Upgrade Sire V7 with Sadowsky preamp

[asingardenof]

For those who haven't seen my other post it looks like I'll be replacing the preamp in my Sire V7 owing to a broken pot spindle and a desire to make life easier on myself than trying to replace the pot on the PCB. I've seen the suggestion of supergluing it back on but think that would only be a temporary solution if I did that, plus I've been toying with upgrading for a while as I've never been a massive fan of the Sire preamp, both of the sound and the complexity (I'm a simple soul and endless variability makes my brain stop braining).

 

So having done a bit of research I've decided to go with a Sadowsky onboard preamp as a replacement, not just because it sounds amazing but the fact that it looks like it's completely solderless these days means I don't have to go hunting for a soldering iron to borrow. My only question is in regards to the battery harness provided with the preamp which comes with a pre-installed fitting that connects to the control unit. For anyone who's done this upgrade does that connector fit through the hole between the battery compartment and the control cavity on the Sire, and if so is it long enough? Any other issues I should be aware of before taking the plunge?

[Stealth]

Hey

im lucky enough to own a Sire and Sadowsky with the vintage pre. See if you can try before your buy as they are VERY different beasts !

 

Stealth

[asingardenof]

11 hours ago, Stealth said:

Hey

im lucky enough to own a Sire and Sadowsky with the vintage pre. See if you can try before your buy as they are VERY different beasts !

 

Stealth

Unfortunately not an option, but I've watched enough Youtube vids where people have upgraded to know that this is the direction I want to go. It's already winging its way to me from Germany so it's a bit late to back out now regardless 😅

[lemmywinks]

It doesn't look like the battery clip is detachable which is a bit of an oversight for those with a separate battery compartment. A 2 pin connector might be your best option:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265942800623?

[asingardenof]

17 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

It doesn't look like the battery clip is detachable which is a bit of an oversight for those with a separate battery compartment. A 2 pin connector might be your best option:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265942800623?

I think they've developed it mainly for people looking to upgrade the MetroExpress, as everything will fit nicely in the standard Sadowsky control cavity. Honestly I'll probably just cut it and solder the two ends together as the pickup and ground wires will need soldering anyway so two more wires won't make a huge amount of difference.

[acidbass]

Interested to see how this turns out!

[asingardenof]

14 hours ago, acidbass said:

Interested to see how this turns out!

It's arriving today so am hoping to get it in the bass before my next gig after tomorrow, which is at the end of the month. I'll be sure to take photos and there'll be a demo video at some point.

[acidbass]

On 10/05/2024 at 10:37, asingardenof said:

It's arriving today so am hoping to get it in the bass before my next gig after tomorrow, which is at the end of the month. I'll be sure to take photos and there'll be a demo video at some point.

Hey @asingardenof how did this turn out?  Any issues with the install?

[asingardenof]

On 26/08/2025 at 10:19, acidbass said:

Hey @asingardenof how did this turn out?  Any issues with the install?

It's been a little while now but as I recall the main issue we had was that soldering the pickups to the back of the blend pot was a frigging nightmare. The solder just did not want to stick no matter what we did. Eventually we managed to rough up the surface of the pot to give the solder a better surface to attach to and that seems to have worked. Other than that it was just niggly issues:

• Wiring the battery harness was a pain
• Actually fitting everything in the control cavity was extremely fiddly
• There's also a free-floating earth wire you need to secure to the inside of the cavity so the bare wire touches the back of the shielding on the scratchplate, and if you forget about it you'll get an almighty hum until you take it all apart again to find out where it is
• You can rewire the blend pot so that the knob turns the more conventional way (i.e. clockwise = front pickup, anticlockwise = rear) because for all his wisdom Roger Sadowsky is wedded to the idea that they should work the opposite way. Soldering the pickups to the pot was so frustrating that we forgot to do that, so now I have to turn the knob both ways on a gig to remember which way round it is

Overall though I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.