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"Fender Dimensions: World famous for the very best sounding low B."
- Thread starter Ox Boris
- Start date
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- fender dimension low low b
Yup. Fender pre 2008 was known for having the most Meh B string on the planet. Now I will admit that post 2008 things have greatly improved in the Fender low B department. But Hey, I Own a Smith and it certainly has a better B than Fender Dimension or no. And I really LIKE the Dimension bass for lots of reasons. But when you start talking best B anywhere in the solar system, even a Smith and similar don't measure up. A B string to die for as far as I know is found on a Modulus bass. And I have two of them and yes it blows the Smith, the Alembic, the G&L L2500s etc. out of the water good as they are. The only thing that might possibly be at that level is a Dingwall and certainly nothing with a Fender-shaped headstock. They are just not into 5 string anything. You know, same as Rics.
No.
Maybe.
Up to you................................................
Maybe.
Up to you................................................
I have a Dimension 5 HH Deluxe and its a great bass. The B string is solid but I disagree a couple of things people throw out there as facts rather than opinion.
1) Dimension is a Music Man Copy... not if you played one. They sound nothing like a MM. The have an aggressive tone, but nearly as aggressive as a Stingray.
2) Fender B strings have sucked in the past.... I have a Deluxe P5 2005, two of my good friends have Roscoe Beck 5s about the same era... there is nothing wrong with the B string, it sounds killer.
Now to the
"Fender Dimensions: World famous for the very best sounding low B."
Unless and until a big name player makes a landmark recording with a Dimension bass, this statement will remain aspirational. There are no big time players using these basses... yet. Yolanda Charles? Great player but not big time. This is a great bass, worth playing and considering. It has just has not been around long enough or been adopted by enough players to have much cache....yet.
1) Dimension is a Music Man Copy... not if you played one. They sound nothing like a MM. The have an aggressive tone, but nearly as aggressive as a Stingray.
2) Fender B strings have sucked in the past.... I have a Deluxe P5 2005, two of my good friends have Roscoe Beck 5s about the same era... there is nothing wrong with the B string, it sounds killer.
Now to the
"Fender Dimensions: World famous for the very best sounding low B."
Unless and until a big name player makes a landmark recording with a Dimension bass, this statement will remain aspirational. There are no big time players using these basses... yet. Yolanda Charles? Great player but not big time. This is a great bass, worth playing and considering. It has just has not been around long enough or been adopted by enough players to have much cache....yet.
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OxBoris owns a Stingray 5 Neck thru (HH?) - now I own a regular Stingray 5 and that has a killer B string so the neck thru should be equally good.
The Dimension is an 18 volt preamp bass so it's Musicman equivalent is a Bongo - the Bongo 5 has a seismic sounding B string, contributed to by its pre amp ability. I've never tried a Dimension 5 but it would have to be pretty good to match the Bongo.
I don't buy all this Dimension needing a load of famous users - most basses are bought by hobbyist users many of whom don't go near forums or bass magazines - so long as they're available in shops, sound and look good then people will buy them.
From another angle, Fender Precision and Jazz basses have been the mainstay of middle of the road studio music, novelty records, comedy records etc for decades. Two of the most famous and revered bass players of all time played EB3 basses - the most famous bassist of all time plays a Hofner and Rickenbacker.
So is the reason relatively few of us play EB3s, Ricks and violin basses because we mostly aspire to be middle of the road/novelty record players rather than Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser, Paul McCartney etc or (heaven forbid) is there a vast amount of hype about musical instruments and the reasons for their popularity?
Aha apparently not but then he's not that well known to many.I never knew Jaco played a Hofner and a Rick..
Mine is an HH, but it's a 4.
I think gbass is through giving me grief for proposing a position and inviting discussion. That post seems to have been deleted.
I don't care who said it, I don't care if it's pure invention. It's designed to ellicit opinion, rather than discuss "things". If we can get past "things" and on to opinions, we might even reach the hallowed land of feelings. Then we'd have ourselves a conversation. Also, logically, if topics for debate had to be truthful, there wouldn't be any debate.
The Dimension bass does have an 18v preamp but it doesn't have a ton of boost available. What it does have is very musical sounding even turned all the way up.
Just putting this info out there if anyone is thinking the 18v preamp will boost as much as say an Aguilar at 18v.
Gotta keep the expectations for the Dimension bass realistic! Not the best in the world at anything but still a wonderful sounding bass. Anyone considering buying one could do a ton worse for the money.
Just putting this info out there if anyone is thinking the 18v preamp will boost as much as say an Aguilar at 18v.
Gotta keep the expectations for the Dimension bass realistic! Not the best in the world at anything but still a wonderful sounding bass. Anyone considering buying one could do a ton worse for the money.
I am actually on my second MIA American Standard Dim V. The first one was replaced by Fender because the truss rod was frozen. I have to admit that I hardly touch my MIA P V anymore. I love the Dim. The B is much more clear. Partly due to the .125 string vs the .130 on Ps and Js. I also took the stealth string retainer idea from the Dim and put one on my P. It definitely helped some. I was going to buy a Jazz or a P/J to get that growl sound I wanted. My band covers a lot of GNR. The Dim is more than growly when you want it. I love the neck. Far easier on my old wrist than the P. The Dim is significantly heavier though. I feel in in my back after playing for a few hours. Who knows what bass I will want next or when. Right now I feel I can play anything with this Dim. Plus I think it looks awesome.
What would be interesting is to find out how many of the average Joe's think of McCartney as a bass player. My feeling is it would be less than 50%, but who knows.
I'm guessing if it was average Joe musicians most would know McCartney as a bass player amongst other things (singer/multi-instrumentalist/ex Beatle) but only a proportion would have even heard of Jaco.