FDC484950

I have 4 Canadian Dingwalls. Three have the Glock preamp and one is passive. I’ve been through most other brands and have settled with Dingwall because of the balanced tension and feel across all strings, the low B sounds and plays like an E string (and to date it’s the only bass I’ve ever played that really does this). I don’t play any metal. I did initially own an NG3 but IMHO it’s not worth the price tag for what it is (plays perfectly nicely but just doesn’t feel in any way special to me) and I didn’t take to the Darkglass pre (which I’ve had on another bass and didn’t like them either). The Glock is more flexible with the passive tone control and sounds more musical to my ears. The pickups make quite a difference too - the super fatty and FDV models sound very different to the neodymium FD3s in the NG range. They're not to everyone’s taste and the Canadian models are fast becoming out of reach for all but the wealthiest, but as a 5 and 6 string player for most of my career they’re at the pinnacle and I can’t see me looking elsewhere, at least for now.

As a previous owner of 3 Dimension deluxe HH 5s, the low B isn’t great. It’s OK but even a low F (6th fret) was quite dull and indistinct. The high mass badass-like bridge doesn’t help as it makes it very hard to string a decent gauge non-tapered B without twisting - I think the worst 5-string bass I’ve owned in that respect. Personally I would stick with your 4 and look for a better overall 5-string. I’ve not tried the Far Eastern range of Stingray basses but the US version has long been known for a very solid and tight low B. Totally different tone to the Dimension, different pickup setup in different places. Try one first as an SR5 isn’t for everyone.

I have nothing against Fender as a brand but I’ve never played a new one I liked. The last one I tried was an American Professional II P Bass and it felt shiny, plasticky, polite and lifeless. They seem to benefit from being played in for a few years. Every “nice” one I’ve played has been 20+ years old and very well played in - particularly the Japanese Fenders with USA pickups. There are so many reasonably affordable “vintage” Fenders out there, if I were willing to spend over £2K, I’d save up another £1K or so (well, it might need a bit more!) and find a lightweight, resonant mid to late 70s model with the mojo, or get an aforementioned Japanese version for less than half that.

Here you go. He's tuned the bass down a half step (lowest bass note is a Bb), which may account for the confusion. So the bass is Eb, Db, Cb (or B), Bb then up to A, G, Gb and finally F.

Fixed

The ‘54 precision and matching headstock on the 2 jazzes are nice (which IMHO they really should do by default). Not exactly “new” models though. But then what else could they do with a vintage J and P?

May I humbly suggest that unless your bass is faulty then there’s possibly nothing wrong with it? A Jazz has been used in rock (and many other genres) successfully for decades with the stock (and more often than not very basic) pickups. Which model of Jazz do you have? If it’s not a really cheap budget model with noticeably awful pickups, swapping them out for another set (plenty mentioned above already) is unlikely to magically fix whatever it is you’re not hearing. Everybody’s experience is of course different but I’ve never swapped out pickups and liked the change or noticed much of a difference. The strings, setup, pedals/effects, amp and room(s) you’re playing in make a massive difference.

I see that after what feels like 10 years of saying the details on their website are subject to change whilst the website is under construction, Dingwall finally has a nice new website. The expanded galleries for each model are cool, especially the Sklar (one of my new favourite basses).

I’ve always thought of Fender and Custom Shop in the same sentence as an oxymoron. They were always meant to be workmanlike instruments for the gigging bassist. The main reasons for the painted finishes were to attract the eye like Californian hot rods and custom cars, and to cover up the fact that they glued any old bits of wood together to make the bodies. Unless there’s a particular combo/spec they never actually made you can probably get the original for far less money.

If it’s in 3 then you have one beat fewer per bar to build a line, which can be a challenge, but at least it’s not a chord every two beats! If it’s a jazz tune then the extensions are a bit of a red herring because just about every decent chordal and soloing player will make use of them, even if the song doesn’t have them. Many tunes have (for example) Dm7 to G7 to Cmaj7, but any basic piano player will immediately substitute Dm9 to G13 (E is the 9 in the Dm9 and the 13 in the G13), or even G9b13 ending on Cmaj9 to get chromatic voice leading (E in the Dm9, Eb in the G9b13, D in the Cmaj9). As a bass player nothing changes - your first and most important job is to outline the basic nature of the chord. More advanced players can weave a line that stands alone and works with the chords but that takes a lot of knowledge and practice and very much depends upon what the other musicians are playing. You are dead right that a line that sits on the extensions a lot, particularly a line with no direction or forward motion, doesn’t support the soloist and will make things sound a little flat. It’s best used when moving from one part of a solo to the next - being guided by the soloist and having good ears to hear how the chordal instrument responds makes a big difference. What would you do if the piano player suddenly started playing the chords with the same bass note (pedal tone)? First time that happened to me (unannounced) I was totally lost! After a while you get more familiar and start to anticipate these kind of changes. Specifically addressing your question, arpeggios are the bread and butter, with either scale or chromatic leading notes into the next chord. Unless the player is very skilled and experienced I wouldn’t recommend straying too far from this - getting just this skill up to speed on hundreds of standards is a few decades’ work on its own

A tip from someone (I can’t remember who) is that if you want relatively even output across all 4 pickup settings, set the switches to series for the bridge and neck pickups and parallel for the middle pickup. Position 2 (bridge/middle in series) is still a bit louder but much less so. IMHO the pickup coils sound better wired in series on positions 1 and 4 anyway, possibly because the nature of the Dingwall humbucker is that unless you drive them hard (or play hard) they lack a bit of sparkle, which the series setting seems to bring back.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115533834227 I know they’re revered in some circles, and you can’t buy a new one at the moment due to the length of the waiting list, but… twelve and a half grand??

The pickup selector has 4 positions from most anti-clockwise to most clockwise. Position 1: bridge pickup only Position 2: bridge and middle pickups in series Position 3: bridge and neck in parallel Position 4: neck pickup only. These are further modified by the three series/parallel switches. These affect the how the two coils in each pickup are combined, rather than how each pickup is combined, but have a similar tone shaping effect. Parallel combines the output of both pickups, which results in some frequency cancellation and results in a slightly lower output and a scooped sound, like a jazz bass with both pickups on full volume. Series feeds the output of one pickup into the other, resulting in a slightly louder signal and more pronounced mids. The switches do the same thing, but for combining the coils of each pickup rather than the pickups themselves. So, if you choose position 2 and set the switches for bridge and middle pickups to series it will have a pretty high output. Selecting position 1 with the bridge switch set the parallel will be quite a lot lower in output.

I think the phrase you’re looking for is “daylight robbery”. But then it’s sold and they’ve been at that for quite a while - a lot of used basses seem to get London Weighting added. Squier JV for £1,800, anyone?

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Yep, see the other thread. Same experience. I’m starting to think that in the current state of the world that importing anything is a no go area. My screwed up delivery is just a centre stand for a motorbike - annoying as I bought from the manufacturer and only retailer in the world that does it - but at least it’s not a boutique bass stuck in customs or on its way back to sender!

You’ve missed “I’ve just bought one or I’d be all over this”…