Gear Reviews
The Marcus Miller By Sire V7 Bass Review
The Marcus Miller By Sire V7 Bass Review…
Becoming a bass player includes getting a good instrument and learning how to play it. For most of us who play the bass, the pursuit of what we think is a good instrument can be a life-long chase. We have to balance what we know makes a good instrument with our budgets. This tug-of-war often pits quality against price. The trend over the past decade and a half has been a sharp rise in bass guitar prices.
During Winter Namm 2015, Chicago bassist Jauqo III-X showed me a new five string J-style bass made by Sire Guitars. This bass was built in conjunction with bass legend Marcus Miller. Essentially, Marcus Miller specified what he wanted the Marcus Miller by Sire V7 (jazz bass) model to have. The end result was a great looking bass.
Description:
The first thing that struck me was the high quality gig bag that comes with the Marcus Miller by Sire V7. It has plenty of protection, a neck pillow with a Velcro neck restraint. Also, the gig bag has two pockets. The larger pocket is large enough to carry music, an iPad or laptop and some instrument cables. The smaller pocket is large enough to carry a tuner, instrument cable, a cell phone, keys, etc.
The bass that was delivered to me was a natural finish five string jazz bass with an American Swamp Ash body, a one-piece Maple 20 fret neck with a Maple fingerboard. The neck is bound and blocked beautifully! Also, the frets were dressed impressively well. The five-string Sire V7 jazz bass has two graphite rods that add strength and stability to the neck.
The one-piece body comes with an option to string the bass through the body, or through the high mass bridge. The hardware looks good and the tuners work flawlessly without binding. The pickguard is a beautiful pearloid pickguard on the Ash body basses, and tortoise shell pickguard on the Alter body basses. The neck joins the body cleanly with no odd gaps at the neck pocket. Holding the neck and body together are four bolts.
The pickups are single coil pickups made with a fiber bobbin, Alnico 5 magnets, and heavy Formvar magnet wire. They are positioned in the ‘60’s position. Like everything else on this bass, the pickups are made by Sire Guitars.
Initially, I thought I would be overwhelmed by the preamp. Although I usually prefer three-band preamps, this 18-volt preamp is by far the most versatile preamp I have used on a bass. It comes with the following knob layout: stacked volume/tone, blend, treble, stacked mid/mid sweep, and bass. It is also very quiet. A small two-way toggle switch is located below the bass EQ knob on the control plate.
When strapped up or balanced on the knee, the bass balances very well without any neck dive. The weight is moderate at less than 9.5 pounds for a five string. The neck profile feels very familiar to my hands, without feeling chunky, unwieldy and wide.
The bass has some felt bumpers at the strap buttons. The finish on the three Sire basses I’ve seen and played thus far has been flawless on all three basses. In addition, the Sire V7 is shipped with a compliment of Allen wrenches that are required to adjust the truss rod and bridge saddles.
The Playing Experience:
The Marcus Miller by Sire V7 five string bass was strung with D’Addario strings. I immediately switched them for a set of DR Strings Fat Beams – my strings of choice. The bass needed a minor set up, but was very playable straight out of the box.
Acoustically, the bass sounded very alive. To me, that indicated that it would sound good amplified, if the electronics were of a high quality.
In passive mode, the bass had a punchy and focused sound with plenty of bottom end. The volume did not drastically drop off when switched from active mode. In my experience, most active/passive basses generally do not have a good passive sound. This bass sounded great in passive mode. The tone knob also offered a wide palate of tones. When slapped or thumped in passive mode, the bass had a lot of percussive response.
In active mode, the bass is very quiet. I initially kept all three bands of the EQ flat and used only the volume, tone and blend knobs to really hear what the bass sounds like. The tone knob works in both active and passive modes.
The knobs are all very sensitive. A minor adjustment results in a very audible tone or volume change. The potentiometers all feel smooth and the passive/active switch is noiseless when used.
I found the mid-sweep knob very useful. The mid range sounded very musical in its entire range. The mid-sweep knob allows the player to choose the quality of mid range he or she wants to use.
The Tone:
Tone is very subjective. I’ll qualify my opinion by stating that I own a 1975 passive American Fender Precision bass. In addition to it, I also own a variety of active basses loaded with EMG pickups, Bartolini Pickups, etc. Noll, Bartolini, Graph Tech, and EMG make the preamps in my basses. Some of the basses I own are reasonably priced and others are obscenely expensive. They all sound really good to me. They are the basis of my opinion of how the Sire Guitars V7 bass sounds.
The Marcus Miller by Sire V7 has a focused, full and round sound with an endless supply of bottom end available. The strings all sound very well balanced. The “G” strings sounds “bassy” in a musical way and the “B” string is clear and articulate. If you like your bass to growl, this bass will make you happy.
When thumped or slapped, the Sire V7 sounds better than any bass I own. This is not a statement I make lightly. This bass does a fantastic job of achieving the modern jazz bass sound as well as the vintage passive jazz bass sound. When thumped, the bass is capable of providing a great and full sounding bottom end. The notes ring clear. The highs are also clean, musical and percussive.
Sire builds their basses in a factory owned by Sire in Indonesia. Their quality control is nothing short of impressive. I have actively looked for flaws in build quality, components, playability and sound and so far, I’ve found none.
In the week I have had my Sire V7, I have not picked up any of my other basses. If, God forbid, I had to have one bass, I would be happy to have this as my only bass. It is capable of being an all-around workhorse. The range of tones that can be coaxed out of the EQ would allow this bass to be at home in the club, studio, or church.
The Nitty-Gritty:
Let’s talk price… This bass is amazingly affordable! Based on the quality, options and workmanship, I would expect that this bass would cost about three times more than the $599.00 price for the five string Ash body/Maple fingerboard model. The four-string version costs $100.00 less. The Alder body/Rosewood fingerboard five string costs $499.00, and the four-string version costs $100.00 less. An even more reasonable model that plays and sounds really good is the Marcus Miller by Sire M3 four string bass model at $299.00.
Conclusion:
Had I been introduced to Sire basses based on price alone, I may have been very skeptical about how good they might be. Fortunately, I got a chance to see and play the bass before I was told how much it costs.
My take on this bass is, this is a very, very good jazz bass. Although the price is amazingly affordable, this is not an entry-level instrument. I would proudly play this instrument on any stage in the world without reservation. It sounds and looks that good!
Marcus Miller and Sire have managed to put together a pricing model that will allow virtually anyone to be able to get a high quality, good playing and excellent sounding bass without breaking the bank.
Currently, the players that are playing the Marcus Miller by Sire V7 basses include Jackie Clark, Jonathan Moody, Kevin “KT” Tyler, Marcus Miller, Chicago bassists Will Howard, Jauqo III-X, and me – Vuyani Wakaba. A large number of basses has been sold to many other bass players and are currently in the process of being delivered.
Specifications:
Body Material – Swamp Ash/North American Alder
Body Shape – New Marcus Miller Jazz Type
Neck Material – 1 Piece Hard Maple
Neck Shape – C-Shape
Scale – 34”
Fingerboard – Hard Maple (Swamp Ash)/Rosewood (Alder)
Fingerboard Radius – 7’25”
Frets – Medium Small, 20 Frets
String Nut – 4 String: Natural Bone @ 38mm width/5 String: Natural Bone @ 46mm width
Binding – 1 Ply Ivory
Inlay – White Pearloid Block
Neck Joint – 4 Bolt Steel Square Plate
Pickups – Marcus Miller Super Jazz Single Coil
Electronics – Marcus Heritage -3 With Middle Frequency Control
Controls
- Volume/Tone (Stacked Pot)
- Pickup Blend
- Treble
- Mid/Mid Frequency (Stacked Pot)
- Bass, Mini Toggle (Active/Passive)
Bridge
- Marcus Big Mass – 1
- String Spacing @ Bridge – 5 String: 18mm; 4 String: 20mm
Hardware Finish – Chrome
Pickguard – Ivory Pearloid (Swamp Ash)/Tortoise (Alder)
Vuyani Wakaba is a South African bassist that is based in Chicago. He works as a freelance bassist and leads his own band, Vuyani Wakaba & Friends. Vuyani can be reached on his website, Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
Gear Reviews
Review Transcript: BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass
This is a written transcript of our video review of the BITE Custom Bass Black Knight PP Bass originally published on March 4, 2024
BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass Review…
Bass Musician Magazine did a review on a Steampunk bass from BITE Guitars about three years ago, it was an amazing instrument, and we were very impressed. Now we’re happy to bring you another BITE bass, the Black Knight PP.
Everybody needs a P-type bass, it’s the standard of bass. If you’re recording, they want you to have a P bass. So why not have something that gives you a little more by having two instead of one P pickup. That’s the idea of this bass, it’s the first thing that leaps out: the double P pickup configuration.
Installing two of their 1000 millivolt split-coil pickups, BITE then went one step further and wired them up in a 4-way parallel/series circuit, a look at the controls reveal a 4-way rotary selector:
The first position, marked “B”, gives you the bridge pickup by itself.
The second position, marked “P”, gives you the bridge and neck pickups in parallel mode, that’s the traditional J-type circuit, it reduces output due to the physical law of parallel circuits.
Position number 3 is marked “N”, it gives you the neck pickup by itself.
And finally, number 4, marked “S”, gives your bridge and neck in a series (humbucking) mode which adds up resistances and thus boosts output. The other two controls are master volume and master tone.
What’s more, like every BITE bass, this one also has a reinforced headstock heel designed to give it extra output and sustain. The BITE website features a graph and explanation of what they have done to the heel, as compared to traditional headstocks.
A look at the body reveals a beautiful Black Blast body finish and underneath that we have alder wood. The bass has a matching headstock with a 4-in-line tuner setup and the traditional bite out of it, so everybody will know what kind of bass you’re playing. The pickguard is 3-ply black, the neck is vintage tinted hard maple and it has a satin speed finish at the back which keeps your thumb from sticking.
On top of that, there’s a clear-coated roasted black locust fretboard with black blocks marking the frets. The nut is a black Graph Tec nut, we’ve got diamond dome control knobs, and the tuners are lightweight compacts with cloverleaf buttons and a 1:17 ratio precision gear. The bridge is a Gotoh brass bridge with 19-millimeter string spacing.
Overall measurements: we’ve got a standard 34″ scale, a 1.65″ width nut and a C neck profile. This bass weighs 8.2 pounds, or 3,7 kilograms for our metric friends, and it uses standard 18% nickel silver frets.
Taking a closer look at the sound, this bass is a joy to play. The BITE proprietary 1000 millivolt pickups deliver an extraordinary amount of output which is surprising considering this is a passive instrument. You may even want to set your amp to active mode because of all of the juice you’re getting out of this guy.
The tonal possibilities are very versatile, it’s a straight P if you want but also much more with those different arrangements of the circuitry. So why have multiple basses when you’ve got one that can give you your basic P plus a lot more?
To sum it up, the Black Knight PP is an amazing instrument. The attention to detail that BITE puts into their basses is second to none. This bass is also amazingly balanced and gorgeous to hold and feel with the satin neck finish.
For more information, visit online at bite.guitars/product/black-knight-pp
Bass Videos
Reviews: Phil Jones Bass Compact Plus 450 and Bass Engine 17
Phil Jones Bass Compact Plus 450 and Bass Engine 17 Reviews…
In this issue, we take an in-depth look at two new amps from Phil Jones Bass, the Compact Plus 450 and Bass Engine 17.
For more information, visit online at pjbworld.com
Bass Videos
Video Review: BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass
BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass Review…
I am sure many of you saw my review of the Snobby Steampunk Bass from BITE Guitars back in February of 2021 and will remember what a remarkable bass it was. BITE has been building custom basses since 2019 and has a unique custom approach where you can configure your bass to your specs.
I am very excited to have another Bass From BITE Guitars in my hands, The Black Knight PP Bass!
The need for a P-Bass in one’s armamentarium is pretty standard for bass players and I recall chatting about this with Marty O’Brien about a year ago. It turns out that Marty and BITE Guitars got together and came up with this excellent configuration that gives you a P-Bass with a whole lot more. Marty even played his own Black Knight PP bass at the 2024 NAMM show. You can see his review here.
Join me as I take an in-depth look at this very cool instrument and share all the details.
Here is The Black Knight Bass from BITE Guitars!
For more information, visit online at bite.guitars/product/black-knight-pp
Gear Reviews
Gear Review: Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Bass
Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Bass Review…
Throughout the evolution of music, bass players have sought tools to sculpt and enhance their sonic landscapes, and one indispensable ally in this pursuit has been compression. Origin Effects, a name synonymous with premium audio craftsmanship, introduces the Cali76 Compact Bass Compressor, a pedal that pays homage to the legacy of compression and brings forth a new chapter in bass sonic mastery.
As we delve into the world of the Cali76 Compact Bass Compressor, we’ll explore how Origin Effects seamlessly weaves together the heritage of compression and contemporary bass demands, promising a pedal that not only honors the past but propels your bass playing into the future. Join us on this sonic expedition as we dissect the nuances of the Cali76 Compact and uncover the secrets it holds for bass players seeking the perfect blend of vintage warmth and modern versatility.
For Starters, the Cali76 is a studio-grade FET compressor pedal, based on the classic Urei 1176, but with some features optimized for bass guitar. For those of you who are not familiar with it, a FET (Field Effect Transistor) compressor is essentially a solid-state tube compressor emulation that allows for fast and precise control over the attack and the release parameters; allows for extreme compression ratios; and finally adds the typical 1176 color and character to the sound.
Together with the common controls we see in most compressor pedals – Ratio, Attack/Release, input (just like the original 1176, the threshold in this pedal is fixed), and output (makeup gain). The Cali76 offers two more controls dedicated to us bass players.
A Dry control – This allows us to mix in our dry, uncompressed signal to the pedal output. This is great for when we want to add back some of our playing dynamics to the compressed sound or for when you want some volume back in situations where the compression starts taking away the volume.
A High Pass Filter control – Low frequencies on a bass guitar signal normally overwhelm compressors. This high pass filter allows the compressor to only react to higher frequencies, which helps preserve the natural dynamics of our playing while keeping the low end intact.
Metering on this pedal can be a bit hard to get used to at first. There’s a single LED light on the pedal, that not only serves as an On/Off light, but it’s also our meter. It glows red when no compression is applied and orange for active compression. The brighter the light, the greater the amount of gain reduction. Yellow signifies that the gain reduction reached 27dB and maximum reduction occurs around 38 dB.
In practical terms, it’s all about working with the input and the LED to find the sweet spot (turn the input to zero, start playing and slowly increase the input level until you start seeing the LED glowing orange, which means there’s reduction going on).
With 6 highly interactive knob controls, this pedal implies some degree of compressor knowledge and also some amount of tweaking and experimentation to find the perfect settings. The good news is that it is very hard to make this pedal sound bad…
It can go from very subtle compression settings to very extreme, and it can do everything in between. Also, the team at Origin has been kind enough to add a couple of sample settings in the manual to get players started and to help us understand better how the pedal works.
Dynamic Control is a setting that provides natural compression, balancing dynamics between various playing techniques. It is a subtle compression that will work almost out of the box almost all the time. Having a medium setting for the High Pass Filter ensures an honest translation of the lower string dynamics.
Parallel compression is a popular studio technique, where both compressed and natural signals are blended. We get the sound and feel of hard compression while retaining the natural playing dynamics.
Percussive, lively & Fat is a setting that uses a slower attack time to accentuate the start of any note. Then using a fast release allows the compressor to recover between notes so that the phrases sound more percussive. Ideal for slapping and other percussive techniques.
Finally, I would like to mention the classic 1176 tonal coloration. It’s not a secret that engineers all around would sometimes use the 1176 compressor, without applying any compression, just to get the tonal coloration into the instrument sound.
And the Cali76 compressor is no different, it has such a rich, warm, and full coloration that’s super pleasing to the ear and makes you want to have it ON all the time. So be aware, that if you want a transparent compressor, this pedal is not for you!
All in all, it is easy to understand why this pedal became a favorite of so many bass players around the world. The Cali76 Compact stands as a testament to the meticulous craftsmanship and thoughtful engineering that Origin Effects is renowned for. It seamlessly navigates through the rich history of compression, offering bass players a gateway to the soulful resonance of the past while empowering them to sculpt a contemporary sonic future.
Whether you’re a seasoned bass maestro or a budding virtuoso, the Cali76 Compact invites you to embark on a sonic journey where every note is held in a delicate balance between tradition and innovation. As we bid farewell to our exploration, we do so with the realization that the Cali76 Compact is more than just a pedal; it’s a sonic companion that elevates the artistry of bass playing
For more information, visit online at origineffects.com
Gear Reviews
Spector NS Ethos HP 4 Bass Review
Spector NS Ethos HP 4 Bass Review…
Not long ago, I did a review of the Spector NS Dimension HP 5 Bass and I have just been given the honor and privilege of reviewing the Spector NS Ethos HP 4 Bass. I have to say, another great bass from Spector that is hard to put down! While there are some similarities between both basses, there are also some noticeable differences which is why I believe having both is essential to any bass arsenal.
Spector, widely used by many rock and metal bassists like Ian Hill, Alex Webster, Colin Edwin, Doug Wimbish, and many more, just to name a few, has a long-standing in these genres. Well, that’s about to change! The bass I used for the review, didn’t see any of those genres, matter of fact, I used it on a few classic country gigs and at church too! However, when at home in the studio, I let the funk out. The NS Ethos HP 4 Bass is an all-around great bass for any genre and will not disappoint.
Let’s get into the specs about the bass, and here we will find the differences between the HP 5 Bass and the HP 4.
Forget that one is a 5 string, while the other is a 4, while that is a difference, that’s not one that I feel needs to be noted as both models are available as 4 and 5 strings. The Spector NS Ethos HP 4 Bass has a 34” scale, 24 fret, 3 piece maple neck through construction with solid alder wings, ebony fingerboard along with centered and side dots and the 12th fret Spector logo inlay with a brass nut.
While the pickups are different as the NS Dimension HP 5 Bass uses the EMG 45DC and the NS Ethos HP 4 Bass sports the EMG 35DC pickups, they are the same pickup configurations, the difference being, one for 4 string, the other for 5 string. The electronics are the same, consisting of a Darkglass Tone Capsule preamp which consists of +-12dB @70Hz for Bass, +-12dB @500Hz for Mids, and +-12dB @2.8kHz for Hi Mids. Controls for Spector NS Dimension HP 5 Bass consist of Master Volume, Blend, Bass, Mid, and Hi Mid controls. The electronics are powered by a 9-volt battery.
The bridge is a Hi-Mass locking bridge with intonation screws and the tuners are sealed die-cast. All hardware is black. Same as the Spector NS Dimension HP 5 Bass, the HP 4 Bass is available in 4 different finishes, White Sparkle Gloss, Gunmetal Gloss, Plum Crazy Gloss & Black Gloss. The bass also comes with a very nice and well-padded gig bag.
Check out the Spector NS Ethos HP 4 Bass at a Spector Music Retailer today near you or visit online at spectorbass.com/product/ns-ethos-hp-4/
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