I guarentee you will need a fret levelling if you by a sire bass. Other than that theyre excellent.
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After my Peavey Forum AX died during the next to last song of our church’s 2024 Christmas program, I knew I wanted another fretted five. I originally wanted Sadowsky MetroExpress, but I decided to go a little less expensive. The Z7 struck as the best sub $1K option. When I first handled it, it felt little, and I wished the neck was like my fretless RSD.
I think I will get used to it although it could use of a better setup than what I gave it upon taking it out of the box. Finally, I am getting the hang of the Sire preamp although I still think it is overly complicated. I do not have a passive bypass switch on my bass, is this a change?
Finally, I will say this bass reminds of my old USA SUB Sterling in terms of size. That is a good thing.
There is supposed to be a push/pull switch on the bass knob, according to the Sire website.
I have some sharp frets maybe from 15-19. I think the B string is a bit boomy relative to the other strings. I will probably keep it, but I could live with returning it.
The push-pull works on mine as a passive bypass. I’ve bought multiple other Sires and none of them needed fret work but my Z7 did require a fret level.
My third day with this bass and I am getting used to it. The bass is full 34” scale, but the body is smaller like EBMM Sterling. Except for two or three slightly sharp fret ends, the build quality is very good for a sub $1K bass. I am getting the hang of the Sire preamp, but I have not really fiddled with the mids yet. The bass sounds great passive, when the bridge pickup is soloed, it sounds like a Stingray to me. The neck pickup sounds like neck pickup of a Jazz bass soloed and the two pickups sound good together to my ears.
This bass is certainly built to a lower standard than a genuine EBMM bass, but I think it is better than recent SBMM basses except for the passive Sterling I played last year. Mine was a demo and I got it at 12% discount from Sweetwater. I now have a viable fretted five string option for church services. Tomorrow, I am taking it to rehearsal. I will probably post a video tomorrow of some of the rehearsal.
This bass is certainly built to a lower standard than a genuine EBMM bass, but I think it is better than recent SBMM basses except for the passive Sterling I played last year. Mine was a demo and I got it at 12% discount from Sweetwater. I now have a viable fretted five string option for church services. Tomorrow, I am taking it to rehearsal. I will probably post a video tomorrow of some of the rehearsal.
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I used my Z7 at rehearsal today and it did quite well. Those dual mids help me get a decent tone once the choir and keyboards started up. The Z7 sounds very good passive. In fact, it gets a more pure Stingray tone in passive than active mode.
That short lower horn kind of slipped once, but I thought it was comfortable overall. My bass weighs 9lb 9oz, so it is not heavy at all. This is a nice replacement for my recently deceased Peavey Forum AX as my fretted five string. The funny thing is that my fretless Metro Express works really well in church and I probably don’t even need a fretted five as long church is my only “gig.” That said, both basses are nice flavors of good and I will happily play them at church or anywhere else.
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That's really pretty. The grain and the natural high gloss finish look a lot like my old Lakland 55-02, one of the prettiest basses I've owned.
Congrats!
