Dingwall basses sound great, I love mine. I dunno, maybe the guy that builds basses every day and hears the end result of a few thousand of those basses over the past few decades knows a little more than someone that has watched a video on YouTube.
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More Sheldon Dingwall and Tone Wood
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I'm not sure it matters at all whether the wood affects the tone or not. The guy builds great basses, and is obviously doing something right - if he believed that the tone came from little gnomes that live in the wood grain, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference, as long as the end result is good.
It still amazes me that topics such as this stir up so much negativity, derision, and conflict. I'd like to see a double-blind scientific study that shows that complaining about tone wood does anything.
"Swamp ash" isn't a species of tree - it's a term used to designate ash wood that's low in density. Sheldon knows that the lightest stuff comes from the bottom of an ash tree, but doesn't apparently know what swamp ash really means.
And a graph! It has to have a graph!
Maybe a pie chart.
If a volume knob is made of tone wood, is it a tone knob?
Worst case, wood that doesn't matter is paired with wood that doesn't matter and it doesn't matter but still sounds great. Oh, sorry, I need a double-blind peer-reviewed study to say that Dingwall basses sound great.
Not responding to anything in particular in this thread, just leaving my own thoughts...
I don't know why I take such perverse pleasure in tonewood threads.
It is important to remember that a businessman who is in the business of selling very expensive pieces of wood is going to try to sell the idea that they are better at identifying the good wood than their competition.
Dingwall posted another video about the dual density bodies that made the rounds recently where he talked about tapping on the saddles and of course there was much argument about whether or not it mattered. I would like to see a test where he takes one of these dual density bodies and strings it up with four of the same strings to really prove that it makes a difference. If i can hear an E string on the bass side sounds different than an E string on the treble side, that would prove it. Until then, I'm skeptical of any marketing gimmick a salesman is trying to sell me.
I don't know why I take such perverse pleasure in tonewood threads.
It is important to remember that a businessman who is in the business of selling very expensive pieces of wood is going to try to sell the idea that they are better at identifying the good wood than their competition.
Dingwall posted another video about the dual density bodies that made the rounds recently where he talked about tapping on the saddles and of course there was much argument about whether or not it mattered. I would like to see a test where he takes one of these dual density bodies and strings it up with four of the same strings to really prove that it makes a difference. If i can hear an E string on the bass side sounds different than an E string on the treble side, that would prove it. Until then, I'm skeptical of any marketing gimmick a salesman is trying to sell me.
I'm not certain of the science behind the dual density principle, but it strikes me as arrogant to ignore the opinion of someone who has done the testing and constantly revising and improving their instruments for the whole time they've been in business.
Unlike a player, who has access to maybe 1 or 2 basses at a time, Dingwall have done the experiments with building several (almost) identical basses to isolate variables. Then they've replicated those tests and implemented the improvements.
Small differences add up.
Move a pickup 1/32" one way or the other, and I don't think any of us would hear it.
But if you made that pickup movement 32 times, you'd end up with a very noticeable 1" difference.
The logical fallacy I'm seeing is thinking that this video about tone wood is what has created such demand for Dingwall basses.
Occam's Razor would say that it's more likely that success is due to basses that sound great, play beautifully, and are supported by world-class customer service.
Maybe lately, but I see that as just an offshoot of his real defining quality: passion for the instruments he's building...which is why they're exceptional.
The first time I needed to contact Dingwall was shortly after I bought my first one, in 2003.
Sheldon Dingwall answered the phone and was enthusiastically helpful; I had had a pickup failure and he overnighted me a replacement without asking who my retailer was, to fax a receipt, nothing.
All he needed was my address. He also threw in 2 sets of strings for my trouble.
Next time I called was a few years later, and again Mr. Dingwall himself answered the phone.
I'd broken a couple strings and we got talking about their bridge - each string rides in the V between two stainless 6-32 button head screws. I was thinking about replacing the screws to reduce the break angle over the bridge.
Sheldon related that smoothness and radial symmetry of those screws was critical, so at one point part of their process had been to put each individual bridge screw into a Dremel, then spin that screw on a piece of fine sandpaper to smooth the edges of the head.
Everyone is free to their own opinions, but maybe you should give the benefit of the doubt to those who have done the experiments, relentlessly innovated, and taken great care of their customers the whole time.
Guys like Sheldon Dingwall, Andy Field (@agedhorse) at Mesa, and Jon Moody at GHS Strings have all put in the work to create really great products, then supported the players with tons of great, free advice here on TalkBass.
No one is obligated to buy any of their products, but at least respect their contributions.
I always find it interesting that a lot of TBers think the wood has no effect on the tone, but that the finish does. So basically the different woods with their different densities have no effect, but a nitro finish sounds way better than a urethane finish. Pretty funny IMHO.
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Yes, and I like to make a chart, showing how big my piece is.
If I'm noodling alone in my office I might be able to tell the difference in dual density body wood and that's only if I had an identical single body wood bass on hand to A/B. In a live setting or even in a studio mix? I'd venture to say very few if any of us could tell.
Having said that, I'd probably buy it if I were in the market for a Dingwall because I'm a sucker for upsell
Btw I was pricing out a Z3 on FretNation and Dingwall's feel like the bass equivalent of a Porsche in regards to options. You can easily double the base price. Sheldon's certainly figured out that end of the business.
Having said that, I'd probably buy it if I were in the market for a Dingwall because I'm a sucker for upsell
Btw I was pricing out a Z3 on FretNation and Dingwall's feel like the bass equivalent of a Porsche in regards to options. You can easily double the base price. Sheldon's certainly figured out that end of the business.
Yes, only to find out the basswood or poplar body sounds best.
Poplar is a very underrated wood! Solid, reasonably-light, not overly-soft, doesn't soak up finish like a sponge.
Italian luthiers used to use it for the back table and ribs for viols. Still used in upright basses to this day.
It just simply isn't much to look at-- a very plain wood.
Oh, I'm with ya! My old Stingray 5 sported a poplar body and it sounded great.
I still chuckle at the whole tonewood conversation when Eddie Van Halen always got great tone out of basswood bodies, which made up the majority of his signature models.
As many others have noted on this site over the years, if Leo had used oak and pine instead of ash and alder, we'd all be chasing oak and pine.
I still chuckle at the whole tonewood conversation when Eddie Van Halen always got great tone out of basswood bodies, which made up the majority of his signature models.
As many others have noted on this site over the years, if Leo had used oak and pine instead of ash and alder, we'd all be chasing oak and pine.
