Sire S7 FM - 6 Month Review - How has it held up in the studio and playing live? 

Thanks!

that was pretty tao... :-)

Awesome! Which colour?

Same here shalomshalom. Mine is this one here (Trans Blue). Mine was a used demo from Sweetwater which I paid them to setup. Arrived in perfect tune to Atlantic East Coast.

Yeah, mine is terrific too.

Just ordered one today! 💪🏻

right on! Which ones do you have? I have this and the L7. The T-series is next on my list.

Guess that would depend on your style of playing. The S7 is definitely a “Strat” style guitar, which is totally different from the H7. I’m sure you knew that. I have two Sires now, and both are awesome. The other is the Tele style with humbuckers.

I believe the next generation will have the dual radius! It will cost more!

thanks! That's a good question... I have no idea. A quick google search found other Sire pickguards on ebay, but I couldn't find anything about if Strat pick guards would fit. I would guess they wouldn't as I would think Fender has some type of patent on the Strat design that prevents companies from copying it exactly?

@cleverdood Thanks, Jason. I'm embarrassed to state that it never occurred to me look for Sire S7 specific pick guards. I suppose I figured that they were too new for aftermarket parts.

Right on! I have the L7 that I’ve been trying to find time to do a good review on, but I love them both. Just need a tele…

Softube Amp Room for them all. The signal chain is in the intro and I just increased the drive a little for the “gritty” samples.

Exactly what I did with mine. I had no trouble with the original strings but chose to go with Ernie Ball Slinkies 9's which for me are much easier to bend and control.

right on! I think I forgot to mention that I tried a Silver Sky too, but the Sire felt much better to me.

The specs don’t say, they only say they are “Sire ST Super Pickup Set”

yeah, it's pretty shiny!

$500 more

The player Plus does have die-cast sealed locking tuners, but they cost $500 more than I just paid for my new Sire S7 at $592. I’m a Fender Strat fan. I own 6, including a beautiful Ultra Strat in Plazma Red Burst I paid $2100 for. I hate to say this Sire S7 is every bit as good as my Ultra. I do hate that, but it’s true. Only thing I like better on the Ultra, is the dual radius neck, which I hear Sire will have on a newer higher price model coming soon, but still $1000 cheaper.

Yes there is. Hard to describe but the s7 is "brighter"

yes, they are different. S3's have their 'regular' pickups in a SSS (3 singles) config. The S7's is their Super ST set in an HSS (humbucker, single, single) design.

The S3 have higher output pickups and don't have the roasted maple neck.

no, they're not.

It's an H-S-S configuration. Meaning, a humbucker (dual coils) in the bridge position, and single coil pickups in the middle and neck positions. It's a versatile setup. The humbucker is very quiet even at high gain settings. That's what humbuckers do, they have two coils which offset each others noise. Single coil pickups will hum at high gain (overdrive) settings, but they're still quiet with clean settings. That said, you have a 5-way switch which can select each pickup alone, or combine the middle and neck or bridge pickup which cancels the noise just like a humbucker. And, the humbucker has a feature called a coil tap, which shuts off one of the coils to make it perform like a single coil. So basically, the only "noisy" settings are switch positions 3 and 5. The rest are all noise cancelling at any volume or distortion level. It's hard to explain but easy to understand once you play this style of guitar.

yeah, mine is the same, it's very loose. I would assume that's an easy fix, but it is annoying!

Mine does also but it doesn't effect the playability much. It's about 3/16" turn gap which is just noticeable. I would say fixing it with a new pot would probably do the job but there are currently only 2 mfgs for push/push pots so it's likely a coin toss?

Same

I found a Champagne Gold Metallic one in France. Global Audio Store had it for under $600 plus $89 shipping, and may have more! Pretty fast shipping too! It’s perfect and beautiful. Only thing I did do, which I’ve done on several $2000+ guitars, is took the spring out of the 6th string saddle, cut it in half and reinstalled it, to get it intonated. Neck perfect, great quality locking tuners. The quality that goes into this guitar is great, at any price!

Good question, I haven't played that so I wouldn't know. Sound-wise, I would image the Fender has an edge, but I thought the fit and finish and playability of the Sire was ahead of all of the Fenders I tried in the shop the day I got it.