Here’s a close up…
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hmm, stacked pots, or reflection? 
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knob stalking
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The worst kind of stalking.
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we will need “Producer Josh” to confirm, it could just be a reflection as you say, but there is certainly a new switch there.
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or an insane attention to detail Barney.
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I have been in touch with Josh about this, and can confirm that he DID upgrade his Squier with a preamp some time ago. He provided me with the name of the company which produces it: audereaudio.com
I had considered doing this to my own Squier before I finally decided to just upgrade the entire bass: Squier V.M. '70s Jazz Bass vs American Ultra Jazz Bass. . . 
HTH and all best,
Joe
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Cool! Seems like a great upgrade.
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thanks for that update Joe, good to know that I wasn’t imagining things. Interesting upgrade, , looks like a good unit. I had been looking at your J - bass comparison earlier, nice write up. Your Fender is beautiful.
cheers Leonard
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oh dear, that is something to consider
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Joe is correct! My dad hipped me to those Audere preamps, it dropped right in and got a whole new range of sounds out of the same bass and pickups.
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As if you needed gadgets, to make you sound better Josh! Is the little toggle switch there to do anything? This bass hack would have made a good before and after story, “to upgrade, what you’ve got”! Something that might help some of us oldies, contain our GAS! Or reduce the cost of GAS, to aftermarket upgrades of parts.
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Active/Passive switch I’m guessing?
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How could it not be the producer switch after all this!
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Says it selects between Low Z / Mid Z and Hi Z.
I don’t have all the tech terms, but that has to do with output, so think low output, mid output, and hi output. It is still NOT active, like a preamp, so it just makes the pickups quieter or louder.
I THINK, could be wrong.
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Must say I thought the pickups would need to be replaced to have active/ passive control as the wiring would be different.
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This is exactly what it says. It is active volume and tone control, but not a pre-amp with EQ
Extremely versatile tone selection with Z-Mode, Active Pickup Mixing and Tone Control subsystems.
Active Balance or Volume / Volume pickup mixing systems expand the useful pickup mixing combinations.
Active Tone controls have a flat frequency response in the center detents and support both subtle and more extreme sculpting.
Supports single coil and hum canceling pickups. Active pickups are not recommend with a Z-Mode preamp.
The Z-Mode switch changes how the pickups electrically respond to string vibrations. The defaults are 1) Low Z - Deeper sound, 2) Mid Z - Passive sound, 3) High Z - Brighter sound applied to both pickups. Each Z-Mode switch position can be independently programmed into 1 of 9 Z-Mode configurations for more versatility.
Replaceable High Z-Mode loading capacitors for each pickup that change the characteristic High Z-Mode peak frequency.
Low Z-Mode gain adjustments for each pickup.
Advanced LED Battery Meter informs you of your batteries charge condition.
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That’s really interesting. Different than most preamps for sure.
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The Z-mode is some kind of impedence adjuster. It’s super cool! A real life producer switch. 
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