lemmywinks

I never saw the point in a budget 8x10, they're just there for show IMO. If a cab is built down to a keen price I'd rather have the limited spec budget go towards 1 or 2 decent drivers than 8 complete pish ones. FWIW I owned the VX215 and the VX1508, neither were great and got completely blown away by the XL cabs that replaced them which cost used about what I'd paid for the VX cabs.

Is this like the bass version of a copycat killer?

Mine is earlier than that, I bought it used well before Gen 2 was announced so maybe they did start sourcing better ones. They work, just not as well as good quality tuners and there's a bit of play in the tuning key. I wonder if the Gen 2 all have the nicer ones.

Here's what was fitted to my Sire V7 Gen1, different tuners

Nice one cheers! Have a planned bass purchase coming up and I'm still undecided about keeping the Sire as a backup or not. Originally intended to put all the stock parts back on and sell the lot but then I played it for a bit and had second thoughts, as you do.

In fact @Rich do you have a pic with yours installed?

If I hang on to my Sire I'll 100% be getting those string retainers, the bar thing annoys the hell out of me!

Tuners on mine (Gen1 V7 Alder) were very cheap feeling and didn't hold their tuning all that well, functional up to a point but definitely felt like some corners had been cut. Dunno if the newer ones are any better, tbh if I wanted to upgrade a Sire on a budget now I'd probably just import a Guyker/Jin Ho set for £20-£25. RE bridges some people had issues with the through body holes being too close to the intonation points of the saddles, particularly on the early standard V7 4 string (the 5er had a slightly different style of bridge) and the vintage (threaded saddle) 5er. I think they may have had issues with bridge/through hole placement on the early vintage V7, look at this one from a different thread: On my regular V7 5 string it was fine if a little bit too close to vertical on the B string for my liking due to the saddles being overly long behind the break point of the string. There were also a couple of people who had the intonation screws break in the early runs of the V7, assume this was sorted quickly as I haven't heard of it since.

I replaced the standard bridge with a Gotoh 404BO which is great, also solved the issue of the original saddles being overly long and creating a sharp angle on the string thru holes. They have 19mm on the 4 and 18mm for the 5 and the string through holes match, you'll need to drill new screw holes though. Looks like the Gotoh design has changed slightly since then and they now use longer saddles so YMMV. A good budget bridge upgade for Sires would be to just get better saddles and intonation screws. For tuners I put a set of Schallers on mine (they were cheap second hand) although Ultralites might be a good option for weight saving. Realistically the tuners are the only thing that really need upgrading unless you have a mechanical issue with the bridge, this was more common on the early ones IIRC.

Don't see these all that often, beautiful basses and this one looks to be underpriced by a decent wedge: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175354614117?hash=item28d3f31165:g:tQYAAOSwbG5iijkt

Yeah you'd just get the Spector Rex. Reminds me a little bit of when Dean and Gibson released posthumous John Entwistle and Hendrix sigs respectively via deals with their estates, at least this time Gibson are cashing in while the guy is still alive! Saw a review of the new Gibson Mustaine V, got absolutely shredded and not in a good way.

Gibson must be pumping some serious $$$ into questionable endorsements. Like the Dave Mustaine V they just released I don't think anybody associates Rex with Gibson.

I have one of these, use it for boat stuff not bass (fish pun intended) but imagine it would be handy for not-too-heavy items. One thing I would note is that the hinge that the base rotates on is a rather flimsy bit of plastic that you need to treat carefully, I expect to have to replace this with a metal rod at some point. The wheels aren't great on uneven/loose surfaces either, don't fare well on gravel car parks etc.

Is their issue with active monitors purely that they already have passive ones and want to use them, even if the cost saving of 2 x active cabs vs a power amp is negligible? Imagine if we used this rule when it came to buying new bass gear, the entire forum would consist of about six threads.

If you're prepared to lug some weight about then you can pick up old power amps for next to nothing, anything should be fine though. Realistically you're best just picking up some powered speakers, the Alto stuff is more than usable and costs very little. If you don't need a lot of volume then you can go even cheaper - I sold a Mackie powered wedge for £40 recently and it took months to shift. Buyers' market at the moment so might as well make the most of it.

I love the ridiculous look of teeny amps on big cabs, have a pic somewhere of my little TC head on a dual 4x10 full stack.

An active pickup with traditional controls might be a simple solution, I had SD Lightnin Rods in my old fretless Warmoth Jazz (wired up as standard V/V/T) and they were basically a kind of J bass but more of it solution, more thud on the neck pickup, more body to the bridge and a bit more lively overall. Like a halfway house between a fully passive bass and one with a preamp. The P pickup version is the APB-2 and the more modern voiced version is the Pro Active P-bass.

If you want something cheap to tide you over until the East becomes available then an Artec SE2a works fine if you omit the balance pot.

Crikey I wish my dad had given me a Barefaced as a first rig!

Yeah and this.

What I use now: Bass > Fishman Platinum Pro EQ > Behringer XR18 > Behringer P2 > KZ ZS10 Basically using the cheapo IEM setup recommended on here, no complaints and astonishingly cheap. The only variable is what preamp you want to use if you want bass specific features at your feet rather than just using a DI box - definitely check the Fishman out if you don't need drive.

Until this thread I never knew people thought USA Fenders were an aspirational top of the line instrument. Funny old world.

He ordered a regular pepperoni, however when he got home he swapped out half of the meat for those little yellow cubes you find in urinals. Then he removed some of the slices and reinstalled them backwards, accidentally scraping the cheese off as his chisel slipped halfway through (they make quite effective pizza slicers) however this has been replaced with mustard. Still not happy at the original state of the pizza he upturned the box, picked the slices off the floor and reinstalled them in an old cat litter tray. It's actually still listed on eBay all these years later for the bargain price of £367 with £18.50 shipping.