Man, I am just totally digging this AB1 with the Tone Capsule in it! It really rocks the socks!
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Dingwall Owners Club
- Thread starter FroggyOne2
- Start date
- Sep 3, 2006
- 4,358
- 6,117
- Disclosures
- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
- Sep 3, 2006
- 4,358
- 6,117
- Disclosures
- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
More like all Smiley faced. Kinda like an affirmation "Yeah, you done good!" After seeing your tastes in Bass, I'm fairly certain if you like it I will too!
- Feb 3, 2005
- 7,331
- 10,197
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Bergantino Audio Systems and GHS Strings
I can't wait to get my NG2 4 string with the tone capsule. This will be my first Darkglass loaded bass.
- Sep 3, 2006
- 4,358
- 6,117
- Disclosures
- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
I anticipate you having one big smile after the first 5 minutes with this bass. We have a NG2 in stock and IMO Sheldon made one of his best marketing decisions to include the Darkglass Pre.
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
It seems like a whole lot of work for limited improvement from a standard Dingwall 18v setup? Beyond the life of the batteries, what's the benefit? Because I change the 2x9v twice a year on my main playing bass and carry spares in my gig bag and haven't ever needed them. I would move over to decent rechargeable 9v's but haven't really had the need or motivation.
^^^ THIS. Having 10, 12, 18, 56417864654 switch variations seems like it creates more problems than good. On stage I'm not really into dialing into more than a couple sounds and most of my tone-jockeying comes down to tweaking my bass/treble. In my mind it's all distractions from playing. Also, I'm not sure I'll be making friends with Mr. Soundengineer if I'm 'playing the field' tonally at gigs. One guy who does sound for us regularly knows my tone well enough that even the smallest of changes to my setup gets comments... At home I play with a different setup for audibility and so I can work on finer technique things, but on stage I have no interest in futzing around with such adjustability. Even in our recent studio jaunt, I seldom tweaked my tone to 'tape' and while the material had some diversity in dynamic, style and tone, my 'usual' setting was perfect. In our pre-production settings I did play around more and basically everyone involved preferred my 'stock' setup.
I have a 4-way switch with matching knob sitting at home right now waiting for a set of FD-3's to go with it for the Voodoo-Prima. Those pickups will be wired in series and the bass won't have switching for them. I have switches on the Rastaburst and I end up running 'all series' nearly all the time, although if push came to shove I could be happy enough with all parallel as well. Once I get the pickups (I've sworn off spending from non-band income and/or using credit), that bass will go to a trusted tech who has these directions: Play the Rastburst, take measurements of the relief & action, do what you have to do (fretwork, etc.) to match that as Identically as possible.
The FD-3s in parallel to each other and the Tone Capsule is my sweet spot, ain't going back from that!
What then is your favorite set-up for combining them? Do like them in series with each other or in parallel?
I have a P-tone pickup that I STILL have not installed in my ABZ. I have found that I actually love the internally parallel pups in parallel with each other a lot. Its kind of like a Jazz on steroids, with kind of a burpy low-mid growl with great definition, and sweet highs. Ghost notes jump off of the bass, and it has this great attack on the notes. Of course, I combine this with a Monique which tends to be a bit darker and tubey, and my Genzler BA stack or my Baer ML115, none of which have a tweeters.
I used to be a more P-Bass oriented guy, but I swear this ABZ has totally made me appreciate that Jazzier tone and attack.
Neck solo, which is higher output and more P-like than it was wired parallel, yet still gives a nice cutting tone. And neck-bridge in series, which is fatter with more top and bottom, but still a nice grind in the mids. I don't use the other two options... if the bridge was re-wired series my hunch is I would get more useable (for me) tones out of it, but I don't want to lose the current neck-bridge series tone.
All in all the bass is a lot bigger and fatter than it previously was, but still there is plenty of cut and grind available.
It absolutely isn't solving any problem - there isn't any with the current system. I'm just going for something more renewable (less wasteful, at least how many 9v batteries a single person uses, which is unmeasurably tiny), and with an built in idiot light. For me, it'll be a better system all around. For the overwhelming majority of players, it's more complication where none is needed, to solve nothing. If I can get away from buying 9v batteries for my instruments again, cool! I can't imagine more than a few other people really caring at all
I'm also a tinkerer - I do development as a large part of my day job, and I tinker with hardware, software etc. in my spare time. If there was room, I'd have a RaspberryPi crammed in there, connected via WiFi for who knows what.
I used to almost always run my SJ5 pickups in series with each other, but have been going parallel lately. Beautiful tones!
I guess what I have discovered is that, no doubt, the series settings provide a stronger and bigger signal, with of course some differing emphasis of the frequencies, but that I can also boost the volume while in parallel to get back to bigger and fatter, but with a different frequency response that is still useful. The volume of my ABZ (the overall amplitude of the output signal) no doubt drops when I am in parallel, but if I boost the volume up to compensate I can get back to really big and fat, but the lows remain more tight and defined, and never get boomy, and the highs tend to sound to my ear, more musical and sweet rather than snarly and nasally, which always sent me off trying to EQ that out to some extent.
BTW, I do realize that the P-tone (or just internally series) setting would help improve the tone of the neck pickup solo. I am going to try it for that reason. But I am a bit concerned what it will do to the my favorite parallel setting. If the P-tone makes the neck solo tone more P like, and also improves or at least doesn't adversely affect my parallel tone, I would be very happy about that!
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I hear ya!! I use to run my Dingwalls in series almost exclusively as well, but I was always trying different strings because I was always trying to tamp the upper mids back down. With my ABZ, I was experiencing the same thing, and one day, I put it in parallel and wasn't thrilled being there. I left it and forgot. When I came back to it, I turned up the volume and as I noodled around, I started returning the on-board Glock to flat. I have not gone back to series but once, and as soon as I did, I remembered why I left it in parallel, and I haven't been back to series since.I used to almost always run my SJ5 pickups in series with each other, but have been going parallel lately. Beautiful tones!
This is an interesting observation. Now I'm wondering how much of the series sound I love is related to the perceived boost in volume alone. Almost like it's tough going 35 after youve been flying down the highway. Might be worth it to spend some time in parallel.
Similar experience and perception here. To my ear, the high-end energy goes down in series. Then again, it could be that they are masked by the mid-frequency energy. The SJ5 does sound good in series, but I never (consciously) put the SJ/P4 in series as it becomes an over-the top snarling monster! A few years ago when I was supporting a singer/songwriter, we opened a blues festival on one of the hottest days that I've ever lived through in Missouri. After we got off stage, I discovered that I'd had the pickups set to series. Wish I could have heard what that sounded like out front!
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
Series traditionally gives a low-mid bump and rolls off the highs and the deep lows. While the parallel traditionally is a little wider and smoother in the mids, sometimes with a bit of a scoop. That's one of the main differences with the Precision and Jazz tones. Precision is traditionally two coils wired in series and Jazz basses are two coils wired in parallel.
To me, in a live setting that low mid forward tone is more important than the extension. I roll off my highs and HP my deep lows. The low mids give punch and definition to the note envelope. After moving from Jazz basses (all of the 90s and before) to an old Precision from 2000-2005, I found that I couldn't really go back to a Jazz bass sound. It comes across as too nasal for me. My live setting also has an additional 'bump' added by way of power amp DSP ~180hz in a tight Q by about 4db...
To me, in a live setting that low mid forward tone is more important than the extension. I roll off my highs and HP my deep lows. The low mids give punch and definition to the note envelope. After moving from Jazz basses (all of the 90s and before) to an old Precision from 2000-2005, I found that I couldn't really go back to a Jazz bass sound. It comes across as too nasal for me. My live setting also has an additional 'bump' added by way of power amp DSP ~180hz in a tight Q by about 4db...
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