neepheid

I think you're cursed, mate

I'm just suggesting what could be an easy fix (and nothing to get in a knot about) before returning a bass needlessly if that does fix it. We're all human, I don't think leaving the trim pot in the wrong setting when it can be easily fixed with a small screwdriver is that big a deal.

Can't comment on the roast (got the burgundy, so have maple/ebony and matching headstock). My one is 9.5lbs (which incidentally I don't consider particularly heavy - everyone's different). If your preamp is too loud, there's a trim pot on the preamp which you can use to tame it down. It's the wee blue thing on the circuit board, turn it with a small screwdriver. No idea which way you turn it but I guess anti clockwise would make the preamp quieter. Mine was set fine as supplied.

I can't say I have noticed this on mine, sorry I also notice very little difference between volume levels in active or passive mode. Maybe I got lucky and the trim pot on my preamp arrived set to an appropriate level. Caveat - this is all based upon headphone listening - haven't had a chance to hook it up to my amp yet and have a proper "war volume" go with it. Pesky drummers (who also have the keys/lease to the rehearsal space) buggering off for two weeks, I dunno, shouldn't be allowed

Similar, but probably not these exact colours. D'addario XL nickels are my string of choice, and they feel familiar to me. Also, as a stereotypical tight fisted Scot, having my default choice of strings as the stock strings on a bass makes me happy.

What in the fsck is this nonsense?

The colour of the ball ends heavily suggests D'addario, most likely XL nickels.

Use of that phrase is now deprecated. I can read music... at a rate of about a note a minute. How does it go again? Oh yeah, Greedy Bstards Deserve Fsck All... I'll figure it out by Christmas, hopefully.

Have I been lucky, or have you been incredibly unlucky? Of course with this statistically tiny sample set we can't really say either way.

And to expand upon the series/parallel, here are the gut shots: There is a 4 conductor wire coming out of the humbucker. Red and white are going to the same lug of the blend pot (so it's parallel) and there's a black wire and a green wire both going to ground. If someone wants to shoehorn a way to do series/parallel or coil split shenanigans, it is electrically possible. Tight squeeze in there though - so good luck! Closeup of where the outer insulation of the humbucker wire ends - hard to see the black wire, but it's hiding behind the green one.

Well, that's the knobs sorted. As Baga Chipz would say, "MUCH BETTAH!"

It's wired in parallel, in stock configuration. Details to come.

19mm (Z7)

Yup, saving up (or selling of other things) will be required.

I can only speak for the ones I've tried. The Z7 knobs felt offensively bad to me. Aluminium is a bad material to make knobs from - it's so light that they feel like plastic anyway - the only thing that gives away the fact that they are made of a metal is that they feel cold if they've been in a cold room. I haven't spent enough time turning the pots yet but one thing I noticed was they all felt different, especially in the detents. The inconsistency is a tactile turn off for me. I'm hoping that fitting some decent quality knobs with some heft to them will improve the feel. On the other hand, I don't have a beef with the knobs on my D5 - they are nice flat top barrel knobs which are a bit slimmer than your typical Fender types. The pots feel positive, smooth turning but with a reassuring resistance/inertia which gives a quality feel. Mind you, it's hard to fsck up a passive VT circuit

The pot nearest the bridge is a push/pull.

I'll take it if they don't want it

Were you using the supplied 1.5mm key? It's garbage. I thought "uh-oh" when the first grub screw I tried it in the key just spun around. But I tried my own 1.5mm key and it worked like a charm on all the screws.

Significantly stumpier than my D5 at least: Headstock length from nut to farthest edge D5 - 239mm Z7 - 208mm Centre of E tuner to centre of G tuner (approx) D5 - 145mm Z7 - 131mm So, the headstock is quite a bit shorter, and they've squashed the tuners together a smidge on the Z7.

and I dislike them intensely - set of John East knobs incoming for mine

It's all good, it just gave me chuckle, that's all.

I will say one thing that made me chuckle - as soon as the order confirmation email came through, a second one immediately followed asking for a review. Umm, save it for the dispatch confirmation email at least? I'm not going to review you when I haven't even had any service from you yet, save for your very efficient removal of funds from my bank account

Well, I've just placed my first order with BD, late last night so effectively first thing this morning. Just a few wee sundry items (John East knobs). Fingers crossed they arrive for the weekend, cheeky wee knob swap will be a nice easy tinkering job for a Sunday afternoon.

Cards on the table - I'm not convinced that Andertons do much in the way of checking beyond "is there a bass in there?" and maybe "is it the right colour?" - my Z7 had some sticky dark stuff on the inside of the top horn and around the strap button. A bit of WD40 and it came right off. I wasn't going to mention such a tiny detail as it seemed petty and utterly insignificant, but seeing as we're on the subject it was mildly irksome that I had to clean some sticky shyte off my new bass.

No idea, nor do I care EDIT: That was maybe overly glib, sorry for that - the fact is that I've never owned a Stingray, nor have I played one for any appreciable length of time. Closest I've come is the SBMM SB14 (the original Sterling Sterling) but that was many years ago, honestly I can't remember what it sounded like. I didn't buy the Sire Z7 because I was chasing a Stingray sound - I bought it because I like the look of it, fancied giving it a go on its own merits and I had a positive experience with my D5. I have little doubt that other people's motivations may be different, you'll have to ask someone else about Sire Z/Stingray comparisons, I'm useless for this question!