I thought I would post my pre-amp mod for other Fender Dimension bass players out there considering to do similar.
To start off, the reason I even considered doing this mod is because my Dimension was having issued with battery drainage and when I went in to troubleshoot what was causing it, I thought that either there was an issue with the factory pre-amp since all the wiring looked good and I wasn't going to mess around with the factory pre-amp. So, I went looking for pre-amp options and stumbled across the Audere Classic and Pro Z kits. (As a side note, I found out it wasn't the factory pre-amp after all, but rather an issue with the 5-position switch and the input jack)
Now, I liked the options the Pro Z seemed to offer, so I asked Audere if this was going to work for my bass or not. After many helpful emails with David at Audere it turns out that the easiest mod would be with the Classic, since the way Fender wired the humbuckers it wouldn't work with the Pro Z. This was because the Pro Z requires for the PU poles to be separated from the negative of the coils. Fender grounded both the negative connection of the coils and the PU poles together. So, if you are looking for an easy mod, then go for the Classic. I've heard on this forum that even that pre-amp wakes up the humbuckers on this bass.
But, I was determined to go with the Pro Z. ;-) So, I decided to got the full 10 yards and make the necessary modifications to the factory PUs as well. I actually did two modifications to the PUs, but you only need to do the first one to use this pre-amp.
UPDATE: My brain was thinking too complicated when I did these PU mods. They can both be accomplished much easier in one step. Just cut the surface of the PCB around both middle coil connection poles (two green boxes in picture) to separate them both from the PCB common. This would basically be 4 straight cuts with a sharp knife. Then the green common wire would become your PU pole connection (not the yellow wire I have documented here) as the poles are already connected to the PCB common and you no longer have to do my mod number 1 below. Then you solder two new wires to those separated poles to get your coil negative connections.
View attachment 2903948
PU Mod 1. Necessary to use the Pro Z: You have to separate the PU poles from the PCB ground to isolate them from the coils. To do this you remove the four screws pressing the PCB to the poles and sliding insulation between the PCB and the poles. Be careful doing this since the coils are soldered to the PCB via four small connecting poles on one side of the PU. You then also need to re-connect the poles to each other using shielding sheet and solder a wire to the shielding to create a separate connection for the poles into your cavity.
PU Mod 2. I decided to also change the standard parallel wiring to series. This was accomplished by cutting the surface of the PCB around one of the middle connecting poles (both middle connections are grounded) and soldering a separate wire to that pole to have another wire from the PU into the cavity. You could theoretically connect this directly to the positive coil connection of the other coil to get a series connection, but I wanted to be flexible so I have all PU connections as a separate wire in the cavity.
Now, those are the mods I did to both PUs and end up with 5 wires from each PU in my bass cavity. Poles (yellow), Coil1- (green), Coil1+ (red), Coil2- (white) and Coil2+ (black)
I selected this version of the Audere Pro Z: Pro Z VB 4B 4H None
This one has 3 dual-Pots and a three-way switch that end up in the 4 existing holes of the pick guard. To keep a common look to my bass, I bought a separate rotary switch to replace the Z-Mode switch of the Audere. Since I couldn't find a three-way rotary at the time, I got a 4-way and used the forth position as a "mute".
For the most part everything is wired as explained in the Audere instructions. The only things that are a little different are the fact that you have two wires from the poles of the PUs going to common ground along with the ground of the input jack and the bridge. And since we have a 5-position switch for different PU configurations this is the biggest part of the mod that is not explained in the Audere instructions.
Since the pre-amp version I selected has a balance, there are two positions (positions 1 and 5) of the factory 5-way switch setup that are not necessary and gave me the opportunity to create two different configurations. So, I went with a Lakland and a "reverse-Lakland" setup in those positions. So, my switch positions now do the following configurations:
And here's a version showing the actual connections of the coils as they are created via the 5-way switch:
And here's a very sloppy drawing of how the 5-way switch is wired to the PUs and the pre-amp to accomplish these configurations (BTW: I did purchase a new super switch, (actually the Elb Megaswitch which is the same) since the factory switch has everything wired on a PCB):
After wiring everything together as described in the Audere installation instructions it looked like this:
What can't be seen here too well is that I added copper shielding tape to the bottom of the pick guard and on the side of the cavity (top left in picture) to ground the pots.
Now, since Fender had everything nice and tidy on PCBs there wasn't many wires in the cavity with the factory setup. So, the cavity is quite small for all the wires you now have with this mod. So, you have to be careful when putting everything in the cavity so you don't squish any wires. I was very careful and use a credit card at the end to make sure all wires are actually in the cavity and none were squeezed between the pick guard and the body.
And the final product ;-) :
A huge shout out to David from Audere for the excellent remote support that went above and beyond any support that would have been expected. He helped me with the switch configuration and PU mods which had nothing to do with the product itself.
Many thanks!!
Hope this helps somebody interested in going to the trouble of such a mod.
Oh, I forgot to mention: Since the Pro Z works the same with both 9v and 18v, I decided to only go with 9v and I leave a spare 9v battery in the battery compartment for any emergencies. ;-)
To start off, the reason I even considered doing this mod is because my Dimension was having issued with battery drainage and when I went in to troubleshoot what was causing it, I thought that either there was an issue with the factory pre-amp since all the wiring looked good and I wasn't going to mess around with the factory pre-amp. So, I went looking for pre-amp options and stumbled across the Audere Classic and Pro Z kits. (As a side note, I found out it wasn't the factory pre-amp after all, but rather an issue with the 5-position switch and the input jack)
Now, I liked the options the Pro Z seemed to offer, so I asked Audere if this was going to work for my bass or not. After many helpful emails with David at Audere it turns out that the easiest mod would be with the Classic, since the way Fender wired the humbuckers it wouldn't work with the Pro Z. This was because the Pro Z requires for the PU poles to be separated from the negative of the coils. Fender grounded both the negative connection of the coils and the PU poles together. So, if you are looking for an easy mod, then go for the Classic. I've heard on this forum that even that pre-amp wakes up the humbuckers on this bass.
But, I was determined to go with the Pro Z. ;-) So, I decided to got the full 10 yards and make the necessary modifications to the factory PUs as well. I actually did two modifications to the PUs, but you only need to do the first one to use this pre-amp.
UPDATE: My brain was thinking too complicated when I did these PU mods. They can both be accomplished much easier in one step. Just cut the surface of the PCB around both middle coil connection poles (two green boxes in picture) to separate them both from the PCB common. This would basically be 4 straight cuts with a sharp knife. Then the green common wire would become your PU pole connection (not the yellow wire I have documented here) as the poles are already connected to the PCB common and you no longer have to do my mod number 1 below. Then you solder two new wires to those separated poles to get your coil negative connections.
View attachment 2903948
PU Mod 1. Necessary to use the Pro Z: You have to separate the PU poles from the PCB ground to isolate them from the coils. To do this you remove the four screws pressing the PCB to the poles and sliding insulation between the PCB and the poles. Be careful doing this since the coils are soldered to the PCB via four small connecting poles on one side of the PU. You then also need to re-connect the poles to each other using shielding sheet and solder a wire to the shielding to create a separate connection for the poles into your cavity.
PU Mod 2. I decided to also change the standard parallel wiring to series. This was accomplished by cutting the surface of the PCB around one of the middle connecting poles (both middle connections are grounded) and soldering a separate wire to that pole to have another wire from the PU into the cavity. You could theoretically connect this directly to the positive coil connection of the other coil to get a series connection, but I wanted to be flexible so I have all PU connections as a separate wire in the cavity.
Now, those are the mods I did to both PUs and end up with 5 wires from each PU in my bass cavity. Poles (yellow), Coil1- (green), Coil1+ (red), Coil2- (white) and Coil2+ (black)
I selected this version of the Audere Pro Z: Pro Z VB 4B 4H None
This one has 3 dual-Pots and a three-way switch that end up in the 4 existing holes of the pick guard. To keep a common look to my bass, I bought a separate rotary switch to replace the Z-Mode switch of the Audere. Since I couldn't find a three-way rotary at the time, I got a 4-way and used the forth position as a "mute".
For the most part everything is wired as explained in the Audere instructions. The only things that are a little different are the fact that you have two wires from the poles of the PUs going to common ground along with the ground of the input jack and the bridge. And since we have a 5-position switch for different PU configurations this is the biggest part of the mod that is not explained in the Audere instructions.
Since the pre-amp version I selected has a balance, there are two positions (positions 1 and 5) of the factory 5-way switch setup that are not necessary and gave me the opportunity to create two different configurations. So, I went with a Lakland and a "reverse-Lakland" setup in those positions. So, my switch positions now do the following configurations:
And here's a version showing the actual connections of the coils as they are created via the 5-way switch:
And here's a very sloppy drawing of how the 5-way switch is wired to the PUs and the pre-amp to accomplish these configurations (BTW: I did purchase a new super switch, (actually the Elb Megaswitch which is the same) since the factory switch has everything wired on a PCB):
After wiring everything together as described in the Audere installation instructions it looked like this:
What can't be seen here too well is that I added copper shielding tape to the bottom of the pick guard and on the side of the cavity (top left in picture) to ground the pots.
Now, since Fender had everything nice and tidy on PCBs there wasn't many wires in the cavity with the factory setup. So, the cavity is quite small for all the wires you now have with this mod. So, you have to be careful when putting everything in the cavity so you don't squish any wires. I was very careful and use a credit card at the end to make sure all wires are actually in the cavity and none were squeezed between the pick guard and the body.
And the final product ;-) :
A huge shout out to David from Audere for the excellent remote support that went above and beyond any support that would have been expected. He helped me with the switch configuration and PU mods which had nothing to do with the product itself.
Many thanks!!
Hope this helps somebody interested in going to the trouble of such a mod.
Oh, I forgot to mention: Since the Pro Z works the same with both 9v and 18v, I decided to only go with 9v and I leave a spare 9v battery in the battery compartment for any emergencies. ;-)
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