moosebreath

Just a bit of info here and try to impress everyone with my wealth of knowledge. My 10 year old AB 2 plays awesome and smooth but the bass side had a lot of growl to it. Overly strong bass sound and the and the G and D strings or treble side was quite weak. When playing those strings I had to really nail them to get enough sound and never could match the timber or dynamic's of the bottom 3. That problem really showed up at a gig last friday. I found the spec's for, I think, all dingwall guitars as far as string height from the pickups. Mine were too far away on the treble side and too close on the bass side which, obviously made the bass side overpowering and the treble side way under powered. So, the specs say 3/32 inch gap on treble side and twice that or 3/16 inch on the bass side. I set mine up that way and that evened everything out and brought the sound in line perfectly. All the strings now have damn near the same dynamic's. Sounds excellent. You can dial it in closer or further away as you see fit but those are the spec's. Worked wonderfully for me anyway. Carry on.

Dingwalls are top shelf basses but not for everyone. The guy I got my AB 2 from had it a year and just couldn't get use to the sound. It wasn't HIS sound. Went back to his jazz bass, which he never really left, and thats fine. Not a lot of em on this side of the pond considering how many other kinds are out there. Never ran into another one or many that have ever touched one. The thought behind the fan fret just made sense to me and the action and sound, for me, is second to none. You can have my Dingbat when you can pry my cold, dead fingers from around it!! Untill then I will take no prisoners and eat the wounded!

I'm a bit late to the buffet here but here goes. I have been playing a long scale Traben 5 for a while now and love it. Plays like butter, sounds good. Smaller body so a bit of neck dive, which I corrected. I saw Lee Sklar and his Dingwall and immediately went on a search and distroy to learn everything I could about them. What I found out about them and the fan fret concept just made sense. A month later I was ready but most were above my pay grade. Finally found one 50 miles away, in Tampa. It was 10 years old. Afterburner 2, 5 string in showroom condition. Played it for 3 minutes and stuffed $2,100.00 USD in the guys hand and hit the road. Took it to a class A luthier and had him do a set up. I am so in love with this bass. There is nothing about it I would change. The fan frets were never an issue although I have been told if you play with the neck horizontal the optics are weird but I dont so no worries. The build is the best I have ever played and it plays as good as my Traben but is more powerful and punchier. This is my first bolt on neck. I have always had neck thru for the sustain, which is noticable sometimes. I just like them. The sustain on the Dingwall is in outer space. You cant touch this without a sustain box. Trust me. This is my last bass unless I become filthy, stinking rich and order a custom Dingwall. I dont think I can beat this thing. 10 out of 10. Not many used ones in America. I have been on Craigs List in several cities just looking and found maybe 3. If you run onto one, make the stretch ($) and get it. No regrets, I promise. PS. Between sets you will be explaining to folks what the hell it is. Cudos from Florida!!