Glad to hear. What were the symptoms you heard that led you to conclude that there was a problem?
After trying the Z3 and a Combustion, I posted here that the pickup balance on the Z3 was wrong, but that it could be easily fixed. In hindsight, it's a good thing for everybody that when I tried it, I had no intention of spending the sort of money to get a Z3. If I
was going to, I would have made the adjustments before buying it and discovered it wasn't right and gone away with a bad impression of Dingwalls in general. No idea how many other people tried it and were unimpressed?
Anyway, I decided the Z3 was everything I'd been looking for in a bass and found the money. Playing it without an amp, it sounded very balanced and consistent. I run a studio, so was able to follow the setup details on the Dingwall forum, using a VU meter [I also used a Dorrough meter] to set the pickup height. I then spent hours raising and lowering the string heights and pickups, trying to get it to sound balanced through an amp. The A, D and G strings were very bright, where the B & E were dull in comparison. The E seemed to be lacking any true fundamental. I should say the tone was still great, just not balanced from string to string, which is what I wanted out of a Z3. I eventually realised that the E was rattly/buzzy when slapped or played with a pick. I contacted the Australian distributor who said he'd heard of that problem with the strings and sent me a fresh set. Sheldon confirmed that they'd recently changed string manufacturer and that there were some problems with some of the E strings.
The new strings were a big improvement, but the A, D and G strings were still very bright, like going through an Aural Exciter on a high setting. At this point I sent the Aus distributor a recording of the bass and asked him to forward it to Sheldon. Sheldon's response was that it was adjusted badly and my technique wasn't great. He made a few suggestions, all of which I had tried or was doing, confirming the bass was the issue, not my playing. I suggested that reversing the pickups would be an improvement, so the B & E coil was under the D & G strings. I tried this and it was better, but still not right. I was ready to conclude that a Z3 wasn't for me, when I listened to it without an amp and was reminded how even and balanced it was acoustically.
I then did some tapping on the coils with a screwdriver to listen to the response. It was then I realised the neck and middle pickups weren't right. Speaking to Jeff, it sounded like the low coil was the issue and he said they had a guy making the neck/middle pickups who they had to let go and he'd made these pickups. They sent me a whole new set, which I installed and it was like a different instrument. I'm not sure about the B & E coil, but there is no question that the other coil wasn't right. It's much smoother and balanced now. Doesn't have the scratchiness any more. The Glock preamp is now useful, where before, it just seemed unnecessary.
No idea how it left the factory like it did, but I think it's good it came to me. Most people would have just returned it and concluded that Dingwalls weren't that great. Hopefully no other pickups like these are out there either or players aren't going to have a good impression of Dingwall.
Greg