What Sire did next, 2025 edition

[BaggyMan]

Here you go, just received a M6-5 stringer.

 

Pre amp is the heritage model pretty much one everything they make except the Z3.  Bass response is huge, possibly down to the pickup pairing,  lots of headroom.  18V

Knobs are the ones that appeared when the Z series was launched.  Better than pure plastic ones i guess.

String spacing is 17 to 17.5mm (best i could measure and guess...dont judge)

Stanless steel frets.

Three switches.  Admittedly I havent looked too hard yet to find out what they do. 

One is pre amp on/off

Other two?  series/parallel/single per pickup (three way) as far as i can tell.  Info is that readily available except AI generated boll0cks. 

Scale lengths are:

B  35 1/4

E  34 3/4

A 34 1/2

D 33 3/4

G 33

String are ball end at the bridge and clamped by two quite small allen s at the 'stump' (unlike my Cort space 5 which has one larger allen bolt and one smaller per string.)

 

5 piece neck.

Finish feels almost plastic like.  not bad, but different.

 

 

 

 

 

[ossyrocks]

On 21/09/2025 at 14:38, ossyrocks said:

Well, those who know me will find this surprising.....

 

I just ordered a Sire bass ! 

 

This is the one, a P5R in natural - https://www.thomann.co.uk/marcus_miller_p5r_alder_4_nt.htm

 

It will mainly be for jams and to carry as a spare on gigs. Fingers crossed it's not too heavy.

 

Rob

 

It arrived today from Thomann. The packaging wasn't great, I do a lot better job myself when posting a bass. However, it has arrived unscathed, but I think that was more luck than good packing.

 

Fit and finish is good, it's not too heavy, 9 lbs 2 oz, or 4.14kg. The action was high in my opinion, but the first thing I did was set it up.

 

I put a set of La Bella Low Tension Flats on it, then it needed a good tweak of the truss rod, and intonation and bridge saddle height. It's now got a low action and is playing well.

The neck is great, very much like an early 70's Precision, the fingerboard has soft rolled edges and the fret ends are well dressed. It's a good bass to play.

 

Sound wise, it is brighter than I expected, even with the flats, and when compared to a vintage P bass, it does sound thinner. I'll have to see how that pans out.

 

Does anyone know if the wiring is standard, as per the Fender P bass diagram? I'm wondering if a change of cap value is all it needs.

 

Rob

 

Rob.

[Lozz196]

Could be cap or possibly pots - Squier use 500s which are brighter, changing them to 250s sorts things out nicely, maybe Sire do similar?

[crazycloud]

13 hours ago, BaggyMan said:

Here you go, just received a M6-5 stringer.

Sweet. Love to hear a review once you've had a chance to play it. I'd love one or even a 6.

 

Which finish did you get?

 

13 hours ago, BaggyMan said:

String spacing is 17 to 17.5mm (best i could measure and guess...dont judge)

Sire told me 18mm - I asked them a while back.

[ossyrocks]

9 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Could be cap or possibly pots - Squier use 500s which are brighter, changing them to 250s sorts things out nicely, maybe Sire do similar?

ah ha, good shout.

 

I've just taken the guard off to have a look. There's nothing on the pots which indicates the values, just a manufacturer from Korea. The cap is standard 0.047uf. 

 

I've had a root in the bits box and found a P bass loom I pulled out of a late 70's P bass. It's not an original, it was a replacement in that bass, but they are newish Dunlop pots, 250k, cloth covered wire, and a Sprague Orange Drop 0.047uf cap. I'll drop that in and see if it makes a difference. Thankfully I also have some new flat top chrome knobs which fits these pots. It sometimes helps to be a hoarder!

 

Rob

[BaggyMan]

10 hours ago, crazycloud said:

Sweet. Love to hear a review once you've had a chance to play it. I'd love one or even a 6.

 

Which finish did you get?

 

Sire told me 18mm - I asked them a while back.

Yep i'd guess they'd know.

Edited 2 hours ago by BaggyMan

[BaggyMan]

Played my M6 last night.  Certainly garnered postive comment both from sound and visuals.

 

Firstly I went in 'cold', in that i'd literally took it straight to the gig following unboxing.

 

Caveat:  I own two dingwalls so pretty much know what to expect.

 

Sits well on the strap, not too heavy. 

The heritage pre amp is well known, but I am used to the V series applications, so with single coils.  This has dual coil humbuckers and on the detent it bassy enough.  Wind in some bass and you are dealing with some serious heft to the point of overdrive.  I cant see any personal applications for that much bass, but then again i like an articulate sound.  Might work for others tho so not a minus. Also its 18v so punchy...

The fan is milder than the dingwall, so fairly straightforwards to navigate.

 

Things to look out for:

The Neck is excellent.  One thing I noticed though was diving for lower register notes on the B, say C or C# i caught my index finger on the nut on the G side a couple of times.    Might have been boyish enthusiasm, or hand angle...one thing to watch out for. 

The passive/active switch is right next to the pickup switches, same orientation, same size.  Looks great but when is wanted try out a different config on the bridge pickup during the soundcheck and switched from active to passive instead, and a great big lump of volume disappeared. Much confusion ensued.

Might just be a case of getting into the groove with it a bit and remebering that . 

Although i haven't looked took hard i still havent found a reliable description of the switch function for the pickups.  Down is definately series. Coin flip one the middle amd up positions, between single coil and parallel modes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by BaggyMan

[neepheid]

4 minutes ago, BaggyMan said:

 

Although i haven't looked took hard i still havent found a reliable description of the switch function for the pickups.  Down is definately series. Coin flip one the middle amd up positions, between single coil and parallel modes.

 

Check for yourself - while plugged into an amp of any kind but not turned up too loud, tap the pickups with something metal like a small screwdriver in the various switch positions - it will be obvious if you're missing a coil.

Edited 2 hours ago by neepheid

[BaggyMan]

2 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Check for yourself - while plugged into an amp of any kind but not turned up too loud, tap the pickups with something metal like a small screwdriver in the various switch positions - it will be obvious if you're missing a coil.

Yeah knew to do that, but neither switch position deactivates a coil..

[BaggyMan]

Went to the SireUSA sight and found this...  (copyright SIre obviously)