J.P.'s Gear Review v2.0 - Ep. 16 - My 5-string bass broke, so I bought another one.

This article was originally written between June and August 2025, but never posted. This is a revised and very much edited version of the original draft. Enjoy!

I got a nice little surprise when I took my 5-string bass from the wall to bring to my bass class back in March 2025. Not only were the strings in terrible shape, But the neck developed a major forward bow. But wait, there's more! The truss rod nut is completely stripped (and stuck inside the cavity) and cannot be adjusted at all! Lovely, innit?

The borked bass

It's dead, Jim!

The 5-string bass in question is my Jackson Spectra JS3QV in Purple Phaze (yes, it's a reference to Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze). It's the mid-level 5-string Spectra model that I reviewed years ago on a previous iteration of this blog. It's cheap-ish at 800$CAD (back in 2022) and performs very well, but the neck is... problematic.

When I first received it, it was adjusted perfectly. The neck was straight, the action was good, and I didn't even need to change the strings. Awesome! I changed the strings once a year since I first got it in February of 2022, and it barely required any adjustment. That is, until March 2025, on its 3rd string change. The action was suddenly very high, and it became hard to play. Just minor adjustments, right? 

WRONG!

I got my straight edge out to check the relief under string tension and, well... I got 28 thousandths of an inch, more than 4 times what I usually set my basses at (between 6 and 10 thou). Removing some string tension brings the relief down considerably to about 18 thou, which is still 3 times too high, and there's only so much saddle height I can adjust before it buzzes from the 12th fret onwards. After finding the 4mm hex key and removing the truss rod cover, any attempt to seat the hex key in the truss rod nut proved futile. Inspecting said nut with a flashlight showed the inside is completely chewed off. Mind you this is from the factory and it has never been adjusted. Multiple attempts with slightly larger hex keys and trying the rubber band trick (where you stick a rubber band on the inside of the nut to get more grip) didn't work either. The truss rod is Officially Borked™. Bummer.

Because it's a dual-action truss rod, the nut cannot be replaced without removing the fretboard and replacing the truss rod entirely, but this would be expensive. Getting a replacement neck from Jackson is impossible (even a used one), and a new custom neck - while tempting - would not make sense. It's a good bass, but definitely not something worth spending too much time and money on.

The only thing I can really do to get it "playable" (and I use that term loosely) is to find the lowest tension strings that exist, slap those on, and tune in A. It currently has standard Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 5 (45-65-80-100-130), tuned in A, and the relief is a hair above 12 thou. Playable, but only just. I'm planning on getting a set of Extra Slinky (40-60-70-90), adding a 120 for the low B, and try it tuned to E standard to see if the relief is roughly the same. Playing it the way it's currently set up is not an enjoyable experience, so I need to think of alternatives.

My hand was forced

Really. It was. I swear.

I was doing my weekly stop at my local Long & McQuade, and I ended up trying some of the 5-string basses they had on display. They had an higher-tier Spectra, a some flavour of Yamaha, a Sterling Music Man, and a Dingwall D-ROC, all easily accessible from their wall-O'-basses. I played them all and while they were all good instruments, none managed to "wow" me to the point where I had to buy it.

When I was about to wrap things up, the store's luthier (who happens to be a good friend) emerges from his shop and, while we chat for a moment about the sad state of my 5-string bass affair, goes "try this one" and proceeds to hand me the Dingwall NG3 that was behind the registers. The thing is baby celestial blue. The paint job is so bright it's probably visible from space. However... holy smoke does it sound good.

I played a good hour with it, put it through (most of) its paces and just had a bunch of fun with it, and I have to admit: this one blew my mind.

So yeah, I bought it...

It is, by far, one of the most expensive piece of gear I purchased on a whim (and I purchased some expensive stuff over the years). While it price tag is eye-watering expensive, it is absolutely worth every single penny.

Just look at it!

The specs

The Dingwall NG3 5-string is basically a 5-string Combustion with the signature of Adam "Nolly" Getgood (from the band Periphery) on the back and some slight changes.

It's a 24-frets multiscale bass that uses the Novax fanned-fret system. The neck is a 5-piece maple bolt-on design secured with four massive screws, with a maple fingerboard sporting a 9.45" radius. It is using banjo-sized fret wire, which is much smaller than the typical "jumbo" fret wire favoured by most other manufacturers and offers a different feel.

It is equipped with three Dingwall FD3n neodymium magnets humbucker pickups, with a 4-position pickup selector. The different pickup settings available are:

• Neck only
• Neck and bridge (J-Bass style)
• Middle and bridge (Music Man style)
• Bridge only

It is an active bass, using a Darkglass Tone Capsule preamp that runs on 18V providing tone control on bass, low-mid, and high-mid that provides plenty of adjustability. The Tone Capsule does not have treble control but it's nothing that cannot be worked around using an EQ in your signal chain, although it's not typically necessary. Should you run out of juice in the middle of your set, there is an active/passive toggle switch, and the battery compartment is kept neatly closed using magnets so you can easily change the batteries without any tools.

The NG3 comes with a good-enough quality gig bag that is well padded and is well-fitted to the instrument.

The strings

Since this is a multi-scale instrument, you cannot install any random set of strings. Most readily-available sets will be too short. The Dunlop Super Bright 45-125 5-string set should fit (according to Dingwall), but their availability is hit-or-miss.

Dingwall sells sets of Dingwall-branded strings online and in most music stores that sells Dingwall instruments. These strings are custom-made by Kalium to perfectly fit Dingwall basses. Dingwall also sells sets with string gauges and tension adjusted for specific tunings. These sets have two major advantages over standard sets: the overall string tension applied to the instrument stays consistent and you won't need to mess around with the truss rod, and the tuning stability will be better than using a "standard" strings gauge set.

The bass being a multi-scale instrument makes it particularly difficult when it comes to finding flatwound strings. For most sets on the market, the B string will be too short as it's the longest scaled string at 37 inches, and there's no guarantee the E string will make it either. As far as I'm aware, only La Bella 760FS-B and Thomastik-Infeld JF365 superlong scale set will fit, but I did not try either of them.

The neck

The neck is a 5-piece maple construction with a maple fretboard using banjo-sized fret wire. It chonky, but not too much. It's a 5-string instrument, and as such the neck needs to be large enough to accommodate all the strings. It is wide, but not abnormally thick. I would say it is halfway between a Rickenbacker and a Jazz Bass in terms of thickness and profile, and it plays really well. Truss rod adjustment is done at the heel using a 4mm hex key. The pickguard is notched so you don't need to remove it to make adjustments.

The tuning and neck relief stability is great. The low B stays in tune really well and is easy to tune compared to other 5-string basses I played. The custom-designed Hipshot Ultralite tuners are definitely helping with that. The factory-installed nut is a Graphtech Black Tusq, but I would have preferred a bone one.

The body

The body draws inspiration from the Fender Precision Bass and the Music Man Stingray. It is a classic shape with the top horn that is a tad longer and the bottom edge that isn't flush and makes a little scoop where they cleverly nestled the output jack. I rather like this design since the cable is not sticking out the front or the side of the instrument. This also has for effect to shift the strap button upwards. In conjunction with the slightly longer top horn, it makes for a really well balanced instrument with barely any neck dive.

With a weight of around 4kg (8.8lbs), it's about the same weight as a Precision Bass which is awesome for a 5-string bass and ideal for long playing session. As a comparison, my Jazz Bass weights 5.4kg (12lbs) and is uncomfortable to play standing up for more than 30 minutes without a padded strap.

Another similarity to the Precision Bass (and the Stingray bass) is knobs location on the body: about one inch from the lower edge of the body, in a semi-circular fashion. They are easily reachable without being in the way. The knobs themselves, however, have no indicator dot on them and it's really annoying when you need to rapidly memorize or configure settings. You can change them (which I did after getting absolutely no response from Dingwall post-sales services), but it's a tad annoying to have to do that on an instrument of this price-point.

The pickguard is a standard 4mm thick carbon fiber print acrylic piece (or PVC; it's not really documented anywhere). It has some "racing stripes" to give it some personality. It's not particularly great, but it fits the esthetics they were going for and it does the job it was designed to do.

The feel

The fanned frets is the major differentiator for other basses. It is an acquired taste and it may require some changes to your technique and you may need a few days to get used to it. Don't purchase this bass  (or any fanned frets instrument) sight unseen if you've never played a fanned fret instrument before; try one in store before as it may not be your thing (and that's alright). From my experience, it takes a few days to get used to this layout.

While it is great for tuning stability, it makes the frets much harder to reach the lower you play on the neck. A 4-frets spread on the B string is a lot more difficult to achieve than on the G string because of the longer scale length, and having to do that over multiple strings can also be tricky. Playing higher up the neck get easier the higher you go.

Once you get used to the idiosyncrasies of the layout, it is one of the most comfortable neck I've played. The smaller banjo-style fret wire used drastically changes the feel, and I like it just as much as the jumbo fret wire. It's different, but in a good way. The finish on the neck is some sort of satin coating that won't make your hands stick to it.

I've had the bass for about 10 months now, and even after going through a humid summer and most of a dry winter, there are no fret ends poking out of the fretboard and the neck relief is quite stable. I will get it checked by my luthier in about a month to make sure everything is in working order and the truss rod is not borked.

The sound(s)

The four humbucking pickups and the 4-position selector switch coupled with the onboard Darkglass Tone Capsule preamp give you a bunch of tonal options. It provides +/-12dB of adjustment on low end (centered at 70Hz), low-mid (centered at 500Hz), and high-mid (centered at 2.8kHz). While it can do classic P-Bass or J-Bass sound, it is better suited for more modern tones due to its lack of treble control. This can be mitigated by using an EQ in your signal chain to tame the high end, but I don't think it is a necessity and it gives a good bite when feeding it to a dirt pedal.

Speaking of pedals, The NG-3 plays really well with gain, distortion, and fuzz pedals due to the raw, unfiltered treble, but it may sound a bit too harsh and make finding optimal settings on these pedal a tad more complicated. Octavers and envelope filters responds wonderfully with it, and modulation, well... sounds great on anything.

Played through my Mesa M6 with voices #1 and #5 enabled, it sounds fat and thick while retaining great clarity. Add in a few pedals here and there and it's just awesome. I love it.

The slightly less fun stuff

The knobs. They do not have an indicator dot. I find this rather annoying since you can't tell what the current settings are, making it difficult to note down specific settings and quickly set them again.

The nut. GraphTech nuts are great - don't get me wrong. They do the job just fine, but a bone nut would be even better.

The strings. The strings themselves are great. The issue is with their availability. Not that many brands make sets that will fit a 37-inch scale, and Dingwall sets are not readily available everywhere. Long & McQuade do carry them most of the time, but Dingwall's online store is often out-of-stock (and their shipping is expensive at 18$CAD). If you want flatwounds, there are even less options available.

The case gig bag. The padded gig bag is great and does what it needs to do, but a hardshell case would have been the better option here, particularly considering how much the bass costs...

The post-sales/tech support service. I filled and sent their online contact form two or three times between April and August 2025, and I'm still waiting for an answer. To be honest, I am not even sure if they got anything on their end since I never received any acknowledgement of any kind. I tried to call them a few times as well, but their posted number was either incorrect or their phone system was misconfigured as I never managed to get through.

The cost. The NG3 5-string retails at 3295$CAD before taxes. It is on the expensive side, but it is worth it.

Things I changed (or want to change)

The first thing I did was finding some new knobs with indicator dots. It was more complicated than it should have been. My first idea was to find metal knobs in a cosmo black or ruthenium finish (to match the rest of the hardware) with a simple indicator dot on them. Apparently, finding these for 6mm potentiometer shafts is impossible. The first set of knobs I ordered were rusted on the inside and were promptly returned to the seller. I ended up commissioning a set of five custom wood knobs with a Luminlay indicator dot from THG Knobs (not sponsored, they just have great products) for the relatively "low" cost of 242$CAD including shipping... Anyway, they look awesome and I'm quite happy with them.

Original ruthenium-finish knob on top, new wooden knobs at the bottom.

They fit really well with the bass' color.

The next thing I changed was the pickguard. The tortoiseshell pickguard Dingwall sells for the Combustion 5 (of which the NG3 is a variant of) looks absolutely amazing, but it was out of stock for about a year so I did the only other thing possible: I bought a tortoiseshell pickguard blank from Solo Music Gear and asked my luthier to craft me one. Was it more expensive than the one Dingwall sells? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. It looks amazing.

The tortoiseshell matches the custom knobs and fits perfectly with the body color.

What will be next at some point is the nut. I'm just not a fan of the GraphTec stuff. It's great on budget instruments or as a fast repair, but on anything that cost over 3000$, it feels out of place. Now that black bone nut blanks are more readily available, I'll have to ask my luthier if it's something he can do.

The last thing I'd really want to upgrade is the bridge. Dingwall released an updated version of the Combustion bridge, and it is supposed to be a drop-in one-piece replacement for previous Combustion and NG models. There is just a small issue: it's not available for sale from their online store, and my support requests about it remain unanswered to this day so unfortunately it's still unsure whether this will be a possible upgrade.

Summary

My Jackson Spectra's truss rod is borked and unfixable, Jackson doesn't sell spare necks, and replacements with working truss rods are incredibly rare. Unfortunately, it's not worth my time or money fixing it with a new custom neck (a Warmoth neck will be pricier than the bass originally was), so the only other solution is to purchase another bass entirely. Dang it.

My in-store options were limited: what was available was mostly entry-level to mid-tier and I did not feel like ordering a Stingray or a Bongo bass, so the only choice left was the Dingwall NG3. While not a model I was originally drawn to, I'm glad I tried it. It is incredibly more versatile than what I expected, and it quickly became my daily driver.

The All-Important Rating™

Build quality: 9/10. I have really nothing to say about the build quality. The neck is stable, the finish is resistant, and material quality is great. There are a few things I changed (or want to change), but only for esthetics or usability, nothing related to quality.

Sound quality: 10/10. The Tone Capsule active preamp is awesome and incredibly versatile. Its lack of treble control does not limit it whatsoever and it works well with every pedal I tried it with.

Playability: 9/10. The controls are responsive and easy to reach, and the pickups are are the perfect place. The fanned frets, however, are an acquired taste and may require some changes to your technique and some time to get used to them. It may also not be your thing at all, and you really should try it before you buy it.