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Dingwall Owners Club

Here's a quick look. image.jpg
 
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Picked up a minty V4 combustion locally today (someone linked a reverb listing for it earlier actually). Absolutely love it, super happy to be a part of the Dingwall club even if it's only a combustion. Think I might do the Nolly mod to it but we'll see. I'll post pictures soon!
Awesome. It may "only" be a Combustion, but it's still a Dingwall. It's passed through their shop, and many good tones and longevity are certainly in that beast! Congrats and welcome to the club!
 
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I have a Combustion v4 and the guy I bought it from told me he upgraded the pickups to the "Canadian ones" instead of the ones that came in it. Seems like he said $350 upgrade.

I pulled them both out tonight to have a look at the back. Not sure what it tells me. I expected the pickups to say: FD-3N if they were bone stock.

Mine say:
FD-3 4L (SS) B (bridge)
FD-3 4L (SS) N (neck)

View attachment 811957

Looking at the Dingwall sales site I see a number that looks similar:
"FD3 "PJ" pickup replacement set for Combustion 5" - Our Neodymium powered FD-3 4L Mach II bridge pickup and matching P-tone neck pickup are now available in Combustion pickup shells. These pickups will take your Combustion to a new level of output, dynamics and all around hugeness.​

Under the cover, they look offset like P-bass pickups. Is that what these are?

Thanks
Those are stock FD3 4-L pickups. Those who haven't seen them from that side before, all the Dingwall FD's are split coils.
 
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I am such a Darkglass fan. I am getting the Darkglass in a ABZ but decided to go the Glockenklang route for the ABII. I am even putting the Darkglass in my other bass.

Nice.

I like the idea of having the glorious vintage passive P tones, and at the push of a switch, grindy aggressive rock P tones.

Whether that's actually doable or not I have no idea, but a man can dream...:)
 
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What is the FD3 4-L pickup stock in? Are these the stock Combustion pickups or not?

FD-3 pickups are the pickups that you're seeing in nearly all the AB's that have come out of the shop in the past decade or so, as well as most of the Zebras and Primas. The 4L was a somewhat later tweak which adds the ability to run the coils in either parallel or series.

14736585556_87af2edcf1_o.jpg
 
If I understand correctly, Combustions used to be sold with FD3-A pickups. I believe these were 2-lead Alnico magnet based pickups. There is mention of an upgrade to FD3-N (Neodymium magnets) at some point. The '4L' designator stands for '4 Lead' and describes any of the FD3 pickups that are wired in both series and parallel. I believe most shipping Dingwalls should now have FD3-4L type Ns in them unless a P-Tone is requested. The Super Fatty pickups are only going in Sklar models from what I was told. I have an ABHS on order with a P-Tone so maybe when it comes in I can take pictures to see any differences between them.

Anyways, that might mean that the upgrade that the person did on that v4 Combustion was moving from Alnico to Neodymium. There's a kit you can buy on the Dingwall site. That also means you have about as modern a Dingwall sound as possible. The only thing newer is in Sheldon's workshop being perfected me thinks.
 
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How do you folks measure or set the relief on your DW's? Combustions more specifically? I have always used frets 2 and 14, adjust the truss rod so I have about a credit cards width of string to fret gap somewhere around frets 7-9. This has served me very will with most basses and is the Lakland setup recommendation, more or less. No buzz and great note clarity. Then I adjust the saddles to get me around a +/- 5/64 string height across the 12th fret, +/- 6/64 for the B. If no buzzing Im happy. But I am noticing that the NG-2 and this V2 may like the relief a little flatter overall. Curious if there is perhaps more of a 'brand standard' to follow.
 
If I understand correctly, Combustions used to be sold with FD3-A pickups. I believe these were 2-lead Alnico magnet based pickups. There is mention of an upgrade to FD3-N (Neodymium magnets) at some point. The '4L' designator stands for '4 Lead' and describes any of the FD3 pickups that are wired in both series and parallel. I believe most shipping Dingwalls should now have FD3-4L type Ns in them unless a P-Tone is requested. The Super Fatty pickups are only going in Sklar models from what I was told. I have an ABHS on order with a P-Tone so maybe when it comes in I can take pictures to see any differences between them.

Anyways, that might mean that the upgrade that the person did on that v4 Combustion was moving from Alnico to Neodymium. There's a kit you can buy on the Dingwall site. That also means you have about as modern a Dingwall sound as possible. The only thing newer is in Sheldon's workshop being perfected me thinks.

I don't claim to know the details on the Combustion line as I haven't really followed all the revisions and versions. The FD3-N's may or may not be just like the standard FD3's, or Sheldon may have adjusted the specs on them for that model/production. The 4L is definitely 4-lead, and that may be the big difference and the N's may be wired in parallel like the old FD-3's, or maybe they're series. I'm sure someone here knows the scoop. To add to the obscure pickup discussion, remember there's also an era of FD-3-4L-Mach2. ;)

How do you folks measure or set the relief on your DW's? Combustions more specifically? I have always used frets 2 and 14, adjust the truss rod so I have about a credit cards width of string to fret gap somewhere around frets 7-9. This has served me very will with most basses and is the Lakland setup recommendation, more or less. No buzz and great note clarity. Then I adjust the saddles to get me around a +/- 5/64 string height across the 12th fret, +/- 6/64 for the B. If no buzzing Im happy. But I am noticing that the NG-2 and this V2 may like the relief a little flatter overall. Curious if there is perhaps more of a 'brand standard' to follow.

Measure? I don't need no stinkin' measuring.

My Rastaburst has the relief down to 'nearly flat'. Probably a standard piece of paper width of space on mine. The Voodoo/Prima has more relief, and I haven't been able to quite get it down as far. It's probably a credit card's width or slightly more. Its been a fussier bass, and seems to have a fair amount of neck movement with small humidity changes. I can bring it down a bit one day then two days later it's buzzing in 4-7 fret range on a couple strings. Really, I've always eyeballed the relief on the B-string with the strings fretted at the 1st and at the fret where they meet the body, and gone from there. I get it to where I start getting just little buzz then back off a hint. If it feels like the action is high further up on the neck I adjust saddles down a bit and re-check for buzz.
 
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Dingwall Afterburner Blue Burst | Reverb
4 string afterburner for $1400, seems like a good deal. Not affiliated.

Seems like a reasonable price for that. Not a whole lot of 4's out there. From the look of things this is probably in the 2004/2005 range, although it doesn't state it. It's got the BluEQube switch, and it's got the 'old' knobs.
 

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