So..Sire

[BaggyMan]

So here's a thing.  Back a few years ago when the Sire Marcus Miller V7 was a very new and slightly bewildering thing, I bought one and was very happy with it.   I am slightly ashamed  to admit to being a shiny things magpie and went off playing 5 stringers and great though it was it sat there.  So eventually sold it to a buddy then ..well bought another one about 6 months later, this time with a Nordstrand pickup upgrade, super lovely... offered as a swap for something else and boom gone again.   So that was a few years ago, but have been tempted back by the budget line V3, same pre-amp, same layout slightly more of an all round and imho now better finished than the early ones, bass.   Very impressed, straight out the box, intonation was good, two minutes with the bridge and action and what a great bass for £300.  Fret and fretboard finish is exemplary.   Pickups have been changed to the better I think..  Anyway NBD...

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by BaggyMan

[whamni]

How to loose money big time ................buy a Sire bass 

I had to change the bridge to a Gotoh 404,  (brilliant bridge) the saddle springs on the Sire were so weak you could very easily move them out of position and buger up the intonation, the bass sits here I never use it. 

[dave_bass5]

22 hours ago, whamni said:

How to loose money big time ................buy a Sire bass 

I had to change the bridge to a Gotoh 404,  (brilliant bridge) the saddle springs on the Sire were so weak you could very easily move them out of position and buger up the intonation, the bass sits here I never use it. 

If it was faulty why didnt you get it swapped over or just get new springs?

 

Never had any issues with my Gen1 V7 and ive had it since they first came out. Never spent a penny on it other than strings.

[BaggyMan]

Yep agree, have owned four all have ben fine.

 

[whamni]

Out of  guarantee, so I did a mod, what's the problem with that ! 

[dave_bass5]

32 minutes ago, whamni said:

Out of  guarantee, so I did a mod, what's the problem with that ! 

No problem with that at all. Why do you think there is a problem with it?

Saying that, why moan about it costing you money if you chose to mod it and not live with it? That was your choice wasn’t it? 

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by dave_bass5

[lemmywinks]

I've put a bit of money into mine (about £190 for Schaller tuners, Gotoh bridge, Nordstrand pups and metal knobs), it's my main gigging bass though and is still cheaper than most at £490 total spend - everything except the bridge and some of the knobs were used.

 

If you're not bothered about through-body stringing then there are much cheaper options for replacement bridges.

[BaggyMan]

Gigged my sire v3 5 string on Saturday at a festival.  Stayed in tune, nothing fell of and the intonation remained constant...unlike the player who was inconsistent and skill level fell off near the end...  Only joking all was good and sounded great. very pleased.

 

 

[scalpy]

20 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

I've put a bit of money into mine (about £190 for Schaller tuners, Gotoh bridge, Nordstrand pups and metal knobs), it's my main gigging bass though and is still cheaper than most at £490 total spend - everything except the bridge and some of the knobs were used.

 

If you're not bothered about through-body stringing then there are much cheaper options for replacement bridges.

I'm going to change the tuners on mine- it's the only thing I really need to uprate for what I need the bass for (at the moment, gas pending.) Do you know what model tuners yours are please?

Thanks

Harry

[lemmywinks]

2 hours ago, scalpy said:

I'm going to change the tuners on mine- it's the only thing I really need to uprate for what I need the bass for (at the moment, gas pending.) Do you know what model tuners yours are please?

Thanks

Harry

Schaller BML 17.5mm 5 string set I picked up on here last year for £40 all in which was too good to miss really. In fact I remembered them as £50 so you can knock a tenner of the overall spend on upgrades I mentioned above! Don't know if they're reversible or not as these were the 4+1 configuration so if you need a 5 string set that might be something to consider..

 

They're great tuners and are superbly engineered but you may find some licensed Hipshot Ultralites a good option to save a little weight.

[Marc S]

You aren't alone in buying a bass, letting it go.... then wishing you'd kept it
I did the same with my Roadworn Jazz and my Squier Classic Vibe Precision

Not owned a Sire, but did have a quick noodle on one a while back, and it did seem like a really well made bass, especially at the price point, and an even better buy 2nd hand
Now if you have that one set up + modded just the way you want..... keep it. Problem there, I suspect is - you already have too many (like me!)
Glad you had a good NBD

Edited June 26, 2019 by Marc S

[BaggyMan]

lol.  Oh yes I have had many many NBD over the 38 years of playing I have under the belt.  Max number of basses ? 13,  in total something like 150...

 

 

 

[Geek99]

On 24/06/2019 at 17:32, whamni said:

Out of  guarantee, so I did a mod, what's the problem with that ! 

You didn’t say that it was out of warranty which would have put a different complexion on your statement 

[scalpy]

16 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

Schaller BML 17.5mm 5 string set I picked up on here last year for £40 all in which was too good to miss really. In fact I remembered them as £50 so you can knock a tenner of the overall spend on upgrades I mentioned above! Don't know if they're reversible or not as these were the 4+1 configuration so if you need a 5 string set that might be something to consider..

 

They're great tuners and are superbly engineered but you may find some licensed Hipshot Ultralites a good option to save a little weight.

Thank you, appreciate it. Saving weight is worth considering. I bought the bass for pit work, so sitting down and even then she's heavy!

[Delberthot]

When I got my Harley Benton 75 Jazz I had a lot of parts left over from other basses so it now has:

 

• Hipshot Ultralites
• Schaller Straplocks
• Fender '62 & '74 pickups
• Solderless wiring loom form Six String Supplies
• D'addario Pro Steels

 

That's about £250 of parts on a £140 bass. I would never have bought the parts especially for this bass ordinarily but they've turned a good bass into a great one.

It's really the best Jazz I've ever played.

[lemmywinks]

5 hours ago, scalpy said:

Thank you, appreciate it. Saving weight is worth considering. I bought the bass for pit work, so sitting down and even then she's heavy!

 

The licensed Ultralites are genuinely great, I had them on a Cort B5 and they were absolutely rock solid and very smooth. One screw hole though so on a Sire you'd have exposed holes, with the Schallers you have to drill 2 new holes per tuner IIRC as two existing ones line up, the old ones are covered by the base plate though so once they're installed everything looks fine. You'll need the 11/16" nuts for Ultralites btw, they only seem to be available in 1/2" (13mm) or 3/8" (10mm) on Bass Direct, or just use some tape!

I kept all the original parts as modded budget basses tend to be hard to sell for their composite value. Don't envisage selling it any time soon but you never know.

[charlie45]

On 25/06/2019 at 16:52, lemmywinks said:

I've put a bit of money into mine (about £190 for Schaller tuners, Gotoh bridge, Nordstrand pups and metal knobs), it's my main gigging bass though and is still cheaper than most at £490 total spend - everything except the bridge and some of the knobs were used.

 

If you're not bothered about through-body stringing then there are much cheaper options for replacement bridges.

Was changing the tuners easy ? I mean, did you have to widen te holes for the Schallers ?

[TheGreek]

I just bought a Sire V3 5er - looks great, sounds very nice - but suffers from the worst neck dive of any bass I've ever played.

Short of handing it over to somebody like @Andyjr1515 for a chambering job any advice for dealing with this? I don't think lightweight tuners will make much difference TBH.

[bubinga5]

I really sat down over time with the 3 Sires I had for a while. I had a 4 string V7 vintage, a V75 alder and another V75 maple, .Ive got to say my experience was good. They were heavy but they were so good sounding. They were good feeling with the rolled finger boards. .If I was in the market for any Jazz bass at a lower price point  I would so look at these because one,  the preamp. this has been said before of course, and the pickups. The pickups are single coil magic paired with the preamp. . 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by bubinga5

[BaggyMan]

I have owned a few v7's (three I think..) and a V3. Neck dive wasnt a problem that i remember but maybe you got one with a lighter body or sonething.  Have a little cash and really fighting the urge to buy another v3....they are so reasonably priced..and.   I'll get me coat.

[Marvin]

I've still got my signed 1st gen V7. Haven't changed anything (bar the strings...and I took the batteries out as at home I always have in passive mode). I love playing it.

[javi_bassist]

I've always been curious about Sire. I'd love to have a nice 5 string jazz bass and I've always looked at Sire. But I noticed something when I talk with many bass players around me: all seem to love Sire and buy one, But later one, in a year or so, they sell it. Of course I'm not talking about every single player, just for the ones I know. They all say beautiful things about Sire... but then none of them keeps one. 

I'm not saying anything bad about them (I've never tried one, even though I love the new models) but it's something that always come to my mind when I think about getting one.

[BaggyMan]

Its a good point, I have owned 4 sires both 5 and 4 strings.  That said i have also bought and sold others in that time as well.  Sire do a great job of a well turned out product.  But like Ibanez they don't seem to have the savage loyalty of Rickenbacker or Fender, which in some respects isn't fully deserved. 

And being relatively cheap they are easy to pickup and are very popular.  A review I saw from 'lowendlobster' on youtube,  the complexity of the pre amp whilst enabling the bass to punch well above its price point, has 7 control and requires extra effort to drive and  understand.  I had an ACG with the dual filter pre amp and eventually sold it becuase i just couldn't drive it in gig situations.   

It will be interesting to see how many of the passive sires (V5?) pop up for re-sale in the coming months.  If the latter don't turn over as much, then maybe four knob pre amp from sire would work. 

In fact lowendlobster strapped a sadowsky to a sire and was happier.   

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by BaggyMan

[javi_bassist]

8 minutes ago, BaggyMan said:

Its a good point, I have owned 4 sires both 5 and 4 strings.  That said i have also bought and sold others in that time as well.  Sire do a great job of a well turned out product.  But like Ibanez they don't seem to have the savage loyalty of Rickenbacker or Fender, which in some respects isn't fully deserved. 

And being relatively cheap they are easy to pickup and are very popular.  A review I saw from 'lowendlobster' on youtube,  the complexity of the pre amp whilst enabling the bass to punch well above its price point, has 7 control and requires extra effort to drive understand.   It will be interesting to see how many of the passive sires (V5?) pop up for re-sale in the coming months.  If the latter don't turn over as much, then maybe four knob pre amp from sire would work.  In fact lowendlobster strapped a sadowsky to a sire and was happier.   

it might be also a mental factor. How good a 500 bucks bass can be compared to a 900 bucks? The feeling of moving to a higher end bass. I don't know. But I have to check one out. The v7 in blue is really tempting.

[uk_lefty]

6 hours ago, javi_bassist said:

I noticed something when I talk with many bass players around me: all seem to love Sire and buy one, But later one, in a year or so, they sell it.

I can only speak for myself but I regretted selling mine. I thought it was a "cheap" way to see if I liked features not usually available on lefty basses before I invested in a more expensive instrument. In actual fact if you gig regularly and you need something rock solid and inexpensive I don't think you can beat a Sire. If only the headstock wasn't so ugly I think people could love them like they do other brands (joking, you don't look at the headstock when you're tickling the dusty end). 

 

26 minutes ago, BaggyMan said:

the complexity of the pre amp

I'd had some active basses before, two and three band, and could never get my head around them. This may make me sound like an idiot. However the Sire active system was just intuitive to me, and I have not really grasped what they mean by sweep-able mids or care what Hz I'm tweaking, but for me it was easy to get that bass where I wanted it sound wise. As easy as my 3 band Stingray which is bass, mid, treble. 

The second hand value of the Sires is poor because they're so cheap and easily available new, better still on B stock. I felt like I was giving mine away, and I really regret it, because now I don't have a fretted 5 string and the best fretted 5 strings for me are the Sire V7 or M series! I'd say if you're curious and you have the cash get a second hand one for peanuts and you'll see what the fuss is about. Is it as "good" as my MIJ Fender? No, but not far off. Is it more tonally flexible? Yes. Would I be happier leaving it on a stand at a break in a gig than my MIJ Fender? YES.