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Dingwall Owners Club

#11,247
So, after my weekend adventure in re-rewiring my 'new' Voodoo Prima, I've decided to hold off on FD-3's for now. we had a fair length rehearsal last night (full rig for me), and the bass is a whole different animal now. The Bourns MN taper blend pot plus running 18v made a huge difference. The volume is even through the range of the blend, and the tone has improved substantially. This is the Dingwall I know.

Also, this bass just as a good 'soul'. You can feel it. Even if the action isn't quite as low as the Rastaburst, it's just as fast and just feels different for the same scale. The massiveness of the neck translates in the lows and the string tension. This is a really 'pretty' sounding bass. Where before I was being underwhelmed with a whole lot of mid-range gankiness from the Bartolinis, that appears to be gone and the overall sound is much smoother and very rich. I feel like I'm not losing as much 'string energy' through neck or body vibration. This is all in comparison to my other Dingwall playing experience rather than to traditional basses...
 
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#11,248
Got to play one of the the 4 string orange NG-2 at NAMM on Friday, that may be my next bass though I don't really need one. Also played the black gold Super J3x at the Bergantino booth. Bass was of course fantastic, but the main thing it accomplished was to point out how whack my setup on my SuperPJ5 had gotten. Hadn't been playing much over the past 6 months and after playing that bass for a couple seconds it was like a lightbulb turned on. Will get the action back in line today when I have a few minutes.

As always, Sheldon is always a joy to talk to!
 
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#11,249
Smallequestrian said:
Got to play one of the the 4 string orange NG-2 at NAMM on Friday, that may be my next bass though I don't really need one. Also played the black gold Super J3x at the Bergantino booth. Bass was of course fantastic, but the main thing it accomplished was to point out how whack my setup on my SuperPJ5 had gotten. Hadn't been playing much over the past 6 months and after playing that bass for a couple seconds it was like a lightbulb turned on. Will get the action back in line today when I have a few minutes.

As always, Sheldon is always a joy to talk to!
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Unless you've messed with funky strings, you should be able to dial back whatever you had with a trussrod adjustment.
 
#11,250
nervous said:
Does anyone know of a detailed Combustion version 'guide'. Something that shows the versions and their respective specs, pickups, electronics, features, changes, colors, etc.?
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As far as I know (and I haven't been keeping track), there are four generations.

First generation uses FD-3A pickups and an EMG two band preamp. Vol/vol/bass/treble knobs. It had a problem with pickups picking up the B string, so a 'B Booster' was made available as a fix.
Second generation has this booster installed by default. The booster might have been installed to some 1st gen Combustions too, not sure.
The third generation went completely under my radar, so I don't know. It might have an active/passive switch, but maybe the switch was included in the second generation. I don't know.
The Fourth generation is very different. FD-3 neodymium pickups, a rotary pickup selector and a 3 band pre, active/passive switch, a slimmer neck compared to previous gens, body pre-routed for the MusicMan pickup configuration. And cheaper.

My Combustion (in my avatar pic) is a first gen. I routed the body for the MM configuration before it was an official thing, replaced the preamp for a 3 band, and got it neodymium pickups wired in series internally. The neck I left stock even though it's a bit fat for my taste, I largely prefer the slimmer AB-II neck. I put in so much money and effort to make it the bass I want, and then a few years later, the 4th gen popped out :banghead:

I'm not replacing it, as it is exactly the bass I want. But the 4th gen is such a big upgrade over the first three in my opinion.
 
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#11,253
groovaholic said:
There is an interesting spike in Dingwalls on the classifieds right now -- my bass and like 6 others.

Odd how it goes months without ANY, and now there's a glut...

Great time to be looking for one -- but why does it never happen when I'M looking?:bawl:
Click to expand...

I've acquired two in the space of two weeks: a Super J and Super P matching pair (:
 
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#11,255
groovaholic said:
There is an interesting spike in Dingwalls on the classifieds right now -- my bass and like 6 others.

Odd how it goes months without ANY, and now there's a glut...

Great time to be looking for one -- but why does it never happen when I'M looking?:bawl:
Click to expand...

I noticed this too. Odd. Also, there's a black burst 2000 Voodoo on Reverb right now. :/
 
#11,259
Bocete said:
As far as I know (and I haven't been keeping track), there are four generations.

First generation uses FD-3A pickups and an EMG two band preamp. Vol/vol/bass/treble knobs. It had a problem with pickups picking up the B string, so a 'B Booster' was made available as a fix.
Second generation has this booster installed by default. The booster might have been installed to some 1st gen Combustions too, not sure.

The third generation went completely under my radar, so I don't know. It might have an active/passive switch, but maybe the switch was included in the second generation. I don't know.
The Fourth generation is very different. FD-3 neodymium pickups, a rotary pickup selector and a 3 band pre, active/passive switch, a slimmer neck compared to previous gens, body pre-routed for the MusicMan pickup configuration. And cheaper.

My Combustion (in my avatar pic) is a first gen. I routed the body for the MM configuration before it was an official thing, replaced the preamp for a 3 band, and got it neodymium pickups wired in series internally. The neck I left stock even though it's a bit fat for my taste, I largely prefer the slimmer AB-II neck. I put in so much money and effort to make it the bass I want, and then a few years later, the 4th gen popped out :banghead:

I'm not replacing it, as it is exactly the bass I want. But the 4th gen is such a big upgrade over the first three in my opinion.
Click to expand...

This does a nice job in filling the blanks on what I had not yet found. Thank you. Very helpful in the pickup history specifically. And I do know that the V2 is introduced the passive/active switch and quite possibly the truss rod adjuster on the body side. I see a lot of pics of what appear to be V1 and they have no truss rod cutout on the pickguard at all. I also know that there are two styles of truss rod slots, small and large, on this model. The large slots started at roughly serial number 640. It is interesting that V3 has very little info available. Possible it never existed or simply was a V3 bacause of some slight running change, like teh TR slot?

I will sat that my current NG-2 certainly has a neck profile that I like so perhaps searching for an older model isn't my best option. Except for color I love it in every way.
 
#11,260
Selta said:
I have a non-V4 with 2 band, V/V/B/T setup, active/passive switch. I'll probably break down and just post on the Dingwall forum asking Sheldon for the low down. It'd be good to know, especially if I ever decide to sell or trade it (pretty unlikely).
Click to expand...

I believe yours to be a V2 based on having the switch, and having the 4 knob V/V/B/T setup. It also has what may be the smaller truss rod hole and as I mentioned in the previous post there were two TR slot sizes on this model, small (which I believe to be the pointy ones) and large with the large slots starting at roughly serial number 640. so check your serial number and perhaps that will help a bit in identifying it.

Is there a serial number reference source at all?
 

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