New Bass(es)



I got my Reverend Rumblefish 5L the other day. It was one of the clearance basses, so it cost $649. This is my fourth Reverend bass, I think, and they've all been consistently wonderful. For the money I paid, this bass has no right to be so good.

But the real catch is this one:

It's a Dingwall Voodoo Z1 five string bass. If it looks like the frets aren't parallel, that's because they aren't. This is an older model Z1 from the time period prior to the Dingwall factory fire, so it has the older-style Bartolini electronics. I like 'em a lot, and although I had planned on sending the bass into Dingwall to get them updated, my plan now is to save up and order another Dingwall with the new stuff. There are several advantages to fanned fret design--perhaps the primary one being that the unequal string lengths evens out the tension between the strings. And having a 37" B string really enhances the clarity of the B. Parallel fret extended scale length designs can be good, but I've found that the response on the thinner strings is kinda weird; sometimes, it seems as if the D and G are too "stringy" sounding.

Anyway, adjusting to fanned frets isn't as difficult as it may seem. It happens pretty naturally.

I'll be subbing for my friend Duke on one of his gigs next week, so I have to practice!

Posted: Thu - April 6, 2006 at 09:20 PM          

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