zhyla
Tele-Meister
I got this used Sire H7 a couple weeks ago. I was aware of Sire as I had an L7 (Les Paul copy) that was damaged in shipping and had some other issues but sounded and played great.
Ran across the H7 in Guitar Center after having tried every Epiphone and Gretsch thinline option in a months long search that ended with me getting a Casino. Nothing really appealed to me but the Casino felt really good and the price was right. I sold the Casino within a couple days of taking the H7 home.
Sire is a Korean company with their own factory in Indonesia. As far as I know they’re making their own hardware. Pickups are their own design.
There are a lot of “bang for your buck” imports now. That’s not what Sire is. Their guitars aren’t super cheap. $650-$750. A little pricier than Epiphone. But they are attempting to make guitars that are objectively excellent. This H7 example is everything I would expect from a $2k Gibson, though with a (gorgeous) poly finish. The only exception is there is some ebony fretboard dust ground into the binding. I can’t find a single thing even the snootiest of us could complain about.
Pickups are just fantastic. Frets are beautifully rounded. They market these as having “rolled fretboard edges” but I would say the rounding of the edges is modest. The ebony itself is a really nice upgrade over rosewood or the various rosewood replacements. It’s dark but stripey. Headstock is understated but stunning.
My only real complaint is the nut width is 40mm instead of the standard 43mm. Apparently Larry Carlton plays the narrower 335’s from the period where Gibson narrowed them down and he spec’d these. It’s not bad but it’s not what I’m used to.
There’s a new H7V with P90’s and the wider 43mm nut. I may try to snag one at some point. I would prefer the wider nut but the humbuckers on this model are absolutely perfect.
Anyway, these are worth owning. And I’m really impressed with Indonesian guitar factories at this point. My Revstar is similarly stand-out.
Ran across the H7 in Guitar Center after having tried every Epiphone and Gretsch thinline option in a months long search that ended with me getting a Casino. Nothing really appealed to me but the Casino felt really good and the price was right. I sold the Casino within a couple days of taking the H7 home.
Sire is a Korean company with their own factory in Indonesia. As far as I know they’re making their own hardware. Pickups are their own design.
There are a lot of “bang for your buck” imports now. That’s not what Sire is. Their guitars aren’t super cheap. $650-$750. A little pricier than Epiphone. But they are attempting to make guitars that are objectively excellent. This H7 example is everything I would expect from a $2k Gibson, though with a (gorgeous) poly finish. The only exception is there is some ebony fretboard dust ground into the binding. I can’t find a single thing even the snootiest of us could complain about.
Pickups are just fantastic. Frets are beautifully rounded. They market these as having “rolled fretboard edges” but I would say the rounding of the edges is modest. The ebony itself is a really nice upgrade over rosewood or the various rosewood replacements. It’s dark but stripey. Headstock is understated but stunning.
My only real complaint is the nut width is 40mm instead of the standard 43mm. Apparently Larry Carlton plays the narrower 335’s from the period where Gibson narrowed them down and he spec’d these. It’s not bad but it’s not what I’m used to.
There’s a new H7V with P90’s and the wider 43mm nut. I may try to snag one at some point. I would prefer the wider nut but the humbuckers on this model are absolutely perfect.
Anyway, these are worth owning. And I’m really impressed with Indonesian guitar factories at this point. My Revstar is similarly stand-out.
