Dingwall Combustion 3X 5-String Multi-Scale Bass – 3-Pickup Quilt Top Vintageburst w/Maple Fretboard Dingwall

Dingwall Combustion 3X Multi-Scale 5-String Electric Bass Guitar – Vintageburst

Dingwall basses have been synonymous with great tone, definition and the “Best B in the business!” When bass players purchase or switch to a Dingwall they hear nothing but praise from the sound engineers both live and in the studio. The reason being that they naturally sit in the mix.

Why?

Because of the fan fret system. It’s all about the great fundamental tone it produces.

– Equalized tension from string to string.
– Strong fundament tones without bad harmonics or overtones.
– No more floppy B string.

If you look in a grand piano you’ll see that the low strings are longer and the high strings are shorter. This produces the right tension and proper length for each of the notes to ring true.

Now look at the Dingwall fan fret bass. Notice how the lowest, thickest strings are longer and the higher thinner strings are shorter, just like a grand piano. This string length produces the clarity and definition Dingwall is known for.

Scale Lengths and Dimensions

Fingerboard Radius:

Combustion Fingerboard radius – 240 mm (9.45”)

The Combustion bass features a single radius (240 mm) fingerboard. This makes for a very comfortable playing experience.

Scale Lengths – 5 string model – B E A D G

B – 37″
E – 36.25″
A – 35.5″
D – 34.75″
G – 34″

Dimensions

Bridge spacing – 18 mm – .709″
Nut width – 45.5 mm – 1.8″
Heel width – 75 mm – 2.95″
Neck thickness @ 1st fret – 21 mm – .827″
Neck thickness @ 12th fret – 24 mm – .945″

Body

2-3 pc Swamp Ash body, Matte Black pickguard. Smoked Chrome Hipshot/Dingwall hardware.

Body Core – The average weight of the Combustion is a low 8.75 lbs.
Finish – The Gloss Combustion finishes are a polyester base topped with polyurethane color and top coats. This industry standard finish is long-wearing and beautiful for years of service life.
Color – Vintageburst (Quilt maple top)
Pickguard – Matte Black

Neck

Dingwall takes neck construction very seriously due to their extensive experience in guitar repairs coupled with their geographic location and corresponding extreme climate. They’ve experimented with many different lamination and have found a 5-piece maple construction to be among the best.

Neck Construction

In Dingwall’s years in the guitar repair business they constantly had to deal with humidity related problems made worse by the huge temperature and humidity swings of their local climate. Many of these problems could have been minimized through simple design changes and materials choices.

Touring musicians are constantly amazed at how stable Dingwall instruments are. Many state that their Dingwall necks are as stable as their graphite necked instruments.

Dingwall has experimented with many different laminations and have found a 5-piece maple construction to be among the best. Years of experience have proven this design to be extremely stable and reliable.

Neck Carve – Medium thin C shape
Neck Reinforcement – Heavy duty truss-rod
Headstock – Headstock design – Flat, string retaining bar. They combined the minimalist shape of the Afterburner headstock with the lightest import tuners they could find. The results are excellent balance and solid performance.
Fingerboard – Maple
Frets – Dingwall uses 18% hard nickel silver fretwire. Lee Sklar turned them onto the benefits of small frets. The advantages are a more woody, less metallic tone, smoother glissandos and a faster feel. Their standard size is “banjo” size. This is the same size as you’d find on most guitars from the 50’s and 60’s. Although its size is smaller than standard bass fretwire, its service life is about the same.
Position Markers and Inlays – 3 mm plastic face dots, 2 mm plastic side dots.

Electronics

Pickups – The FD-3N pickups are made to Dingwall’s specifications. They feature Neodymium magnets which offer high output and a smooth but aggressive tone.
Pickup Configuration – 3 pickup neck/middle/bridge
Standard Electronics – EMG 3-band, FD-3n pickups, Vol, rotary pickup selector, Bass, Mid, Treble, Active/Passive switch
Pickup Switching – Rotary pickup selector.
Knobs – The Combustion now features Smoked Chrome knurled push-on knobs.
Jack – The jack is one of the most critical electronic components of a bass. It’s the most likely to suffer abuse so needs to be rugged in order to be reliable. They wanted the Combustion to be as reliable as it is great sounding and looking so they install the amazing socket style jack plate with a Switchcraft brand jack.

Hardware

Hardware color – Smoked Chrome
Tuners – Dingwall tested a lot of tuners when designing the Combustion. They were able to find an open-back tuner that met their requirements of light-weight and smooth feel. These tuners will provide years of trouble free performance. They also chose them to have the exact same hole specifications as both Gotoh and Hipshot tuners so replacement or upgrades down the road are a simple process.
Bridge – Dingwall started with an available bridge/saddle system that met their requirements for lock-down solid performance and great tone. Then they improved on it by designing a custom riser system to provide increased range of action adjustability.
Strap Pins – Standard