Jamieboy

Just bought one of these bags having seen this thread and it mentioned in a few other places. Absolutely excellent product and great value as well. Thanks.

Never considered sparkles... but got this and love the finish so much!

Bought a z3 in black sparkle last week. Really like it. Been adjusting action and generally tweaking it to my liking. Adore the sparkly finish, which is more sparkly in the flesh than in photos it seems to me. Sounds good to me, although I've never owned a MM stingray so can't directly compare.

As an aside, and in full agreement with this - gotoh supplied screws are basically good for nothing in my view.

Good idea....

Thanks all for the thoughts. Update: the holes weren't as off as it seemed to me they would be (and as the internet would have you believe). I went to try the one-screw line up as per Geek99's suggestion and then I noticed I could just about see the other wood hole through the second gotoh screw hole. Thus by lining them up so neither were dead centre I could just thread both holes. Sorry guys - turns out it was much ado about nothing! 🫣 All now installed and bass balances beautifully. Amazing how much difference the weight of 4 tuners can make to how a bass feels.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. Appreciated. Ah I see- the bathroom stuff I guess? Suppose that gives it some hold to aid the single screw but not so much you couldn't remove in future. I suppose hipshot ultralight only have one screw don't they. If I get time this evening I may remove one existing and see if either of the gotoh holes line up exactly. It isn't, but this could still well be the most sensible solution 😉

Thanks. Hadnt considered that. The stock ones have 4 screws, the gotohs have 2. So are you saying just line up one of the holes and leave it at that? Not sure how secure that would be. Guess theres potential it could work (if it does line up) as the gotohs clamp the headstock with a threaded bushing from the front so it's not just the screws holding them on....

Hi all. I've just recently bought a sire z3, which I'm really impressed with. I previously had a sire p5 on which I had replaced the stock tuning heads with gotoh gb528s. These replacements seemed to me to be exceptional quality and also much lighter than the originals. I kept the gotohs and had intended to swap them onto the new z3, but I see that the stock tuning heads on the z3 are not the same as the p5 (apparently the z3 and v3 models use slightly different ones to the rest of the sire range). The screw pattern is slightly different and the gotohs are not a simple drop in. If the holes were in completely different places (e.g. hipshot ultralight) then I'd be comfortable drilling these into virgin wood and cracking on. However the hole positions for thr gotohs are really close, and probably slightly overlapping, to the stock holes so I'd def need to fill and re-drill the new holes. I've never done this and I'm worried about whether this would be strong enough or whether I might screw things up as I'd be drilling either very close to or partially into the filled holes. Any thoughts? I could sell the gotohs and buy some hipshots, but given I already have them and really like them I wondered if the above would work. Thanks.

Picked this up today. First impressions are very positive. I've never had a stingray-esque bass but to me this sounds big and punchy as one would expect. Set up wasn't bad out of the box, although needed to raise the g-string side of the pickup as was set too low and thus unequal volume across the strings. Easily sorted. Nut feels cut slightly high but I'm being picky - overall it plays very nicely. Enjoy the finish even more than I expected. It's not heavy and generally feels comfortable and balanced. Impressed. Looking forward to using it at a rehearsal tomorrow.

Good point. Important not to overlook this.

That's not my experience with DR strings but YMMV of course. Pure Blues aren't meant to be overly bright so may not be easiest comparison. DR dragon skin plus are coated DR strings so they could be up your street if you like the feel of the brand but are focused on longevity.

Thanks. Have taken the plunge.

Thanks. May well grab this too.

Having been a long time nickel user I recently tried a switch to steel. First some fat beams and then very recently hi beams. I got used to the rougher texture pretty quickly. To me both have a lovely low tension and response. Perhaps a controversial view but Fat beams didn't actually seem significantly brighter to me than various nickle-plated roundwounds I'd used on my basses recently (NYXL, lo rider nickel, dragon skin nickel). Decent strings though but not quite what i expected. Hi beams are as I expected/wanted them to be - really bright and clear, piano-esque almost.