So last week I got a new Sire M5 bass. Paid only $550 on Reverb.
Ok, my impressions on this bass.
First, the workmanship and quality of this bass is incredible for $550. The swamp ash body has beautiful grain. It is a two piece body, yet you can barely tell were the seam is. They really matched the grain perfectly. The gloss finish on the body is perfect. Not one flaw found. The pickup routes again were perfectly done. The bridge is something you do not see on a bass at this cost. Very well made and actually is a similar design of the bridge on my Fodera Emperor. The bridge allows you to mount the strings through the back of the bridge or string through the body which is a nice touch. The knobs which I think are aluminum are solid as well as the switches.
The rear of the body there is the control cavity and battery cavity. Both have wood covers, again is a really nice touch and something you don't see on a bass at this price point. Some complained about the battery cover on the M5 which is held in by screws rather then a opening battery compartment like on the M7. To me, no big deal. Not like I change the batteries all the time (this requires 2 9V batteries). If they go dead at a gig, there is a passive switch.
The bolt on neck sports an Ebony fretboard. Again unheard of at this price point. It has the "rolled" edges which feels OH so good. The fretwork is absolutely perfect!! Something I could not say on a new Rickenbacker 4003SW which I bought new for 3 times the cost and had the worst fretwork I have ever seen!
The neck sort of feels like what you get on an Ibanez. Maybe a tad thicker. It is 19mm string spacing at the bridge and feels like a Jazz neck width at the nut. The neck is a 5 piece Maple/Mahogany and sports a bone nut. The back feels like an oil finish.
My only complaint is the headstock. Not that crazy about the shape of it. Maybe it will grow on me! LOL
The tuners are your standard sealed type and work fine. The truss rod cover is also wood! Again, a very nice touch.
Now onto to the sound.... There is so much you can do with this bass. You really need to spend time with it. The controls are a stacked Volume/Tone, pick up pan, treble, bass and a stacked mid/Mid frequency select.
The switches are passive/active and a Series/Single Coil/Parallel switch for each pick. The pickups are obviously split coil humbuckers (some what similar to the pickups on my Fodera).
After using the bass live, my favorite setting is the pickups in single coil mode. That is with the switches in the middle position. Sounds very much like an active Jazz bass. Very punchy and great slap tone. Sat great in the mix with the band. I pretty much kept the tone knobs flat and just boosted the bass a bit.
In humbucker mode, well the tones just ok. With the switches in the up position (not sure if that is series or parallel, I have not found any documentation that says which setting is which), I get a fairly nice mellow tone. Good for certain slow tunes and some jazzy stuff. Don't like the tone with them in the down position.
And lastly....the weight. This bass is ridiculously light! Under 8 lbs by my bathroom scale. Balances nice when standing. I did replace the stock strap buttons with Dunlop strap locks.
So overall, amazing bass for only $550!!! If I didn't know, I could have thought this bass easily cost over $1k. Other budget basses like Squier are not even in the same ballpark in regards to quality and features. I now see why there is so much buzz about the Sire line.
The photo is at a gig. Running it through a Fender Rumble 500.
Ok, my impressions on this bass.
First, the workmanship and quality of this bass is incredible for $550. The swamp ash body has beautiful grain. It is a two piece body, yet you can barely tell were the seam is. They really matched the grain perfectly. The gloss finish on the body is perfect. Not one flaw found. The pickup routes again were perfectly done. The bridge is something you do not see on a bass at this cost. Very well made and actually is a similar design of the bridge on my Fodera Emperor. The bridge allows you to mount the strings through the back of the bridge or string through the body which is a nice touch. The knobs which I think are aluminum are solid as well as the switches.
The rear of the body there is the control cavity and battery cavity. Both have wood covers, again is a really nice touch and something you don't see on a bass at this price point. Some complained about the battery cover on the M5 which is held in by screws rather then a opening battery compartment like on the M7. To me, no big deal. Not like I change the batteries all the time (this requires 2 9V batteries). If they go dead at a gig, there is a passive switch.
The bolt on neck sports an Ebony fretboard. Again unheard of at this price point. It has the "rolled" edges which feels OH so good. The fretwork is absolutely perfect!! Something I could not say on a new Rickenbacker 4003SW which I bought new for 3 times the cost and had the worst fretwork I have ever seen!
The neck sort of feels like what you get on an Ibanez. Maybe a tad thicker. It is 19mm string spacing at the bridge and feels like a Jazz neck width at the nut. The neck is a 5 piece Maple/Mahogany and sports a bone nut. The back feels like an oil finish.
My only complaint is the headstock. Not that crazy about the shape of it. Maybe it will grow on me! LOL
The tuners are your standard sealed type and work fine. The truss rod cover is also wood! Again, a very nice touch.
Now onto to the sound.... There is so much you can do with this bass. You really need to spend time with it. The controls are a stacked Volume/Tone, pick up pan, treble, bass and a stacked mid/Mid frequency select.
The switches are passive/active and a Series/Single Coil/Parallel switch for each pick. The pickups are obviously split coil humbuckers (some what similar to the pickups on my Fodera).
After using the bass live, my favorite setting is the pickups in single coil mode. That is with the switches in the middle position. Sounds very much like an active Jazz bass. Very punchy and great slap tone. Sat great in the mix with the band. I pretty much kept the tone knobs flat and just boosted the bass a bit.
In humbucker mode, well the tones just ok. With the switches in the up position (not sure if that is series or parallel, I have not found any documentation that says which setting is which), I get a fairly nice mellow tone. Good for certain slow tunes and some jazzy stuff. Don't like the tone with them in the down position.
And lastly....the weight. This bass is ridiculously light! Under 8 lbs by my bathroom scale. Balances nice when standing. I did replace the stock strap buttons with Dunlop strap locks.
So overall, amazing bass for only $550!!! If I didn't know, I could have thought this bass easily cost over $1k. Other budget basses like Squier are not even in the same ballpark in regards to quality and features. I now see why there is so much buzz about the Sire line.
The photo is at a gig. Running it through a Fender Rumble 500.
Too bad more builders don’t take that approach. Very cool.
