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Dingwall-Club

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  • Dingwall
    History:
    Established 1988, multi scale bass construction began in 1993. Sheldon showed the prototype for the Voodoo bass at the Bartolini booth at the 1993 NAMM show and then had a shared booth with Novax at 94 NAMM, where he met Lee Sklar; the collaboration on the z Series basses that led to the Lee Sklar signature bass started the following year (see this video plus confirmation by Sheldon in this thread)
    On October 18, 1996, a fire destroyed the shop and offices and all materials, tools, and records were destroyed.See this article

    The evolution of bass names early on is interesting. As mentioned above, the first Dingwall bass was named "Voodoo". In 1994 this turned into two different models, the Voodoo Prima and Voodoo Zebra, distinguished only by body wood and finish, but otherwise identical. Several sources state the the Zebra name was in reference to the patterns in the top wood. With the success of the Voodoo Lounge album by the Rolling Stones, more and more other companies released products that included Voodoo in their name, so by 1999 Dingwall shifted to Z1 as the name of the Voodoo Zebra and just Prima for the Voodoo Prima.

    In early 2000 Dingwall introduced the Afterburner (allegedly named that way because it was the first new product after the shop was destroyed by a fire). Initially this was only available as a 4 string model.

    In spring of 2002 the first Prima Artist was released as a separate, higher end product based on a close collaboration with a customer.

    The following partial list was created going through archived versions of the Dingwall website via the Wayback Machine.

    Feb 2000:
    Z1 / Zebra:

    • 9 piece Rock Maple neck with 22 fret Pau Ferro or Wenge fingerboard (24 as option)
    • dual density body - Swamp Ash or Northern Ash
    • Non-Dingwall bridge, 18mm string spacing on 5 string, 19mm on 4 string
    • Gotoh tuners, Hipshot drop tuner option
    • custom Bartolini pickups, 9V 2 band EQ, 9V 3 band EQ, or 18V 3 band EQ
    • blend knob, rotary switch as option
    Z2
    • identical to Zebra, but
    • "large humbucker style sandwiched pickup design"
    • no "cello hip" (at least on some models)
    Prima (sometimes called 'P Series')
    • Rock Maple neck with 22 fret Pau Ferro or Wenge fingerboard (24 as option)
    • two piece Walnut/Alder body with Pau Ferro, Padauk, or various Maple top/back
    • Gotoh tuners, Hipshot drop tuner option
    • custom Bartolini pickups, 9V 2 band EQ, 9V 3 band EQ, or 18V 3 band EQ
    • blend knob, rotary switch as option
    around 2003:
    both z and P now offer

    • new Dingwall designed bridge
    • FD-1 pickups, 9V 2 band EQ or NTMB 18V 3 band EQ or Aguilar OBP-3 EQ
    • 4 position rotary switch
    Afterburner:
    • one piece Rock Maple neck, later (around 2003/2004?) changed to 5pc Maple (AB1) and 5pc Bubinga or Jatoba (AB2); Wenge fingerboard
    • soft Maple body, later changed to Alder (AB1) and Walnut (AB2)
    • Dingwall bridge
    • Dingwall tuners
    • FD-1 pickups, passive, 4 position rotary switch
    late 2005:
    Super J:
    • shorter scale: 32-34.25“ (4 string)
    • 5 piece Maple neck, Maple or Morado fingerboard
    • Alder body
    • Dingwall bridge (19mm spacing)
    • Dingwall pickups, Aguilar EQ, 4 position rotary switch
    2009:
    updates for Z and Super J:
    • Walnut neck option
    • Super Fatty pickups
    Combustion:
    • made in China
    • FD3-A pickups, EMG BT07 2 band EQ
    2010:
    new website, products as of Nov 2010:
    (see Dingwall Bass Specifications | Side by Side Comparison | Dingwall Guitars for all the details)
    Prima Artist:
    • dual density Walnut/Alder body (chambered)
    • 5-7 piece laminated 'exotic woods' neck with Ziracote fingerboard w/ 24 frets
    • FD-3 pickups, PA1 with standard spacing pickups, PA2 with sandwiched bridge pickups
    • Glockenklang 2 band EQ (3 band as option)
    Lee Sklar Signature
    • dual density Northern Ash/Alder body, no wood top
    • 5 piece Maple neck with Wenge fingerboard w/ 24 mandolin frets
    • Super Fatty pickups with LSS pickup selection switch and Glockenklang 3 band EQ
    Z Series
    • dual density Swamp Ash body
    • 5 piece Maple neck with Wenge fingerboard w/ 24 frets (banjo size)
    • Super Fatty pickups; Z1 w/ standard spacing, Z2 with sandwiched bridge pickups, Z3 combination of both
    • Glockenklang 2 band EQ (3 band as option)
    Super J
    • 2-3pc Alder or Swamp Ash body, chambered
    • 5 piece Maple neck with Morado (different name for Pau Ferro) fingerboard w/ 22 frets (banjo size)
    • Super Fatty pickups; FD-4 neck pickup option; P style configuration
    • Glockenklang 2 band EQ
    Afterburner
    • 2-3pc Alder (AB1) / 2-3pd chambered Walnut (AB2) body
    • 5 piece Maple (AB1) / Bubinga (AB2) neck with Wenge fingerboard w/ 24 frets (banjo size)
    • 2 FD-3 pickups
    • AB2 with Glockenklang 2 band EQ
    Combustion
    • first model made in China
    • 2-4pc Alder body
    • 5 piece Maple neck with Sonokilin fingerboard (Wenge as option) w/ 24 frets (banjo size)
    • 2 FD-3A pickups
    • EMG BT 2 band EQ/preamp

    [[quick hits, need rework]]
    2016

    • Prototype FDVs
    • 4 string Combustion
    • D bird custom
    2017

    • New hipshot/dingwall saddles
    • Rounded pups in combustion’s/ABZ
    • Due to CITES ABHSs stop using bubinga and switched to hard rock maple
    2018

    • The D bird standard 4 string
    • Combustion/NG.6
    • Lefty combustion
    • NG(3)
    • DG 10th anniversary(celebrates the 10th anniversary of Darkglass Electronics)
    • New shop for combustion production
    Jan 2019:

    • 5 string custom D bird
    • Quilted maple top and Pau Ferro on combustion’s
    • 10th anniversary amethyst burst combustion
    • Carbon fibre reinforcement on combustion necks
    • 2 way truss rod on combustion necks
    • Lee Sklar 2 with 3x pick ups
    • Limited edition RVDL 5 string hellboy
    July 2019:

    • D roc Custom 4 and 5
    Aug 2019:

    • D roc standard
    2020:

    • Ghost blocks/speedos added to options
    Models (as of Feb 2021)
    Chinese:

    • Combustion
      • 2-3pc Swamp Ash body, black pickguard
      • 5pc Maple neck with Maple or Pau Ferro fingerboard
      • 2 or 3 FD-3N pickups w/ EMG 3 band EQ
      • 4,5,6 string options with 19/18/18mm bridge spacing
    • NG
      • 2-3pc Alder body, black pickguard
      • 5pc Maple neck with Maple fingerboard
      • 2 or 3 FD-3N pickups w/ Darkglass 3 band EQ
      • 4,5,6 string options with 19/18/18mm bridge spacing
    • D-Roc
      • African Mahogany body
      • 5pc Maple neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard
      • 3 FD-3N pickups, passive, no EQ
      • 4 string model only, 19mm bridge spacing
    Canadian:

    • Afterburner (AB1, AB2, ABZ)
    • Prima Artist
    • Super J
    • Super P
    • Z (Z1, Z2, Z3, Lee Sklar Signature)

    Pickups

    Initially (1993-2001), all Dingwall basses were shipped with Dingwall-custom Bartolini pickups; at first perpendicular to the centerline, then starting in 1994 in an angled configuration.

    In late 2001 Dingwall started to collaborate with Fury Guitars on custom pickups, which resulted in the FD-1 that started to become an option at that point.    Sheldon shares a lot more detail in this post.

    In late 2003 Dingwall switched to the FD-3 which was wound at the Dingwall shop.

    A model specific FD-3.4 was available exclusively for the Prima Artist. Later (around 2005) the Super Fatty was introduced as an extension of the FD line.

    A few more random details from forum members:

    The original Super-Fatty pickups were narrower, closer to J-Bass pickups looking. They became available sometime around 2005ish. Super Fatty pickups in that format were used on Super-J and Z series (probably not on Prima Artists).

    There are rectangular shelled Dingwall pickups that are the same dimensions as the Barts, those are the original shells for the FD1 and FD3's. They too lasted until sometime around middle of the two thousands before the ends of the pickups became radiused. The radius is a design change rather than a spec change in that the pickups are still usually FD-3's, or now FDV, and P-Tone.

    Branding: The originals say 'Dingwall' in large font across the whole pickup shell while later ones have the branding smaller and in a corner.

    Some Dingwalls have EMG shaped pickups. They were used on the earlier runs of Combustion & NG import models as well as the ABZ, though now they're all the same 'modified' Bartolini dimension shells with the curved ends.

    There are a few more differentiation points as well...again in the mid 2000's the pickups went from being 2-lead to 4-lead pickups. That meant you could easily add Parallel/series switches for each pickup. For a while the guys were pulling their pickups Open to desolder the spool leads to do this as a DIY mod. Probably better that the shop decided to do this (then denoted as FD-3-4L). Many of the basses that were built between 2001 and maybe 2006ish came with the pickup coils in Parallel by default.

    Also, note that not all basses use the same size shells. The bridge pickup for my Super-P is longer than the regular 5-string FD's that I have.

    Wood
    Wood options that were available include bubinga, walnut necks, mahogany....
    [[this needs a lot more details, time lines, etc]]

    Oddities
    A random collection of stuff:

    • screw on plastic plate on early Super-P [[is there a picture somewhere?]]
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