Sire Marcus Miller

monkey42 · March 2021

Long story short...I am and always will be primarily a guitar player but back in the 90s also played bass in a band. Back then and kid free I was fortunate to have some top end gear. Now, as primarily a hobby and with kids eating into the GAS budget I am ooking at a good active/passive bass. It needs to be not stupidly heavy, versatile and comfortable to play. The Sire MM range seems to come with some good reviews. Any owners past present thoughts.

Thanks

oldhorsemurphy · March 2021

Brilliantly made basses with excellent (somewhat confusing?) electronics and superb playability. They can be heavy though, so something to watch out for.

As far as bang for buck, they're right up there

joeW · March 2021

I have a V7 2nd Gen and can't fault it. I am not a bass player but wanted one for fun and as a backup - always easier to get a gig on bass. I have no frame of reference regarding higher end basses, but I am impressed with the feel of the neck and the overall build.

andy1839 · March 2021

I also have a 2nd Gen V7. Really nice basses.
Solid, and a great feeling neck.

Funkfingers · March 2021

The M model, with the EMG 35 sized "soapbar" pickups, is a doddle to upgrade.

Kebabkid · April 2021

I own a 1st generation V7 and a V3. Both were well set up out of the box and play really well and punch well above their price.

These 2 models are more jazz bass derived but the EQ on them, as well as the selectable active preamp, is where they excel and you can produce all manner of tones from it's a powerful system . However, you can stay passive if you want and it'll still work like that should the batteries run out on the active side.

Weights can vary as I found out with my V3 when I tried them in Anderton's, but I got that particular one for £190 new in their sale. The closest competitor was the Fender Squier CV or something from Ibanez and IMHO, they didn't even come close to it's spec and sounds.

As testament to them, I've a mate with multiple basses, most are expensive, high end makes like Spectors or Wals etc but he'll regularly reach for his V7 for function gigs. Even the more recent bassist in Toto, Shem, was using them and he had one of the best and clearest live bass sounds I've ever heard from a rock band.

Used prices are good but new, they're still excellent value and their semi-hard gig bags are good (not included on new purchases but worth getting and negotiating on one)

YellowLedBetterMan · April 2021

I own a first generation M3 that, while I don't play very often, is lovely. Lots of useable sounds on top with the active electrics and when I want to these can be bypassed completely for simplicity. Pickups and neck are both outstanding too.

prowla · April 2021

I keep seeing this thread title in the listings and thinking he's been knighted!

mike257 · April 2021

Haven't owned one but have played a few and been impressed. Know a fair few happy owners. I'd certainly give one a go if I was in the market for another bass.

JayGee · April 2021

I too am a guitarist looking to dip a toe into the water of bass.

And guess what, I too have just bought a V7 Gen2...

There’s a reason there are so many of them around - these things really are (as far as I can tell as a non bass player) that good, and they really are ridiculous value for money. May or may not prove to be what I actually need/want from a bass once I’ve been playing for a while but it seems like a damned good start, I think it’ll last me a while, and I can easily imagine that even if I do end up eventually buying something different (once I’ve learned enough to know what I do need/want) it’ll stick around, because what it does do, it seems to do very well and it feels very nice into the bargain...

I did kind of worry a little over the active electronic setup (as a guitarist I’ve never had any experience with on-board pre-amps, and I’m not generally a fan of stacked pots) but it turns out that with just a couple of minutes familiarisation the layout is pretty well intuitive in use, and, as far as I can tell given my limited experience of such things, it’s a very effective, very well thought out piece of kit which can go from a down’n’dirty honk to a HiFi sheen through the dinky little (also highly recommended) EBS Session 30 amp I got to go with it.

I recommend the sonic blue by the way - it looks lovely, and it’s classy as hell up close...

SaulPanzer · April 2021

I've got the Sire V3 jazz bass and the P7 p/j bass, can't fault either..I liked the V3 build quality and sound so much I preordered the P7 as soon as I saw I could.

Both feel like I got way more than my moneys worth, super comfy rolled edge necks, excellent pickups, fancy preamp that lets you tweak the sound more than usual, well balanced so no dive to battle.

Weight wise both of mine are a little under 5kg, that's been average for the basses I've checked out, heavier than my basswood jazz but lighter than my Harley Benton BZ.

Personally I find the p/j setup is a lot more versatile than the all jazz one but that's just personal taste and honestly I haven't touched the V3 much since getting the P7 so the preamp could probably do some V3 tone magic.

I doubt anyone buys a Sire MM and feels like they got a bad deal.

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Sire Marcus Miller

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