therealting

My Dingwall Super P is as close to the perfect bass as I’ve tried.

@4000 They’re much cheaper than Fender Masterbuilts, which is IMO what they are equivalent to... in fact cheaper than the standard Custom Shop stuff.

Right, first mod done. Put a Straplock button where the outermost neck bolt is, and a suede-backed strap put on. Balance improved slightly, and suede strap means less sliding.

I was thinking this, but also worrying about why they’ve painted it - have I got a particularly unattractive roasted maple neck? 😂 Nonetheless, the dust particles are somewhat annoying on an otherwise nicely shaped neck. I find it a lot more comfortable that the Ibanez fanned fret sixer I’ve had before which was just too slim.

I hope you didn’t mean me - I just responded to a recommendation for Limelight by saying that, IMO, I hadn’t seen one I found convincing... but then to be fair I think there are lots of relicers whose work doesn’t look realistic - like actual, real wear - to me. I know they have many customers, and they seem like a great deal for what they cost. The most convincing ones are generally not overdone, nice finish checking, a few dents in usual places, light wear... ideally mostly put on by the players on a thin nitro coat that ages quickly, and the best ones have been Bravewood, Crinson / @Rick's Fine '52, Nash, and some of the Masterbuilt Fenders.

Are the knobs actually touching each other? Can you pull the top one out slightly? (might have to loosen the grub screw)

Took a punt on this two days ago on eBay when a B-stock came up for £200... figured there wasn’t much to lose at that price point. Here she is next to my Dingwall Super P5: My initial impression is that it’s insane how they are selling these for £299. This one at £200 is probably as many as many features as I’ve seen on any bass for the money: - burl laminate top - roasted maple neck and bound fingerboard - multiscale: 34” high G and 36.25” low B - LumInlay side markers - 3-band pre, EMG45 sized pickups - monorail bridges - Gotoh-style tuners - Black hardware - red / purple burst, with matching headstock Now obviously this isn’t a Dingwall, and there are compromises. For a start, it’s not perfectly balanced: the strap button near the neck is only around the 15th fret, and on a 6-string that makes it slightly neck heavy. I think I’ll put Dunlop Dual Design Straploks on which will extend it a centimetre or do - I might also toy with an inset one on the back like Dingwall do with their D-Bird / D-Roc models. The back of the neck on this one is painted, and there are dust bits in the paint which you can feel with your fingers. Given that it’s a roasted maple neck, I think I’m going to give burnishing a go. The bridge alignment is a bit of a mess - the monorails are not in line with the strings, and one of the saddles has almost fallen over. The saddle was easily fixed when I did the alignment - I will probably redrill for the bridge at some point, and possibly replace with gold ones if I end up liking this bass enough to keep it. There were some marks along both edges of the fingerboard - these were easily removed with a damp microfibre cloth, but seems strange to have them there. Some of the fret ends are a little sharp - again if I end up liking this, I may have them dressed properly. There is buffing compound dust in the neck bolt holes - again easily fixed, but perhaps where they managed to cut corners a little. On the listing, it cited to areas of damage: the gap between the nut and the neck, and a dents in the neck close to the heel. Both relatively minor and easily fixed. The truss rod relief was perfect, and surprisingly the nut slots were at the perfect height, but the bridge action was all over the place so I’ve given it a quick height and intonation set, and I have to say it plays very nicely. One or two slightly high frets preventing super-low action, but works well for my preferred setup and comfortable to play fingerstyle or slapped with the stock D’Addarios. The pickups aren’t anything particularly exciting, and the electronics aren’t exactly silent, but it sounds very passable... and for perspective, the Sadowsky preamp in my Dingwall cost me more than this entire instrument shipped. Going to live with it for a while, and then might try some of the fettling mentioned above. I have the EMG45s and EMG pre that came with my Shuker, so those could potentially go in this; the Shuker could then take the Glockenklang that came with my Sadowsky, and the Sadowsky could have its original Sadowsky pre put back in. In conclusion: I honestly can’t believe this thing cost me £200. It’s a very acceptable instrument as it is, and a little bit of work and parts I mostly already have, this could be an absolutely killer bass for under £400 that would probably cost 8-10x that if ordered from a custom builder.

Both, IMO.

@Woodinblack Does she have longer nails?

@cLepto-bass Colour me picky, but I’ve not seen a Limelight that I consider to be realistically reliced. Having said that, they are very inexpensive for what they are.

Except that Northwest one actually has an additional option - string through body. It’s a shame they don’t make a five string version of these bridges.

I have a couple pre-CBS Precisions, Bravewood did their restorations and they are simply incredible. I have also owned a couple of his reliced replicas, and they are indistinguishable from good examples of the real thing.

What about a passive tone control? I personally find it makes my active basses much more versatile.

You can tell based on how many wires there are from each pickup. If there are four wires, you could potentially use coil splits.

Are the pickups splittable/tappable?

No. I also lost more than a dozen watches which I’d collected over 20 years. Lots of sentimental value. However, as my girlfriend at the time pointed out, she was safe, I was safe, and my two beloved cats were safe. If anything had happened to any of us, I wouldn’t even have been thinking about the watches and guitars. Smart woman. Would still like them back 😂

Hold on, I have something you’re going to want to see

That’s true - I think I got my wires crossed there!

It’s hard to tell from those photos... but I can take a punt for that money.

It looks more like the but has become unseated, but I could be mistaken. I think the chip is at the heel.

Ah I didn’t realise he ended up returning his. I figured for £200, what the hell.

Saw this on eBay a few minutes ago and decided that for the price I had to give it a go. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F274363671473

I actually saw that yesterday! Going to look into it. Splitting isn’t straightforward as there is some voltage being carried somewhere. May be doable, I haven’t looked into it deeply.

I think it’s going to difficult to get one bass that does it all convincingly well enough to fool a dedicated player of each type of instrument. I guess the closest you could get would be theoretically have pickup coils selectable at each of the different 70s and 60s Jazz Bridge pickups, Musicman single and double pickup instruments, single and split coils P bass, J neck, EB neck etc... then you need the different pot values to associate it with the different types of pickup, and the different types of preamp for the different active sounds. Most of us just get several, or get a couple that do the key sounds well enough.