New Bass Day. Sire V5 Fretless

[Hutton]

Took delivery of this Sire V5 Fretless today. I am blown away by the quality of this bass for not too much money.

[Geek99]

I think the v7 that I have is the active version so I agree with your verdict 

 

[HeadlessBassist]

That's a very shiny looking fingerboard. Are those flat wounds you've got on there?

[Hutton]

9 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said:

That's a very shiny looking fingerboard. Are those flat wounds you've got on there?

Yes indeed. It comes from the factory with D’addario XL Flatwounds.

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

Nice.   

I love my V5, and genuinely miss playing fretless bass. 

[wavemaker]

I‘m absolutely happy for you!

 

I myself, however, was absolutely unconvinced to exchange money for the Fretless Z7-4 I received yesterday and re-packaged it within 23 hours.

 

Part of it may have been that I was on the fence whether I actually want / need a fretless, part of it that I would have had to sink further money into a new preamp as I‘d want a classic 2-Band circuit and to do something about the awful pickguard. 

 

But what genuinely disappointed me was the neck. It was my impression that Sire built their reputation with these and their "edgeless" quality, in particular? I was just not impressed, at all:

The glossy fretboard was continuously rippled, not evenly plane.  

The bone nut was filed not low enough so that open notes sounded jarringly un-fretless - first time I’ve ever experienced this on a fretless, across various price points between Warwick "Rockbasses" up to a Fender Tony Franklin. 

The neck was not sanded properly, with multiple rough spots on the back and the sides of the neck. Shocking, really.

 

All of this to say: Quality control seems mixed, unfortunately.

 

Edited 21 hours ago by wavemaker
fixed a typo

[Bassassin]

Gorgeous. I've got a V7 fretless, and it's superb. Mine pre-dates the passive V5 or I probably would've gone for that rather than actives I tend to switch off!