No the SP1 line don't have reinforcement bars installed, just the truss rod.
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Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
Speaking of amps, I’ve been rockin’ with a Bergantino Forte for years. I can confidently at that I will never buy another amp. It’s that good. Prior to that I owned a Genzler 800.
Thanks Tom. Since you and I both own a Woodring WA2T700, how do you think it stacks up with the Genzlers and Mesas?We did not do a formal D-800 or D-800+ review, but I did review the WD-800, and I also own a TT-800 and a Bass 800D. We are definitely in the "different flavors of great" category. The entire line of Subway heads are super competent, and share a lot with the Genzler heads in terms of functionality, power, and reliability. But they all have not only their own voices, but there own way of dialing things in. I could happily gig with any of them, from either brand, but if you made me choose just one head from each brand, I'd go with the Kinetix from Genzler and the B-800D from Mesa. But again, they are all so very good.
- Apr 3, 2003
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- Editor-in-Chief, Bass Gear Magazine
The Woodring is similar in some ways (output volume, build quality), but very different in others. The approach to dialing in your tone is very different, and the Woodring is clearly shooting for a colored (but in a desirable way) tone, which you can then tweak and dial in, and the Genzlers, especially, take a less colored approach (with all controls at noon), but then allow you to dial in some drive and a wide range of tone tweaking. The Mesa heads all have their own character, as well, with something like the D-800+ maybe being more like a Genzler, and something like the 800D being (a bit) more like the Woodring.
For my personal preferences and uses, I can get absolutely killer tones out of all of them, and I have in fact played multiple Dingwalls through all of them, with great results!
Thanks. I loaned my Woodring to My Morning Jacket bassist, Tom Blankenship. He said he loves it. So do I!The Woodring is similar in some ways (output volume, build quality), but very different in others. The approach to dialing in your tone is very different, and the Woodring is clearly shooting for a colored (but in a desirable way) tone, which you can then tweak and dial in, and the Genzlers, especially, take a less colored approach (with all controls at noon), but then allow you to dial in some drive and a wide range of tone tweaking. The Mesa heads all have their own character, as well, with something like the D-800+ maybe being more like a Genzler, and something like the 800D being (a bit) more like the Woodring.
For my personal preferences and uses, I can get absolutely killer tones out of all of them, and I have in fact played multiple Dingwalls through all of them, with great results!
Skynyrd on a Dingwall? Don’t mind if I do!
- Feb 3, 2005
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- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
I had a modified NG3 with it. I'll. be honest, I did not like it. I felt I had to be really careful where I had it because it was easy to get mixed up with it. For me playing gigs, it was a little too much. The bass also had individual s/p switches per pickup. It became a bit of analysis paralysis. Too many choices!
- Feb 3, 2005
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- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
I used to have a passive ABZ that I stupidly sold. It had the individual s/p switches for each pickup. On the passive bass, I did indeed find them useful. So I agree very much with this take.
Tom, thank you so much for this most excellent comparison!!!! I myself lean towards the woolly end of the spectrum as my druthers, so I may be just fine sticking with the 800. I love the growly low mids that it naturally produces from the drive channel, even with the controls set flat. My new DROC-5 with wenge neck and board just sounds so good through it, as does my SP1-5.I recently posted a comparison over on the amps forum in a Genzler thread.
I recently received an 800+ in for review, but I wanted to share my first impressions with y'all. I was hoping to have band practice tonight and to be able to hear it in a band setting, but unfortunately, practice was cancelled tonight. I did spend some time playing through the three 800w Genzler heads, though, and here are my initial reaction thoughts.
The 800 seems to be a little bit more mid forward and very slightly on the woolly side in comparison to the 800+. Please bear in mind that in general, I consider the 800 to be a very well balanced and fairly neutral amp, so I am not saying it is excessively mid forward or woolly. Just that I noticed a bit of that in comparison to the 800+ when both amps have their controls set to noon.
By comparison, the Kinetix with all controls set to noon (switch set to Fat) has more clarity in the high end and a bigger low end than either the 800 or the 800+. In truth, the Kinetix sounds very refined with Gain, Volume, and all tone controls set to noon. With the switch set to Lean, it sounds definitely more like the 800+, though it still has a bit more brightness and excitement in the high-end. To an extent, with all controls on all amps set basically to noon, the 800+ sounds a bit like a middle ground between the 800 and the Kinetix.
Some additional random thoughts from my notes:
The variable high pass filter is just great and still still retains functional low end even at its highest setting.
Despite having just one knob to engage the Drive function on the 800+, you can still dial it in just fine using the pre-amp Gain and master Volume controls. To my ears, the drive on the 800+ is a bit improved from the 800 and it sounds thicker and richer and more natural, but we are not talking dramatic differences - but nevertheless audible differences. By engaging the boost and tweaking the Gain and Volume settings, the Kinetix can dial in a very excellent drive, which I do slightly prefer to that of the 800+. But again, it’s not a massive difference, which is pretty impressive for the 800+.
The real difference between all three of these heads is how you dial things in from a tone stack perspective. The Kinetix starts things off with the Lean/Fat/Thick switch and then gives you a straightforward five-band EQ. The 800 gives you the two Contour options, but with just one knob shared between the two, and then a three-band EQ with parametric meds. The 800+, in addition to the high pass filter, gives you separate knobs for each Contour curve and the ability to switch between the two, and then gives you a four-band EQ with semi-parametric low-mids and high-mids.
None of the amps give you center defense on any of the tone controls, but fortunately, all of the knobs are easy to see.
I could easily gig with any one of these as my primary gigging head. My MG-800 has been to the most gigs, by far, but the Kinetix totally won me over. The 800+ takes the rock-solid performance of the 800 and adds some undeniably useful and excellent features. But as I mentioned above, it also just sounds slightly different - slightly more "Hi Fi" - than the 800, which for me is a positive, but I can absolutely see some people preferring the native tone of the 800. Of course, with the tone controls on hand, you can dial in a bit more midrange fullness pretty easily on the 800+
Can't wait to dig in further, but wanted to share my initial thoughts with you all!
Keep up the great work, Jeff!
Have you done any comparisons on their speaker cabs as well? I would love to hear your thoughts on them as well.
Thanks so much for your response! The 800+ is certainly got my GAS up. But it may be a while before I jump down that rabbit hole. I'm thinking along the same lines as alembicbones, in that I love the growl of my 800 with my Dingwalls. One of these days though, I would love to grab one and do some experimenting and comparing.
I have found my SP-1 neck to be rock solid. I live in the Buffalo, NY area and our weather is all over the place right now, from cold to warm to wet to dry, from snow to rain. It has remained perfectly in tune despite a number of forays into the wild and woolly weather that is springtime in Buffalo!
For Z owners… are you missing out much with a 2 pickup model vs a 3? I need to check my D Roc/bird soon to check what my fav combos were.
