Dingwall FD-3n pickups

[JapanAxe]

I've had my D-Roc around 18 months now and its green sparkle finish has made it the obvious candidate for the Glam covers project that I'm involved with. I've been happy with the sounds available from the 3 pickups but I can't help thinking it might be nice to have other options.

 

Here's the thing:

The NG2 has 2 pickups and 4 sounds - bridge, bridge/middle (parallel), middle, and a 'fat sound' (bridge/middle, series).

The NG3 has 3 pickups and 4 sounds - bridge, bridge/middle*, bridge/neck*, neck. (*It's not clear to me whether these are series or parallel connections.)

The D-Roc has 3 pickups and 4 sounds - bridge, bridge/middle (parallel), middle, and a 'fat sound' (bridge/middle parallel, in series with neck); so an extra pickup but no extra sounds. Also you can't solo the neck pickup.

 

I'm not the only one to have thought along these lines, as there are 6-way switches available at Fret Nation and Bass Direct. Unfortunately they are too big to fit within the D-Roc's shallow body.

 

I started looking into this a bit further. The FD-3n pickups are humbuckers. The D-Roc's bridge and middle pickups each have series-wound coils, whereas the neck pickup has parallel-wound coils. Consequently, just wiring them up in different configurations might not give the expected results. I found a YouTube video of a guy who simply swapped the positions of his D-Roc's neck and middle pickups, without disturbing any solder joints or other electrical connections. This gives him: bridge, bridge/neck (parallel), neck, and a 'fat'; sound (bridge/neck parallel, in series with middle). It seems he never got round to posting a video demo of the sounds, but as this is completely reversible I intend to try it. If I like the new sounds then my plan would be to wire the neck pickup for series coils and install a Schaller 4-pole 5-way rotary which I could wire up to give (for example): bridge, bridge/middle (parallel), bridge/middle (series) [fat], bridge/neck (parallel), neck. While I'm in there I might fit a 100nF tone cap. If I don't like the new sounds I can just put it back to how it was.

 

Has anyone else been down this rabbit hole? I never had this with my Precisions!

 

Obviously I will report on my findings...

[itu]

Sorry to be a killjoy. Often these company ready options are tried and true. Of course you can do modifications. Ser/Par/Single is a very common trial with J basses and humbucker pickups. After trying this several times with several basses and pickups, I dare to say that this modification gives you another option which is audible to you, only.

[JapanAxe]

3 minutes ago, itu said:

Sorry to be a killjoy. Often these company ready options are tried and true. Of course you can do modifications. Ser/Par/Single is a very common trial with J basses and humbucker pickups. After trying this several times with several basses and pickups, I dare to say that this modification gives you another option which is audible to you, only.

Yes it’s entirely possible that any difference in sound between pickup combinations will be tiny - the more options , the less difference between them. At least the swap in positions is easy and quickly reversible, so that’s where I’ll start.

[kwmlondon]

Try the Dingwall facebook group. Sheldon and his team are often on there so if you’re looking for a d-roc solution to expanding 4 to 6 pickup selections that’d be the first place I’d go to ask. 

[JapanAxe]

10 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

Try the Dingwall facebook group. Sheldon and his team are often on there so if you’re looking for a d-roc solution to expanding 4 to 6 pickup selections that’d be the first place I’d go to ask. 

Good call, I’m in a Dingwall owners group.

[Machines]

Was the video you watched from V-Town guitars ? If so, he got that idea from me.

 

The pickups are not series/parallel pickups, they are just wired to the switch as such. It is possible to change them from series to parallel very easily - I have done this and also returned it back (sounds better that way).  Making them parallel improves treble response, but there is a big drop in bottom end.

 

I have also added a on/off switch for the neck pickup, allowing it to be solo'd in the former 'all on' position. Wiring diagram (series):

 

 

 Pickup options produced:

Edited Thursday at 13:23 by Machines

[JapanAxe]

6 hours ago, Machines said:

Was the video you watched from V-Town guitars ? If so, he got that idea from me.

 

The pickups are not series/parallel pickups, they are just wired to the switch as such. It is possible to change them from series to parallel very easily - I have done this and also returned it back (sounds better that way).  Making them parallel improves treble response, but there is a big drop in bottom end.

 

I have also added a on/off switch for the neck pickup, allowing it to be solo'd in the former 'all on' position. Wiring diagram (series):

 

 

 Pickup options produced:

Thanks for that Matt, really useful. And yes it was the V-Town Guitars video that I watched. That lobster fella also did a load of stuff to a Dingwall but tbh it's hard to work out what's going on in his vid!

 

Yes I'd worked that out about the series/parallel wiring of the pickups, all the conductors are easy to access and switch around. In the stock arrangement where the neck pickup is wired parallel, it is never soloed. It's not like this bass needs more treble, it's pretty spanky to start with - hence the idea of a bigger value tone cap.

[Machines]

I'll do a demo at some point with all the options. The neck solo and 'jazz' settings are very useful and essentially a free upgrade.

[JapanAxe]

1 hour ago, Machines said:

I'll do a demo at some point with all the options. The neck solo and 'jazz' settings are very useful and essentially a free upgrade.

Now that's useful to know!

[JapanAxe]

Well I swapped the bridge and middle pickups over (no de-soldering)...

 

I like the soloed neck pickup, very Precision, not least because it sits in the same place in terms of the speaking length of the string. Not so keen on the bridge/neck ('Jazz') setting, again no surprises because I don't really enjoy Jazz basses.

 

Consequently I'm thinking of having the following 4 options: bridge, bridge/middle (parallel), bridge/middle (series), neck. If I can re-purpose the existing 4-way rotary to achieve this, that's a win. I'll still need to re-wire the neck pickup from parallel to series, but that's not hard.

[Dood]

I'm not sure what I have done with my diagrams, but I created a 6 way switching system when I was a Dingwall tester. (Prior to the aftermarket switches becoming available). I tested the prototype SF2 and FDV's before they went to production along with swapping out the P-Tone, FD3-A and FD3-N pickups on my basses.

 

Interestingly the 'All On' and 'Middle Only' selections came from my own configurations and recordings! Sheldon really liked them! 

 

I also rewired coils for parallel and series winding to see what I liked best and, for the most part, option paralysis started taking over, or, some configuration changes were so subtle it wasn't worth it. As mentioned above, I think the selections Dingwall have come up with are tried and tested and the best of the bunch. 

 

My own favourite settings were: 

 

All three pickups, series wound and in series with each other. BONKERS! I think that was using the SF2 and ran in to a Glockenklang 3 band with the mids slightly attenuated. Absolutely monsterous sound! 

P-Tone (series coils by default) in parallel with Middle and Bridge wired in series (series coils). Again the Glock preamplifer was necessary to offer impedance buffering as well as keeping those mids under control. 

[JapanAxe]

Thanks Dan. You’re not wrong about the option paralysis! I’ve put mine back to stock for the time being.

 

The D-Roc is passive so no buffering to be had. It certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world if I just left it that way, but modders gonna mod…

[kwmlondon]

18 hours ago, JapanAxe said:

Thanks Dan. You’re not wrong about the option paralysis! I’ve put mine back to stock for the time being.

 

The D-Roc is passive so no buffering to be had. It certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world if I just left it that way, but modders gonna mod…

Having 3 pickups it’s just too much of a temptation to see what you can achieve. Me? I prefer just 4 selections otherwise I’ll get obsessed messing around with configuring! 

[JapanAxe]

2 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

Having 3 pickups it’s just too much of a temptation to see what you can achieve. Me? I prefer just 4 selections otherwise I’ll get obsessed messing around with configuring! 

I’m kinda happiest with just one (Precision) and a passive tone control, but I do also enjoy the modern sound of my NG2.