It's confusing I know, but are you referring to the earlier Fender Deluxe Dimension with PJ pickups? Like this?
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What's wrong with the Fender Dimension Basses?
- Thread starter tlite
- Start date
It's confusing I know, but are you referring to the earlier Fender Deluxe Dimension with PJ pickups? Like this?
The same thing that's wrong with the Precision and Jazz bass...nothing!
They're just not for everyone.
Same goes for so many other basses.
They're just not for everyone.
Same goes for so many other basses.
Yeah, they were kind of AWOL on the website for a few weeks while Fender was making the transition from Rosewood to Pau Ferro boards. But the Dimension still had its section of the website, albeit with no models listed.
Now that section is gone. I can't find them anywhere on Fender's website.
*sigh* I knew I should have bought one when I had the chance...
There are a few tunes where a boomy fat sound suits the song. I will solo the neck pick up and run the eq flat while plucking between the neck pup and the truss wheel.
For soul intro/chicken I go for the Jaco style tone. I solo the bridge pup and back the treble almost all the way off, bump the mids just past detent and boost the lows . Most of the time I use the jazz configuration with the treble + just past detent, bass + 4 and mids flat.
I run this thru my Magellan 800 and 12/3 cabs.
I just don't think Fender did a very good job marketing them. No major bands use them and most bass players don't even know what they are and get confused when they see the Fender logo. I guess some people also aren't a fan of the stubby horns and the small pickguard, though I will say they look a lot cooler in person than they do in photos.
No i think it was one of these:Invalid Link Removed so not a Deluxe but an Am Std. I tried a lot of basses that day so probably got the colour and model wrong but that was the price and pickup type.
This is one of the things I was kind of wondering. Too many dimension models were out there diluting the core product/message before it found a base audience and support. Few bands or artists establishing the "Dimension Sound" as its own thing.
That's true, I own 3 Dimensions and even I'm not aware of all the different variations they produced. Like the early model with the triplebucker, I'd never seen that one until recently
I tried the econo one-pickup version, and had mixed views on it.
Where it went wrong, for me, was the lack of a tone control and the volume shifts between settings. Set up a gain/EQ setting for one setting, and either totally blow out the speakers (figuratively) with the hotter setting or have a weakly diluted tone on another. A bridge pickup also cries out for a tone control to shave off the highs and turn it into a burp machine, and you just couldn't do that.
Lastly, it just felt like a Fender bass neck grafted onto a DIY body. The neck was finished with a tinted lacquer, so was it meant to be a vintage design? Retro? it just seemed like a mix of ideas that didn't go anywhere. What was it trying to be? A passive Ibanez ATK killer? A sorta Stingray without the tones? A sort of '70s Muscle Bass in the SD Curlee pattern, with a hot passive pickup and chunky bridge?
Granted I thought this looked quite good:
There is space there for a tone control, or I would have deleted the rotary switch and just wired the pickup full tilt and had it set up like a P bass.
Where it went wrong, for me, was the lack of a tone control and the volume shifts between settings. Set up a gain/EQ setting for one setting, and either totally blow out the speakers (figuratively) with the hotter setting or have a weakly diluted tone on another. A bridge pickup also cries out for a tone control to shave off the highs and turn it into a burp machine, and you just couldn't do that.
Lastly, it just felt like a Fender bass neck grafted onto a DIY body. The neck was finished with a tinted lacquer, so was it meant to be a vintage design? Retro? it just seemed like a mix of ideas that didn't go anywhere. What was it trying to be? A passive Ibanez ATK killer? A sorta Stingray without the tones? A sort of '70s Muscle Bass in the SD Curlee pattern, with a hot passive pickup and chunky bridge?
Granted I thought this looked quite good:
There is space there for a tone control, or I would have deleted the rotary switch and just wired the pickup full tilt and had it set up like a P bass.
That model with the triplebucker isn't like most of the Dimensions. Most are active with a 3 band EQ that allows quite a bit of tone shaping, and there's a passive two humbucker version with volume-volume-tone controls similar to a Jazz bass.
good luck with having enough saddle action to get the G string low enough.I bought an American Standard V HH (relatively cheap), and added an Aguilar OBP3 with passive switch. Haven't used the passive option since, as I like being able to boost basses and mids when using the bridge pickup. It's being converted to fretless as we speak, just because I wanted a non-epoxy fretless five string bass with humbuckers and I could hear it work out well in my head with the sound of the pickups. It was a guess, but I can't wait.
Although I have many basses (many of which are Pedulla's, but also a Fender PJ and a Jazz), the Dimension seemed good enough to me to customize it a bit. It's well built, and it sounds great in many settings. It doesn't feel as 'personal' to me as the Pedulla's, but I've been playing Pedulla basses for 20 years now so that's not strange. I like having a bass that feels different from the rest.
It does not sound like P or J or MM, and I don't think it was the intention to make it sound all of those basses. It's something else, and to be honest: I don't understand the criticism.
Every dimension I played ran out of travel on the G string; on a FL, you need the saddles to drop even further.
My beef with the dime is that damn bridge other than that, a decent bass in every other way
Well, its not really the 3 band EQ, but the 5 way switch and no blend is confounding. Really a missed opportunity as far as I'm concerned. Honestly, I have no idea what each position does. I mean, I can hear the tonal differences, but I don't find many of them very pleasant to my ear. Keep in mind, I've never owned one and have only played any of them for a few moments each.
Yes the bass does take some time to figure out and to find the best tones. That's the problem with a lot of options, there is a lot to figure out..
Strongly agree with that statement, I think there was a real product management/marketing issue with the line.
Just witness TB's people in this thread being confused of surprised there is a passive version of the bass, too many model, too many configuration that eventually dilute what is the "Dimension"
