American Deluxe Dimension™ Bass Iv Hh

I've now owned four different versions of the Fender Dimension bass (Squier V, Fender MIM IV, Am Std IV, and now Am DLX IV), and I can easily say that I have found the one I'm going to keep!

This bass has serious tone! As soon as I plugged it in, I was highly impressed by the variety you can get from just switching the five way toggle. Add in the active electronics and you have seemingly endless possibilities. You can get a pretty solid Pbass like tone in position 5, a Stingray in position 1, and 2-4 can give you different types of Jazz bass sounds.

The compound radius of the neck is unique as well. In the meat and potatoes area (frets 1-7) you get a chinkier round feel similar to a P Bass neck, and when you move toward the higher end of the fretboard, it flattens our quite nicely and allows for easy chording and solo lines.

Furthermore, the bass is lightweight and has a great Natural finish with an awesome grain. I would highly recommend this bass to anyone who wants to have bass-ically any tone out there while keeping the classic Fender feel, with some slight variations that makes you want to play for hours on end!

The only way to describe this instrument is to say it's a cross between a jazz bass and a stingray. I like both. From a quality perspective, the dimension is not much different than other american deluxe Fender basses. The only significant difference is that it plays like a stingray feels like a fender. Anyone who played these instruments could identify with this. I think this bass might not be easily accepted by P&J bass purists, but it would probably become a favorite bass for anyone who regularly played it. It took a few months for me to adapt to it, now it's my preferred bass.

Edit - 7/25/17:

I re-read my original review and can see that it was an honest review. I bold typed the portions that I feel correspond to this update. The problem that I had with this bass, which I sold, is that I found myself constantly messing with the tone knobs and switches to get a sound that would work for me. Also, after playing in a band setting, it just didn't cut through the mix. Therefore, I had to let it go and felt a responsibility to update this review.

If you go to the Dimension bass club, you'll find that there are some owners of the Dimension modding the pickups and wiring. I think this is a great idea because the Dimension bass has a good platform for that. I did not change my star ratings on the build quality, feel, and value, but the tone imo, I can only rate 2 stars. I revised my overall rating to a 3.

The following is the original review...

I've had this bass for a few months now. I've played it, put it aside to play my Precision and Jazz basses, put those aside to play the Dimension bass.

The good news is that the Dimension bass is nothing like a Precision or Jazz bass. I have a 1977 P bass and a 2005 Jazz bass, which makes the Dimension bass a welcome modern-style bass for me to have in my arsenal. After about 3 days of playing my Dimension bass, with all the different tones I was able to get through the 5 way switching, I was under the impression that I could sell my Jazz bass. However, after playing my Jazz bass I realized that in no way would I ever sell it. Each bass has unique characteristics. I mention that because the Dimension bass not only has a ton of tones to choose from, but is very easy to play thanks to the asymmetrical neck, and it is the lightest bass I own, which is a relief (I didn't realize how heavy my other basses were until having the Dimension bass). I don't know the actual weight of the bass but it is much lighter than both my P and J basses forsure.

The tones range from very bright (1 - bridge pup), to punchy (2 - inner coils, & 4 - outer coils), to deep (3 - both pups & 5 - neck pup). My favorite switch settings are 4 and 2... mostly 2 (inner coils). My least favorite is 1 simply because I can't seem to adjust the eq to make it sound right. It's too nasally for my taste.

When playing in switch position 5 or 4 you have to be careful not to knock the switch into another position. I've done this on several occasions and you will hear the difference when it happens.

The 3 band eq is loud. It is 18v.

I like this bass a lot! I haven't done any adjustments to it except to put on a set of TI powerbass strings. It stays in tune no problems.

NOTE: I discovered that the 5 way switch has usable tones between the 5 notched areas allowing for 9 settings. As previously mentioned I'm not a fan of switch position 1 but positioning the switch between 1 and 2 gives me a usable tone that is not nasally and slightly milder than my favorite switch position 2. I also like the tone when the switch is positioned between 5 & 4.

Update - There are 2 additional usable tones between the notched areas. They are between 4 & 5 and between 1 & 2. The other "humps" between the notches sound very similar to the areas previously mentioned.