NBD - Sire Z7

[2pods]

.......and after all that I chickened out, and in the words of Pat Travers "Go For What You Know"

and went for This Ibby

 

Sorry for wasting everybody's time 

 

[eude]

On 07/12/2024 at 17:40, neepheid said:

 

I left it out on the stand with the guard off where I would see it often to make sure I knew what I wanted.

 

 

I like the look of it without the guard, but I despise pointless screws in the body, and I hate pointless holes worse.  I CBA filling the holes, so the clear guard is the compromise.

I think that looks rather tasty without the guard!

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, eude said:

I think that looks rather tasty without the guard!

 

Me too - Brian is on the case making me a clear guard, hopefully will get it this week.

[eude]

34 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Me too - Brian is on the case making me a clear guard, hopefully will get it this week.

Sweet

 

[neepheid]

Pickguard arrived yesterday, and here are the final results - I'm done tinkering with this now, it's as perfect as I can be arsed making it!

 

[la bam]

22 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Pickguard arrived yesterday, and here are the final results - I'm done tinkering with this now, it's as perfect as I can be arsed making it!

 

 

Looks great! 

[eude]

35 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Pickguard arrived yesterday, and here are the final results - I'm done tinkering with this now, it's as perfect as I can be arsed making it!

 

Stunning 

[2pods]

It not only looks great, but there's a bit of an optical illusion (for me anyway).

The scratchplate seems "sunken" rather than being on top of the body.

 

 

[neepheid]

13 minutes ago, 2pods said:

It not only looks great, but there's a bit of an optical illusion (for me anyway).

The scratchplate seems "sunken" rather than being on top of the body.

 

 

 

Yes, I've seen that too at certain angles.

[BassBiscuit]

Isn't it just the edge of the plastic..?

[neepheid]

5 minutes ago, BassBiscuit said:

Isn't it just the edge of the plastic..?

 

Yes, it is.  And while my brain knows that it's sitting proud of the surface of the body by 4mm or so, my eyes feed back a picture sometimes that looks like it's sunken into the body instead because of an optical illusion, probably based upon the way the light is hitting the edges of the pickguard, or how it's reflected/refracted/whatever.

[MartinB]

It looks way more interesting this way than it would if the screw holes had been filled & painted and it was just a flat mass of colour

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Yes, it is.  And while my brain knows that it's sitting proud of the surface of the body by 4mm or so, my eyes feed back a picture sometimes that looks like it's sunken into the body instead because of an optical illusion, probably based upon the way the light is hitting the edges of the pickguard, or how it's reflected/refracted/whatever.

Me too.

[patrikmarky]

On 07/12/2024 at 17:42, 2pods said:

I agree.

No plate would mean all sorts of bother.

 

It looks good though, be even better when your plate arrives

 

I did put a clear on My Z3 ..sorry I’ve hijacked the z7 thread with a z3 ..😀

Edited December 12, 2024 by patrikmarky

[drTStingray]

7 hours ago, neepheid said:

Pickguard arrived yesterday, and here are the final results - I'm done tinkering with this now, it's as perfect as I can be arsed making it!

 

Looks good but, if you’ll excuse the expression, what a lot of knobs. A veritable knob farm… 

 

Don’t you find that challenging on gigs? I find it bad enough with my Musicman Bongos - although the 24 frets are more likely to confuse me as they contradict muscle memory at the dusty end!! 

[neepheid]

10 minutes ago, drTStingray said:

Looks good but, if you’ll excuse the expression, what a lot of knobs. A veritable knob farm… 

 

Don’t you find that challenging on gigs? I find it bad enough with my Musicman Bongos - although the 24 frets are more likely to confuse me as they contradict muscle memory at the dusty end!! 

 

 

Nah, I'm a set and forget merchant.  I bought the Z7 because I like how it looks.  The last time I changed the settings on the Z7 on the fly I was playing on a boomy stage and had to roll the bass back a bit.  And no, I didn't have to stop someone and ask for directions to my bass pot

 

 

[mcnach]

Well, after saying I found the knobs ok... I've ordered some replacements. The stacked ones just were not grabbing the shaft properly and it got a bit annoying.

 

 

[neepheid]

17 minutes ago, mcnach said:

Well, after saying I found the knobs ok... I've ordered some replacements. The stacked ones just were not grabbing the shaft properly and it got a bit annoying.

 

 

 

Fnar, anyone?

[neepheid]

I know talking about the control mechanisms on a bass can be difficult to do without childish innuendo, but honestly, this seems deliberate to me...

[mcnach]

12 hours ago, neepheid said:

I know talking about the control mechanisms on a bass can be difficult to do without childish innuendo, but honestly, this seems deliberate to me...

 

I have no idea what you're talking about 

 

😇

[neepheid]

Is this one of those "long term road test" type things?  I was bored the other day, so I decided to change my Z7 to through body stringing.  Because I'm a tightwad, I first tried this with the stock strings it came with.  The tightwad in me is delighted - the recesses that the strings sit in are so deep in the body that choosing through body stringing only costs you about 1cm of string length versus top loading.  Such that the regular D'addario XLs that the Sire appears to ship with don't care which way you use them - there's more than enough string before the tapering kicks in to make it over the nut full size.

 

Did it change anything?  I wouldn't like to say, as I am a 100% biased witness.  Maybe?  Maybe the strings feel a smidge tauter?  Maybe that's my brain saying "you went to the trouble, there had better be a payoff of some kind".

 

Eh, TL:DR - stringing a Z7 (and presumably a Z3 also) through the body only requires about 1cm of extra string length versus top loading.  So you might not need to get super long strings, depending on the brand you use.  Measure it first.

[Stub Mandrel]

I can't see how through body stringing affects tension to any significant degree. The change in break angle could lead to a need to reduce saddle height, and perhaps a slight change in intonation. Any change in tuning tension would be a fraction of a percent.

 

I will change my P9 but only 'because it's there'.

[neepheid]

14 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I can't see how through body stringing affects tension to any significant degree. The change in break angle could lead to a need to reduce saddle height, and perhaps a slight change in intonation. Any change in tuning tension would be a fraction of a percent.

 

I will change my P9 but only 'because it's there'.

 

 

Not tension but compliance, feel.  That's why I didn't use the word "tension".  I appreciate that fluffy prose like "feel a smidge tauter" is not very scientific, but neither is much of the stuff argued recursively around here.

 

[MartinB]

The distance between the nut and the saddle hasn't changed, the unit weight of the string hasn't changed, and the tuning hasn't changed, so the tension must be the same. The string length behind the nut or saddle acts like a spring - when you push on the main part of the string, it may stretch a little and allow a bit more "give". So in theory, your strings should feel more loose/bendy/compliant because you've added length behind the saddle. But since we're talking ~1cm of difference, it's probably not even noticeable.

Edited January 14 by MartinB

[Baker69]

I’m awaiting delivery of a Z7-5 in Natural finish so I have found the postings very interesting and informative, thanks guys!

 

Regarding the control pots and knobs, I have a P7-5 so I’m already aware of the failings and foibles of them. I would concur that the detentes on the pots are variable in their positivity and downright sloppy on one pot! My P7 was supplied with the earlier black plastic knobs which I promptly replaced as soon as I was able to with chrome domed knobs which I bought from Thomann. Very reasonably priced, I think they are Harley Benton one’s? 
 

With regards to the one posting on the limited effectiveness of the passive tone knob, I followed lowendlobster’s Youtube video tone cap modification on changing the one on my P7 from a .022 to a 0.047 which gives it a far more effective operation. If the Heritage 3 Preamp still uses a .022 cap it’s well worth doing the upgrade on the Z7. It is a bit fiddly, but do-able.

The photos ‘under the hood’ are interesting, on my P7 all of the controls appear to have been coated in a clear wax or resin? I don’t know the reason for this and from the photos you’ve posted it seems like they’ve now done away with it. The wiring on the pots had the resin coating as well. Sire did send me a complete replacement mid control (via Thomann) f.o.c. as I had complained about the poor detente and sloppy movement of it. I still have the control as removing all the resin/wax off the wiring etc to gain access to it would have been a nightmare. 

 

Edited Sunday at 20:02 by Baker69