neepheid

Have I been lucky, or have you been incredibly unlucky? Of course with this statistically tiny sample set we can't really say either way.

And to expand upon the series/parallel, here are the gut shots: There is a 4 conductor wire coming out of the humbucker. Red and white are going to the same lug of the blend pot (so it's parallel) and there's a black wire and a green wire both going to ground. If someone wants to shoehorn a way to do series/parallel or coil split shenanigans, it is electrically possible. Tight squeeze in there though - so good luck! Closeup of where the outer insulation of the humbucker wire ends - hard to see the black wire, but it's hiding behind the green one.

Well, that's the knobs sorted. As Baga Chipz would say, "MUCH BETTAH!"

It's wired in parallel, in stock configuration. Details to come.

19mm (Z7)

Yup, saving up (or selling of other things) will be required.

I can only speak for the ones I've tried. The Z7 knobs felt offensively bad to me. Aluminium is a bad material to make knobs from - it's so light that they feel like plastic anyway - the only thing that gives away the fact that they are made of a metal is that they feel cold if they've been in a cold room. I haven't spent enough time turning the pots yet but one thing I noticed was they all felt different, especially in the detents. The inconsistency is a tactile turn off for me. I'm hoping that fitting some decent quality knobs with some heft to them will improve the feel. On the other hand, I don't have a beef with the knobs on my D5 - they are nice flat top barrel knobs which are a bit slimmer than your typical Fender types. The pots feel positive, smooth turning but with a reassuring resistance/inertia which gives a quality feel. Mind you, it's hard to fsck up a passive VT circuit

The pot nearest the bridge is a push/pull.

I'll take it if they don't want it

Were you using the supplied 1.5mm key? It's garbage. I thought "uh-oh" when the first grub screw I tried it in the key just spun around. But I tried my own 1.5mm key and it worked like a charm on all the screws.

Significantly stumpier than my D5 at least: Headstock length from nut to farthest edge D5 - 239mm Z7 - 208mm Centre of E tuner to centre of G tuner (approx) D5 - 145mm Z7 - 131mm So, the headstock is quite a bit shorter, and they've squashed the tuners together a smidge on the Z7.

and I dislike them intensely - set of John East knobs incoming for mine

It's all good, it just gave me chuckle, that's all.

I will say one thing that made me chuckle - as soon as the order confirmation email came through, a second one immediately followed asking for a review. Umm, save it for the dispatch confirmation email at least? I'm not going to review you when I haven't even had any service from you yet, save for your very efficient removal of funds from my bank account

Well, I've just placed my first order with BD, late last night so effectively first thing this morning. Just a few wee sundry items (John East knobs). Fingers crossed they arrive for the weekend, cheeky wee knob swap will be a nice easy tinkering job for a Sunday afternoon.

Cards on the table - I'm not convinced that Andertons do much in the way of checking beyond "is there a bass in there?" and maybe "is it the right colour?" - my Z7 had some sticky dark stuff on the inside of the top horn and around the strap button. A bit of WD40 and it came right off. I wasn't going to mention such a tiny detail as it seemed petty and utterly insignificant, but seeing as we're on the subject it was mildly irksome that I had to clean some sticky shyte off my new bass.

No idea, nor do I care EDIT: That was maybe overly glib, sorry for that - the fact is that I've never owned a Stingray, nor have I played one for any appreciable length of time. Closest I've come is the SBMM SB14 (the original Sterling Sterling) but that was many years ago, honestly I can't remember what it sounded like. I didn't buy the Sire Z7 because I was chasing a Stingray sound - I bought it because I like the look of it, fancied giving it a go on its own merits and I had a positive experience with my D5. I have little doubt that other people's motivations may be different, you'll have to ask someone else about Sire Z/Stingray comparisons, I'm useless for this question!

Tape measures at dawn! Seriously though, just by eyeballing I think they have made it a bit shorter. I will compare with my D5 later.

I tell you something, Sire aren't mucking about when it comes to allen keys. Parker pen for scale. Leverage. Nice.

Bathroom scales say 4.3kg / 9.5lbs

It finally arrived today, and I must admit that my first impressions were rather mixed. It was perhaps unfair, but I took delivery at work, which meant that the only initial go I could have on it was through an old 30W amp and not very loud - basically "is it working?". I was initially impressed with the fit and finish. The tuners are excellent - smooth, easy turning but with no play. The neck is what one expects from Sire - satin finish, lovely rolled fingerboard edges. But I have to say that I was not impressed with the knobs - they feel lightweight and cheap, and to cap it off the passive tone ring was loose and kept turning beyond its end. I wasn't sure if the knob was loose or it was a dodgy pot. The pots are all different in feel especially in the detents - the bass knob has a very severe detent that engages with an audible click, but the blend pot's detent is vague and very easy to turn past. Anyway, I got it home and things got better. Thankfully, the tone ring/knob was just loose, pot was fine. Giving it a proper blast through my pedalboard things really opened up, tone-wise. The pickups sound great to my ears. The neck pickup, despite its diminutive size compared to the bridge holds its own when soloed, but admittedly does get a little lost when blended. The preamp is OK once you get used to it. I find that the bass pot does very little. I have found that the best way to control this bass is to leave the treble and bass centred, dime the mid control then use the mid sweep as your primary tone control, using the others for seasoning. The passive tone works in both active and passive modes, which pleased me. It doesn't have a huge range, but glad it's there. The blend pot is a bit all or nothing, but that doesn't bother me as I'd be using it like a switch anyway. Little creature comforts include the passive mode working even with the batteries removed, making it a full on "get out of jail free" card in case of battery depletion. There is very little volume difference between passive and active - in fact with the preamp set flat, I'd say passive is louder. My wireless bugs get along fine with the bass regardless of it being in active or passive mode - I know some cheap wireless bugs don't like active basses, but mine is happy enough (Lekato WS-70 for reference). So my main (and to be honest only) beef is the knobs. I think they're ghastly. They'll be getting changed - replacements have already been ordered. But that's my only complaint, apart from nitpicky points about the preamp. Enough waffle, have some pics.

Someone's an edgelord (whoever wrote that tripe, not you jd) - what a load of hyperbolic nonsense.

HERE

Suffice to say, I will be going home for lunch today.

HA HA HA, now it's out for delivery. Teleportation!