The Nashville Combustion was inspired by Sheldon Dingwall’s trip to Nashville, where he spent a week with local bass players, producers, engineers, and studio musicians. Some were top players on the South Broadway strip, performing live shows for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week. Others were touring the world and playing sold-out stadiums, while some focused on studio work for Grammy-winning artists. Sheldon came home deeply inspired by their energy, work ethic, and musicianship.
Like the regular Combustion, the Nashville Edition takes the lead from our Custom Shop Afterburner. The swamp ash body is compact, making for a bass that’s comfortable to wear and beautifully balanced. The five-piece maple neck is securely attached via four bolts, and the fingerboard employs Ralph Novak’s fanned-fret system, with a 240mm fretboard radius, making it superfast over a full two octaves. “The Combustion was always designed as a platform that could be modified,” says Sheldon Dingwall. “Like you would a Harley Davidson. So out of the original Combustion platform came the NG, the John Taylor Signature, and now the Nashville.”
The Nashville-spec Combustion features a Rupert Neve Design preamp with a master tone, plus a toggle switch/blend combination that offers some unique capabilities. The Combustion’s three pickups are selected via a 3-position mini-toggle switch combined with a blend control. This gives you instant access to a hot and powerful P tone, a traditional bridge/neck pickup blend for traditional J tones, and a smooth pan across all three pickups for more humbucker vibes.
We collaborated with Hipshot to modify their Ultra-lite tuners, which resulted in a shorter tuning peg that allows proper downward angle at the nut for maximum sustain and improved stability. Individual string bullets keep the strings firmly pressed down. Extra touches include the easily removed magnetic plate covering the battery cavity, and our Minimalist bridge design.
“It’s called the Minimalist bridge because you only need one wrench to make any adjustments to the action or intonation,” explains Sheldon Dingwall. “If you’re in Europe you can use a metric wrench, and if you’re in the States, you can use an imperial wrench. We chose screw sizes that are universal.”
The bridge itself is recessed into a pocket, and utilises a laser cut mahogany shim that instantly raises your action by 1mm without having to raise individual saddles. This design also alleviates any additional pressure on the strings.
Dingwall strings have been meticulously tested to maximize performance and deliver a tone that blends effortlessly with any style of music. We were the first company to design strings specifically for multi-scale instruments. Available in both nickel and stainless steel, our strings provide an even tension for optimal balance, letting you experience the warmest highs and the tightest lows possible.
Note: basses are shipped with Dingwall Nickel Strings as standard.
As development of the Nashville Combustion progressed, we realized that two of Nashville’s top lighthiers—Brian Barrett on the bass side and Joe Glaser on the guitar side—had already created their own three-pickup, switch-and-blend systems. So, a shout-out to Brian and Joe!
Brian Barrett owns and operates one of the country’s most respected high-end bass guitar shops. The LowEnd Bass Shop specializes in repairs and modifications, custom electronics, and finishing work, and it carries an exceptional selection of ultra-rare boutique basses—one of the largest and most impressive I’ve seen. Brian has also been building and modifying three-pickup basses using a switch and blend control for smooth, flexible pickup combinations.
Joe Glaser has built one of the world’s largest and most respected guitar repair shops. He’s also a prolific innovator, known for electronics work such as the Brent Mason Tele setup, which adds a middle pickup with its own blend control alongside a 5-way switch, as well as for hardware and tool designs developed through his Music City Bridge company. They offer a wide range of guitar upgrade parts, including the Glaser B-Bender, which is widely regarded as one of the most advanced bender systems available.
