DINGWALL Prima Artist 5strings Spalted Tamarind Top

The legendary model "Prima Artist," which has so far only had less than five units in stock in Japan, has finally arrived!

Dingwall has impressed first-call bassist Lee Sklar, who has participated in recordings and live performances with many famous artists, and has earned high praise from connoisseurs around the world for its distinctive FANNED-FRET SYSTEM, body balance, pickup placement, and more.

Currently, custom shop models take a very long time to produce, between 3 and 4 years, but at Dingwall we prioritize quality, cost, and time, and we take our time to carefully craft each and every instrument so that we can produce a quality that will satisfy all players.

This model is a 3-pickup, 5-string Prima Artist, which is positioned as the top-end model among the Custom Shop models.
As the Dingwall team states, Prima Artist is "designed without compromise, driven by a passion to bring the best bass guitar to the world." Because it is made from the highest quality wood assembled in a complex structure, there are few items that can be specified when ordering, and most aspects are left to "meet the staff," which is a characteristic of this series.

Orders for this model had been suspended for a while due to various reasons, including the difficulty of material selection and production. However, in 2023, Simon Padalka, a builder from Russia who also runs the company's own guitar brand, Padalka Guitars, joined Dingwall as a master builder. With the two of them joining forces with master builder Paul Hillacre, who has worked for Dingwall for a long time and has used his highly skilled skills to create custom shop models, new production began. Each of them exhibited one Prima Artist as a model at the 2025 NAMM SHOW, and its unique design, beautiful looks, and playability became a hot topic among bassists around the world.

This guitar is no exception to this custom order, and everything except the number of strings, number of pickups, and active options was left to the master builder, who considered and created the best combination for this guitar from tens of thousands of possible combinations. When brand founder and company president Sheldon Dingwall visited Japan, he said, "Prima Artist is truly the pinnacle of our models, with each guitar made with a unique combination that is truly one of a kind in the world."

The neck has a five-piece construction with a beautiful flame-grained maple and wenge laminate on the outside, and a Ziricote fingerboard in the center, combining maple with a different grain from the outside.
The neck features four carbon support bars of different lengths inside, ensuring stability in any location around the world.
In addition, a dowel is driven into the neck side, and the screws from the body side form a stable metal-to-metal joint structure, so even though it is a bolt-on guitar, it produces a sense of unified string vibration from the body to the head, similar to a set neck or through neck.

The body top and back are made of spalted grain from a wood called "Tamarind," which is being used for the first time by Dingwall.This exquisite piece is book-matched and features a unique, geometric grain similar to lacewood, as well as elements of spalted grain and even burl grain.
Tamarind wood is a legume that looks like a nut and is grown in subtropical and tropical regions.The wood is used for furniture and other items, and the fruit is also used in ethnic cuisine.
In order to cut out not only the top material but also the back material, PU cover, and even the knobs and back plate from this gorgeous wood, a considerable thickness and area of the original wood is required. In addition to the visual quality, the fact that obtaining the wood itself is not easy also makes the production of this model difficult.

The body core has a dual-density structure called "Prima Combo," with the highest quality figured walnut on the bass string side and the highest quality figured maple on the high-temperature string side. Furthermore, the laminated section in the center of the body is intricately cut to create a wavy cross section and then glued together. This increases the contact area compared to the surface-to-surface bonding found in typical body structures, and despite the complex number of laminates, it is possible to produce richer vibrations throughout the body.
Wenge wood is laminated between the body core and the top and back as construction layers, resulting in a thick, sweet, organic sound with a traditional tone and a crisp high range for a well-balanced sound. The sound produced by the front alone produces a "P sound" that is familiar to everyone's ears.
Also, unlike the tone you might imagine from Dingwall's NG or Z models, this guitar has a sound that blends well with pop and rock, so be sure to check out the demo video. This is what a truly versatile guitar is all about.

The three distinctive pickups are controlled by a four-position rotary switch: front, front + rear (parallel), middle + rear (series), and rear, simulating J-style or MM-style pickup positions. A mini switch also allows for series/parallel switching for each pickup, allowing for infinite sound possibilities when combined with a preamp.

The scale starts at 37 inches for the 5th string and is 34 inches for the 1st string, the same as a standard long scale. This FANNED-FRET SYSTEM ensures that each string produces well-balanced tension and a solid tone. The low B string, in particular, has a tight range of amplitude, resulting in a beautiful, well-defined tone, making it a uniquely appealing model.
In recent years, an increasing number of brands have added the FANNED-FRET SYSTEM to their lineups under names such as "multi-scale," and many have commented that the design, which follows the natural movement of the body, is "easier to play than expected." In the case of the Dingwall, this is likely due to the body design, balance, and recessed locking pin on the back, which don't even hint at the super-long 37-inch scale.

The Prima Artist, which arrived via SLEEK ELITE, the official Japanese importer, is an extremely rare model with less than five units ever produced, and its looks, sound, and playability are definitely worth more than the price.

■Body: Spalted Tamarind Top / Wenge Construction Layer/ Dual-density Prima select Figured Walnut on the Bass side &Figured Maple on the Treble side / Wenge Construction Layer / Spalted Tamarind Back
■Neck: Flame Maple / Wenge / Maple / Wenge / Flame Maple
■Fingerboard: Ziricote
■Pickups: Handmade Prima Artist pickups x 3
■Mini SW: Series/Parallel Switches x 3
■Preamp: Glockenklang
■Controls: Vol (Pull/Passive), Rotary Pickup Selector (Front/Front&Rear Parallel/Middle&Rear Series/Rear), 3 band EQ
Weight: 4.55 kg

Gig bag included