New buy...Sire V7 Ash/Maple/White? 4 str

[Rickylee]

Hi,  got my new sire V7 bass last week. Sounds great!

I'm a Fender/Alder man really. Have a few jazz basses and a few Precision basses all Alder as I do like the tone.

I do find it hard to cut through the band sometimes and have some definition, clarity in the sound. So, thought I would try

an Ash bass for a change. They are a tighter and more punchy in the lower mids as I hear it.

 

Not played with the band yet with it, but, sounds very nice and funky at home.

 

Just wondered if any you guys have thoughts, experience on the alder/ash comparison and choice.

 

cheers

 

Ricky

[uk_lefty]

Just this morning I was listening to recordings of a gig I did last summer where I mostly played a Sire Vintage V7 fiver with Ash/ maple and switched to a Mexican Fender alder/ rosewood for one or two songs. The Sire reminded me why I loved it the moment I got it, really articulate bass. I used to keep the EQ and pickup pan almost flat and kill the EQ on my amp because the natural sound was so good. I did find the Fender sound a bit more rich and nuanced, but it did have Bartolini pickups so it wasn't a stock 90's MIM. It would be hard to choose between the two with a metaphorical gun to my head because they do ever so slightly different things. 

For the record, when I bought a USA Stingray I sold them both! Couldn't justify the number of basses and needed to recover some cash. I do miss a bit of that single coil jazz bridge sound though. 

[timhiggins]

I too am an alder jazz bass fan and my main jazz is a alder body maple neck fender

i also bought an ash\maple sire v7 as i love the tone and wanted to cut through the mix more in my fusion band which it does admirably ,the only drawback for me was the weight so i now use it more in the studio and have another ash/maple fender [which is a fair bit lighter] for live work ...

That said my alder jazz is still my favourite sound but can get a bit lost in the mix compared to the other two.

[Lozz196]

I had a couple of ash Precisions, to me the top end was sharper and the lower mids were less ‘chunky’ for want of a better word. One in particular was very aggressive sounding, not the warmth expected of a Precision. I named it Ian Paisley as that was what it reminded me of. 

[Rickylee]

Hi, thanks for the cool comments regarding ash and alder basses.

Seems we all share the same experiences with the alder/ash comparison. I am looking forward to using this new bass.

I like the neck on the bass, maple with perloid inserts, but think I would have preferred the black inserts that come with the

vintage ones. But, I didn't fancy the bridge pickup being so close the the bridge. Makes it too toppy and thin and twangy in

my opinion. So if I see a nice maple sire neck with black inlays, I might change mine as the old eyes aren't as good as 

they used to be.

 

Also, I have seen that a few people with sire basses (mostly on Youtube) have managed to change their knobs.... Vol, tone, etc

for chrome ones. Anyone here know who might supply them?

 

Thanks

 

Ricky

[uk_lefty]

6 minutes ago, Rickylee said:

But, I didn't fancy the bridge pickup being so close the the bridge. Makes it too toppy and thin and twangy in

That's really not a problem, you can EQ it out easily.