Sheldon Dingwall orginally started out as a custom guitar maker and builder, in Saskatoon, Canada. Some of his customers requested 5-string basses with better responding low B strings and he came up the idea of separate scale lengths for each string - using fanned frets. This gives the bass strings longer scale length and better sustain. The Dingwall Voodoo 5 string bass was introduced around 1995. In 2010 Dingwall reintroduced guitars to their product line-up athough fanned fret basses are still their mainstay.

Source: Dingwall Guitars website (20 March 2017)