CameronJ

Ha! Feel free to keep gawping! PM me if you have a deal in mind

I’ve bought a Mono Double, which is excellent in its own right but considerably more expensive even on the used market. You wait forever for a bus and two come along at once...

Agreed. If the designs are protected. If Gibson had done so, there would be no real argument here as they would clearly be in the right and all others in the wrong. Questionable video or no questionable video.

Exactly.

Nope. For the sake of argument, let’s call it “taking” then. One can only steal that which is someone else’s property.

Nice work sir! Here’s one I was listening to just yesterday with a synth part I reckon you’d enjoy learning: Bit more of a challenge but definitely achievable!

I think the point that needs to be made is that the guitar industry, much like many other industries, is a constant cycle of one person borrowing ideas from another. Improving ideas, developing ideas, making things lighter, faster, stronger. Asking “what if...?” Just look at the number of guitar companies who have “made better Fenders than Fender” over the years. This obviously was a kick in the teeth to Fender, especially at a time when the quality of their own instruments was poor. However, without that pressure from competitors Fender might not be in as good a place quality-wise as they are now. There are still countless companies out there who “make better Fenders than Fender”, but at least now that their quality control has improved it isn’t quite such an obvious no-brainer to go with another brand. They still have a long way to go though and I’d prefer to play my Dingwall Super P than an actual Fender Precision, and would rather have a Lakland/Xotic/MTD flavoured J bass than a Fender Jazz all day long. Apple and Samsung are constantly “stealing” from each other, both hardware designs and software features. They seem to be in a perpetual state of court action against one another but we as consumers benefit from excellent tech and, perhaps most importantly, we get options. On a legal level, if something hasn’t been explicitly protected then it is fair game for use. Fair enough - if Gibson had defended their intellectual property from the start and people were using their designs I would agree with you @Al Krow, it would be theft. Gibson failed to do so. It’s their mistake. They should learn from it and move on with a view to improving themselves rather than trying to be corporate bullies and blaming other companies for their own shortcomings in the guitar industry.

And the D-Bird is not the design that Dingwall is famous for. It’s their least established model. Dingwall existed for several years, producing only original shapes before even touching on the idea of doing an homage to the P Bass, J Bass and T Bird. And even that came about mostly as a result of so many people asking them to do it. Sheldon Dingwall actively avoided doing so for a long time. If I’m not mistaken Aria and Yamaha, among other well respected Japanese brands, have in the past been involved in lawsuit cases regarding instrument designs. To hold them up as a squeaky clean example while trying to bash Dingwall is somewhat comical. When selling old Aria and Yamaha copies, sellers often literally include the word “lawsuit” in the sale titles: https://reverb.com/uk/item/78845-vintage-70s-aria-lawsuit-precision-bass-copy https://www.talkbass.com/threads/vintage-mij-p-bass-lawsuit-era-yamaha-pulser-bass.940185/ We all know it’s not that simple though. As has been mentioned, Dingwall is a small company. Even if they know they have a very strong case in court, the legal costs involved in going up against someone like Gibson are far too high to be worth it. Especially not for the sake of a design that isn’t one Dingwall built its success on. If someone were challenging Dingwall about their AB1/ABZ, Prima or Combustion shapes it might be a different story.

Are you joking?

Aguilar do nice 5 string P pickups as well. Also worth seeing if Yamaha will sell you their pups on their own as frankly whatever comes standard in my BB735 sounds amazing. I’d suggest doing the same with Maruszczyk who don’t seem to advertise their pickups as standalone purchases but they sound pretty phenomenal from the demos I’ve heard.

Or indeed a D-ick.

Oh bloody hell. If I’d seen this a week ago I’d have gone for it! GLWTS, these are excellent.

These are bloody excellent. I tried one at GuitarGuitar a year or so ago and was very impressed. Lakland make fantastic gear.

This. Better to avoid the risk altogether, make a design change and retain financial health!

At this price? No brainer! And that sofa is pornographic in itself, let alone with a Dingwall laid across it. GLWTS @Dood!