Multi-scale or "fanned fret" basses

[mrperkolator]

Wish there was an option for “I tried one in store but don’t have enough experience for an informed opinion.”

So… I voted carrots.

I will say I found the left hand easy (Ibby EHB) but the right hand needs to also move at an angle to mimic moving straight down on a parallel fret bass. Like if you’re used to playing right over the bridge pickup and moving straight down, you now need to adjust to follow pickup and get that consistent “right over the pickup” tone.

I haven’t had enough time to know if my muscle memory would have trouble adjusting or not.

 

[Greenman72]

I use different instruments for a variety of reasons, mostly related to recording.

Ah. I forget that there are a lot of professional musicians on here.
I'm not a pro. I have a "real" job. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/i’m-a-cpa-ama.1642762/page-3#post-28255320

This is just for fun and anger management. You'd be suprised how much aggression you can let out while banging away to Ozz Zombie (and the like).

 

[J Posega]

Big fan, but I still have some parallel fret basses. Most of those are 30" or 32" scale.

 

[ole Jason]

I think they serve a purpose especially if you want a really tight low string and are tuning below B. I don't think longer scales are necessary for good sounding B strings, neck rigidity is more important.

 

[silky smoove]

Your poll doesn’t include an option for “they’re great, and so are monoscale basses, I use both” which is how I would vote.

 

[DwaynieAD]

Never seen one In a store. Only seen 2 in the wild, both belonging to the same bassist. Would love to try one but don't know a store that carries them and I'm not spending 1000-3000 on an experiment that doesn't need done

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

Ah. I forget that there are a lot of professional musicians on here.
I'm not a pro. I have a "real" job. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/i’m-a-cpa-ama.1642762/page-3#post-28255320

This is just for fun and anger management. You'd be suprised how much aggression you can let out while banging away to Ozz Zombie (and the like).

I'm not a pro haha. I mean... there's the occasional $100 for playing mustang sally to a room full of the slightly tipsy, and there is that $17 or so a year that comes from music sales but not like the pro pro cats on this site that do real things. Love Ozzy btw! Cheers!

 

[Nolan Tremblay]

I didn’t vote as none of the options expressed what I thought of them. I have owned a multiscale bass (Dingwall Prima 5) in the past and I have a custom multiscale 6 on order. To me, what they do well is allow me to have about equal string tension across the strings while still having appropriate string gauges for how I play. Specifically, I have ordered balanced tension strings for my normal basses and found that the high strings need to be too light and as a result the sound is pretty thin for my tastes. The multiscale setup lets me get both of these things. I just really find that a long scale G or C string takes too much tension and for me (it may be a technique failing) I wind up finding B strings “floppy” even though I know they are not, but I have a hard time adjusting my touch across the strings, so the multiscale balanced tension works best for me.

 

[TeeSee]

Funny that. I've just a few minutes ago posted a question about pickup placement on my cheapa$$ G4M fanned fret.
It's no dingwall and has got panned on youtube quite a lot for cheap electronics and hardware but TBH for $350 it's a great introduction to fanned frets.
I voted like 'em but don't love 'em. The B is far tighter and better defined than on any 5 string I've played before, you don't need it hooked up with it's crap electronics to an amp to hear and feel that. It's also very natural to play a fanned fret I defy anyone out there to have trouble adjusting to a fanned fret in 10 minutes max.
That said, we've been going decades on conventional 5 or 6 strings so no, it's no game changer at all. It's about the player and less the instrument at the end of the day.

 

[singlemalt]

I bought my first Dingwall Super J 4 in 2009. No test drives, just a blind leap. And I’ve never looked back. The Fender J was up for sale and packed up for shipping the same day. All the “straight” basses were sold.

Since then, Dingwalls have come and gone. Fives, in both Super and longscale, an amazing six string and more four strings.

I have three now, all four strings. I’m just a four string guy and these are excellent basses. I have one of the rare Dbird production basses, my first import, and the quality is all there.

There is more to Dingwall than the fanned frets they pioneered. The design and build quality is top notch.

Last thing, the Dingwalls hold their value. Since I buy used, and keep an eye on prices, every Dingwall I’ve owned has recouped its price and shipppng cost when I sold it. And they don’t sit around in the classifieds.

I live in the sticks, so there’s no going to the store for bass shopping. All but one have come and gone through the TB classified ads. Everyone has been excellent and I’ve never had any hassles buying or selling.

 

[ZachM]

If I was an extended range guy (especially a 6 string) multiscale would hands down be my choice, and specifically the Dingwall 3/4" per string spread. However, I'm exclusively a four stringer for the last 12+ years now and in my experience the benefits of multiscale aren't quite as apparent without the low B and high C.

That said, the bass living rent free in my head is a 36.25"-34" T-40 clone, which I think would rule.

 

[funkifiedsoul]

There is such a thing as too much sonic clarity for certain genres and styles in my opinion, you would have to do some experimenting to get a sound that is adequate for those styles.

+1

 

[iiipopes]

Read about mine here:
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/a-different-custom-p-style-bass.755914/

 

[groovaholic]

I tried a ton of different 5-string basses, and all of them felt like the low B was an afterthought.

I was about to give up on 5s, but then I read about these newfangled Dingwall basses in Bass Player mag - and finally here was a designer taking physics into account and designing a bass for clarity and focus.

It seemed worth a shot.

That was 2003 - and Dingwall basses have been my #1 ever since.

 

[coy garcia]

I've played them but never had a desire to own one. I don't find the slightly better clarity=better tone in the wild. I would bet the farm no audience member would ever hear a difference in a live setting. They do look cool though.
For floppy B I'd get a heavier gauge string.

 

[dabbler]

To the OP, I had a Dingwall AB-2 5 string. One thing I noticed is that you had to float you plucking hand forward and backward relative to the bridge to get a consistent string tension/feel. This was due to the bridges for each string being in a slightly different place. If I moved my plucking hand just up and down and not back and forth, the B would feel really floppy, and the G would be impossibly tight. Hope this makes sense, but the B isn't inherently floppy, it's just longer and you're hitting it further from the bridge than you might usually do on a non-multiscale bass. Hope this makes sense.

I do this too, on my 34-37 inch 5 string, to bring the G string tone more in line with the other strings. The pups are angled, but not steeply enough to balance the tones alone (i.e., the angle of the bridge is steeper than that of the pups).

 

[getBAK]

this is a more complicated answer
I own a Dingwall Combustion (37" Multiscale), a Yamaha BBP35 (34" scale) and a MTD Kingston ZX (35" scale), so I think I'm pretty qualified to discuss.

Ignoring the differences inherrent in tone from electronics

The upsides of multiscale:

• The Dingwall's low B String hits harder than any other Bass on earth. It is tight, it is clear. Not unlike a Grand Piano.
• The volume balance and feel between strings is very consistent.
• Increased sustain is pronounced, a shorter scale instrument isn't physically capable of competing.

Downsides

• Above the 12th fret the multiscale fret placement can be difficult to deal with, especially playing chords. Scales can be a little goofy as the fret spacing difference between strings is odd. If you don't play up there, it's not an issue.
• The neck on the Dingwall is LONG - 3" difference between it and a traditional 34" 'Fender neck'. If you play extended scale runs this can mean some pretty good stretching of the fingers. It's a long ways from the 7th fret E string to the 9th fret G string

Worth noting

• The Long scale basses sound like modern basses. If you want that short scale thump like on a Beatles record, it's not really there.
• Likewise for metal or prog, 34" just won't give you the same clarity as the multiscale.
• I spend very little time on the open B string in gig playing. The 5-string's main appeal to me is to be able to play across the neck. IE - the 8th fret G on the B-string allows me to run 3 octaves without changing hand position. For this, the multiscale doesn't really have an advantage anymore.
• My main Bass for my current project is the 34" Yamaha, but again that's because I don't spend much time below E1. This is a more class sounding band. If I play metal or prog stuff, the Dingwall comes out

What I wouldn't do
Buy a multiscale that isn't on the 37" B. You get all of the disadvantages of the multiscale neck, without the advantages. The 37" scale length isn't arbitrary, it's the correct speaking lenght for that note/string size.
Running a multiscale on a 35" B - is (IMHO) stupid. You don't get the power on the low strings and the scale length on the high strings gets too short.
If you aren't going full 37" MS, just buy a 35" linear scale bass.

 

[Nightsprinter]

if i played a Made in Canada dingwall, i would likely change my vote. the two that I have played were mid-range, and good, but didn't wow me. A well built 35" scale is likely better than a poorly built FF with a 37" B.

Did you find the chinese dingwall poorly built? Or was that sentence more global? I have nothing against Chinese made stuff but the asking price is pretty high.

 

[Itsabsolem]

I've owned the Ibanez EHB1505MS (Tropical Seafloor, in my profile photo) since 2021. I'm pretty happy with it. It's lightweight, rests nicely on your body, the Nordstrands sound pretty good, the bridge is quite versatile and the neck is VERY easy to get accustomed to and fast.

Even though the neck is 33"-35", to me it DOES NOT feel like a 35".
Also, I've had it tuned to BEADG, ADGCF, GCGCF (current), and even F#BF#BE (used briefly, don't ask, worked ok-ish with a different set of strings, would not use again though).

 

[scuzzy]

Did you find the chinese dingwall poorly built? Or was that sentence more global? I have nothing against Chinese made stuff but the asking price is pretty high.

I have never played one, but my understanding is that they are excellent. But I hear the Canadian are just that much more impressive.

The two multi scale I have played were not dingwall.