Dingwall Super J5 Sage Green Metallic

Dingwall was founded by Sheldon Dingwall from Canada, and together with his team, Sheldon  is right at the forefront of designing basses. There are a lot of things that make Dingwall stand out from the rest of the bass pack: Their unique looks, lightweight build and super-fast and highly playable necks are just some of them. But their most unique quality is definitely the dedication to fanned frets.

So, why do I need fanned frets?

Well, if you have ever played a 5 or 6 string bass, you have probably noticed that the low B-string often sounds more dull than the E-string, and the high C-string  sounds brighter and thinner than the G-string.

This is because they use the same scale length across the entire fretboard, when in reality, the B-string needs a longer scale length and the C-string should have a shorter scale length to sound its best. Dingwall’s fret design combats exactly this pitfall by varying the scale length across the fretboard.

The fingerbord is Wenge, which in may ways represents the best of both worlds, combining the detailed treble sound of Ebony and the warm tone and feel of Rosewood. In short, this bass simply manages to mix fast and warm, which is quite an achievement for any bass. The bass is incredibly tight, and due to the Wenge fretboard and Maple neck combo, it takes out a bit of pronounced compression you typically get with an all-Wenge solution. To me, it makes it even more versatile and open-sounding – with the maple neck, it just breathes naturally. Having said that, it all comes down to personal taste and preference because the Wenge/Wenge combo is incredible, too.

Of course, great basses are about more than just the woods, and the Super J excels in hardware innovation as well. The Hipshot Ultralite tuners, already known for their lightweight design, were further optimized by shortening the string posts. By countersinking the tuners into the headstock and shaping them to keep the strings as low as possible, Dingwall eliminated the need for string trees—resulting in even less weight and improved tuning stability.

Dingwall managed to reduce roughly 100 grams overall. It might not sound like much, but it dramatically improves the balance and feel of the bass.”

The Super J also features a double-expanding truss rod, a trusted industry standard, but with a unique twist. Following a method learned from Glenn McDougall of Fury Guitars, Dingwall installs the truss rod by gluing it into the neck under nearly 1000 pounds of pressure. This creates a tight coupling between the steel and wood, enhancing both sustain and harmonic richness for a truly resonant instrument.

The FDV Alnico Pickups they sound traditional and organic compared to the neodymium, but still tight, clear and very punchy.

The 4-position rotary switch lets you choose between Bridge, Bridge/Middle, Bridge/Neck Parallel and Neck. Well, this alone would be more than enough to get you safely and blissfully through any gig, but to top it off, you also get three toggle switches that allows you to choose parallel or serial wiring on each pickup, taking tonal versatility to a whole new level. And don’t worry if you are not a natural knob twister – it will soon become second nature because the advantages you get are quite servere.

The Super J5 comes with a Darkglass onboard preamp.

Bass: Allows you to dial in a deep, tight low-end or reduce it for a more mid-focused tone. The bass boost/cut is centered around 70 Hz, ensuring well-defined lows without muddiness.

Midrange: The mid control is especially important for cutting through the mix. The center frequency is typically around 500 Hz, giving you the ability to boost for a punchy, growling sound or cut for a scooped, modern tone.

Hi Mids Control: Focused around 2.8 kHz,

The preamp includes a push-pull volume knob that allows you to switch between active and passive modes. This provides flexibility, letting you enjoy the raw tone of the Dingwall pickups in passive mode or activate the Darkglass preamp for more tonal shaping options.