franzbassist

I would say that is a very heavy bass. The heaviest bass I ever owned was a 5.4kg Wal - I had to sell it because it was just too much for my shoulder!

He's a great player, no doubt, but that bass (indeed all his sig basses) leaves me cold.

Do you know what the fingerboard has already been sealed with? That will be the major factor in what you can do next.

That's a beauty. I had a superb Krell from Alan but sold it on as it was too heavy for me. Great basses.

Yowzah! Never seen one as bad as that before 😱 If it was me I'd have it stripped and then refinished, although an oil finish would work too if the wood looks good enough. I'd keep the JD mod as it adds a bit of character and gives more tonal variation.

On the rare occasion I use a pick I use the .76mm Dunlop Ultex triangles. I prefer the larger size. I used to use thicker picks but have lightened up over the years.

Thanks Phil. Yes, as I said in an earlier post I have decided to leave the stock pickups in the bass as they do the job just fine. They are also quite well balanced, output-wise, so no issues there. Funnily enough, I decided to put a set of La Bella flats on a couple of days ago and it has revealed the true calling of this bass: it is an absolute tone monster with flats!

So in swapping out the stock tuners for a set of Gotoh Res-O-Lites, I managed to crack the headstock finish on my brand new Sire bass! My initial plan was to have someone repair it professionally, but in my late-night googling I discovered GluBoost products and decided to repair it myself. I bought GluBoost Fill n' Finish thin and a can of the GluDry accelerant, plus some fine wick tips to apply. Steps were as follows: i) Remove B E and A tuners ii) Remove worst of the cracked poly to try and get as close to a flat finish as I could to minimise sanding. iii) Fill cracks with the Fill n' Finish, spraying the GluDry after each pass. The crack on the edge took one fill, the other needed about three. iv) Wet sand with 800 grit to get the finish flat, then carry on working up through the grits to finish at 12000. v) Buff and polish I do need to get some swirl remover and give it a final buff, but I am really pleased with the results. Yes, you can still see it a bit, but it's sanded flat and overall for £40 and a couple of hours work it's a job well done. Particularly impressed at the total lack of white bloom in the glue. I would recommend these products without hesitation. Before And after

I would have paid good money to see Faces in their pomp.

Can't see an amp but it definitely looks like a Goliath Senior cab. There's also a Strawberry Blonde for the guitarist too.

Rick was very good. I only saw Sir Rod, PP Arnold and Joss Stone on Jools, none of whom were very good. The firewoke display was top notch.

It won't be easy, but absolutely this. Perhaps think of a couple of phrases beforehand that explain your thinking, rather than going in cold and just blurting out whatever comes to mind?

Demeter

I was amazed at how good it is for the price. I've swapped the tuners for Gotoh Res-O-Lite: it wasn't neck heavy but now the balance is perfect and it's trimmed the weight by 7oz to make the bass bang on 9lbs. Also added Dunlop Straplocks, but other than that I will keep it stock. No hum from the pickups and the 3 band EQ is great. Honestly can't say enough good things about it. Oh, and it also came with a really good gig bag as standard.

Best was without doubt my Sire P8 5 string with natural finish ash body and a roasted maple neck: Everything I have always wanted in a P5: sounds fabulous, 9lbs, perfect balance, and looks beautiful. Worst was probably the EHB 6 string. A lovely bass, but I just need to accept that six strings is one too many for me!

Having played around with pickup heights I can now confirm there will be no pickup retrofit. The original set sound just fine.

And as Wishbone Ash said, "there's the rub"! I would imagine that a Nordstrand pickup sounds better, but will need to see if I can find any videos to compare online.

There's nothing wrong, I just enjoy modding basses! I may well leave it as is. Just curious to see what others would do if they went down the mod path.

So I am loving my new Sire P8, but I'm already thinking of what I can mod to make it even better. I've added straplocks and lightweight tuners, so the next candidates are pickups and EQ, but which to do first? There's nothing wrong with either, of course, but I do love to fettle! My gut tells me pickups first and see how they sit with the existing preamp? I could even just do the P pickup as that will do most of the work.