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Would it be difficult to mod a Dingwall D-Roc to install a Darkglass pre-amp?
- Thread starter BeyondAntares
- Start date
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,019
- 1
- 31,736
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
The DG Tone Capsule is a three-band preamp, so you’ll need two more holes for pots, or one more hole and use a stacked pot. In addition, you’ll need room for a battery. A separate battery box makes life much easier.
You can keep the Dingwall master volume and pickup selector switches.
The Tone Capsule is a pretty powerful and aggressive preamp. I think it will add another dimension to the D-Roc!
You can keep the Dingwall master volume and pickup selector switches.
The Tone Capsule is a pretty powerful and aggressive preamp. I think it will add another dimension to the D-Roc!
If you buy from a Dingwall dealer, most of them would be willing/able to install the DG preamp for you.
Like @ctmullins said, you need a minimum of one more pot hole because you can only stack the preamp controls together since you'd want to use a standard 250k or 500k volume pot and the Dingwall rotary switch.
The preamp is tiny PCB so you shouldn't have any trouble fitting all the components in the control cavity with a battery.
I haven't installed the DG TC in a D-roc, but I did put one in a Warmoth build with 6 pots: volume, Dingwall rotary, no-load passive tone with push/pull preamp bypass, and the 3 DG controls.
I highly recommend the active/passive switch and a passive tone control because then you get some control over the highs in both passive and active. You're not going miss these options if you don't have them, but they're really nice to have if you're OK with adding some extra holes to the bass.
Like @ctmullins said, you need a minimum of one more pot hole because you can only stack the preamp controls together since you'd want to use a standard 250k or 500k volume pot and the Dingwall rotary switch.
The preamp is tiny PCB so you shouldn't have any trouble fitting all the components in the control cavity with a battery.
I haven't installed the DG TC in a D-roc, but I did put one in a Warmoth build with 6 pots: volume, Dingwall rotary, no-load passive tone with push/pull preamp bypass, and the 3 DG controls.
I highly recommend the active/passive switch and a passive tone control because then you get some control over the highs in both passive and active. You're not going miss these options if you don't have them, but they're really nice to have if you're OK with adding some extra holes to the bass.
I would order a custom D-Roc with all the options you want rather than tear up an existing one. It is a beast as a passive instrument and was designed that way. I do run it through a DG infinity, which may get you where you wanna go without modding the passive bass. Plus, there’s not much room in that control cavity.
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I'm wondering the same...did you succeeed adding a pre-amp? I could not find any picture of the D-roc cavity to see how big it is and how it could accomodate the mod...
