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Finding a great 5 string is so much harder than finding a great 4 string.

#66
MNAirHead said:
OK.. I'll play.

Where in Minneapolis can I pickup a Dingwall?

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Sincerely -- I could have posted... anything less than a Status or Bogart is a waste of time.

I'm well aware the majority of posters on TB are playing clubs and parties netting ~$100.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess I'm spoiled a bit, living in the same town as Bass Northwest, where I played a Dingwall Combustion. There are some excellent Dingwall dealers which have a well-evolved online sales process with reasonable trial period and return policy. I have bought basses from Bass Northwest, always a good experience, and bought the first bass by mail order from newly formed Link Removed two years ago. They are Dingwall dealers as well, as is Bass Central.

I have never even played the higher line Dingwalls; I only played the import Combustion, and it's even less money now (about $1200-1300 street) than when I tried it. It sounds great and plays really well. It was apparent to me that there's no cure for a floppy B like a 37" string length.

I didn't realize how much our brain tries to compensate for changes in timbre from string to string until I played a Dingwall and discover for the first time what a bass guitar can sound like when every string is pulling at about the same tension. The clarity and response on the B and E strings is something else, as is the properly tensioned D and G.

In my current situation I have no great need for a 5-string and like the compactness and balance of 4-bangers. But if I were to get into a situation where I absolutely needed a 5-stringer, I wouldn't think twice. I'd sell or trade a couple of my current basses if necessary and get a Dingwall Combustion and simply change my paradigm in bass playing.
 
#68

With me the issue with going from a 4-string to a 5-string was finding one with a comfortable neck. The fivers I tried out at the stores with necks that felt right for a 4-string guy – i.e. on the narrow side – the strings were too close together. And the ones with wider string spacing I wanted had necks like friggin’ telephone poles.

I found the “just right” ticket in a 19mm Pedulla. The neck has wide string spacing similar to a 4-string, but a narrow top-to-bottom profile that makes it as easy to get your hand around as a 4-string. (I think at least some Warrior models also have a similar neck.)

It did take quite a while to get used to going for the G string, the picking fingers reaching down so far to grab it, but now that I’m used to it I can’t see myself ever going back to a 4-string exclusively. I love my custom 4-string (which actually sounds much better than the Pedulla) and am always looking for a song where I don’t use the B string as an “excuse” to switch over to it. But it’s getting harder to find a song where I don’t use the B string somewhere!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



Administrator, Pedulla Club #45
Administrator, Tobias Club
Big Cabs Club #23
Pedulla Club #45

 
#72
I've got a couple of cheap 4 bangers that I have found to be exceptional, but that ain't how it's working with 5 strings. Add $1000 and you get a useable instrument, and even then I get picky about them. Don't know why, just is.
 
#73
Learn how to do a setup, soldering, fret leveling, fret dressing, neck shimming, etc ... In other words become your own bass tech and then you can turn below average basses into real players.

Quite often a bass in a music store will not be given the attention and effort to keep it setup in its best playing condition. The same goes for basses in your home. Your bass needs to be setup at least twice a year otherwise it can become a dog with buzzing frets and poor action and floppy B strings.
 

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