Dingwall Z3 mod to 6-way switch: Which pickup combo for 6th position?

[BurningSkies]

Pretty much every Dingwall I own gets 95% of the playing done in a 2-pickup series or parallel positions. The more variants of those, the better.

 

[xnewyorka]

Interesting - I see lots of votes for Middle solo.
Other than nismaniac, has anybody tried middle solo on a long scale?
I am wondering if all of the votes for Middle solo are from personal experience being happy with it, or from personal experience wishing they had it without having heard it.
It is quite simple to swap bridge and middle or neck and middle in the wiring just to test it out, so I will give it a try to see how I like it.
So awesome that all it takes is a screwdriver and about 10 minutes!

I think I am convinced to ditch the bridge solo and go with one of the two pick up options in its place.

 

[lz4005]

You know what's funny is that even with 6 options, I still feel slightly limited! It doesn't take long at all to become comfortable with the 6 options, they're easily recognized tonally. The 3 positions which are just the solo pickups are mostly for monitoring the tone of each pickup to make sure they're even when they're in combination with the others, but of course it never hurts to have options! If they made a 7 or 8 position rotary switch, that would be perfect because then I would add neck/bridge series and maybe the Dbird option of all 3 together.


View attachment 3153568

If you want more options, you could easily the replace the stock pots with push/pull or push/push to give you more options. Master series/parallel control, blow switch, middle pickup on/off, all sorts of things.

 

[Selta]

Interesting - I see lots of votes for Middle solo.
Other than nismaniac, has anybody tried middle solo on a long scale?
I am wondering if all of the votes for Middle solo are from personal experience being happy with it, or from personal experience wishing they had it without having heard it.
It is quite simple to swap bridge and middle or neck and middle in the wiring just to test it out, so I will give it a try to see how I like it.
So awesome that all it takes is a screwdriver and about 10 minutes!

I think I am convinced to ditch the bridge solo and go with one of the two pick up options in its place.

I wired up my AB 3x with middle solo. It is pretty damn sweet.

 

[xnewyorka]

If you want more options, you could easily the replace the stock pots with push/pull or push/push to give you more options. Master series/parallel control, blow switch, middle pickup on/off, all sorts of things.

That is certainly a compelling idea. I was thinking of keeping it simple and keeping the cost low, and the cost to just replace the rotary switch is very minimal. I imagine replacing pots will start to add quickly to the cost, but I would be happy to be wrong.
Conceptually, what I think would be so cool would be for each pickup to be able to independently added or removed from the circuit, in series or in parallel.
I also wonder whether adding coil tap capability and going to single coil with bridge and neck in parallel would make a convincing jazz bass sound.

 

[xnewyorka]

I wired up my AB 3x with middle solo. It is pretty damn sweet.

Did you use the stock switch and just swap the middle pickup with one of the outside pickups? If so, did you need to also reverse the phase of each to preserve correct phasing? (Polarity)

 

[Selta]

Did you use the stock switch and just swap the middle pickup with one of the outside pickups? If so, did you need to also reverse the phase of each to preserve correct phasing? (Polarity)

No, I have a DBird switch in mine.

 

[dmac1961]

Interesting - I see lots of votes for Middle solo.
Other than nismaniac, has anybody tried middle solo on a long scale?
I am wondering if all of the votes for Middle solo are from personal experience being happy with it, or from personal experience wishing they had it without having heard it.
It is quite simple to swap bridge and middle or neck and middle in the wiring just to test it out, so I will give it a try to see how I like it.
So awesome that all it takes is a screwdriver and about 10 minutes!

I think I am convinced to ditch the bridge solo and go with one of the two pick up options in its place.

I vote middle as well. I have a D Bird and I really dig the middle pickup. I also swapped the wiring on the neck and bridge pups at the switch, as I prefer neck over bridge and it didn't have that option. The neck position is very P'ish, the middle position is a more aggressive P sound. I don't typically use the combination settings, just a single pup at a time. The all three on, while it's kinda cool, is not really useful live, it is just so much more powerful than all the other settings.

 

[lz4005]

I was thinking of keeping it simple ....

You have 3 pickups and a 6 way switch. You left the station from "simple" a long time ago.

 

[Bassheart365]

You know what's funny is that even with 6 options, I still feel slightly limited! It doesn't take long at all to become comfortable with the 6 options, they're easily recognized tonally. The 3 positions which are just the solo pickups are mostly for monitoring the tone of each pickup to make sure they're even when they're in combination with the others, but of course it never hurts to have options! If they made a 7 or 8 position rotary switch, that would be perfect because then I would add neck/bridge series and maybe the Dbird option of all 3 together.


View attachment 3153568

I am very tempted to send my Z3 to Moe for this mod. He's works at Nordstrand, right?

 

[Nofrettin]

If it were me I’d consider bypassing the rotary switch, and changing the 3 series/parallel switches to 3 way switches running off/parallel/series. Unless you really need the series/series setting, that would give you every single combo you could want.
Oh, and a master series/parallel push/pull would give you the rest too!

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Interesting - I see lots of votes for Middle solo.
Other than nismaniac, has anybody tried middle solo on a long scale?
I am wondering if all of the votes for Middle solo are from personal experience being happy with it, or from personal experience wishing they had it without having heard it.
It is quite simple to swap bridge and middle or neck and middle in the wiring just to test it out, so I will give it a try to see how I like it.
So awesome that all it takes is a screwdriver and about 10 minutes!

I think I am convinced to ditch the bridge solo and go with one of the two pick up options in its place.

I only use middle or bridge middle in parallel when wanting more cut through on my Combustion 3x with the D-bird switch. The all on is a bit too powerful and do not care for just bridge.

 

[BrBss]

I would do:
Bridge/Middle (parallel)
Bridge/Middle (series)
Bridge/Neck (parallel)
All 3 (parallel)
Middle
Middle/Neck (series)

 

[xnewyorka]

I am very tempted to send my Z3 to Moe for this mod. He's works at Nordstrand, right?

He does. I included his contact info as a hotlink in my original posts.

 

[AB Nate]

Interesting - I see lots of votes for Middle solo.
Other than nismaniac, has anybody tried middle solo on a long scale?
I am wondering if all of the votes for Middle solo are from personal experience being happy with it, or from personal experience wishing they had it without having heard it.
It is quite simple to swap bridge and middle or neck and middle in the wiring just to test it out, so I will give it a try to see how I like it.
So awesome that all it takes is a screwdriver and about 10 minutes!

I think I am convinced to ditch the bridge solo and go with one of the two pick up options in its place.

The middle solo is awesome. I’m not on my NG3. I’m not sure of my fav setting as I haven’t used it in a band mix. That said band to band would change anyways. 3x is awesome and monstrous but I could see it being to much. Middle solo seems to have he right amount of everything.
I’m partial to the MM setting in parallel or series as there is always something desirable to be pulled from them. I most recently was using Jazz position in most of my playing. Band setting or not.
And bridge solo......... I find this one interesting and one I appreciate having. I don’t think here is very many band setting uses for it for me but.....big BUT......

I have a lot of fun with it at home. Eg. roll the highs right off and put some chorus on it and it achieves a pretty mwah like tone

I would keep it myself.
IMO if you cannot find a sound that is amazing out of any of the other settings to play in any other situation your trying to hard.
When has anyone ever said “I can’t get this Dingwall to cut through the mix”

But to answer your question middle solo all the way for option 6.

 

[Bill Kron]

That diagram on page one looks just about right; If it was me I'd use that and if I was still itching to "James Bond" the bass, I'd use a pull pot to enable a piezo bridge.

 

[Holdsg]

where would you put the "suck" button? I need one of those.

 

[Bill Kron]

where would you put the "suck" button? I need one of those.

Stop it man, the suck's in the fingers!

 

[lotusland9663]

I put a D-Bird switch on my Z3 and love the 3 on. My Z has the front pickup separate from the other two, closer to the neck - could make a difference compared to other 3Xs. It's my favourite setting. I do have middle solo'd also.

 

[MDBass]

Actually my ng2 has bridge/middle series and parallel. I prefer parallel I think.

Yep, the NG has both options.

The DBird switch though is parallel, and the standard 3X switch is series: the opposite of what you posted

Parallel is definitely closer to the “traditional” MM sound, since that big humbucker is also traditionally wired in parallel.