To me, after trying a few, nothing wrong with them, I think they look and sound great, but I'm not comfortable playing that neck. No other issue as far as I'm concerned.
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What's wrong with the Fender Dimension Basses?
- Thread starter tlite
- Start date
When I see that Fender head stock, I expect to see a p or a j or one of their other classic models. The Dimension body looks fine by itself but doesn't go well with the Fender head stock. This is what puts me of with this bass, it just doesn't look right to me.
Well, the classic Fender headstock with a modern body is what appealed to me in the first place!
The tone, the neck etc came after.
Yo Koper - Welcome to TB! Your avatar is the biggest vape exhale I've ever seen!
Anyway, we have a saying around here - "No pics, No bass" - how about posting a pic of your dimension? I want to check it out. Thanks!
It was very much a no win scenario with the Dimension, and any non P or J. That said I think more people just needed to get their hands on a Dimension, but not classic Fender players. That was the other issue, these were for those of us who "get" actives.
It was a bit of a mishmash that kind of forced it into being a niche bass. Like the EBMM Big Al.
Active players would continue using Stingrays, Spectras, and Soundgears. All the while missing out on what has been by far the best Fender bass I've ever played, the American Deluxe 5 H. I easily prefer this to the EBMM Stingray I once owned. I'm very much the target market for the Dimension and Big Al SSS and what I've learned is if I really dig it it's gonna be hugely unpopular.
It was a bit of a mishmash that kind of forced it into being a niche bass. Like the EBMM Big Al.
Active players would continue using Stingrays, Spectras, and Soundgears. All the while missing out on what has been by far the best Fender bass I've ever played, the American Deluxe 5 H. I easily prefer this to the EBMM Stingray I once owned. I'm very much the target market for the Dimension and Big Al SSS and what I've learned is if I really dig it it's gonna be hugely unpopular.
Ha! I guess the vape exhale is a combination of lights and photographer's skills!Yo Koper - Welcome to TB! Your avatar is the biggest vape exhale I've ever seen!
Anyway, we have a saying around here - "No pics, No bass" - how about posting a pic of your dimension? I want to check it out. Thanks!
Although I should actually say it is all my hard work as operate the machine on stage!;-)
As for the photo - I did show my bass in Dimension Club thread to join in. But will gladly post another one. This I got from the previous owner and it shows the brand new package right after opening! Enjoy!
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Ha! I guess the vape exhale is a combination of lights and photographer's skills!
Although I should actually say it is all my hard work as operate the machine on stage!;-)
As for the photo - I did show my bass in Dimension Club thread to join in. But will gladly post another one. This I got from the previous owner and it shows the brand new package right after opening! Enjoy!
Very Cool. That looks flat/matte black - don't think I've ever seen one. Maybe it's a Euro thing ...?
Mine is purple/blue/who-knows-what-color.
Thanks for sharing the pic. The purple/blue looks amazing! And I can see you have Am Std IV as well
In this picturw mine looks like it was satin black, but it is not. Just a reguar shiny black. ;-)
I do not think Fender offered anything special in Europe for this line. It probably lived too short...
In this picturw mine looks like it was satin black, but it is not. Just a reguar shiny black. ;-)
I do not think Fender offered anything special in Europe for this line. It probably lived too short...
I have one I bought during Covid from a mom&pop music store in Canada via Reverb. I wanted a natural ash, single pickup because aesthetically it would be a Fender Music Man. That being said, I found a new one which was awesome since they were no longer in production. It's a wonderful "working man's" bass. Playability is synonymous with a P-Bass but you can dial in more brightness. The Fender high-mass bridge is sturdy and very adjustable. My only complaint is that, since it's been in a store so long, it had some prominent fret sprouts which needed attention. I have good tools for this but it's unconscionable for an instrument this day and age. Even a Marcus Miller Sire will have decent frets. Go figure!
It also means that the wood has aged which is a good thing.
I find the Stingray comparisons frustrating.
Paraphrasing some common comments I’ve seen:
- “Boo, Fender trying to copy EBMM, and boy did they ever miss, it sounds nothing like a Stingray”
- “it sounds in the neighbourhood of a Stingray, except one made by Fender”
- “the preamp is meh/dark/bland, so unlike a Stingray”
The world is full of dual humbucker basses with active preamps, all of which somehow completely avoid being compared in any way to HH Stingrays. Except when Fender does it.
Dimensions are their own thing. Just like a Caprice or a Big Al or a Bongo or a Sterling or a Fallout or an L-2000 or a Kiloton are their own thing.
Anyway, Fender’s marketing department should likely have anticipated this comparison and made a stronger push to differentiate the Dimension brand. Instead, they came up with multiple versions (four, five string, H, HH) in every price point (American Deluxe, American Standard, MIM Standard & Deluxe, Modern Player, Squier).
There’s nothing wrong with the basses themselves, they’re actually quite awesome. What’s wrong is the product marketing.
Fwiw, I owned a Squier 4 H, and own an AmDel 4 HH, and fell in love with them all after playing a Modern Player. I have an AmDel 5 HH on order.
The Am Del 4 HH was the only bass I’d played since 1982 whose tone was complimented by a guitar player. Every position on the pickup selector is useful, and the neck is the most comfortable bass neck I’ve ever played.
Paraphrasing some common comments I’ve seen:
- “Boo, Fender trying to copy EBMM, and boy did they ever miss, it sounds nothing like a Stingray”
- “it sounds in the neighbourhood of a Stingray, except one made by Fender”
- “the preamp is meh/dark/bland, so unlike a Stingray”
The world is full of dual humbucker basses with active preamps, all of which somehow completely avoid being compared in any way to HH Stingrays. Except when Fender does it.
Dimensions are their own thing. Just like a Caprice or a Big Al or a Bongo or a Sterling or a Fallout or an L-2000 or a Kiloton are their own thing.
Anyway, Fender’s marketing department should likely have anticipated this comparison and made a stronger push to differentiate the Dimension brand. Instead, they came up with multiple versions (four, five string, H, HH) in every price point (American Deluxe, American Standard, MIM Standard & Deluxe, Modern Player, Squier).
There’s nothing wrong with the basses themselves, they’re actually quite awesome. What’s wrong is the product marketing.
Fwiw, I owned a Squier 4 H, and own an AmDel 4 HH, and fell in love with them all after playing a Modern Player. I have an AmDel 5 HH on order.
The Am Del 4 HH was the only bass I’d played since 1982 whose tone was complimented by a guitar player. Every position on the pickup selector is useful, and the neck is the most comfortable bass neck I’ve ever played.
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The few times I’ve heard them used in a live band setting I thought they were pretty great.
My opinions on the subject:
Fender players and brand loyalists killed the Dimension. They have nobody else to blame but themselves. I think Fender tried to reach a wider market but did a poor job of it. You either like the looks or you don’t, there’s little in between. I’m not a fan, personally, it’s fat and stubby looking with short horns that make it look like a sawed off short-scale but it’s not. It makes the large headstock look out of place to me.
The biggest negative with the dimension series were the proprietary pickups that weren’t the same dimensions as any other major aftermarket manufacturer. They tried to not make it look like Stingray so much by not having a traditional MM pickup shape that they shot themselves in the foot. Rule #1 about building an instrument (guitar or bass), folks are gonna have pickups they like and are going to want to swap them into your design. I mean, how many of you already know when you buy a bass you’re gonna swap the pickups? Nobody had pickups to fit the dimension except Fender. If you didn’t like the pickup, you were SOL.
Could you imagine P basses with only one option for a pickup? It wouldn’t sell, either. Hence why all the other offshoots when they try to change the pickup (Cabrinita and Gold Foil come to mind) they don’t do very well. Maybe had the Dimensions lasted longer, Nordstrand, EMG, Bartolini, Aguilar, Fralin, Seymour Duncan, etc would’ve started making pickups that fit. The fact that one option didn’t exist was an immediate deal breaker in a lot of people’s minds.
Fender players and brand loyalists killed the Dimension. They have nobody else to blame but themselves. I think Fender tried to reach a wider market but did a poor job of it. You either like the looks or you don’t, there’s little in between. I’m not a fan, personally, it’s fat and stubby looking with short horns that make it look like a sawed off short-scale but it’s not. It makes the large headstock look out of place to me.
The biggest negative with the dimension series were the proprietary pickups that weren’t the same dimensions as any other major aftermarket manufacturer. They tried to not make it look like Stingray so much by not having a traditional MM pickup shape that they shot themselves in the foot. Rule #1 about building an instrument (guitar or bass), folks are gonna have pickups they like and are going to want to swap them into your design. I mean, how many of you already know when you buy a bass you’re gonna swap the pickups? Nobody had pickups to fit the dimension except Fender. If you didn’t like the pickup, you were SOL.
Could you imagine P basses with only one option for a pickup? It wouldn’t sell, either. Hence why all the other offshoots when they try to change the pickup (Cabrinita and Gold Foil come to mind) they don’t do very well. Maybe had the Dimensions lasted longer, Nordstrand, EMG, Bartolini, Aguilar, Fralin, Seymour Duncan, etc would’ve started making pickups that fit. The fact that one option didn’t exist was an immediate deal breaker in a lot of people’s minds.
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Re proprietary pu dimensions - totally agree.
But owning a discontinued Fender American made bass is a decent investment. These are good basses. Patience. Let's see what they're worth in a decade ...
But owning a discontinued Fender American made bass is a decent investment. These are good basses. Patience. Let's see what they're worth in a decade ...
I think you're entirely spot on. I don't know how many posts I've read from someone who "played a Dimension" in a store somewhere for ten minutes and found it to be "meh" because it didn't replicate the sounds of an EBMM bass. Then to read further that the Dimension they tested was a Squier H model, or the watered-down MIM version.
The flagship Am Dlx HH model has the recipe of features that set the Dimension apart from other production builder's active HH entries, including EBMM IMO. Fender packed a buttload of modern features into the Am Dlx neck that rival what Mike Tobias offers on his pricey MTD's, but are not present on the cheaper Dimensions. Not sure the cheapo Dimensions even share any of the Am Dlx electronics either (?), but they def don't come with the same advanced Am Dlx neck.
The Am Dlx Dimension that I had impressed me as an example where the whole turns out being greater than the sum of its parts. When I compared it side-to-side with a Roscoe Beck, I could see a connecting lineage, with the Dimension being presented as the modernized, natural successor to the RB, as if that was what Fender had in mind all along.
I also find the SR comparisons sort of annoying. The single H models are certainly SR-esque with that pickup in the SR spot, but the Dimension is not out to copy a SR. I like that the Dimension is a little more mid forward, less bright vs a SR. I have a single H SR if I want the brighter, more scooped SR thing.
To me, the HH Dimensions are more of a riff on the Jazz Bass/L2000 platform. The pickup locations are not MusicMan at all-they are shifted bridgeward like a J/L2000/Thunderbird.
The proprietary pickup thing is a bummer. I happen to like the pickups, but if they go bad, I'm getting out the router.
To me, the HH Dimensions are more of a riff on the Jazz Bass/L2000 platform. The pickup locations are not MusicMan at all-they are shifted bridgeward like a J/L2000/Thunderbird.
The proprietary pickup thing is a bummer. I happen to like the pickups, but if they go bad, I'm getting out the router.
Out of curiosity, what does the group consider to be the standard / default Dimension?
For example, with regards to the Precision - it's fair to say that from the current offerings; the standard / default Precision is the Fender American Professional II, with the budget friendly version being the MIM Fender Player.
If you want to deviate from the standard version, with some enhancements / upgrades, you have the Fender American Performer, and at the top of the line with all the bells and whistles; the Fender American Ultra.
So, with regards to the Dimension, is the standard / default model H, or HH. Passive, or Active?
Not sure if it's still available, but I found a mint condition Dimension (pretty sure it was H Passive) for £300.
I'd assumed it was a cheaper MIM model, but on closer inspection had the contoured neck heel, and was made in Indonesia.
So where does that fit into the range?
They weren’t around long enough and there were way too many versions offered at different price points for this question to be answerable. They came out in like 2013 with 4 and 5 string options and standard and deluxe American and Mexican models, plus a Chinese modern player, and then disappeared in I think 2016. Edit: there were also one or two Squier versions - iirc a four and a five string, and mine had an active preamp.
I feel your question though is at the root of the product marketing problem Fender created with these. There was no “standard” to define the model.
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Re dimensions -
4 string - double j is very popular. Uses fender dimensions.
5 string - fender could have set the standard for a double j 5er, but didn't. The RB 5 has Bill Lawrence design, but they don't use Fender 5 j dimensions ...
Also Emg 40 size is used a lot in 5 strings. 4 x 1.5 in.
Bartolini M45CBC 5 String Classic Bass (EMG® 40 Shape) - M45CBC‐B (Neck) Bass Pickup | Reverb
