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Tell me about your Audere Z-Mode preamp!

mmbongo

mmbongo

I have too many basses.
Inactive
Aug 5, 2009
25,372
30,975
54
Upstate, South Carolina
#1
Skip to the last sentence if you don't want to read my long winded rambling :)


Finally got a chance to try something I've always wanted...a 4 band Audere Z-Mode preamp! I've had my Warwick Streamer for almost 2 years now, and I've wanted to try different electronics ever since I got it. I was about ready to bite the bullet and drop the hammer on a brand new Audere and leave the stock pickups because I couldn't afford both...and then like a blessing from above, the perfect set of Delano pickups and the perfect preamp both showed up in the emporium within hours of each other, both for about the same price as the new Audere I was getting ready to buy!

I've put Aguilar and EMG preamps in my other basses, I wanted an Audere in this bass because I figured I would leave it in the High-Z mode.

I got the Delano pickups first and put them in. Definitely an improvement over the stock bridge pickup (this is a J/MM Jazzman setup). I probably would have been fine with the stock MEC pickup, but for the price it was definitely worth keeping the Delano in there.

I got the stacked humbucker J style for the neck...HUGE improvement over the single coil MEC...which I never used...because it was useless. Man this pickup has a 'thunk' like I've never had before in any bass!

So I'm happy with the pickup swap. A few days later the preamp came and I've been having a blast tweaking and playing around with the Z-modes and EQ's. It's awesome.

So what modes do you like? I don't have any questions really, just curious as to how everybody else has theirs. Here's my rundown:

As I said, I had my mind made up for High-Z mode, because I never could get this bass bright enough before. High-Z delivers the bright for sure! I loved it at first, then the more I played it, and the more I couldn't hear myself in the mix, the less I liked it.

I moved over to Low-Z mode and got some more bottom end and punchier sound, it was pretty good. BUT then something happened that blew my mind. I always run the bridge humbucker in series because it's thicker, louder, more midrange. But when I switched the humbucker to parallel, it was like an explosion going off! In Low-Z mode, the parallel humbucker is twice as loud...punchy..bright...than series mode! This goes against everything I've ever done. I even went back to the other modes to make sure...sure enough, in high-z and mid-z, series is louder with more punch and mid, but not in low-z! Well I settled on that phenomenon for a while as the sound I was looking for...low-z mode, parallel, bass rolled back...very thumpy and punchy.

I realized I still missed my high end though. So last night I settled on mid-z which seems to be the best of both worlds. I'll probably change my mind again today.


So, what are your thoughts on the Z-modes? What do you like? What pickups do you have?
 
#3
I love them and use them in all my J basses (except my Carvins)

I use Nordstrands with them and I find it the most musical preamp available.

Also I only use the low Z mode. (I know you might now dig the sound of singles but with the Low -Z its sounds great to my ear).
 
#4
I installed one in my 2010 MIA fretless Fender Jazz bass. I have it on the mid setting and give the mids and bass just a tiny boost since I favor the bridge pup. Easy to get a wide range of tones with that thing though. Still using the stock pickups though.
 
#5
I bought a used 18V, 4-band Audere with a tone control here several weeks ago and put it into a Tobias Toby Pro 4-string. Totally changed it. In general, the bass no longer has the tinny tone I thought it had with the original preamp. It sounds much stronger and much clearer, but I'm still fiddling with it all the time just to experiment. So far the only real conclusion I've made is that this configuration gives me an incredible amount of control over the tone.

My other initial impressions (which may change as I experiment some more):
- The tone control doesn't seem to make a big difference in the tone. Maybe it would have a bigger impact if this preamp had the passive/active switch? Maybe I don't yet understand the effect it's supposed to have in this configuration or how it interacts with the other controls?
- There seems to be a much bigger difference in tone between Hi-Z and Mid-Z modes than there is between Lo-Z and Mid-Z modes.
- A little goes a long way with the EQ, especially with the bass. Boosting the lows gives a huge amount of low end, often too much.
- Related to the point above, I'm finding the low mid control to be the most useful to me.
- So far, I tend to use Mid-Z position he most often. However, since I'm still experimenting, that's probably because I tend to start with pretty neutral settings and then adjust from there when I'm trying to come up with a particular type of tone.
 
#6
mmbongo said:
I moved over to Low-Z mode and got some more bottom end and punchier sound, it was pretty good. BUT then something happened that blew my mind. I always run the bridge humbucker in series because it's thicker, louder, more midrange. But when I switched the humbucker to parallel, it was like an explosion going off! In Low-Z mode, the parallel humbucker is twice as loud...punchy..bright...than series mode! This goes against everything I've ever done. I even went back to the other modes to make sure...sure enough, in high-z and mid-z, series is louder with more punch and mid, but not in low-z! Well I settled on that phenomenon for a while as the sound I was looking for...low-z mode, parallel, bass rolled back...very thumpy and punchy.
Click to expand...

This is because when you switched to parallel you dropped the impedance f the pickup by half. Now it was matched with the low-z mode better on the Audere. When the pickup was in series, the low-z loaded it down more, which is the per pose of the low-z mode.
 
#7
SGD Lutherie said:
This is because when you switched to parallel you dropped the impedance f the pickup by half. Now it was matched with the low-z mode better on the Audere. When the pickup was in series, the low-z loaded it down more, which is the per pose of the low-z mode.
Click to expand...

I figured it was something like that, I don't totally understand the whole pickup loading thing! That probably has a lot do with the things that dave64o was saying, too. The pickups you have really seems to make a huge difference in how the preamp acts. I really like it.
 
#9
#11
Okay I did a couple of more sound clips. In case you didn't see the other thread in the strings section, these are just quick and dirty clips that started out because I was testing the new Ernie Ball Cobalt Strings. We're also learning 'Yesterdays' by Guns N Roses, so this is part of the bassline for that song...or as well as I've learned it so far..which is not much :)

This is my Warwick Streamer Jazzman with its new Delano bridge humbucker only. Audere Z-Mode pre is flat for all of these recordings. Cobalt strings. This is mainly to demonstrate the Z-Modes.

Mid-Z, Series
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High-Z, Series
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Lo-Z, Series
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Lo-Z, Parallel
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I didn't bother with parallel mode on mid and hi, as it works as you might expect. I *always* run the bridge in series because it's loud, deep, and powerful. Imagine my astonishment when Lo-Z mode series was weak and paltry, and Lo-Z parallel sounds like a freight train colliding with a tanker truck :)

I'm also back at square one. Now I like High-Z mode the best I think! Maybe with some bass boost and roll the treble back a bit. With EQ-ing, I'm in love with what all 3 modes can do. Just not sure where I want to leave it!
 
#12
I have two of the Audere Classic 4-band preamps for a pair of Carvin Icon 5s that I've had customized. Each is also mated with a set of SGD wide-aperture Neo humbuckers. I can state enthusiastically that the combination is excellent: so clean, so deep, so powerful, so PHAT! Yum!

As I've stated in a previous thread, the SGD humbuckers in parallel mode with an 18-volt Audere in Low-Z mode is a revelation. Not unlike the effect of playing a pipe organ through a large folded-horn subwoofer. If you venture to "go there", be sure to hold onto your dental fillings...:eek:

For the record, I'm also about to invest in an Audere JZ6D - one of the "Z-Mode" preamps designed for Jazz-style bass guitars. This one will go into my Carvin SB5000, which I've already had fitted with a set of Delano JMVC 5 FEs - the five-string version of the famous JMVC 4 FE/M2 pickups for four-string - with those big, powerful 9.5mm pole pieces. Very hot, very aggressive sound. Should totally kill with the new Audere JZ6D... :cool:

MM
 
#14
Even as we speak (okay...type), walterw is installing a 2 band Audere in my Dingwall ABI. He was a little reluctant to punch a hole through the top for the Z switch so we agreed to leave it in "middle" mode and stuff the switch itself in the control cavity. In view of the mostly favorable comments, I think I'll give him the OK for the top-mount.

Both the high and low Z modes are adjustable via 4 internal trim pots. The "high" pots adjust resonance freq. and "low" pots adjust output level as I understand it. Any little tricks or tips?

Riis
 
#15
I have a JZ3d in my jazz V. For awhile I never used the low or high z modes. Then I remembered the low z has the internal trim pots. One day while bored and tinkering, I thought "hmm...wonder what turning this will do?". Whoa- huge gut busting low end! It was my favorite setting for awhile, but now I'm really in to the high z. I boost the mids and lows, and with my amp can get a sweet grindy tone. May have to experiment with the different cap values the next time I get bored.
 
#17
Zooberwerx said:
Even as we speak (okay...type), walterw is installing a 2 band Audere in my Dingwall ABI. He was a little reluctant to punch a hole through the top for the Z switch so we agreed to leave it in "middle" mode and stuff the switch itself in the control cavity. In view of the mostly favorable comments, I think I'll give him the OK for the top-mount.

Both the high and low Z modes are adjustable via 4 internal trim pots. The "high" pots adjust resonance freq. and "low" pots adjust output level as I understand it. Any little tricks or tips?

Riis
Click to expand...

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Adjusting the location of the resonant peak:
To give you control of the resonant peak location we've given you a way to make a capacitance adjustment; the 3ZB module has a multiple turn pot and the JZ3 has socketed capacitors that can be changed out.

3ZB: The two adjusters (one per pickup) are located at the top of the module near wires. They are 11 turn adjustments which allow very fine control over the resonant peak location. Dial the screw adjustment counter clockwise to reduce the capacitance added to the pickup and the resonant peak frequency will increase. Dial the adjuster clockwise to increase the capacitance and the frequency of the resonant peak lowers. Adjust by ear to your taste and setup.

JZx: Each pickup has a capacitor installed in sockets; 680pF for the Neck and 330pF for the Bridge. These capacitors can be replaced with other values which will move the frequency peak location. A set of additional capacitor values is available as an option.


Which model are you using? With the JZx series, I would consider using either lower value capacitors to maximize highend extension (definitely avoiding the 3-4 kHz range, which can make many instruments sound unpleasantly bright, harsh or edgy - coincidentally, where many crossovers are) or finding out the pickup's inductance and using higher value capacitors to add pleasing upper-mid coloration in lower ranges.
 
#18
put a jz3 in my custom jazz for a while then took it back out and traded it. Prolly more had to do with dealing with the battery and leaving the bass plugged in than tonal versatility. I just wasn't impressed enough to leave it in, in favor of simplicity.
 
#19
Derek Kiernan said:
Which model are you using? With the JZx series, I would consider using either lower value capacitors to maximize highend extension (definitely avoiding the 3-4 kHz range, which can make many instruments sound unpleasantly bright, harsh or edgy - coincidentally, where many crossovers are) or finding out the pickup's inductance and using higher value capacitors to add pleasing upper-mid coloration in lower ranges.
Click to expand...

Thank you and it's the 3ZB.

Riis
 

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