New Dingwall John Taylor Signature

[BassDudeSA]

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Did you consider getting the regular production model at all? Or was it the allure of a limited edition JT that caused you to purchase?

Initially I didn't care what it was, Limited or regular production model, it was a JT sig. and that's all that mattered. I was lucky enough to be on Facebook that day in April of last year and spotted the notice that they just went on sale. Before I placed my order I messaged a bassist friend of mine who also wanted one, and I let him know they were now available. So I placed my order and let my pal know I got one. He tried to place his order literally five minutes later and they were then sold out, so I just made it in the nick of time. Then I found out these were super limited and that later a regular production model would be out, so once that I could place a pre-order on a production model I immediately reserved a black 4-string at John Fox. Knowing me..... I knew I needed another that I wouldn't be paranoid about beating up! So, another six months go by and still those damn production models are not out yet and who knows when they ever will be? At the time John Fox had a black NGC3 4-string in stock, and I made the switch to that and had it in days. My Cranberry made it to one rehearsal and one gig but otherwise I'm keeping it stashed away in its gigbag. The NGC3 gets put to work regularly.

 

[jazz5757]

It will only Sting until you get it and start playing with it. Great Bass from what I have heard and seen.

That's encouraging! And probably correct too! I'm sure it will play great - if I have any concerns it's how much low end I can crank out - I'm not a slapmeister. lol

 

[ModuMan]

Dingwalls are awesome, you certainly won't be disappointed! Plenty of low end on the JT, no worries there. The Neve is a pretty darn cool pre-amp.

As much as I REALLY wanted one of the 82 and was bummed when I missed the window to simply order one, I'm not that upset about it. Great color and ebony fretboard but... the function is the same as the others. If I did get one of the 82 I'd be playing it.

 

[jazz5757]

Initially I didn't care what it was, Limited or regular production model, it was a JT sig. and that's all that mattered. I was lucky enough to be on Facebook that day in April of last year and spotted the notice that they just went on sale. Before I placed my order I messaged a bassist friend of mine who also wanted one, and I let him know they were now available. So I placed my order and let my pal know I got one. He tried to place his order literally five minutes later and they were then sold out, so I just made it in the nick of time. Then I found out these were super limited and that later a regular production model would be out, so once that I could place a pre-order on a production model I immediately reserved a black 4-string at John Fox. Knowing me..... I knew I needed another that I wouldn't be paranoid about beating up! So, another six months go by and still those damn production models are not out yet and who knows when they ever will be? At the time John Fox had a black NGC3 4-string in stock, and I made the switch to that and had it in days. My Cranberry made it to one rehearsal and one gig but otherwise I'm keeping it stashed away in its gigbag. The NGC3 gets put to work regularly.

Thanks for sharing the story with me. Timing can be everything. Oddly, I don't like the other colors nearly as much - the red one though - that jumped out immediately, it just has that extra something that I find appealing. High price to pay to get the right color, but the aesthetics are important, to me anyway.

 

[jazz5757]

Dingwalls are awesome, you certainly won't be disappointed! Plenty of low end on the JT, no worries there. The Neve is a pretty darn cool pre-amp.

As much as I REALLY wanted one of the 82 and was bummed when I missed the window to simply order one, I'm not that upset about it. Great color and ebony fretboard but... the function is the same as the others. If I did get one of the 82 I'd be playing it.

Yes, if I own it I play it I don't keep anything that sits. Great to hear about the low end!

 

[macribas]

I like it. It sounds great and it plays well, so I'm playing it. However, if I get an extra thousand dollars on top of what I paid, I'm happy to let it go. It's not a collector's item. It just has a different paint job. If people are holding on to it just because it might go up in value, I'm sure there are way better investment vehicles.

 

[jazz5757]

I like it. It sounds great and it plays well, so I'm playing it. However, if I get an extra thousand dollars on top of what I paid, I'm happy to let it go. It's not a collector's item. It just has a different paint job. If people are holding on to it just because it might go up in value, I'm sure there are way better investment vehicles.

No doubt about that. About 6 months ago I was on Ebay and spotted a '63 P bass for $2,150. It had a jazz pickup added and someone expanded the control cavity, all original parts except for tuners and wiring harness. I found a guy in Italy - he fixed the route and cavity and did a nitro CAR paint job with a matching headstock for $500. I found correct tuners. It's now with my luthier. No doubt it will be worth much more than the $3,250 I have into it and that should just increase. No doubt a much better investment vehicle.

 

[Mark Cassidy]

I own a few Aria SB’s and a Kubicki X Factor also .. those have ALWAYS been my go to’s and I’ve played others throughout the years too

I have a really hard time putting this RIO Dream bass down, the hype is real

 

[jazz5757]

I own a few Aria SB’s and a Kubicki X Factor also .. those have ALWAYS been my go to’s and I’ve played others throughout the years too

I have a really hard time putting this RIO Dream bass down, the hype is real

That's encouraging. We all live in a world full of hype. Sometimes it's legit and other times it's not. Great to hear when something you want lives up to the expectation (and hopefully exceeds it). Is your experience the same as ModuMan with regard to getting low end out of it? As a p bass guy I've got to have some of that thunder...

 

[BassDudeSA]

That's encouraging. We all live in a world full of hype. Sometimes it's legit and other times it's not. Great to hear when something you want lives up to the expectation (and hopefully exceeds it). Is your experience the same as ModuMan with regard to getting low end out of it? As a p bass guy I've got to have some of that thunder...

My review is that I get more low end out of a passive Fender than both of my Dingwalls, and that's with the active bass EQ full on. It's weird. You plug in and crank that bass knob and it sounds booming, but with the band these just tap out on the low end and pushing the dynamics doesn't help much. I wrote about this with my review pages back. It's like there is a built in compressor and it is easy to reach the wall. Same situation with my US Peavey Cirrus basses, probably why JT made the switch as I know he likes a smooth even tone. With a P or J I find them to be much more sensitive to dynamics when playing hard and the low end is endless (when helped by a nice pre-amp). Of course this won't be noticeable with a light to medium touch, but as someone who plays aggressive finger style (playing mostly pop, rock and '80s covers) I just find these a bit limiting in that way. Others may not find this issue at all as we all play differently and have different ears, just relaying my experience. With that said, I do play my NG3 a couple times a month (I play roughly 4-10 shows a month, more in the summer) and prefer my higher end Ibanez SRs over the Dingwall when I want to go active (those can tap out on the low end too, but not as bad). I think the Dingwalls look cool as hell and are a nice change of pace and the fanned frets were no issue at all. Can be a reach though hitting the F on the E string! One thing to note, I had to raise the action because otherwise the strings are so close to the pickups, and I lowered the pickups too! Really I would have been better suited with a 2-pup Combustion for the gap in the middle between both pickups because it feels weird for my fingers to hit those pickups so easily on the Dingwalls on all strings, but that's just an ergonomic thing with my style of playing. Both of my Dingwalls are my first ever three pickup basses and found it interesting how much I relied on that open space between a standard two-pup bass.

 

[jazz5757]

My review is that I get more low end out of a passive Fender than both of my Dingwalls, and that's with the active bass EQ full on. It's weird. You plug in and crank that bass knob and it sounds booming, but with the band these just tap out on the low end and pushing the dynamics doesn't help much. I wrote about this with my review pages back. It's like there is a built in compressor and it is easy to reach the wall. Same situation with my US Peavey Cirrus basses, probably why JT made the switch as I know he likes a smooth even tone. With a P or J I find them to be much more sensitive to dynamics when playing hard and the low end is endless (when helped by a nice pre-amp). Of course this won't be noticeable with a light to medium touch, but as someone who plays aggressive finger style (playing mostly pop, rock and '80s covers) I just find these a bit limiting in that way. Others may not find this issue at all as we all play differently and have different ears, just relaying my experience. With that said, I do play my NG3 a couple times a month (I play roughly 4-10 shows a month, more in the summer) and prefer my higher end Ibanez SRs over the Dingwall when I want to go active (those can tap out on the low end too, but not as bad). I think the Dingwalls look cool as hell and are a nice change of pace and the fanned frets were no issue at all. Can be a reach though hitting the F on the E string! One thing to note, I had to raise the action because otherwise the strings are so close to the pickups, and I lowered the pickups too! Really I would have been better suited with a 2-pup Combustion for the gap in the middle between both pickups because it feels weird for my fingers to hit those pickups so easily on the Dingwalls on all strings, but that's just an ergonomic thing with my style of playing. Both of my Dingwalls are my first ever three pickup basses and found it interesting how much I relied on that open space between a standard two-pup bass.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful and detailed description of your experiences. With regard to the JT signature model, I asked the seller to cancel my purchase and he did. With shipping, taxes and import fees the total is almost 5K. It may be a great bass and I want it, but I can't justify paying that much for it. It will be interesting to see if someone else steps up. I imagine someone will given the rarity. I may consider the regular production model which would save me well over 2k, or perhaps wait until the beginning of next year when their p bass is coming out, although if someone is willing to sell their JT for a reasonable profit (hint, hint), I'm open to that.

 

[Mark Cassidy]

Admittedly, I'm the fool who bought this one. When I heard about this model coming out I called Grasshopper at Bass Central and he just said you'll never get one of those 82. I didn't do my homework at all. I grabbed it when I saw it without doing my diligence. Then later did some searching and realized I got hosed price-wise. I haven't heard back from them yet and thought about seeing if they would cancel my order, not that I don't want it, but now I probably have the distinction of being the guy who paid the most for one of these. Not a good feeling - but I only have myself to blame. Live and learn (hopefully!).

I see you succeed in canceling the order!

 

[jazz5757]

I see you succeed in canceling the order!

Yes. The price of the bass, plus shipping and state taxes amount to almost $4,800...plus I would have had to pay import fees on top of that! So, we're talking $5,000 for a bass which cost about $2,000 less. I'm willing to pay a premium, but not 40%. There's a good chance I'd never recoup that. I'm bummed I'm not getting it but also relieved that I didn't shell that sum on money out.

 

[macribas]

Yes. The price of the bass, plus shipping and state taxes amount to almost $4,800...plus I would have had to pay import fees on top of that! So, we're talking $5,000 for a bass which cost about $2,000 less. I'm willing to pay a premium, but not 40%. There's a good chance I'd never recoup that. I'm bummed I'm not getting it but also relieved that I didn't shell that sum on money out.

I'm pretty sure that those will pop up for sale every now and then. There were a lot less of the KK basses and you still managed to get one, right?

 

[jazz5757]

I'm pretty sure that those will pop up for sale every now and then. There were a lot less of the KK basses and you still managed to get one, right?

Yes, that is correct, Dingwall only made 25 of those.

 

[jazz5757]

Plus, as you noticed, I posted a Wanted ad for a Super P. That's probably much more in line with what I lean to sound-wise. I've listened to just about every YouTube vid out there and to my ears that's the Dingwall that is closest to my liking.

 

[graphics1988]

Plus, as you noticed, I posted a Wanted ad for a Super P. That's probably much more in line with what I lean to sound-wise. I've listened to just about every YouTube vid out there and to my ears that's the Dingwall that is closest to my liking.

Ohhh.. hey Dave, my Dingwall Super P is amazing - every time I swap it out for something else and go back too it after not playing it for awhile, it's like an instant 'duh' moment....As much as I loved all my longer scale Dingwalls, I felt more at home with the Super series.
My red ABZ 4 had the wenge neck, and had a slimmer than normal neck, it was tonal perfection - also passive. I think all the Cdn Dingwalls are incredible.

 

[jazz5757]

Ohhh.. hey Dave, my Dingwall Super P is amazing - every time I swap it out for something else and go back too it after not playing it for awhile, it's like an instant 'duh' moment....As much as I loved all my longer scale Dingwalls, I felt more at home with the Super series.
My red ABZ 4 had the wenge neck, and had a slimmer than normal neck, it was tonal perfection - also passive. I think all the Cdn Dingwalls are incredible.

That's great to hear! I'm on the hunt. One for was sale here recently. Hopefully another will pop up at some point. I can tell I'm not going to talk you out of yours...lol Thanks!

 

[graphics1988]

That's great to hear! I'm on the hunt. One for was sale here recently. Hopefully another will pop up at some point. I can tell I'm not going to talk you out of yours...lol Thanks!

Nope. lol.. 'you know who' has my red custom ABZ - I think it's a lifer for him. Sorry to derail. Cheers

 

[jazz5757]

Nope. lol.. 'you know who' has my red custom ABZ - I think it's a lifer for him. Sorry to derail. Cheers

Now is that anyway to treat the guy who sold you my '63 CAR Custom Shop P bass? LOL