# NGD - LTD Multiscale 5 String



## getowned7474 (Jan 15, 2017)

Pics first of course:




























Specs:

- Made in Korea
- 34"- 37" scale length with 9th fret parallel
- Wenge neck with bubinga stripes
- rosewood fretboard
- extra thin "u" shaped neck 
- extra jumbo frets (not sure if stainless not, they are polished well at the least and feel smooth like stainless)
- abalone dot inlays and side dots
- swamp ash body and thick rosewood top (I think it's a 1/2" or 3/4" thick - carved/beveled top, it looks very thick from the side)
- Nordstrand big splits pickups
- active 3 band eq, pickup blend, and volume
- passive on/off mini toggle, mid at 400Hz or 800Hz mini toggle
- Hipshot singles bass bridge
- Gotoh tuners

Thoughts:

This is actually my first bass. While I have played on friends' basses before I have never owned one myself and I felt it was time to get one. I was looking around at multiscale basses and came across this. I chose this over a Dingwall because some of the specs (I LOVE wenge necks) and because I got a great deal on it second hand. The build quality is super solid, while it has a few small cosmetic flaws, it's nothing that would make me want to pay a $1000+ more for a US made bass that wouldn't have them. The playability is good and the frets are very nicely polished. All of the fret ends are not only not sharp, but are very nicely rounded and polished as well. The scale length feels very natural and comfortable to me, having the 9th fret as the parallel fret is perfect. As far as sounds/tone goes its pretty great. The low end is massive and the pickups are super clear and punchy. They have somewhat of a modern take on a classic J bass sound, although with the active preamp and eq it quickly can become very aggressive.

Clip:

https://soundcloud.com/noah-watts/ltd-b-1005se-multiscale-test-technical-death-metal


----------



## laxu (Jan 15, 2017)

Nice bass! I would really love to try one of these but fear I might not like the scale length as 37 is pretty long on the low strings and I haven't even liked 35" necks.


----------



## A-Branger (Jan 15, 2017)

laxu said:


> Nice bass! I would really love to try one of these but fear I might not like the scale length as 37 is pretty long on the low strings and I haven't even liked 35" necks.



my exact thoughts, but add a big "meh" for me for the bodyand top woods. Too much of the same brown color for my liking

love the shape, love the pickups, love the EQ, love the neck, Im scared of 37"

HNBD!


----------



## getowned7474 (Jan 15, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> my exact thoughts, but add a big "meh" for me for the bodyand top woods. Too much of the same brown color for my liking
> 
> love the shape, love the pickups, love the EQ, love the neck, Im scared of 37"
> 
> HNBD!



While I do love this bass, I agree there is quite a bit of brown. I think it would be close to perfect aesthetically if it had an ebony board and if the back was natural swamp ash. I find it weird that they decided to do a translucent burgundy over the ash. In the light you can see the ash grain and it looks great. It would look really nice if it was natural especially since the rest of the bass is already brown. The 37" scale seemed intimidating to me at first as well but after a couple hours of playing it feels pretty natural.


----------



## laxu (Jan 15, 2017)

To me the top is the odd part. I was really hoping they would release something with a more colorful finish this year but unfortunately nothing.


----------



## getowned7474 (Jan 15, 2017)

I recorded a clip of the bass in a metal context. I managed to get a pretty sick bass tone out of my line 6 podHD500x.

https://soundcloud.com/noah-watts/ltd-b-1005se-multiscale-test-technical-death-metal

I also added the clip the the original post.


----------



## A-Branger (Jan 15, 2017)

getowned7474 said:


> While I do love this bass, I agree there is quite a bit of brown. I think it would be close to perfect aesthetically if it had an ebony board and if the back was natural swamp ash. I find it weird that they decided to do a translucent burgundy over the ash. In the light you can see the ash grain and it looks great. It would look really nice if it was natural especially since the rest of the bass is already brown. The 37" scale seemed intimidating to me at first as well but after a couple hours of playing it feels pretty natural.



yeah I agree with you. that would look sweet. Same with the standard scale one with the bubinga top. I read the specs and I was like "mmm this could be the bass..... bubinga can be good, if its with swap ash in the back it can look great with that wenge neck"... went to sweetwater to see some pics, nop, they decided to stain the beautiful natural color of swap ash into "brown" uuhhgg

why? I still no clue, with the contrast of the wenge and the bubinga (or in your case the rosewood) the natural light color of swap ash would look killer... Its like Ibanez all over again staining woods in the most odd colors 


either way, the bass sounds great mate  

I still need to try one first before commit to one of these/dingwall/ormsby ones as the only time I played a 35" scale, it felt a bit of a stretch for some riffs of Dream Theater I like to play. Hence why I love my 33" 




EDIT: almost forgot, what are you tunning in that song?


----------



## getowned7474 (Jan 15, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> EDIT: almost forgot, what are you tunning in that song?



It's in drop A.

Yeah I would try one of these long scale basses first before committing if you play dream theater kind of stuff. I can imagine some of that riffing on the first few frets could get a little tiring or straining.


----------



## A-Branger (Jan 16, 2017)

getowned7474 said:


> It's in drop A.
> 
> Yeah I would try one of these long scale basses first before committing if you play dream theater kind of stuff. I can imagine some of that riffing on the first few frets could get a little tiring or straining.



yup thats why Im scared, all the other kinds of music I play it would be fine, but those riffs not sure.

But again you have ppl like Nolly, and theres for example one guy in youtube playing all the hardest DT songs on a dingwall too. So it can be done, just not sure if my wrist would hold 

what string gauge you are using?, I play in standard B, so thats why I ahvent look too much into these multiscales, but again having a smaller gauge B with more tension would make some playing far far eassier


----------



## crankyrayhanky (Jan 16, 2017)

That clip sounds so sick! Great score!


----------



## M3CHK1LLA (Jan 16, 2017)

very nice...congrats


----------



## auntyethel (Jan 16, 2017)

Would love to try one of these, pity I live in South Africa where we get nothing interesting 

Also........ I like the brown!


----------



## getowned7474 (Jan 16, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> what string gauge you are using?, I play in standard B, so thats why I ahvent look too much into these multiscales, but again having a smaller gauge B with more tension would make some playing far far eassier



I'm actually not sure what gauge strings are on it currently. The strings are whatever the previous owner had on it. They might be the stock strings still for all I know, the bass doesn't seem like its been played very much. I have been keeping it tuned to standard tuning most of the time and the low B sounds amazing. I tuned it down to drop A for that particular clip so the low string was a bit loose, but it got the job done.



crankyrayhanky said:


> That clip sounds so sick! Great score!





M3CHK1LLA said:


> very nice...congrats



Thanks!



auntyethel said:


> Would love to try one of these, pity I live in South Africa where we get nothing interesting
> 
> Also........ I like the brown!



Yeah that's too bad, I always forget how spoiled I am in the U.S. when it comes to gear. It seems like the prices of music equipment/instruments are always marked up so high overseas and there is low availability.


----------



## SYLrules88 (Jan 16, 2017)

I was eyeing this model as I need a bass for my home recording but I decided I needed an 8 string more at the moment  your samples sounds really killer!!


----------



## LordCashew (Jan 16, 2017)

Nice score! I was surprised to find out that these were 37" on the low end. That's a cool move on ESP's part. Much more interesting than the 35.5" on the Ibanez multis, which are nice enough but not a huge step up over a 35" straight scale for downtuning or ergonomics IMO.

I love the aesthetics of the Dingwall NG-2 and don't doubt it's a great instrument, but I'm honestly not that excited about how it sounds in most of the clips I've heard. The low note definition is amazing but the midrange voicing has not been to my taste. I'm thinking the Nordstrands might be more up my alley. Any chance of some clips using a cleaner tone in the future?


----------



## getowned7474 (Jan 16, 2017)

SYLrules88 said:


> I was eyeing this model as I need a bass for my home recording but I decided I needed an 8 string more at the moment  your samples sounds really killer!!



Thanks! I saw your thread for your Schecter 8, It looks great.



LordIronSpatula said:


> I love the aesthetics of the Dingwall NG-2 and don't doubt it's a great instrument, but I'm honestly not that excited about how it sounds in most of the clips I've heard. The low note definition is amazing but the midrange voicing has not been to my taste. I'm thinking the Nordstrands might be more up my alley. Any chance of some clips using a cleaner tone in the future?



While I haven't played a dingwall before, it seems to me that this bass (probably due to the nordstrands) has a much more organic sound. Don't get me wrong it still has a modern sound, but it has a much more organic sounding midrange to me than what I hear in dingwall demos. I will probably make a video or soundcloud clip with demoing it without any processing, just the DI.


----------



## TheEmptyCell (Jan 18, 2017)

I want to A/B/C this model and the new Kiesel multiscale bass against my Dingwalls.


----------



## KR250 (Mar 11, 2017)

I've been eyeing that model for a long time so thanks for the write up and posting the sound clips. It sounds awesome! I helped a buddy install the same pickups on a Schecter and do really like those. 

With the 9th parallel fret, are first couple of frets uncomfortable at all? I was thinking about a 35-37" fan on a future bass, so curious about that.


----------



## GenghisCoyne (Mar 13, 2017)

Remember a few years ago when the only way you could a fanned fret anything was paying someone thousands of dollars to make you a custom instrument? Trump has only been in office 1 month and we already have all these fanned fret options. What an age we live in.


----------



## getowned7474 (Mar 14, 2017)

KR250 said:


> I've been eyeing that model for a long time so thanks for the write up and posting the sound clips. It sounds awesome! I helped a buddy install the same pickups on a Schecter and do really like those.
> 
> With the 9th parallel fret, are first couple of frets uncomfortable at all? I was thinking about a 35-37" fan on a future bass, so curious about that.



Thanks! I personally don't find the first few frets uncomfortable at all. It's definitely much more of a stretch than a 34" scale bass but not uncomfortable at all for me. I have pretty average sized hands as well, I can imagine it might start to get uncomfortable with small hands though. 

In my opinion the 9th fret parallel fret feels natural, you don't really have to play it any differently than a normal (but longer scale) bass. Even though the fan is much more extreme, it took even less time to adjust to than my Kiesel VM8 (which is a 26" - 27.5" scale).


----------



## LordCashew (Mar 15, 2017)

LordIronSpatula said:


> I love the aesthetics of the Dingwall NG-2 and don't doubt it's a great instrument, but I'm honestly not that excited about how it sounds in most of the clips I've heard. The low note definition is amazing but the midrange voicing has not been to my taste.



FWIW I've since found a few clips of NG-2s being played in cleaner contexts and the mids are definitely there. One guy got a "neck" pickup tone that sounded like a P-bass but with more piano-like clarity. I dig it. I think the issue I was hearing before had more to do with how people were processing the signal than the bass itself. So now I'm anxiously awaiting production of the 6 string version... 

I would still love to hear some clean clips of this one though. I looked around and wasn't able to find anything particularly good.


----------



## getowned7474 (Mar 20, 2017)

LordIronSpatula said:


> I would still love to hear some clean clips of this one though. I looked around and wasn't able to find anything particularly good.



Yeah there aren't many reviews or demos of the bass online and the couple that do exist aren't great. I have been waiting until I get some fresh strings to make some clips though, right now I don't think it would be a great representation of the sound. I'm thinking of trying the Dingwall stainless strings.


----------



## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 4, 2017)

That looks amazing, congrats!


----------

