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Sire M7 Club

#181
I was at rehearsal on Wednesday and noticed that one of my coil selector switches was a little loose on my first generation M7 5-string bass. On closer inspection I found that the retaining nut was missing! The stage was the same color as the nut so I was praying that I would find it. I had visions of trying to order a replacement nut from Sire USA or finding a match at the local hardware store. I had no idea when it had gone missing. After rehearsal, I dug around my gig bag and found that tiny nut between the padding of my bag. Praise God!

So you may want to check those retaining nuts on your switches every once in a while.
 
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#182
On this and every bass, a loose or missing nut on a pot is a common cause of pre-amp or wiring malfunction; espeically true of Sire knobs b/c the pots attach straight to the preamp circuit board, so if the pot is moving, the pre- board is being pushed around. if the knob/pot/switch can move at all (as when the nut is loose) that the wiring, harness and/or preamp joints/solders/board can be stressed. So yea, absolutely-- check those nuts for tightness periodically, to void FWB's situation and also the situations I've mentioned.
 
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#183
FunWithBass said:
I was at rehearsal on Wednesday and noticed that one of my coil selector switches was a little loose on my first generation M7 5-string bass. On closer inspection I found that the retaining nut was missing! The stage was the same color as the nut so I was praying that I would find it. I had visions of trying to order a replacement nut from Sire USA or finding a match at the local hardware store. I had no idea when it had gone missing. After rehearsal, I dug around my gig bag and found that tiny nut between the padding of my bag. Praise God!

So you may want to check those retaining nuts on your switches every once in a while.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the advice, I'll check my M7
 
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#184
Here are the latest knobs that I am using with my first generation M7:

IMG_20200221_181101699.jpg

I used three of these:
Large Black Aluminum Knob - Best Bass Gear

And two of these:
Concentric Stacked Black Aluminum Knob - Best Bass Gear

I read someone liked them for their Sire V9, so I thought I would try them.

I cut up a used gift card and made a shim of sorts to fit in the slotted posts to prevent the knobs from sliding down the shafts over time and damaging the wood body. The standard knobs came with metal sleeves to go over the posts.

Now I can easily see what my bass settings are. These weigh less than my previous all-black metal knobs.
 
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#186
Hi M7ers! Question here:

my M7 does a following thing when I touch a pole piece in the neck pickup row:



as you can hear touching other pole pieces doesn't result in that noise. It is not the matter of amp grounding - it is the same with my Line 6 wireless system (slightly less pronounced but the noise is there).

Does your M7 behave the same or does mine have a loose wire somewhere? :laugh:
 
#192
gregouille23 said:
Sire seemed to have released a M7 6 string
Click to expand...

Heya. First time reader for this topic. Looking for a 6-string, so here to research. 6ers ain't for everyone but dang they sure simplify "read-the-book" jobs for me.

Plutonium244 said:
b/c the pots attach straight to the preamp circuit board,
Click to expand...

Ah! very interesting, a factoid I have not seen mentioned anywhere yet. Are all the Sire basses this way (V's, P's, M's)? Certainly explains a part of how they keep the cost down.

The main spec I'm trying to trace down is the fingerboard. I was confused because Chicago Music Exchange has a pre-order for the M7 6 in TBL. Shows a pic of the TBL with Maple fingerboard. But the description in the listing, supplied from Sire, says ebony. Then, the Sire USA site says the M7 6 fingerboard is rosewood, and on the site shows the TBL and TBK with both with rosewood.
I also saw early in this thread, a list of specs from Sire stating for M7 5s and 4s, TBK and Nat have rosewood while Brown and TBL have maple.
So, which is it?
Sire Marcus Miller M7 6-String Transparent Blue Satin (2nd Gen) Pre-Order
 
#193
mr2xbass said:
Heya. First time reader for this topic. Looking for a 6-string, so here to research. 6ers ain't for everyone but dang they sure simplify "read-the-book" jobs for me.



Ah! very interesting, a factoid I have not seen mentioned anywhere yet. Are all the Sire basses this way (V's, P's, M's)? Certainly explains a part of how they keep the cost down.

The main spec I'm trying to trace down is the fingerboard. I was confused because Chicago Music Exchange has a pre-order for the M7 6 in TBL. Shows a pic of the TBL with Maple fingerboard. But the description in the listing, supplied from Sire, says ebony. Then, the Sire USA site says the M7 6 fingerboard is rosewood, and on the site shows the TBL and TBK with both with rosewood.
I also saw early in this thread, a list of specs from Sire stating for M7 5s and 4s, TBK and Nat have rosewood while Brown and TBL have maple.
So, which is it?
Sire Marcus Miller M7 6-String Transparent Blue Satin (2nd Gen) Pre-Order
Click to expand...
My blue m5 five string has rosewood, it's whatever is pictured. I got mine from CME
 
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#194
Also, would any current owners of a 2nd Gen. 4 or 5 be able and willing to take off the knobs and nuts and get a pick of the topside of the circuit board?
I'm skilled in circuit board repair (pinball and arcade mostly), but if the pots are some obscure mounting package or "unobtanium" Sire proprietary parts... IDK, I'm not keen to purchase things built in a way that prevents me from fixing them myself should something go wrong.
 
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#196
I relative gave me a gift card for Christmas and I thought I would try some TI flats (Thomastik-Infeld flats for the new comers) for my first generation M7 5-string bass. The 5 string TI flats come in long scale 34" and super long scale 36" but the M7 first generation 5-string is 35" scale. I read a pair of posts saying that the 34" scale TI flats worked on other 35" scale basses but the super long scale 36" was too long. So I bought the long scale 34" set (JF345) and that actually fit my M7 bass. I thought I would pass that along in case anyone else wonders the same question. Note that I installed through the bridge, not through the body.

I have been using Dunlop flatwounds on my bass and was surprised that the TI flats were not as smooth to the touch as the Dunlops. The D and G strings are really smooth but the B, E, and A strings are more textured in their wrapping than the Dunlops. The B string almost feels like a round wound string (maybe due to how thick it is at .136). I think this also makes them have more string noise. Time will tell if I like them or not. I can always put the Dunlops back on if I decide otherwise. One thing to note on the Dunlops is that I had to shave off some of the silk on the ball end side of the strings to make the B string (and maybe the E string) fit through the small string hole of the bridge. I did not have to do that for the TI flats.
 
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#197
FunWithBass said:
I relative gave me a gift card for Christmas and I thought I would try some TI flats (Thomastik-Infeld flats for the new comers) for my first generation M7 5-string bass. The 5 string TI flats come in long scale 34" and super long scale 36" but the M7 first generation 5-string is 35" scale. I read a pair of posts saying that the 34" scale TI flats worked on other 35" scale basses but the super long scale 36" was too long. So I bought the long scale 34" set (JF345) and that actually fit my M7 bass. I thought I would pass that along in case anyone else wonders the same question.

I have been using Dunlop flatwounds on my bass and was surprised that the TI flats were not as smooth to the touch as the Dunlops. The D and G strings are really smooth but the B, E, and A strings are more textured in their wrapping than the Dunlops. The B string almost feels like a round wound string (maybe due to how thick it is at .136). I think this also makes them have more string noise. Time will tell if I like them or not. I can always put the Dunlops back on if I decide otherwise.
Click to expand...
The chromes I just got and put on my M5 were the super longs so I could string through, ti flats would need to be the super longs a second as well if string through
 
#198
I had one of my tuning machine pegs break on my first generation M7 5-string bass and I replaced it with a Hipshot 3/8" licensed UltraLight (HB6 from the specification diagram on the website). I did not have to alter the bases in any way to make it fit. Note that there are two lines of Hipshot UltraLights: licensed (LIC, made in Korea) and USA. The USA are twice the price of the LIC. You can see the differences Invalid Link Removed. I did not know there were two types until after I ordered the LIC. I decided to stick with the LIC and ordered four more to swap the others out as well. I am sure there are other tuners you could go with but that is at least one that fits the M7.
 
#199
redstrand said:
The chromes I just got and put on my M5 were the super longs so I could string through, ti flats would need to be the super longs a second as well if string through
Click to expand...
I only went through the bridge, not the body. I don't think I would install a set of flats through the body of a bass from what I read elsewhere.
 
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