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Sire MM basses - owners reports please!


Wilco
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So, I'm on my hols, get back to the hotel after a day out & head straight to the bar for a cold alcoholic bevvy. By doing so, I stumble on a Jazz three piece just about to do their thing. The bassist is playing a standard V7 & it looked as though that, the vocals & the keyboard were going through a single 15" PA speaker.

Said bassist was clearly a better player than yours truly, but that aside, with that set up the bass sound should not have sounded as good as it did!

Being a previous Sire owner, my interest was piqued again. However, then I remembered the issues I had which were part of the reason I sold them on. I had both a V7 & a VV7, one a 2015 & the other a 2016.

One of mine had slightly sharp fret ends & on both of them I had tuner issues. There was evidence of play (not in the gears, in the part you hold) in three tuners & they didn't turn that smoothly either. (The tuners were replaced with new ones before they were sold on btw).

On the interwebs back then there were many a tale of failed tuners & poor knobs & that the hardware really wasn't up to scratch. 

So, was interested to know how people have got on with their ownership & have there been any hardware improvements made by Sire over the last 18 months or so? Quite like the look of a V9, but my own previous experience would hold me back from buying at the moment.

Edited by Wilco
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No issues with mine, nothing particularly wrong with the tuners as far as cheap tuners go - they hold tuning for long nough. I have upgraded it though purely as it's my main gigging bass and I want it to be as stable as it can be as I plan on playing it indefinitely. I've swapped the tuners for Schallers and while the originals were perfectly usable this upgrade is a massive improvement, absolutely rock solid for an entire gig. I have also replaced the knobs for nicer ones, Gotoh flat top for the concentric pots (I already had one of these in my parts drawer which is why I chose 'em!) and generic Tele knobs for the standard pots (a few quid for 4 on eBay). I also plan on swapping the bridge out for a higher quality part when I get some excess PayPal funds, again nothing wrong with the original.

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I've got a V7 fretless.

It sounds and plays exactly like a fretless jazz should

The knobs and tuners are perfectly functional.

The only part I might consider changing is the bridge, it's not quite as rock solid as I would like, but then neither are most factory fitted bridges. I like  my saddles with absolutely zero potential for lateral movement, even though 99.9 % of the time on most basses it never causes an issue anyway.

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On ‎05‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 08:58, wambamalubop said:

Tuners and fret ends are fixable anyway, if you like the instrument why not just tweak those minor issues? 

As are such simple hardware issues as knobs. My fret ends were ok, but I replaced the knobs with shiny ones from fleaBay and the tuners with some nice Hipshot ultralites (thus shaving a good half pound off the overall weight of the bass). Oh, and I replaced the bar string retainer with some Hipshot string trees.
Twisted necks and duff finishing and dodgy woodwork are all problems, and as far as I know they are absent from Sire instruments. Tuners and knobs are just niggles.

 

Edited by Rich
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3 minutes ago, Rich said:

As are such simple hardware issues as knobs. My fret ends were ok, but I replaced the knobs with shiny ones from fleaBay and the tuners with some nice Hipshot ultralites (thus shaving a good half pound off the overall weight of the bass).
Twisted necks and duff finishing and dodgy woodwork are all problems, and as far as I know they are absent from Sire instruments. Tuners and knobs are just niggles.

 

yep, from my digging about that seems to be the general opinion

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The V3`s are the best value Jazz type bass out there. I had one and after a few mods, tuners and knobs - not really required but I had the parts kicking around, it was an excellent bass for £100 less than a VM Jazz. It has the same pre amp as the V7. I only moved it on due to moving to short scales. 

Edited by jezzaboy
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23 hours ago, Bassmonster said:

i'm seriously looking at a lefty V7 on thomann at the moment...can't really justify another bass...but its so tempting

You and me both! But I can't decide between the Vintage V7 five string, the V9 in either four or five, the M7 and the PJ both in fiver... Oh yeah, the fretless has a coated board so I want that too. 

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25 minutes ago, Bassmonster said:

i couldn't decide between the vintage and non vintage either but that price on thomann for the V7 5 Ash has sealed it for me....the M7 is also on the wish list for me PBasses don't do it for me or i'd be having one of those too😁

I've already got Fender P and J basses. I like them both so a PJ makes sense. But I don't have a (fretted) double soap bar pickup bass so that's tempting too...

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I'd love a P7 to match my V7 but there's no way I can afford it at the moment. If they'd brought the two out at the same time, I think I might have gone for the P7 (as I understand it, they share the same neck dimensions etc).

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38 minutes ago, Rich said:

I'd love a P7 to match my V7 but there's no way I can afford it at the moment. If they'd brought the two out at the same time, I think I might have gone for the P7 (as I understand it, they share the same neck dimensions etc).

from what i can gather it appears to be somewhere between a Jazz & Pbass profile

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I had 2 V7 5s. Maple then a Rosewood.  Nothing wrong with the frets, lovely neck, construction, looked amazing. For £429 its a no brainer.   But the weight. Just too heavy, its such a shame because they are such great instruments let down by one detail.. Sounded epic through Aguilar though. 

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10 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

Yeah the weight is the one downside which isn't easily rectifiable, it's not a dealbreaker and they aren't any heavier than a lot of J type basses. I was coming from 7lb Cort 5 strings with compact bodies so I suppose the Sire felt heavier than it actually was!

The Ash was way to heavy, it was nearing 11 pounds. So I ordered the Alder, that was on my scales just over 10. It was a lot better, but just a pound to heavy. Of course these were 5vers. The White V7 4 was more comfortable. The Sei 5 is 7.5 which is perfect. Slightly smaller swamp ash body like a Sadowsky.  Great to play a bass that is light that can punch like a heavy weight.

Edited by bubinga5
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Mine is the Alder V7 5 string and is 10lb give or take an ounce or two, would be interesting to get some weights of the V3 and V9 models. From memory I got mine used for around £300 which is an astounding amount of bass for Squier money, great B string too.

 

I think if Sire could do their own in house Ultralight copies and get the body weight down to make a 7-8lb bass they would be onto a winner, I'd buy at least one.

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I bought one of the first V7s from Thomann, one of the ones with the signed neck plate.

I've never had an issue at all with mine. The only thing I did was to buy a replacement neck plate so that the signed one sits in a box on my music shelf. 
It's my go to bass and sounds great, plays great. Yes, it's not the lightest of basses but it's not an issue for me, I carry a weight on one shoulder for a living ;) . The tuners do the job they're designed for, they could 'feel' better, however, I can't grumble, the V7 stays in tune, and I only paid £280 for mine.

I checked out a MIM Std Fender Jazz before I bought the V7 and I have no doubt at all I bought a significantly better bass.

It's the only bass where when I opened the box I literally went 'Wow!'

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