Sire P5 vs P7: better value?

[waveboy1234]

Hello people, Canadian here

Looking at adding a Sire bass to my arsenal. Toss up between a 4 string P5 alder or a 4 string P7 alder.

I already own a 5 String Fender Marcus Miller Jazz, so looking for something smaller (as in 4 strings, unless you can convince me otherwise to go for a 5 string p5/P7) to fill in the punk rock (blink 182, green day, killers, fall out boy) space. Not really requiring the 5 strings all the time (paramore, future metal songs)

They are $800 CAD and $960 CAD - P5 & P7 respectively. Fender player P bass is $1,100 CAD so I can definitely see a better bang for the buck with Sire.

Local shops don’t have much stock around. I have tried the 4S P7 ash a while back. Definitely tempting. Another local shop has 4S P5 that I would like to try out.

Really looking for thoughts and comments-and any other suggestions. Thanks fellows.

 

[Bass Man Dan]

You need to play the P5 before you decide. I haven't played one, but I had two P7 5 strings and I loved them. Too heavy to keep in my gigging rotation so they're gone now. If those were 8.5 pound basses I would still have them. Just awesome sound and feel.

 

[Buster Brown]

I personally own a P5. I absolutely LOVE it....Yeah, I would highly recommend the bass. I know, I know, it's hard to believe that we, as bass players, are actually getting a decent price and a good, high quality instrument.

 

[Warfrat73]

I mean, it depends on how much you want an active preamp and a J pickup.
Personally don't much care about active preamps, and don't really want to deal with the hassle of batteries. This is why I now own both a P5 and a V5, and I personally think they're about the best value in the line up.

My P5 is 8lbs 14oz, so probably on the heavy side of average for a P-style, but not bad.

 

[waveboy1234]

So I ended up picking up this bad girl. Sounds great and feels great. Weight doesn’t seem like an issue yet but we’ll see

 

[Buster Brown]

Yeah...I got mine in the tobacco sunburst and I swear that it is one of the best feeling basses I have played. Absolutely LOVE the roasted neck.

 

[benjomanbass]

Both are good instruments. The P5 is cheaper though so I would say it’s better value. The Sire preamp is okay but I can live without it.

 

[MB_Ramone]

Hi all,
are there replacement pickguards for P5?

 

[Al Rivera]

I own a 1st generation p7 5 string, I run it in passive most of the time with just the neck pickup soloed. My thoughts are if my preamp dies I'm just gonna wire it passive anyways. So my vote is for the passive single pickup bass.