I got rid of the SD, I gave it away. Saved a bit and bought a Warwick Fortress Masterman 5 in about 1995. Fast forward to 2010 and that was the only bass played for as many years. The growl, action and tone became my sound. I never lusted after another bass since. Around 2010 my wife bought me a Ibanez acoustic for Father's Day. It was cool but never made it to stage or even out of the bedroom.
In 2014 I was visiting the Bass Place in Phoenix(Peoria) Az. I played a 6 string Warwick Thumb. Holy smokes! That was the mother of all tones. That was the best feel and sound I've ever heard and felt. I put it down reluctantly and left. Just in a passing conversation I told my wife what I did that day and about that bass. Her response was, "you've been playing as long as I've know you and only played that bass, go get it". God, I love that woman. I woke up the next morning and picked up that bad boy. I played everyday for about a year. Every church service, every practice session, every gig, etc. I even contemplated selling the Fortress because every time I played it was very underwhelming.
Fast forward to December 2015. The price of the Sire V7 started getting my attention and the reviews backed up the reason for the attention. I ordered and figured I give it to a church if I didn't like it.
I was shocked! Not just how good it sounded. But how well it fit with where and what I am playing. I feel like I've been missing out on Jazz basses all these years. Quickly it became my primary bass. The other TWO basses, both Warwicks, just sat there. On vacation a few weeks ago while I was in Thailand I was perusing the classifieds of this very website and found a 4 string Sire for sale. Everytime I went to the Sire website and looked at the 4's, there was a waiting period longer than I wanted to wait. But this ad had the color I wanted and lightly played and no wait. I made a deal with the seller in 5 minutes and went back to a Piña Colada on Kamala Beach.
It was here the day before I arrived and just in time for a Sunday church service. I unpacked it and loved the color even more. I put it down because we had company and couldn't wait for them to leave so I could put my attention on more important things. After they left I couldn't plug the cables in fast enough. I grabbed it and noticed it had flatwounds. Flatwounds? Flatwounds?! I was bummed. It was to late to pick a set of regular strings! Disappointed I played it a little. I was like, hey that sounds pretty good! I played some more and then it was 3am and I had to play at the 9am service. I put the pickup guard that came with it on and sat there and looked at it....pretty cool. What the heck, let's play it tomorrow.
Sunday morning at 8:45am I plugged it in, gave it a quick tune and waited for the show to begin. At 9am we got going and I was fumbling all over the place. It wasn't the flatwounds, it was a 4 string, I wasn't use to it. The piano player kept giving me dirty looks. About 3/4 of the way into the song I found my re-adjustment. The piano player probably thought it was because I was gone for some time.
The smooth strings was pretty cool but what was cooler was that I could hear myself better. The old school guitarist kept smiling at me. I hardly play with him but kept looking at my new bass and kept smiling. Between songs he leaned over and handed me a pick. I've never played with a pick but enjoyed watching Bobby Vega groove with a pick. So I channeled my inner Bobby Vega and brought some old school bass.
But what was it for me was how clear the basses when listening to the recording of the service. I got home plugged it in and started messing with onboard preamp. I went to passive, pushed the pickups to the front and rolled back the tone to less than half and fell in love all over again. So much so I'm writing about.
I'm back to a passive 4 flatwound sound.
