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WOW! Really Sire

#102
voodoobassist said:
Those two things were my main gripe. As far as being subjective, I never weighed either bass, but both had to be in the neighborhood of 11 lbs. That,..is pretty damn heavy. I wound up preferring the tone of both Sires passive, and I'm normally an active bass kind of guy. The neck on the 4 was closer in feel to what I prefer, but once again, the weight was substantial. To me, there's no reason for a 4 string jazz to be pushing 11 lbs.
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I don't know if it's typical, but my 2nd gen V3 is 9lbs, 3oz with batteries. Not featherweight, but not a lunker either. The pre amp makes cool sounds, but I play it passive most of the time as well.
Charles
 
#106
RBrownBass said:
Share with us the improvements you'd like to see. You did list the neck and weight, to be fair, but those are largely subjective.

I'll never own a Sire (too many basses as it is), but I'm always curious about poor reviews with few specifics.
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I owned one of the 5 string models when they first came out,to be specific the thick neck,front to back,was the reason I sold it,way too chunky for my liking on a 5 string,4 string no problem.
 
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#107
Damn my phone is more expensive than that. Dang!

IMG_20190218_001241.jpg
 
#109
Thumpr said:
IMO the issue here is that within the boundaries of the initial use case (in his video specifically) the marketing angle was for a parent buying a bass for their kid and wanting useable quality at value. There might even be a little role model trust implied. (He also states that the company approached him with an “almost perfect” bass and the design was a fait accompli) As they grow the lines into 4 figure price tags they are reaching a different buyer market with different desires in a bass. Could be time to adapt in order to meet that buyer. (And time to shave some weight... an 11 pound 4 string is a little rotund)
When you get to that price tag a lot of options open up. FWIW, I just got a used American Pro J for well under a grand.

That said, having done some co-branded marketing before I imagine there is a contract in place that stipulates he gets the marquis “ad space” - down to percentage of size of the relative logos.
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The 'for the children' thing always rang hollow with me for two reasons: there were far more affordable pro quality instruments around and more important, I predicted who the customers would actually be... and they were far from children.
:D

The Marcus association put this brand on the map, it certainly didnt set the world on fire under the Dame name despite being extremely similar and of the same quality. So I can see continuing that as a smart move.

I await the declarations that the lower priced Sires still blow away higher priced basses... like the V10.
;)
 
#113
@Brad Johnson and @FingerDub, the expensive Sire probably meant to be flagship model that know won’t make them money, it is there to show what they can do. At a much larger scale,Ibanez routinely produces expensive Basses, sometimes with Fodera like prices like the original Adam Nitti six or the Thundercat signature model ($7,000 plus for both.) Despite these really pricey Basses, Ibanez makes money in mid and lower price points.
 
#114
Dr. Cheese said:
@Brad Johnson and @FingerDub, the expensive Sire probably meant to be flagship model that know won’t make them money, it is there to show what they can do. At a much larger scale,Ibanez routinely produces expensive Basses, sometimes with Fodera like prices like the original Adam Nitti six or the Thundercat signature model ($7,000 plus for both.) Despite these really pricey Basses, Ibanez makes money in mid and lower price points.
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To the contrary, they do make more money on the sale of a flagship bass. No idea why you'd think otherwise. The trick would be in selling these in any numbers. That's jumping over the price point for Bass Mods, a superior instrument to the lower cost Sires. And other competitors.

Ibanez is not a good example... they do weird things like making signature instruments for an artist and then not offer them to the market. Percy Jones?

BTW these have nothing in common with a Thundercat bass. They're hardly a stretch from their other production basses. What accounts for the tripling in price? For instance, are these handmade?

That does not seem to be where people are spending money.
 
#118
Dr. Cheese said:
@Brad Johnson and @FingerDub, the expensive Sire probably meant to be flagship model that know won’t make them money, it is there to show what they can do. At a much larger scale,Ibanez routinely produces expensive Basses, sometimes with Fodera like prices like the original Adam Nitti six or the Thundercat signature model ($7,000 plus for both.) Despite these really pricey Basses, Ibanez makes money in mid and lower price points.
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It's possible it is for marketing purposes. Kind of like restaurant menus who have several high-priced items so that people end up picking something right in the middle or above the average price point instead of pricing everything the same. That's generally one reason to have a product that's seemingly out of range for most buyers.
 
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#119
A colleague of mine tried it at NAMM. It's the same bass as the 2nd gen Sire basses, except the exotic wood and roasted neck. I'd expect better hardware and preamp for that money. Everyone and their mother are jumping on the roasted maple fad nowadays. Great stuff for sure, but it's not exactly super hard to do.
 
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