Canadian luthier Sheldon Dingwall has been building amazing instruments since the early 90's and he was a true pioneer as he incorporated the Multiscale or Fanned Fret System that had been developed by Ralph Novak and that meant that every string on the instrument should have a different lenght depending on the pitch it should give when played open. The fact that every string has a different lenght of course means that the frets have to be installed in a "fanned" manner, hence the name.
Even if these basses look modern and rad, they are based on the same principle of old harps and pianos. The strings on a grand piano or harp vary in lenght depending on the note. This means that the lower the note, the longer the string must be. Even upright pianos feature a harp with different string lengths. The result of this is that the harmonic series from the strings is larger and the tone is therefore fuller. Pure physics.
This whole new series is made in China but use a lot of American and European components and this has allowed Dingwall to creat some instruments with their trademark tone and performance at extremely affordable prices. Final set up and inspection is done in the Dingwall shop in Canada so you know the basses will play great right out of the box.
Fortunately for you, no adjustment is needed to play this instrument. Actually they feel really easy to play and ergonomic. Your left hand simply falls into the notes without having to make any change in technique at all.
This is the Combustion NG3 Adam "Nolly" Getgood Signature model in 4 string version and it features an alder body and 5 piece maple neck with maple fretboard plus some cool extras such as the Darkglass Tone Capsule 3 band preamp. We love the clean look of the Metallic Black with maple fingerboard and carbon fiber-like pickguard. Really elegant.
This instrument features 3 Dingwall FD-3N pickups with neodymium magnets that are powerful and smooth but with aggressive tone at the same time. They are completely noise free so they will behave just great both on stage and in the studio. The smart rotary switch offers 4 distinct positions for a lot of great tones. Speaking of which, we find that this bass actually sounds very different in Passive and Active Modes and that's good news. The raw sound of these pickups in Passive mode is actually slightly midrangey and this works great if you really need to cut through the band. Also if you use some sort of external Overdrive or Distortion unit, this will work incredibly well with the bass in Passive mode. Switch to active and you get a completely different bass. Just add a touch of bass boost and cut the mids slightly and you get a much rounder and modern sounding bass that will be perfect for pop, funk and more. Cool.
This NG-3 bass features an internal Darkglass Tone Capusle preamp. We love it because even if if seems to offer standard 3 band EQ, it does so over 3 unusual EQ frequencies such as 70Hz, 500hz and 2.8kHz. We love it.
Multiscale design means that you get the right tension in all 4 strings so you can attack the 4th string properly and it will handle that beautifully thanks to the 36.5" on that string. There's an evenness of tone and volume from string to string that is simply perfect. Compared to extra long scale basses (35" or 36"), the first and second string sound fuller and not as harsh just because string leght here is correct. We love that.
This bass comes with standard EADG tuning but of course it is a great candidate for alternate tunings (using the right strings) such as DADG, BEAD, CFBbEb, etc.
Bass and studio ace Lee Sklar suggested the use of small banjo type frets as these offer a less metallic tone and smoother glissandos/faster feel than jumbo frets.
Individual bridges and lightweight open tuners complete this beautiful bass.
Dingwall NG3 "Nolly" Signature 4 Metallic Black
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