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About a week and a half ago I acquired my first Dingwall. A Super PZ5 - the Z apparently denotes the optional Swamp Ash body but from now on I’ll just call it a Super P. I’ve deliberately waited a little while before writing this review as I didn’t want the thrill of New Bass Day to cloud my judgement and result in an overly gushing writeup. Having said that... This bass is a real keeper. Dingwall have taken a good hard look at the classic P bass and really made it their own, whilst absolutely honouring the things which made the original so great. The body shape is totally familiar but it’s a few millimetres thinner than you’d see normally, with a few subtle contours and carves which all shave the weight down. Oh and the Swamp Ash helps too. These body adjustments and the Hipshot Ultralite hardware all add up to making this thing a seriously light instrument at 7lbs 14oz. The electronics are all Dingwall’s own - with the tone of the pickup being modelled on (I believe) one of Sheldon Dingwall’s favourite Precisions, but with a Neodymium magnet for a hotter output. The “Tone Fusion” knob does something I’ve never seen before in a passive circuit: it has a centre detent and turning it anticlockwise has the expected result of passively rolling off treble. Turning it clockwise of the detent introduces a passive mid cut! I’ll admit to using the “traditional” side of the knob much more frequently than the “fusion” side but it’s a very cool feature and kind of psychologically fools me into feeling like I have an active instrument. This knob was actually quite noisy (crackly) in use at first but all that was required was a couple of squirts of contact cleaner in the pot. Totally smooth and crackle-free now, though I was a little worried at first! Now here’s the part some people will be waiting for. Fanned Frets. On the Super P and Super J series basses, the scale of the fan is actually less extreme than on Dingwall’s more “metal-oriented” models. 32” to 35” rather than 34” to 37”. The angle of the fan remains the same, it’s just the overall scale which is reduced by 2 inches. The upside to this is that you can use any brand of long scale strings on the Supers. Great stuff. The neck is maple with a pau ferro fingerboard and it feels lovely. The finish on the neck seems to be somewhere between satin and gloss but it’s incredibly light in feel and doesn’t impede playing speed at all. This particular bass was made in 2012 though so this finish probably started out more on the satin end of the spectrum. I’ve owned passive PJs, active PJs, an active PM and and active P but, absurdly, this is my first ever passive p-only bass...and it is glorious!

Yes. There was a time when Goggle wasn't seen anywhere without a Gaylord. I think it worked a lot better than his short lived Fender sig model. For some reason it never really caught on.

Started the carve of the neck/body transition. Still more to do, but this is the sort of thing I'm going for: It already feels nice as you head towards the top frets but I'll probably scoop the carve out a little more. For those of a nervous disposition, by the way, the two dark lines near the neck join are grain lines in the Sapele, not cracks I've changed tack on the skunk stripe lining up with the purpleheart stripe by the way - I've moved to "from the player's point of view, when it's on the strap and he's gazing lovingly down at the back, it lines up nicely" Overall, I think the shape is coming together. The only thing that niggles a bit - and it may look quite different once the two waist relief areas are deepened (this afternoon's job) is that the back to me looks a bit flat? Having said that, it maybe because this is the first non-concave backed build I've done in a while...maybe this is what they're usually like! So, a bit more body carving and the control chamber next on the list of to-dos

Lovely stuff! https://www.loudersound.com/news/last-flight-to-pluto-release-video-for-coverland

Zig? A Zig? Ah.

I saw Mr Goggle with his sig model on the Slack Mattress re-union tour a few years back when they played Devizes Corn Exchange. The Gaylord sounded absolutely thunderous through Tony's vintage Acoustic rig - heft for days and bags of growl. When he hit the E 12th fret harmonic at the end of Hollywood Hooker a crack appeared in the floor of the venue that went right out the front door, across the square and up the front of WH Smiths.

All joking aside, the Yokken ClangHammer was superb. They did a limited edition with a crispy bacon scratchplate and a neck fashioned from house bricks. The neck dive was atrocious but it sounded so meaty.

Hey Basschat, i did one of these with the Mustang and thought it would be cool to do the same for the Ripper! i personally prefer and really like the sound of the pick on this bass (coming from a 99 percent fingerstyle player) What are you guys feeling? oh and also feel free to share pics and vids of your Ripper basses. Bill.

You had a narrow escape. Could have ended up with a nasty dose of more than the flu. In my youth i wandered into a porn shop in Maastricht. I walked out two minutes later in complete shock. That was the day I realised that everything i previously thought was a bit rude was in fact utterly and completely vanilla

I had a Fender Goggle back in the day. Hung nicely on the strap; fast neck; the deep belly cut was particularly comfortable. The problem was that whichever way you switched the pick-ups they were always out of phase with each other; also, the cap values were wildly inappropriate. As a result, the output was about 75% less than a stock P. In the end I traded it for a re-fin George Formby Strat and never regretted it.

Just in case - A bass string is rather like an old fashioned washing line... in as much as it's usually secured at both ends, otherwise it would be uselessly saggy... very unlike a modern tumble dryer - which is nothing like a bass string. Hope this helps.

We're on a bass forum discussing basses. Who in their right mind would think we need car analogies for that?? 😜

Hmmm, This is usually how 'discussions' with my wife end.

The only (two) BC'ers who have ever bought a TF Bullhead are either selling them or have sold them. There's a bunch of us who still have and love our M6s. Quad erat demonstrandum

The Imprecision.

About as small as I could make it.

Handbox WB100 and Bergantino NV115.

Yes I do, but be aware, I'm just the next fashion waiting to happen

You're all smoking crack; there's nothing that could hold a candle to the Tony Goggle signature model, based on Tony's original Gaylord that he used extensively both live, in the studio and also live. Automatic gearbox, including two reverse modes plus with the "bassface" mod there's nothing that could touch this Anything else is just firewood AFAIC

Yeah... you should see it when it all turns purple... 😈and of course it’s got some killer tones 😃

The day has finally arrived!!! I went down to pick up the new Status this afternoon, then straight to rehearsal... even though I was using the studio gear it sounded awesome and looks very 😎. I couldn’t be happier with it! Ill spend some time tweaking the sound with my gear and get some better pics in natural light, but.... drum roll please.... here is the Status S2 classic, through neck with wrap around LEDs. In chameleon indigo.... 😍😍

Supertwin user here. It absolutely slays - as @Wolverinebass says, his cab is great too - very nice sounding. ST suits me VK suits him. At this level you are looking at an answer where one is right and the other is righter - just

So it’s now ready to assemble, I bought a bridge cover and “ummed and arred” over a pickup one too. Also added a thumb rest/ tug bar for aesthetic reasons too I offered up the neck to the body just to see how it’s going to look I changed the knobs to flat ones instead of domed. I’m now waiting on some labella flats, Dunlop strap locks (on all my basses) and I took the plunge and bought a pickup cover. I’ll update when I’ve got those added them and fixed the neck to the body. Then it’s ready to set up and play.

No, because she is frozen in time (Desperately Seeking Susan time), and so am I for that matter... this is bad... like when I was 14 and fell in love with what's her name out of "Two Mules for Sister Sarah" with Clint Eastwood, and I was gutted to discover that the film was already old, and she was (by that time) 50 or something... that was horrible... and time (for me) is now relative. What the hell are you on about?? 😬

No doubt there's some great luthiers in Italy we don't know about in a similar way that most bass players outside the UK won't have heard of Shuker etc. I think at one time they made some half decent violins............

I just had a flashback to when I was a student and one night during Freshers week a small group of us were enticed into a rather dingy club. After few drinks at the downstairs bar we stumbled up the stairs into a room where, when my eyes finally focused, I noticed hardcore gay pornography was being projected on to a wall. Not vanilla guy meets guy gay porn either, things that clearly weren't designed for the purpose were being inserted in places that seemed to have a great deal of trouble receiving them and the 'insertees' really didn't seem to be enjoying the experience. As the saying goes 'There are some things you can never unsee'. The weird thing was that it wasn't a gay club or even a gay night. I think we just accidentally walked into the early stages of a 'special' private party. We left before things got messy.

You know who else used to sport a Zig bass? Bernie Sanders, when he was backing Joan Baez in '65. He was one of Ralph Zig's first endorsees. Sanders: Zig bass? That f**ker would sustain for days. Vote for me.

And now, the previously-quoted meme in its full, unexpurgated glory: Captain: What happen ? Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. Operator: We get signal. Captain: What ! Operator: Main screen turn on. Captain: It's you !! CATS: How are you gentlemen !! CATS: All your base are belong to us. CATS: You are on the way to destruction. Captain: What you say !! CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. CATS: Ha ha ha ha … Operator: Captain !! Captain: Take off every 'ZIG'!! Captain: You know what you doing. Captain: Move 'ZIG'. Captain: For great justice.

Awww! Its not tin foil, it's my new skin. I am a robot, I have interfaced with my spectrum. Behold! 🤖

Aaah, my dear misguided friend! *shakes head, smiling in a patronising manner* We were discussing the ubiquitousness of the precision bass - my analogy, or analogy if you will, was drawing an interesting comparison between the world of motor-vehicles & bass guitars - subjects that are very dear to many BCers hearts. I had hoped to spark an interesting bass/car discussion that could have led to enlightening & light-hearted interaction. Instead, I was met with your washing line silliness. Ricky, I feel that you've let yourself down, you've let Rickenbacker owners down, you've let BassChat down, and most of all, you've let me down.

https://www.facebook.com/zootbass/videos/251221669091193/

Teebs. Your question answers itself

The #1 reggae cab is the 'Fridge, and it's by no means a sub. A real sub on the back line is a bad idea, since you won't know what it's doing out in the room. Even real subs on PA can be problematic when the FOH engineer doesn't know what the electric bass is supposed to sound like. Those who do will high pass the bass channel between 60 and 80Hz, to end up with response in the PA similar to the back line amp. That means if the PA is well engineered most of the electric bass content coming out of the subs is between 60 and 100Hz. The worst bass mix I ever heard was Greg Lake. His stage tone might have been good, he was using an SVT. But out front a moron sound man had him so loud below 80Hz that when Greg played anything below a D note it drowned out the rest of the band, while anything he played above that literally disappeared and wasn't heard at all. If Greg had heard what that sound man was doing he'd have pummeled him.

'57 Chevy. Which is fine by me.

"Hello, Police." "Yes, this is Gordon from The Police. I'm calling about the guitars you found ..." Oops, wrong thread.

And I purchased it from him last week. Easy transaction and a gentleman to boot.

For the video yeah I had my TC RH750 and BF two10 on show.. The bass on the album was recorded direct via a valve mic-pre using my 2016 Elite Precision (the bass I'm using whilst 'suited' in the video). The song is about the grind that can happen in a busy working covers band, and the comparative pleasure of performing your own songs to an appreciative crowd....hence the 2 sets of clothes, different basses etc.. Cheers for the kind responses, we're really happy with how this album has turned out, hoping for more positive responses around the scene...

There's 2 Rev. Al Green tunes in our set that I love playing - take me to the river and let's stay together. At first it was the basslines but now we have a lovely new horn section these songs are flying to another level played live! I'm actually loving all our set but those 2 stick out as 'tingly, warm feeling inside' moments 😊

How VERY dare you! I'll have you know NONE of my basses have more than the first 12 frets.

Today I have learned many things. The good folk of said bass chat are satisfyingly deranged, opinionated and probably nice people to drink beer and break stuff with I also have a fairly well fleshed out business plan (apart from funding, premises, design, talent..) to establish a guitar company who first product willl be the aforementioned mythical beast that is the shitenbacker banana boat gaylord. We should have a competition, and design it by committee, what could go wrong eh? Oh yeah and something to do with p basses and that.

And yet he bought a verrrry expensive FBass with lots of knobs... He lost me at "An active bass doesn't sound better than a passive bass, because if it did, we would all play active basses...", which shows a fundamental misunderstanding of, well, people, and the zillions of reasons people buy both active and passive basses. Clickbait, as we've discussed before...

I didn't realise it was that time of day already. Thought there were still a few hours to go before the next "I love P/I hate P" thread.

I think that when people say 'I can't play with 18mm string spacing' it is just shorthand for 'I could technically play on 18mm string spacing but it isn't my preference and I would prefer to play something else'. I think that it is mostly personal preference rather than a case of bassists being fussy or not being adaptable or any idea that a bassist who doesn't like narrow string spacing is somehow a less talented bassist than someone who does. The context behind someone saying 'I can only play bass on Fender Precision basses might actually be 'I have been playing loads of types of basses for years but have finally discovered that the dimensions and sounds of a Precision are perfect for me, so why bother playing something else?'. I'm sure that if most of the players on this site swapped basses for a weekend of gigs, most of us would be able to 'make do' with someone else's bass for a weekend without the gig suffering. We probably wouldn't enjoy it as much though as playing with the instruments we are used to and have chosen through our own personal preference. It would be a fun experiment though.

A snippet from a set we did a couple of years back covering music by Ernest Ranglin, Monty Alexander and Bob Marley.