mcnach

Mine looks dark like yours, but it's a 5-string and weighs 9.0 lbs.

or tightening a loose jack socket... but that's just me.

That's exactly my impression, before I even looked at the colour of the string ends but I think there are other companies using similar coloured ends? I'm not a fan at all of those strings, especially when new, and I'm liking the bass despite whatever it's got on. Usually I'd go for DR Fatbeams or Sunbeams. The Sunbeams get to the sweet spot that I like sooner, but the Fat Beams 'settled' tone is mighty especially on Stingray style basses.

+1 Although I would go for the 4.5 if possible. They seemed a bit better sounding too me (and that's what I now use)

Does anybody know what strings these basses come with?

Having spent a bit of time now with the Z7-5... it's true! the little allen key for the saddle height adjustment is too small! But I've got lots of teh right ones. Action was a bit high out of teh box, but I brought it down quite a bit and no fretbuzz... this neck is very well made. The tuners are so smooth, a very pleasant surprise after the nighmare with the Ray35. Does it sound like a Stingray? On videos it can sound a lot like one, and I can too, but the preamp is quite different from the MusicMan one so it took me a bit of time, iterative trial and error... To me it sounds a lot like a Stingray with the pickup wired in series, but @neepheid mentioned that his Z7-4 was wired in parallel. I suppose that the voicing of the preamp could account for that. The neck is a thing of beauty, and those rolled edges feel great. The bass is 9.0 lbs, which for a 5-string is not bad at all, I'm happy with that Build, fit, finish... to me is definitely better than a Ray35 that cost a bit over twice what the Sire sells for. And I really like teh Ray35 despite weighing as much as a small galaxy (and sparkles as much ). Now, the knobs... both my passive tone and mid-sweep rings were a bit loose, but easy to tighten up. They're not the nices knobs but I don't hate them either. The passive tone control doesn't remove nearly enough treble so I'm likely to get a capacitor change, but I think it's by design as it seems to reduce treble and emphasise some high mids somewhat. Mids... I'm used to John East's mid-sweep modules. This one has the same function but the sweep is different, so my "hardwire" knob positions don't quite work, so I'll have to play more with it and find the sweet spots/ Bass... it's way too powerful! Turning up a bit was really noticeable. I'm thinking that this with an adjustable HPF could probably work together really well tightening the fat low end. A bit like that 'Pultec trick' in another thread. The Jazz neck pickup is a lot quieter than the MM but I'm sure I could get a much better balance by altering the pickup heights. However, I'm finding some tones that I am enjoying and I might just leave it. With a P/J or an J/MM I always view the humbucker as the main pickup, and the other being there to add to the sound but not really meant to be played on its own (by me, for my liking, other tastes exist ) so in that respect it works very well as it is. Turn down treble (both active and passive, these strings are bright), turn down a *bit* some higher mids, leave the bass alone, and using both pickups, with the balance just slightly towards the J... is a beautiful reggae tone, deep but retaining definition.

The Z7-5 is 17.5mm, the same as standard for a Stingray 5 I also couldn't find that information before I ordered mine. I looked carefully at the polepieces and the relative spacings and I felt the Z7-5 was probably 17.5, 18mm at most. Meanshile the Z3-5 looks to me like it'll be 16, maybe 16.5, but I don't know for sure

One thing I didn't like much is teh pickguard shape... but the routing is reasonably clean Passive tone control doesn't go as dark as I'd like, I might change the capacitor... however, while playing around adding a bit of the neck pickup while rolling off the passive tone and the treble control I found some really tasty sounds, fat and rich... This is a lot of bass, and not just 'for the money'.

Nice!!! 😍 I hesitated between this finish and the natural. I think this is the better looking one but I really wanted the maple fingerboard... Mine (5-string: Z7-5) arrived about 30 min ago... I haven't plugged it in yet because I have quite a bit of work to do still and I know what would happen But I'm very impressed. I had experienced Sire's rolled edges before, but I had forgotten just how nice that is. As I suspected from looking at the pickup and the polepieces, the string spacing at the bridge is 17.5mm, just like a Stingray5, which is perfect. The Z3-5 looks like it'll be a 16mm one but I haven't seen conformation yet. The neck is soooooo nice. And it weighs exactly 9.0 lbs, which for a 5-string is pretty good. I'll take a couple of photographs later... now I need to focus and finish work!

Same here I checked this morning and it said it hadn't been scanned yet... but a few minutes ago I checked again and they had updated everything... expected delivery between 3-4pm...

I think so. I think it could get scuffed but it doesn't seem fragile at all. I imagine the screen is the weakest point, although the screen itself is quite a bit under the protective window so you probably could crack the window but not damage the screen itself. The 4 rotary knobs are installed at an angle within a recess so they also seem reasonably protected. Nothing is damage proof, of course, but this thing seems sturdier than the B6 (which I also have) and especially the previous generation B1Four by some margin. Installed on a pedal board? I would not worry about it.

Oooh, I just checked and I also have a "shipped" notification! 🤗 Natural Z7-5 incoming!!!

Ignore my previous post... they are right, mostly. The black sides and bottom is metal, the red top is indeed some kind of tough plastic. I have had one for a couple of weeks and I hadn't realised! It doesn't feel plastic, apart from it being slightly warmer to the touch than the metal parts. Seems very well built.

The series/parallel option can be cool, but eevrytime I've had it I end up favouring one configuration and just stuck with that. The Ray35 has a series/series+HFfilter/parallel switch and very rarely I use it in anything other than parallel, in this case. One cool thing it has is that they put a resistor that tames the output a bit when in series, which means there is no noticeable change in levels between the 3 options. If I do again any parallel/series mod I will incorporate that as well. I had a 55-02 for a while, and I actually found I was using the switch more in that bass. I wonder if the fact that the pickup is closer to the bridge than on a Stingray plays some part on that.

Metal, just like the previous version.

I'm starting to question how much I want this, and if I do, do I want to give Andertons my money. I was not in a hurry, but I don't like feeling I've been fed stories to keep me from going elsewhere. Truth is I was ordering from them to use up about 40 quid's worth of 'points' that I had accumulated. Now they might become the shop I avoid. I do bear a grudge I only recently bought something from GAK after a 'situation' we had in 2001...

of October...

Yup, I have a Z7-5 ordered with them...

It's not too late to change it. It wouldn't be the first, or the second time...

If there ever was an overrated band...

And if that promise were true, they must be checked by the kindergarden age progeny of the EBMM people who do that for the USA instruments. From early 2022 there's been issues with tuners with gears that chew themselves and stuck truss rods. They seem to be doing better again, but... there's no way somebody checked my Ray35, maybe they just went "yup, it's a bass, how many strings? Check" I noticed the tuners straight away. Truss rod, the minute I went to adjust it. Fortunately the truss rod must have just had some glue or something because the old trick tapping along the back of the neck freed it. It's a great bass now, with Hipshot Untralites, but crazy expensive. I just wanted that particular finish so I didn't bother returning it once I found my experience was far from unique. Initially SBMM seemed great but when the main guy, who used to post a lot on TB, left, it looks like they focused on pretty looks and not so much on the quality anymore.

Yes, they haven't changed that, I wonder why... Feel free to ask EB himself in the EBMM forum.

EBMM, not SBMM