NBD- Sire Marcus Miller M7 2nd Gen - WOW

So on Saturday I go to the local music store to pick up some odds and ends. Like, I literally went there for a cable, some cleaner and like a clip on tuner. I have a look at the basses as is customary, and see the Sire basses everyone is raving about. They look kinda cool.

Store owner comes up to me and says 'you checking out the awesome basses everyone loves?' and I say 'well it looks nice!' She then tells me they're selling like crazy (and truth be told, I personally know like 4 people who have recently bought one) so suggests I try it out.

I plug it into an Orange combo they had and wow... feel and finish are amazing! I mean, they're not quite as good as my Marleaux Consat but damned close. Like, incredibly close. Huge array of tones available, coil taps, passive/active switch, satin neck finish, ebony fingerboard, rolled fretboard - the fretwork is INCREDIBLE, 18v preamp, wood electronics covers... the works. Gorgeous looks too. I look at the price, and she tells me she can knock off a bit for me. She tells me apparently Sire have really narrow profit margins compared to other builders, which is why they can pack all these features in for such a good price. I ended up leaving with a new bass for less than what I'd pay on Thomann or other online retailers, in addition to supporting a local store which gave me that warm fuzzy feeling.

Had practice/jam session last night, just 2 guitarists (our drummer is in Denmark) and I could really easily find an ideal sound to work with. I'll have a chance to properly play about with it tonight through my very acoustically transparent GK practice combo and will add some thoughts.

So far, the only cons I've detected is that the knobs feel kind of plasticky and cheap (the pots are fine, smooth and solid, I just don't like the knobs themselves), which is only a bit jarring because the rest of the bass is such high quality and it seems off, but that's a relatively easy and cheap fix. Also the gigbag could really do with a handle on the front, bit of an oversight more than anything. I'll be adding some straplocks too because I tend to run all over the stage like a maniac.

Overall pretty sweet purchase, and I'll give a running review now that recordings, rehearsals and a few gigs are coming up!

 

Totally! Had a chance to experiment with the sound more last night - it's super-versatile. Switching from one pickup to the other really does make a huge difference. Aesthetically too it fits for pretty much anything, and again I marvel at how comfortable the neck is. The hype is completely justified. Setup-wise it's fine for standard tuning, but anyway as I'm intending on using this for a project that's downtuned it would need an adjustment in any case (and comes with the necessary tools).

 

So I compared it to my other bass at home, my 2016 Marleaux Consat Custom (I leave my Stingray at the studio). Not exactly a fair fight, but life is unfair.

Again, the attention to detail on the M7 is extremely impressive - super smooth neck and rolled fretboard edges, ebony fingerboard with absolutely perfect fretwork (I daresay it's better than on the Marleaux), bone nut, wood electronic covers, and other features that you wouldn't see on a Cort/Samick or anything similar of this price. The out-the-box setup is good, but not perfect. If you're handy at that sort of thing you can adjust it easily enough, or if you want to be 100% sure take it to a tech. For a 35" scale it was a bit less tight than I would've wanted, but then again I do play one step down. Still decent, though, and perfectly playable.

Tone is really powerful, and very versatile. The preamp doesn't quite have the clear sparkling brilliance that the preamp in my Marleaux has, but that preamp alone probably costs more than half of this entire bass does, so I'm not complaining. This one is super versatile, can deliver pretty much whatever sound you need it to, just don't expect it to emulate a P-bass too closely. Close enough, I guess. J-tones can be had fairly easily by switching to passive mode and putting the pickups in single mode (separate tone control available - something my Marleaux DOESN'T have...). You can make some pretty radical adjustments with the preamp, each control has a very wide range. Most other sounds are doable too, the sweepable mids are really helpful. There's a very noticable drop off in volume between passive and active mode, but that's to be expected.

The only chinks in the armour so far are again the kinda plasticky-feeling knobs, they just don't fit with the premium vibe of the rest of the instrument - I'll probably swap them out for some generic metallic domed ones soon. Some others on here posted that there was a problem with moving the stacked knobs, in that you'd move one and the other would move too - I made a temporary fix for that by pulling off the top knob and then putting it back but not pushing it all the way down, it's merely the bottom of the knob dragging the lower one along with it. The pots themselves are smooth and solid. The coil tap/passive active switches too are a little cheap feeling as well (less so than the knobs though), but again that's a relatively easy thing to modify should the need arise.

Full band practice with it next week, so I'll add some more thoughts then!

 

I did not know that! Thanks for the tip!