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More Sheldon Dingwall and Tone Wood
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I guess that's okay, for the budget minded.
When you decide to get serious about it...
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But that was my point, the patent doesn't matter at this point so it's a "gentleman's agreement" at best. There's nothing legally stopping him from building fan fret guitars. He has stated previously, they don't build guitars because he feels there's no sonic benefit to fan frets on lighter gauge instruments, thus he specialized his company in the bass market, because he believes the fan fret design really only benefits heavy gauge strings in the bass range. Legally, I could start building fan fret basses (and I have) and marketing them if I wanted to.
That is a cool idea, and maybe somehow have a sliding bridle saddle and nut so that you can keep the same string when testing but not sure how feasible that is.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,794
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Cool little vid… thanks for posting. I love listening to experts like Sheldon talk about their craft. Rob Elrick and Roger Sadowsky are also great when it comes to this topic. It’s great to learn about this stuff and have that information when making decisions about instrument purchases.
I'm curious- what, specifically, did you learn from the vid?
Through my experience within the industry, I have come to have a great deal of respect for guys like Sheldon Dingwall, Michael Tobias, Pete Skjold, etc., and one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that not one of them builds instruments the way they do as a marketing ploy to squeeze extra money from gullible customers. These are people that are highly skilled and deeply passionate about creating the finest instruments possible and have arrived at their formulas through decades of experience building instruments to meet the needs of their customers. If a guy like Sheldon Dingwall tells me that combining two different tone woods in the body achieves a certain effect, then I am going to take that the opinion of one of the industry's most respected luthiers and that he arrived at that option through decades of experience building instruments.
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Love this thread. Only wish I could contribute in a meaningful way.
Everything makes a difference, sometimes audible and sometimes not, sometimes measurable and sometimes not. To argue that every instrument with x or y components or composition sounds exactly the same as every other instrument with the same x or y components or composition is just as hard to defend as the argument that tonewood does not matter.
To paraphrase a famous line, its all in the ears of the beholder, baby!
Everything makes a difference, sometimes audible and sometimes not, sometimes measurable and sometimes not. To argue that every instrument with x or y components or composition sounds exactly the same as every other instrument with the same x or y components or composition is just as hard to defend as the argument that tonewood does not matter.
To paraphrase a famous line, its all in the ears of the beholder, baby!
An excellent and well-articulated point that won’t be enough for some, unfortunately. You can call this an appeal to authority in terms of debate, but it still stands that Dingwall is an authority on this on a world scale - he’s the one with three decades of experience, he’s the one that turned a key in a lock to open a facility he owned and ran all that time, and he’s the one with a 2 year wait on his custom basses. He might have even built more that 4-5 guitars. He knows and hears things that most of us don’t. We’re not all equals in those pursuits, regardless of what they told you in school. As I’ve mentioned before another thread, tacit knowledge doesn’t give a builder Papal Infallibility, but his/her findings and remarks should be taken with greater regard than those of an anonymous keyboard warrior crying “foul”.
If there’s even one naysayer to Dingwall’s findings with that sort of resume, I’m listening.
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Ok. I'm actually not arguing with you... ;-)
My point was more that Dingwall is using 30+ year old technology for his fingerboards and created a great instrument with that technology.
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Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
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I just overall like to watch vids about luthiers talking about tonewoods. Did you learn anything from it?
A couple of realities about marketing bass guitars:
1. When it comes to wood, most people buy with their eyes. Fancy tops sell way more basses than body woods, neck woods and fretboard options combined.
2. I recall maybe two customers buying a Sklar model because of the unique body woods. Any time I share details on the Sklar body woods it's because I still to this day get a thrill everytime I pickup a Sklar and I love the nerdy reasons behind why this works.
3. Tone wood is a little like wine IMO. I confess, I can't tell the difference between a good bottle of wine and a cheap one. I just haven't spent the time to educate myself about the subtle differences. I was the same with wood 30 years ago and still have a lot to learn, but the more you listen with intent, the more you are able to hear.
1. When it comes to wood, most people buy with their eyes. Fancy tops sell way more basses than body woods, neck woods and fretboard options combined.
2. I recall maybe two customers buying a Sklar model because of the unique body woods. Any time I share details on the Sklar body woods it's because I still to this day get a thrill everytime I pickup a Sklar and I love the nerdy reasons behind why this works.
3. Tone wood is a little like wine IMO. I confess, I can't tell the difference between a good bottle of wine and a cheap one. I just haven't spent the time to educate myself about the subtle differences. I was the same with wood 30 years ago and still have a lot to learn, but the more you listen with intent, the more you are able to hear.
Yowza!I guess that's okay, for the budget minded.
When you decide to get serious about it...
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Bwhahahaa! I love that stuff... But that's really an entirely different issue. Audiophiles have been off their rockers for decades. My favourite is still the little rocks you're supposed to rest on your stereo components to "Draw out" more high-fidelity sound. lol!
Ahhh I haven't seen the little rocks deal, I'll have to go looking.
Unfortunately, no. Which is disappointing because I like the bass, l like to build things and I like to learn what makes things tick.
Some people like the mystique and romance of things. I'm a weirdo. I get off on knowing the science of how it works.
When I was 4, my older sister tried telling me that thunder was the sound of angels bowling in heaven. Cute? No. I was a little miffed that she tried feeding me crap.
But, looking back, maybe that's actually what she believed (?)
I was 4. How was I s'posed to know you can't get any useful info from a 9 yr old?
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,794
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Well the video was really quick, so not a lot of detail. I too enjoy trying to understand why things sound a certain way. Screw the romanticism. I know what I like in terms of tone, but why do I like this tone and why does it sound that way? My favorite sounding basses have alder bodies with a maple neck with passive electronics. So, that where I go these days.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Unfortunately for me, it's always been,
If it ain't broke, rip it apart and find out what makes it tick.
I don't destroy as much stuff as I did when I was younger, but I'm still annoyingly curious.
