had the first rehearsal for the fill-in I'm doing next week. The ol AB1 was ridiculous chugging down in F standard.
At one point, it turns out, there's a quick riff that goes down to E. Like, E0, 20Hz stuff
This bass is pretty much going to permanently be in F or F# standard going forward. I filed the nut when I put the new strings on, and put all the effort into a full setup... and I'm really, really lazy. The Zs and Prima will be my drop-A and standard tuning basses, so it feels OK to have the ol AB on these duties.
Looking forward to next week - got some woodshedding to do, but it'll all come together.
I haven’t been on TB in awhile so missed a lot of posts. Has anyone been able to play with the Neve preamp? What’s been your experience? Is it worth it over the other preamp options or passive?
I’m still processing mine - I’m in over 25 years with Sadowsky preamps and that’s my benchmark.
My impressions right now are that the Neve pre is very clean, smooth, and musical. For those with any familiarity with Neve’s line of classic studio units, it definitely shows its colors.
It’s a very quiet design, and it’s hard to make it deliver a tone that’s totally unusable or bad. It seems to do a “passive but louder” thing as well as a more “boosted” sound, but not nearly as much as other preamps. It doesn’t seem very aggressive to my ears. I don’t know if it would appeal to players that do heavy/extreme music. I’ve never played a Dingwall through a distortion box ever, so I’m not part of that crowd.
I’m not sure it adds a lot of its own baked-in thing like a Sadowsky- it’s more about taking the natural sound of the bass and accentuating certain parts of the audio spectrum. It doesn’t act in the way a HAZ preamp on a Spector does, where boosting the controls adds a defined character.
The Neve doesn’t act in a typical boost/shelving manner like most onboard bass preamps. I imagine it’s much like the Glockenklang in this manner. Very high highs and very low lows have been mentioned, but the pre doesn’t sound like it’s acting like that in practical application. It’s a bit par for the course that there’s no documentation or further explanation of how the circuit works available anywhere, but it is what it is. In this case, for now, you have to totally go by ear. Down the road, I’m sure someone will put it on a scope and post their results, but I’m not that guy.
It’s tough to verbalize a sound experience like this, but these are my remarks regarding the circuit. All in all, I do like it and it seems to work with the bass (a Z3) and complement its native tone very well. I also prefer the sound of the Neve on the signal instead of passive.
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Hey TB'ers,
I've never posted much on TB, I just tend to search and scroll through other posts and info. I also used to constantly look through classifieds, but this bass has slapped the GAS outta me (at least for a long while) since I took delivery last year. I guess this is a long overdue NBD, but recently I just wanted to put it into the DW owners thread, as I could not be happier with this thing.
I arrived at these specs after a number of other basses, switching back to 5'ers, and being at a point where I could afford to pull the trigger on something like this. My original deposit to Jason at Fret Nation reserved my slot in mid January 2022 and I took delivery late April of 2024. So yeah, the wait times are real... Jason was great and the wait was definitely worth it!
Some things about the bass... alder body, 3 piece maple neck, wenge board, SFII pickup in the bridge (after reading a ton about DW pickups here and listening to every sound demo I could find). Green lumilay side dots and white pearloid speedo bars. I asked Jason to swap the tuners with black lollypop tuners because that's what I envisioned... every detail counts right? The neck was a bit flatter (thinner) than I imagined, but I adapted easily and absolutely love it, as well as the 19mm spacing. I've seen that the production 5 string Super P's will be 18mm, maybe that sells to a wider audience? And as for the fanned frets, it felt like a non-issue right off the bat for frets 1-12, above that its a little different. When I play standard basses now my eyes play tricks on me and the frets look slanted!
Below is one of the pro pics from Fret Nation and a shot of my rig from sometime ago. I'm down to 4 basses (fretless 5 string Ibanez, 5 string project bass built by a friend with an old Carvin neck, and a P bass with flats) and this is certainly number one. I tend to play in funk/soul/pop/rock, but was raised on a steady diet of metal. This thing through a Darkglass Microtubes Infinity is bliss. I just need more chops!
Maybe the only problem that's creeping in is that I would love a 6 string... I've never owned one. An NG3 would be fun... Maybe sometime after my wedding once the $dust$ settles...
Thanks for reading, cheers!
I've never posted much on TB, I just tend to search and scroll through other posts and info. I also used to constantly look through classifieds, but this bass has slapped the GAS outta me (at least for a long while) since I took delivery last year. I guess this is a long overdue NBD, but recently I just wanted to put it into the DW owners thread, as I could not be happier with this thing.
I arrived at these specs after a number of other basses, switching back to 5'ers, and being at a point where I could afford to pull the trigger on something like this. My original deposit to Jason at Fret Nation reserved my slot in mid January 2022 and I took delivery late April of 2024. So yeah, the wait times are real... Jason was great and the wait was definitely worth it!
Some things about the bass... alder body, 3 piece maple neck, wenge board, SFII pickup in the bridge (after reading a ton about DW pickups here and listening to every sound demo I could find). Green lumilay side dots and white pearloid speedo bars. I asked Jason to swap the tuners with black lollypop tuners because that's what I envisioned... every detail counts right? The neck was a bit flatter (thinner) than I imagined, but I adapted easily and absolutely love it, as well as the 19mm spacing. I've seen that the production 5 string Super P's will be 18mm, maybe that sells to a wider audience? And as for the fanned frets, it felt like a non-issue right off the bat for frets 1-12, above that its a little different. When I play standard basses now my eyes play tricks on me and the frets look slanted!
Below is one of the pro pics from Fret Nation and a shot of my rig from sometime ago. I'm down to 4 basses (fretless 5 string Ibanez, 5 string project bass built by a friend with an old Carvin neck, and a P bass with flats) and this is certainly number one. I tend to play in funk/soul/pop/rock, but was raised on a steady diet of metal. This thing through a Darkglass Microtubes Infinity is bliss. I just need more chops!
Maybe the only problem that's creeping in is that I would love a 6 string... I've never owned one. An NG3 would be fun... Maybe sometime after my wedding once the $dust$ settles...
Thanks for reading, cheers!
IvanBassist
Commercial User
- Jun 8, 2008
- 3,743
- 11,118
- Disclosures
- Content Manager at Darkglass Electronics, Dingwall Guitars Artist
- Feb 3, 2005
- 7,331
- 10,197
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
Well, I took my DBird Custom to practice last night with the new SFII's installed. I was extremely pleased with the outcome of those pickups. The bass sounded a lot fuller, especially in the low end, and it really filled the space of my power trio. It was a roll of the dice that definitely worked out!
Hello all,
Wanted to ask a quick question on the NG's, is the Ducati white a rough matte finish or very smooth? I'm not a big fan of matte finish but I like the lighter colors. Any comments welcome.
Wanted to ask a quick question on the NG's, is the Ducati white a rough matte finish or very smooth? I'm not a big fan of matte finish but I like the lighter colors. Any comments welcome.
Any new experience here with upgrading Neo Super P pickup with the new Alnico version?
1. Where did you get the pickup?
2. imoressions
3. Was it worth the money?
Thanks!
1. Where did you get the pickup?
2. imoressions
3. Was it worth the money?
Thanks!
I have an NG3 with a smooth matte celestial blue finish. I'm sure the Ducati white is similar. It's a very nice smooth finish; not cheap or 2nd class at all.
ABII vs Z3
For my upcoming custom build I'm going with this 3X configuration: P-tone neck pickup, SFII mid and bridge pickups, S/P switches, 6-way selector switch with mid solo, a Neve preamp, and side luminlays. I'm trying to decide whether an ABII or Z3 would be the better option for this configuration?
I like the elegant look of a natural walnut body and chambered walnut with a wenge neck/board should have nice mids. Chambering would also reduce the body weight but would the lows be as solid as a northern ash/alder Z3 and is the Z3 neck profile a bit more refined and smoother to play? I'd rather not go with a dual density ash body on a Z3. It saves a bit of weight but IME, swamp ash scoops the mids in a way that alder doesn't. Either ABII or Z3 would be a fantastic instrument. Any insight or experience between these two options?
For my upcoming custom build I'm going with this 3X configuration: P-tone neck pickup, SFII mid and bridge pickups, S/P switches, 6-way selector switch with mid solo, a Neve preamp, and side luminlays. I'm trying to decide whether an ABII or Z3 would be the better option for this configuration?
I like the elegant look of a natural walnut body and chambered walnut with a wenge neck/board should have nice mids. Chambering would also reduce the body weight but would the lows be as solid as a northern ash/alder Z3 and is the Z3 neck profile a bit more refined and smoother to play? I'd rather not go with a dual density ash body on a Z3. It saves a bit of weight but IME, swamp ash scoops the mids in a way that alder doesn't. Either ABII or Z3 would be a fantastic instrument. Any insight or experience between these two options?
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I have an AB-2 and a Z3. Can’t and/or won’t comment on body woods and chambering. The AB-1 neck is not a second-tier affair, and is still more comfortable most necks in the boutique world. That said, the neck on the Z3 is absolutely remarkable. Terms like “more refined” and “smoother to play” definitely apply. The neck on the Z3 is thinner than the AB-1 but not to the point of being excessive or extreme. It feels a bit more solid and ergonomic to the hand.
The neck on my NG3 is very well contoured and comfortable to play. I don't have large hands and the 18mm spacing is ideal. A little more svelte profile would make it even easier to get around on but I agree there is a sweet spot. I have played basses in the past with necks too skinny to fit your hand properly and were fatiguing to play. I'm leaning toward the Z3 but would rather not have a bass over 10 lbs.
It's pretty easy to get a Z under 10 lbs. I can chime in more on this after work if the topic is still going.
My dual density Z3 5 string came out to be 9.6 lbs. on my fish scale. I didn’t really specify any dealbreaker weight either - I only mentioned “not too heavy, not too light”.
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New profile, new family photo. This trio is nicely complimentary.
Not 100% sure the SJ is a forever bass like my number 1 in Capri Orange, but it does it's own thing and it does it well. I traded an AB1 for it because I still haven't found the perfect long scale 5. Having owned many, I'm now certain it'll need to be a custom.
The Bird needs some love because a previous owner jacked up the threaded inserts for the pickups and it has some big ugly dings, but it sounds and plays awesome and looks incredible. Planning on sending it off to Moe for some repairs, electronics mods, and refinishing by his guy.
Our band plays in drop-D#0 but personally I'm really a fan of how my Dingwall sounds without the bridge cablesWellllllllll I had the first rehearsal for the fill-in I'm doing next week. The ol AB1 was ridiculous chugging down in F standard.
At one point, it turns out, there's a quick riff that goes down to E. Like, E0, 20Hz stuff
This bass is pretty much going to permanently be in F or F# standard going forward. I filed the nut when I put the new strings on, and put all the effort into a full setup... and I'm really, really lazy. The Zs and Prima will be my drop-A and standard tuning basses, so it feels OK to have the ol AB on these duties.
Looking forward to next week - got some woodshedding to do, but it'll all come together.
I use the standard Dingwall 45-130 nickel plated set and apart from being like excellently cooked spaghetti it kills it both live and in studioDoes anyone know why Dingwall moved away from the Aguilar preamps with their custom tone roll off on the treble and the blue EQ switch? They sound exceptional on my older AB2. Switching the blue EQ on and slightly backing off the treble takes it from a modern sounding monster to some pure vintage awesomeness. I only have my older AB2, a passive ABZ and a passive super P/J so I don’t have any modern preamps to compare against.
