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New Sire U5 review and discussion thread

#101
Unless the body of a bass is boat anchor heavy, in my 22+ years playing virtually every bass has some sort of neck pull. IMO dive can be alleviated with the right strap however I understand where you're coming from. The only bass I've owned or played that didn't was a Kiesel headless Zeus bass. YMMV
 
#105
jpmcbride said:
Does the U5 have any neck dive? I'm not interested in hearing about how a strap helps, or any other solutions, just wondering if it dives much in its natural state. Thanks.
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Yes, meaning when I'm seated and rest the bass on my right leg, the neck, unsupported, comes to rest on my left leg.

And +1 what @mmbass21 said, almost all basses do have some neck dive. Is there a standard way to measure neck dive? I searched but didn't find anything. As a designer I find this unsatisfying. So I broke out my analog kitchen scale and placed it on my desk. While sitting and the bass resting on my leg I let the neck rest on the scale at the nut. The downward force measured 19.5 oz (553 grams).

Subjectively, it's enough to notice it when I look for it. But when I'm playing (which is usually seated) I forget about it.
 
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#106
threefour said:
Yes, meaning when I'm seated and rest the bass on my right leg, the neck, unsupported, comes to rest on my left leg.
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I'm mostly interested in standing, because that' show it would get used. As far as quantifying neck dive, I'm not too worried about it. My testis this ... stand up with the bass on my regular strap. If it pulls down noticebly and bothers me, then it has neck dive. Otherwise its good.
 
#108
I normally use polyprop straps and none of my other two basses have any neck dive (Yamaha / Ibanez), the U5 has a little when standing, but a leather strap that is more grippy totally removed it to the point it doesn't bother me.
 
#120
Just received my Sire U5 yesterday and I can't help but feel a little bit disappointed.

It's a beautiful beautiful instrument with its mint finish and for the most part feels like a premium bass.

But I do have some serious gripes with it:

- The neck dive is terrible, wish they went with a much lighter headgear. Without a strap, this bass is barely playable for me. Even with a strap, a little bit of neck dive is still noticable while sitting.

- Overall tone is good, BUT: the output of the pickups is just not high enough. I'm no pro player with 30 bass guitars in his collection. I own a Gretsch G2220 Electromatic junior with mini humbuckers and a Collins B Master bass with double soapbar pickups. And both have an output that is 2 times higher. I adjusted pickup height (both up and down), but the difference in output was barely noticable. Any ideas on this issue? (not going to rewire anything, this is a brand new guitar)

- With its 30" scale/20 frets and the bridge sitting at the very end of the body, it is kinda tough to reach the frets 15+. That's an issue with many shortscales, but I just recently played a Danelectro Longhorn at a shop, and playing those higher frets felt so much better on it. Personally I can't get over the looks of the longhorn, and while the DC59 shortscale looks lovely it won't be available for months where I live. So I went with the Sire U5.

As it is, I'm probably going to return the Sire U5. Really tried to love it, but the low output in particular is very disappointing.
 

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