ABZ OVERVIEW
The ABZ features a satin finished swamp ash body with a maple neck and fingerboard. Its passive electronics nail the traditional ash/maple tone and then some. It’s also the lightest weight of the entire Dingwall line.
OVERALL RATING 
(36 VOTES)
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I always thought that my next high-end bass would be an Alembic but as soon as I tried out a Dingwall, I was hooked. The fanned frets felt PERFECT from the first run. My ABZ has all of the tones I need and is just an absolute joy to play.
I only went into the shop to randomly try some effects pedals… I came away with an ABZ, the touch and feel of this bass is something out of this world, easy to play and to hold, light as a feather, professionally well made, killer sounds adn looks, how could I leave it hanging in that shop? We don’t get many of these, in this town. Try one if you can, you’ll see!
My oh my!! A month and a half and this bass has become my no#1 and its getting plenty of wear, oh and these strings!! The older they get, the better they play.
I have now decided to sell all my Music Man basses to convert them in more Dingwalls
I definately want a Super J in my collection and will see about getting a Precision lookalike, going by the ABZ quality and performance I can only assume that the other will be also amazing to play.
So long Sterling Ball and welcome Sheldon Dingwall!!
I really can’t say enough good things about my ABZ. I really love how comfortable it is to play, such even tension all over the neck. This will definately not be my last Dingwall!!!
Holy mother of god!
Sheldon Dingwall is lucky he was not around in the dark ages because he would have been burned as a witch, or whatever Canadian dude witches were called.
I recently bagged myself an ABZ and it quite simply is the perfect bass, in looks, playability and versatility.
I just can’t put the thing down, even unplugged it sounds great!
There is definately some kind of alchemy involved here, I’m absolutely sure of it!
Well, ive now properly broken in my beloved ABZ well and trully, its been all over the place with me and is holding up more than well, i still have the original strings on it too, they seem to be getting better the more scummy they get!!!
What a great bass, its a real workhorse!
Truth to tell I thought I’d never see one of these, however on a trip to Vancouver, from Toronto, I encountered this model at L&M. I put my hand around the neck and went’ Oh DAMN but this is coming with me” It’s my first 5er and the fan fret is simple to adapt to. Just whatever you do DON’T LOOK, just play, and play and play. Because you won’t be putting it down anytime soon!!
I found myself wanting to try a Dingwall Bass back in the mid-’90s during my “Original Band” days but there was no way I could afford the models produced at the time. Then fairly recently the (by all accounts fantastic for the money) Combustion Series was released to much fanfare and caught my eye… hard. Quickly enough after that I wasn’t able to make THAT purchase however, the ABZ Series was released and it’s if Sheldon was reading my mind from across the US/Canada border!
The ABZ is within fairly easy reach financially from the Combustion pricepoint and yet was made from Swamp Ash with a Maple Neck & Fretboard, some of my favorite combination of tone woods that make up “My Sound” with a “wipe-on” finish that saves finishing/polishing time and yet still have a variety of colors to choose from. Add to that the amazing FD-3 4L pickups that are unlike any other pickup on the bass market, the Passive Electronics consisting of a Master Volume, Rotary Pickup Selector, and Master Tone for a wide variety of tones without cost, wiring and battery need that your typical Active Preamp has. When you add in the Custom Hipshot Tuners and Multi-Scale Bridge, Neutrik locking input jack,Dunlop Strap-Lok strap pins, counterbored headstock, 7.5″-16″ Compound Radius fretboard & smaller Banjo frets (ALL of which come on the much higher-priced Dingwall models) and having played a number every chance I get, I’ve decided that the ABZ-5 will be the next bass added to my collection… and so will an ABZ-6 when the opportunity comes. I was an exclusive 6-string player for 5+ years before “moving down” to 5s, but the ABZ-6 is so easy and comfortable to play that it deserves another chance from me. Now if I could convince him to make a fretless ABZ as well…