NBD Sire V7, like it but having trouble setting intonation

[RiffwRiter]

Low B string intonation is being evasive. Mostly it's my impatience I think. I would move in quarter turn increments of the saddle without making any improvements in intonation. After about six quarter turns I get frustrated, and think I should make larger changes or go back the other way or forget which way I turned last. Four higher strings were easy to dial in. I'll start over and eventually get it tonight but just had to quit for a while.
I'm very happy with the bass tone and playability. The placement of the preamp toggle is poor I think - wedged in too close to the eq knobs, but it's nothing I would ever reach for to change mid song. Also the knobs (I mean just the plastic knobs - the pots seem good) feel cheap, but for the price I got I can't expect luxury, especially when everything else is so good about it.

 

[bholder]

Any luck yet? The only thing I can think of is that the harmonic (and pitch in general) gets tougher to differentiate as the pitch gets lower. I have to turn off surrounding fans and make things really still to properly hear the "beats" when messing with a B. (Should be using a strobe tuner I suppose.) I can't think of anything particular to a Sire that might make this more difficult than any other bass. Still using the stock D'Addario XL's? Maybe you've got a bad string?

 

[RiffwRiter]

Any luck yet? The only thing I can think of is that the harmonic (and pitch in general) gets tougher to differentiate as the pitch gets lower. I have to turn off surrounding fans and make things really still to properly hear the "beats" when messing with a B. (Should be using a strobe tuner I suppose.) I can't think of anything particular to a Sire that might make this more difficult than any other bass. Still using the stock D'Addario XL's? Maybe you've got a bad string?

Yeah, the stock D'Addarios. Possible bad string, but I usually find its user error when people try to blame equipment. After work, I'll get back after it, and I use a Korg tuner that has always tracked bass very well.

 

[RiffwRiter]

Got the intonation finally. I recorded a little song example for my band, and realized while playing I have to pay more attention to muting on this bass than on my 4-string.

 

[Longdivsion]

I’ve been having the same problem. Weirdly enough I ended up filing the not slot a tiny bit and got my truss back to pretty close to how it left the factory. That seemed to erase that gray area. Taste and string choice seems to factor in a little. I like a tiny bit of fret noise personally.

 

[Longdivsion]

I also agree about the toggle placement. Turning it vertical helped some for on the fly use. I’m curious if they are going to sell blank pickguards at some point so you can place it a little differently to taste. I haven’t opened it up so I’m not sure how much work it would be to move that little bastard.

 

[RiffwRiter]

Really loving the tone I'm getting from this bass, but now I wish it was lighter weight. It's got me thinking about a headless 5J option. I started a thread about this but received no responses. iso headless 5-string J bass But I have time to look around. I'm curious abou the new Ibanez headless basses but dont like how they leave a gap at the junction of the neck and body. What is that about?