Beedster Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I've just bought the Audere JZ3 pre-amp. Whilst the low, mid, high, pan and volume all work as I'd expected, the Z switches don't. That is, when switched into High-Z mode although I get the desired brighter more aggressive tone when soloing the bridge PUP, if I'm using the neck PUP or both PUPs it sounds like mud. There's a similar situation with the Low-Z mode which only works as described when the neck PUP is soloed. Mid-Z mode seems to be unaffected by PUP selection. Although these problems aren't terminal, I bought the Audere as I thought it might offer an advantage over the J-Retro in being able to simply switch tones as opposed to tweaking high/low/mid/sweep as often needs to be done with the J-Retro. However, I'm finding it a PITA to be honest as I have to both switch Z mode and change PUP slection to get the sound I'm after. I can't find anything useful on the Audere site so I'm guessing it's either: 1. A faulty pre-amp 2. I've cocked up the wiring (although I've checked & rechecked and doesn't seem to be the case. As I said, everything else works fine) 3. How it's supposed to be (in which case I'm p*ssed with Audere for not making this clearer in their description, unless of course I've misread the description...) Any ideas folks? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voxpop Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Hi Chris, Sorry to hear about the Audere. I never did get around to fitting it to a bass so I'm stumped as to what might be happening on your Jazz.?? Anyone got any ideas?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-soar Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Hi Chris, send TerryK a PM, he has one in his Status necked Geddy Jazz and it sounds mental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YouMa Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Have you tried having a fiddle with any of the trimming pots/capacitors i know these are adjustable maybe yours wasnt adjusted befor it left the factory,just a suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurcatovium Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I used to have audere jz3 too. It worked really good with my Lollars. But then I sold it to a friend and he had almost exactly same problems like you. His problem is only with low-z, others are working well. He has US Fender with stock pickups, which I think is problem (pickups, not Fender). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Hughes Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 (edited) Sounds like a dodgy preamp. I have two of them and they both work as described on the website and not like your one. Email Audere (I think it's David something is the owner/designer). He was very helpful with me when my passive tone control wasn't working and after a few 'Doh!!!' moments I finally saw that I'd broken a capacitor off whilst installing the preamp. He was great in talking me through different options wen I was ordering one of the pre's. About the Hi Z/Lo Z issue - have you tried changing the settings of the internal trimpots to balance things out? IIRC you need to have the toggle switch at the relevant setting when you're making the changes or it doesn't affect anything - ie: if you have Lo Z selected and tweak the Hi Z trimpots, nothing will have been changed. (I could be making this all up tho...but I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere along the lines). Ignore me if I'm not saying anything you haven't already checked out. Good luck!! Edited August 13, 2009 by Gareth Hughes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted August 14, 2009 Author Share Posted August 14, 2009 Thanks very much for all the above folks. The PUPs are stock Fender (the new ones which are actually good enough to not require immediate replacement), which, given what was said above, is perhaps the problem (I notice on the Audere website they make a bit of a thing about swapping out PUPs so perhaps they do have problems with Fender's, although it seems an odd design if so given the number of Fenders out there)? I'll have a look at the trimpots and see if I can get any useful changes there and I'll also email Audere today and see what they have to suggest. We're gigging tonight but luckily I'm doing most of it on my fretless which has a J-Retro - annoying thing about the Audere is that, unlike the J-Retro, you can't run it passive if it goes wrong in a live situation, so I'm thinking I might have to uninstall it today just for peace of mind until I find out what the issue is. Should have stuck with East Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokl Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 Did you ever sort this out? The JZ3 paired with the Duncans in my Bacchus sounds superb, so I wonder if you have a dodgy one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted August 16, 2009 Author Share Posted August 16, 2009 [quote name='Mokl' post='570993' date='Aug 16 2009, 08:09 PM']Did you ever sort this out? The JZ3 paired with the Duncans in my Bacchus sounds superb, so I wonder if you have a dodgy one?[/quote] Hi mate, thanks for the post. I've tried everything and am pretty sure it's actually dodgy. I gigged it Friday and the switches were unusable, firstly because the sound was mud and secondly because the volume changed dramatically from one to the other. Also although the high and low boost controls work predictably, they do not makes anything like as much difference at gig volume despite than my J-Retro which is in turn way less than most other pre-amps I've used (e.g., Sadowsky. Bart, Aguillar etc). I'm going to uninstall it tomorrow and try it with my Nordstrands in case the suggestion above that for whatever reason the Audere doesn't like Fender PUPs is actually true. I'll update tomorrow Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petetexas Posted May 22, 2010 Share Posted May 22, 2010 [quote name='Beedster' post='571007' date='Aug 16 2009, 08:19 PM']Hi mate, thanks for the post. I've tried everything and am pretty sure it's actually dodgy. I gigged it Friday and the switches were unusable, firstly because the sound was mud and secondly because the volume changed dramatically from one to the other. Also although the high and low boost controls work predictably, they do not makes anything like as much difference at gig volume despite than my J-Retro which is in turn way less than most other pre-amps I've used (e.g., Sadowsky. Bart, Aguillar etc). I'm going to uninstall it tomorrow and try it with my Nordstrands in case the suggestion above that for whatever reason the Audere doesn't like Fender PUPs is actually true. I'll update tomorrow Chris[/quote] Hi Chris, I have just bought one (JZ3) on e-bay, had a problem when I fitted it to my American Standard Jazz. No output from the bridge p/up. Checked the wiring, re checked , and rechecked, could find nothing wrong. Got a mate to check it, he found straight away that I had connected the bridge earth to the bridge p/up earth input ! What I am saying is ......get someone else to check the wiring........new pair of eyes and all that. Once I had corrected that ........WOW .......what a difference the active EQ makes ! Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 Getting back to the East pre....I find it better to EQ the bass for the Pre and then just toggle the switch between rear or neck pup...and set the pup balance for your preference. This way you get 2 core sounds as the flick of a switch... Once you have had a long play round to see the possibilties of the Pre...it is very easy to work your way round with the minimum of effort. Getting there in the 1st place is the hard part and I had to work on the pre and the amp to tune it just right. I now have both basses working well with just a switch toggle, IMO. Sorry for the hijack.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorge Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 soy de Lima, Peru, pregunto cual de todos los preamp a bordo no dan problemas y suenan bien. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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