4/9/2023 0 Comments Pinstriped guitarThis one isn’t bound, except for a neatly understated strip of faux-binding around the body. There are only two controls – master volume and tone – while all the hardware, from the two-pivot vibrato bridge to the staggered locking tuners, is Sire’s own.Īhead of the curve: the S7 boasts faux binding around its S-type body The abalone dot markers don’t always show up very well against that toffee-brown board, but again the edges are rolled for a smoother feel in the left hand. This time the body is alder with a flamed maple veneer, while the neck is roasted maple – lacquered to a shine on the fretboard but with a softer satin finish on the back. Of course, Carlton doesn’t only play semis – and that brings us to the S7 FM, which takes us into the heart of Superstrat country. Player friendly: the sculpted neck join offers improved upper-fret access All of this looks extremely smart, even if it’s not 100 per cent flawless in application. The most obvious addition is triple-pinstripe purfling on the body – a feature borrowed from Gibson’s more opulent ES-355 model – while the f-holes are also bound and the frets have been fitted over the neck binding, so there are no nibs. That board has a modern 12-inch radius and rolled edges, while the rather generic headstock – the only bit that’s legally not allowed to look like a 335 – has a neat black veneer with Larry’s signature across the middle.īut there are other not-just-a-copy touches. So it’s an all-maple semi-acoustic with a mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard, packing a pair of Sire’s own humbuckers and a full complement of standard-looking hardware. In the case of the H7, what that basically means is something close to an exact replica of his perfect Gibson ES-335… or at least, as close as you can get in an Indonesian-made guitar that costs a little over £500. Both models we’re testing, alongside a range of T-types, LP-types and acoustics, have been designed to Carlton’s specifications based on his own favourite instruments. His picture is all over the Sire website – and even the boxes the guitars ship in – but as with the Miller basses, this appears to be more than just a quick-buck marketing deal. Carlton is arguably just as renowned for the purity of his tone as he is for the artfulness of his playing, which has featured on records by Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Michael Jackson and countless others since the early 70s. Well, they could hardly have picked a better player to work with on this project. READ MORE: The Big Review: Gibson Generation Collection G-200 EC & G-Writer EC.Can Sire repeat the feat for six-string botherers? Quite aside from carrying the signature of one of the most respected session guitarists in history, these instruments are from the same stable as the Marcus Miller basses, whose sound-per-pound quality has made them something of a phenomenon in the four-string world. There are two good reasons not to dismiss these guitars as just another pair of cheap Asia-made also-rans… and Larry Carlton’s name isn’t even the main one.
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