Emulating a Dingwall: Nordy FD3 and Darkglass preamp?

[rojo412]

About a year back, I had the distinct pleasure of going out to Bass San Diego and getting to play a really damn nice Dingwall for the first time ever.
What struck me about it was the amazingly vibrant output. No doubt, the pickups and preamp had a great deal to do with that.

So I see that Nordy makes the FD3 pickups, aka Dingstrand Nordwalls. They are made to specs created by Dingwall for parallel-fret basses.
And I also see that the Darkglass Tone Capsule onboard preamp was the brainchild of Sheldon as well.

I don't really see much on here about that setup or any personal experiences. So if anyone has some, I'd love to hear them. How do they compare to the real deal? Or how did you like your experience with either or both products?

As usual, any help is much appreciated.

 

[bjelkeman]

I converted a 30 years old beat up passive Ibanez RB760 bass with lacklustre output to active with a Darkglass Tone Capsule. It actually became one of my favourite instruments. The tone is very "Darkglass mid" heavy, but vibrant as you said, may be a better way of calling it.

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[rojo412]

Mid heavy was a good way to put it. When I played the bass, it was a fingerstyle dream. Not that it couldn't be wrangled, but the bass cut through very nicely. That was what hit me first.

One thing I completely agree with ToneGlass/Dingwall on is the lack of a treble control. I find that to be so pointless. A passive tone does more than enough for bass. I never boost highs to a glass-breaking level. But I frequently alter the mids and lows for various reasons. So when they did that, I was very happy.

I actually had an OBP-3 preamp that I "deleted" the treble control on. I just wired in resistors and used a PTC on the bass instead. It was fantastic! But this has become a tangent, I digress.

Thanks for the input, I'm eager to hear more.
I have had a few 80s Ibanezes and loved how well they were made and the basses were all pretty good stock, but your experience with the level of improvement is very positive to hear.