I drove to the Australian Dingwall distributor yesterday and played a Combustion and a Z3. My first time with fanned frets. I can confirm that adjusting to the fanned frets was effortless. I was chatting to George the distributor and noodling on the Combustion while he set up an amp. After a minute or so, it dawned on me that I had been playing without having to think about it or look at the fingerboard.
My ideal bass is one where the tone doesn't change when you move strings, just the pitch -like a good piano. The Dingwalls are definitely as good as I've found there, although still not as perfect as I'd like. The Z3 is definitely better than the Combustion (as you'd expect). I had my '83 Steinberger L2 as a reference and neither bass had the punch and authority of the 'berger. Not a big surprise, as it's hard to compete with the mass and rigidity of the all graphite L2.
The action was quite high on both of them and the pickups on the Z3 were adjusted so the G string was quite a bit louder than the B. Nothing that couldn't be fixed easily, but it made it harder to evaluate it properly and feel good about it.
While both basses were light, they still have a bit of neck dive, which my back is very sensitive to. Weight is less of an issue for me compared to balance. The Steinberger is heavier than either of them, but perfectly balanced. It wasn't until the end, that George told me about the extra strap lock on the back of the Z3 and went and found a strap with the strap locks i could try it with. Unfortunately I'd been there for almost an hour by then and my back was feeling the strain, so it was a little hard to judge, but it definitely is a great feature for evening out the balance. He told me it was to help with the reach to the end of the neck, which I hadn't had any issues with.
Anyway, I was very impressed and will aim to get either an Afterburner I or ABZ.
My ideal bass is one where the tone doesn't change when you move strings, just the pitch -like a good piano. The Dingwalls are definitely as good as I've found there, although still not as perfect as I'd like. The Z3 is definitely better than the Combustion (as you'd expect). I had my '83 Steinberger L2 as a reference and neither bass had the punch and authority of the 'berger. Not a big surprise, as it's hard to compete with the mass and rigidity of the all graphite L2.
The action was quite high on both of them and the pickups on the Z3 were adjusted so the G string was quite a bit louder than the B. Nothing that couldn't be fixed easily, but it made it harder to evaluate it properly and feel good about it.
While both basses were light, they still have a bit of neck dive, which my back is very sensitive to. Weight is less of an issue for me compared to balance. The Steinberger is heavier than either of them, but perfectly balanced. It wasn't until the end, that George told me about the extra strap lock on the back of the Z3 and went and found a strap with the strap locks i could try it with. Unfortunately I'd been there for almost an hour by then and my back was feeling the strain, so it was a little hard to judge, but it definitely is a great feature for evening out the balance. He told me it was to help with the reach to the end of the neck, which I hadn't had any issues with.
Anyway, I was very impressed and will aim to get either an Afterburner I or ABZ.
