NBD: Sire P7

I ordered this last week and it arrived today. My goal was to fill a hole in my arsenal and equip myself with a nice P/J style five-string for under $1000. I asked here for recommendations and this was by far the most recommended option.

On first impression, this bass does not disappoint!

I went with the translucent white option in an ash body.
We are doing a lot of spring cleaning and our garage/studio is in an advanced state of disarray, with garage door open and light streaming in, so pictures are not the best. But she sure is pretty!

And now for the review and initial impression. I was a little worried because the specs on this neck state a 9.5 radius and I know I'm comfortable with necks that are a bit flatter than that. But this neck feels good to me on initial testing. The tuners are nice and tight, and they feel like they'll hold well.

There's a lot of noise going on in the garage right now with vacuuming and dryers running so it was hard to get a full read on the sound. Fretting up and down the neck on all strings gives me no buzz. The action out of the box is a touch higher than I like but it's playable as is; I might tweak the rod just a touch to get it down a notch but probably not right away.

The tone controls are freaky different than I'm used to with this middle frequency stack, so I'll need to spend some time with those. Here's a screenshot from the Sire website:



That first knob (at the right in the picture), main tone and main volume, seems sticky in the sense that I can't get the knobs in the stack to move independently. If I try to tweak the volume, tone comes along for the ride unless I hold it with my other hand. So that's going to probably have to be disassembled and lubricated.

Having said that, the little bit that I was able to play around with this and hear it gives me a very good sense that the tonal possibilities here are really stellar. I like the passive/active option; I have that on my two high end Fenders and it's a nice thing to find on an inexpensive bass.

All in all it feels nice to play. The materials in the preamp section don't feel as high quality as what I have on my Am Elites but it's a fraction of the price. And it's beautiful.

When my husband gets finished in the garage and I can hear better, I'm going to really take her for a spin. But right now I will say that I don't think I could be more pleased with what I got for my money.

 

Thanks! I'm looking forward to checking it out more. I have a rehearsal here on Monday afternoon so I might run it through its paces on that material tomorrow and see how I do. I don't usually play my fiver on that stuff but sometimes I practice their material with it just to get better with the five.

 

Oh, my. The tones I can get from this preamp are truly amazing. Only problem I'm having besides the one knob (it didn't improve much when I tried pulling) is the string spacing is narrower than my Fender 5. So there's something new to get used to. But I think that once I get used to it, I might play it a lot. It really does sound nice.

 

I don't know as I haven't stepped on the scale with it but I will say that the first time I picked it up, I was surprised at how light it felt to me. I think it's lighter than my Fender which is surprising because that one is alder and I would expect ash to be more heavy. I'll post a weight tomorrow.

 

Their color choices weren't great. I could have gotten an alder body in either opaque white, 3 tone burst, or black. All of them had tort PGs. The ash was available in natural, tobacco burst, and this. I already have basses in natural, tobacco and black/tort. I don't want another burst of any sort. It was a choice between the two whites and I decided to go with translucent because I personally like the gold pearloid PG and maple neck with it more than I liked the opaque white and tort, but I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea.

 

Oops, sorry! 10.4 according to the bathroom scale.

 

Thank you! I think it sparkles. The problem I am having now is finding a strap to order for it. I like a 3" suede strap but can't find one in white or gold. First world problems!