* Sire P5-5 - Mild Green
* Sire Z3-5 - Black Sparkle
* Reverend Decision P - Midnight black
* Warwick RB Corvette $$ 5 - NB TS
===> Sire P5-5 - mild green <===
+ Very nice bass.
+ I liked the playing feel
+ finishing quality of the body and neck a lot.
- B-string felt a bit too lose (maybe other string-set solves it, i did not try)
- Plastic pot-meter knobs..
Something i remember from my first Ibanez gsr200 bass, not something you expect on a Sire.
- The neck finish and the fretboard is very dark brown
and the fret dots on the fretboard and on the top of the fretboard
are very hard to see. It felt like playing blind.
- The Mild-green, i know it is a matter of taste,
but it is the same colour as the sea on Switzerland and south-european countries: very bright cyan, combined with a very dark brown fretboard and very dark neck and a tortoise pickguard. I did not like the colour combinations.
- Pickup is a bit dull sounding,
although it had a nice mojo sound.
===> Sire Z3-5 - Black Sparkle <===
+ The B-string sounds great on this bass.
Like: BUuhhggrrr and not like: Bhmmm. Good B-string grunt.
+ The finish, i had to get used to it,
but it actually is very nice to look at.
I liked the fact it's an creative non-common finish.
+ It played very well and easy.
- The sides of the fretboard-wood were very roughly finished, not smooth.
- Tuners were stiff, D-string tuner almost did not want to turn.
- It is an ok pickup, but not a wow pickup. The D and G strings were too thin sounding for me, and I like a bit more lowmid / highmid grunt overall.
- Plastic pot-meter knobs
===> Reverend Decision P - Midnight black <===
+ The fret-board and the neck is absolutely stunning.
Most beautiful backside of the neck i have ever seen.
It has very nice wood grains on the back.
+ The frets are very well polished
+ This bass looks like a piece of art
+ It is lightweight: 3,66kg (my Fender P-bass is 3,9kg)
- The midnight black finish is high gloss, sensitive to fingerprints.
I personally prefer semi-gloss, like most Fenders and Squiers have..
- The centre pickup position is a bit dull sounding, almost like it is out of phase?
- The bridge pickup does not have a pickup cover/case. Resting your thumb on the pickup feels odd.
===> Warwick RB Corvette $$ 5 - NB TS <===
+ Somehow this bass looks matte black online, but it is actually a very dark moss green colour.
And it is much more beautiful in real-life. The paint feels very thin and you can feel the wood grains with your hands. Very beautiful and a very nice feel.
+ The frets have a soft nickel/gold look. Beautiful.
+ Neck feels great, very smooth
- Fret-buzzing above 10th fret, but not on all strings/notes. Odd. I thought: Maybe the bass needs to adjust to the climate at my home, but nothing changed.
- The stock strings did not sound new. Maybe this bass has been in the Thomann store for a while?
- The B-string disappointed me honestly. Lose feeling and bit dull.
- I tried another set of strings, and the replacing of the strings is just annoying. The strings pop out the bridge very easily and the tuners were stiff and at an angle. It took me 20-25min at least. (Usually it takes me 5-10min)
- Oh boy this bass is heavy. I weighted it: 4,6 KG. Besides that the balance feels weird. My shoulder muscles hurt after only 5min playing.. )
- Palm-muting is hard on this bass, the bridge pickup is very close to the bridge. It is very easy to accidentally to have ringing strings while trying to palm mute.
Conclusion:
I learnt a big lesson: do not over analyze youtube demo’s and online reviews. The real-life playing experience maybe very different..
* The sound of the Reverend Decision P pickups were boring to me. And my OCD did not like high-gloss paint, sorry, Reverend. And because this bass looks like a 3000$ bass, I did not feel like modding this bass, it would feel disrespectful.
* The Warwick RB Corvette $$ 5 had just too many annoying things for me. (although it is a beautiful bass)
* Despite the Sire Z3-5 and the P5-5 had flaws, I liked the playing feel on both. Although the Z3-5 made me not want to stop playing the most..
My or your experiences may differ because personal preferences, so take certain things with a bucket of salt..
