Stub Mandrel Posted September 4 Share Posted September 4 This bass seems to be incredibly under-represented in terms of review, and those I've seen don't fit entirely with my impressions. So I'm going to have a go. I'm not going to compare with other Sire basses. The body First thing you notice is the bookmatched flamed maple to, supposedly AAAAA. The figure is very dependent on the angle light hits it, so sometimes one side will look much more pronounced than the other. It's a veneer (apparently the new DX model has a slab) over maple backing. The main body is alder, and has an almost square edge and the front carve has a longer than usual curve so it's a bit like a precision version of an Aerodyne Jazz. The alder is a rich dark colour and the maple is paler giving the impression of a bound top. IMHO it looks fabulous and is what caught my attention. There's no scratchplate, but an abundance of tasteful black knobs and one switch. It's not a heavy bass IMHO though I haven't weighed it. The Neck This is 'supposed' to be a P-bass, so I'd expect something comfortably above 40mm at the nut. It isn't, it's well into Jazz-bass territory, I measure mine at a smidgin over 37mm. I would say the neck is the best feature of a good bass. It has very 'rolled' edges, more pronounced than my Squier Jaguar; perhaps because the frets are set back, so the roll goes all along the edges, rather than the rolling being just between frets as on the Jag. The profile is supposedly an asymmetric 'C', I think slightly deeper on the bass side. This is genuinely one of the most comfortable necks I have played, feeling instantly at home, very like my Flea Jazz but perhaps 'fitting the hand' a bit more. Neck radius is quite pronounced. Headstock is the tasteful (some will disagree) and distinctive Sire shape with Marcus Miller P10 and a Sire logo in thin, slightly 3D silver writing that appears 'embedded' in thick lacquer. Visually, the neck is stunning. Roast maple with a nice figure and a fingerboard of even darker heavily figured maple with gorgeous abalone inlays. The dark bands along the side of the fingerboard slab oozes 'boutique' Tuners are the open type, chrome, nearer to Squier size than standard Fender, but with cast rather than pressed back plates. They work well with littel backlash. The new DX version has golden hipshot ultralites (but I prefer the more traditional aesthetic). The Nut It's a bone nut, not synthetic. The Bridge This is a 'slightly beefed up' BBOT with 'high-mass' bridge pieces. (DW version has a full hi-mass bridge in gold) String spacing is about 18.5mm and fixed. You can anchor stings on the bridge (this is how what seem to be a new set of decent stainless strings are fitted) or fit them through the body. I quite like the strings and will probably replace with Rotosound 66 Swing Bass through the body when they lose their sparkle. I can't comment on the 'as new' setup, as it was secondhand. It was pretty good, but I made tweaks. Truss rod adjustment is at the butt end, but there's a large recess making this easy. I had to add a 1/6 turn to get my preferred very slight relief. I dropped all four bridge pieces by about two turns of all the adjustment screws, a hefty drop in action. Any more and the g-string started to rattle; I suspect the E, A and D could come down a tad, but action at the 12th fret is about 1.75mm or less on the E, which is fine for me. Lets me dig in and clank if I want but sounds clean most of the time. I had to deepen all the nut slots quite a lot, maybe approaching 0.5mm to get the light action on the upper frets that I like, nowhere near buzzing. Pickup adjustment seems fine since I dropped the action, may adjust them once I have played it a bit more. Pickups and Preamp Pickups are standard PJ arrangement labelled Sire x Marcus Miller. With the switch in passive mode the bass sounds bright and punchy compared to my precision and jazz which have vintage style alnico pickups. You have a stacked passive tone and volume and a blend pot, all of which do what you would expect of them. In active mode you get four more controls (the passive ones still work). These are bass and treble and a parametric middle control. I found I could get a good range of tones by choosing a level for the mids, then adjusting frequency to taste. Repeat for different boost/cut settings. Helpfully, the controls have centre detents (except tone and volume) and if you set the active controls to the middle the sound is very close to passive mode with a touch of volume boost (apparently you can set the volume with an internal pot). This makes it easy to get a good starting position. Others have criticised the Sire preamp; I found it much easier to get useful sounds than my two basses with simple bass+treble active circuits. I have only played through fairly small rigs so far, but ones with a very good bottom end response. Through my brother's Elf/Portaflex 15 setup pushing the bass up gave a huge sound. It certainly excels at harmonically rich, mid-heavy, funky sounds, and you have to work harder to get a good punchy but dark rock tone. It would be a sin to put flats on this bass, it brings the richness of new roundwounds out front and centre. Overall Looks-wise it's a complete contrast to all my other basses, it is very 'boutique' (and the new DX version even more so with gold hardware). It's a very nice, comfortable bass to play. The neck is lovely; utterly different from a precision despite the 'P' designation, although jazz bass afficionados should feel at home. The sounds it produces lean more towards the funkier end of bass playing to my ear, I look forward to seeing what it does in a blue or classic rock context over the nest couple of weeks... Biggest surprise? I'm a pretty meh slapper, but I actually find this bass relatively easy to play slap on, although this may be helped by me using it mostly with my Joyo BadASS with the compression turned on. Some more pics tomorrow, not got the light to get decent ones. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted September 5 Author Share Posted September 5 Some edits after giving it a good workout today. Passive sound is good and yes definitely brighter either than a Jazz or P with new strings. Active, I didn't need the pad on my amp, it's set very close to unity gain in 'neutral'. It didn't supercharge the bottom end with my very balanced stage rig in the way it did on my brother's very scooped Elf + 15 rig. Sound wise I enjoyed it at volume; a caveat, I tend not to have strong preferences but enjoy the differences between basses, rather than seeking a particular sound. Balance was good on an ordinary Fender 50mm strap. Felt like it sat a little lower than a Precision. Intonation is very good, haven't had to adjust. Held tune very well despite being transported in a bag rather than a case. Some things to criticise: Tuners look a bit cheap, but are actually decent. Ditto strap buttons, they have a slightly uneven appearance, as if the chrome is very thick over a poor surface finish. Grained plastic covers behind control and battery cavity look a bit meh. Screwdriver access to battery cavity. Nothing to shed tears over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ominous bear Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 I'll join in. I've got a V10 and think it's a cracker. Neck is superb and don't think the pres on Sires are as complicated/sh*t as some people suggest. Not as heavy as some Sires I've played, which is a bonus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 Having changed the batteries I need to report the ceesyy plastic wood effect covers, are actually wood... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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