I was never blown away by the Cirrus. The neck pickup is not optimally placed for the sound I like. That said, they are beautiful basses. I really wanted to like the one I tried.
I've played a few of those $1000ish Cirruses (Cirrai?) and was never really impressed. But I've played a bunch of $200 Foundations that had some of the ballsiest jazz bass tones I've ever heard.
American models never sold that well for Peavey. They are great used bargains; new they had tough competition at their price point. Their imports on the other hand do pretty well.
I have a G-V (paid $350 NOS 16 years ago) and a Millennium Plus (paid $100 used last year). The tone from the G-V never wowed me, but it has been a good practice bass. Recently put Infeld Flats on the G-V and the strings improved the sound dramatically. Millennium is getting ready for Bartolini Pups and an Audere preamp as soon as the parts come in.
I point out my experience to agree with others; the electronics are the weak point on the American Peavey models (at least the ones I have played which does not go back to the older T series basses). Build quality on the other hand has been quite good.
Just to be clear, the Fury and Patriot were sold as entry level basses and the T-40 (much as I love it) was never a "High-End" bass. That said, Peavey has made a TON of high-end USA instruments over the years.
Unfortunately they shuttered virtually all of their USA production facilities a few years ago. For a few years they made nothing but low and mid-level imports but they recently made a stab at the bottom of the High-End market with the new Cirrus instruments. The quality is reportedly great and I'd put it against any Sire or the best of the Schecter import instruments but it's not a high-end custom job like the original Cirrus basses were.
All this to say, they just don't have the USA facilities or production line anymore to do truly high-end custom work. I'd love to be proven wrong but beyond a couple of one-offs here and there for promotional purposes I don't see them doing USA production anymore.
One has to ask themselves this: With a new imported Cirrus 5 going for $1200, a USA model would probably go for 3 grand. Is anyone looking to spend Lakland money on a Peavey these days?
1) The current Cirrus is overseas "meh" in my opinion. The US models blow the foreign ones out of the water, because I've played/owned both, soooooo I pretty much don't even count the new Cirruses as the real deal...basically non-existant to me.
2) My Cirrus is tamer to a point than my Millennium, and considerably less gain, probably from the different pickups. Both have the same preamp, so perhaps the Cirrus' p'ups are too polite for some.
3) Again, the Cirruses seem to be more polite, even if mine has really nice growl. The Milleniums, even when they were almost as much as the Cirruses, had and have TONS of bark and volume. My US 5 Plus+ is LOUD and super-aggressive.
4) My Cirrus and Milli have that phenomenal preamp with the mid-sweep, so I definitely don't see electronics as their weakness. I don't see any weaknesses in either of my basses, as I think they can stack up with the best out there. I can still see how some expect how much more, though...matter of preference.
5) I would absolutely at least
consider a new, US-made Cirrus or Milli. I think Lakland is hugely overrated, as I've tried the US ones, and imo, the sloppy Skylines (played one that was okay, at best), and my Peaveys blow them out of the water.
I've tried so many basses over the years, and I think that my Peaveys are at the top, really. They're just phenomenal instruments. The only competition, imo, are MTD USA, Mike Lull, and Warrior (was really impressed by these at NAMM).
