Sire Larry Carlton L7 - Real World Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2024
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Hey everyone!
I'm back after a little while off my channel with another gear review of sorts! This is the first in a series of videos I'm intending to call 'Real World Reviews', where I put my own personal gear through it's paces as a working musician, touring and performing at many events across the UK and beyond year round.
The focus of this video is my Sire Larry Carlton L7, which I bought back in 2021, but have used regularly alongside my other guitars on my gigs since then. I haven't left the guitar as it arrived, but have fitted my own modifications to make it into an instrument that I can rely on and love using for my performances.
This review is intended to go much further than simply testing the new guitar out of the box, but what it's like to live and work with over an extended period. (In this case, from December 2021 to now!) This is the concept for my 'Real World Reviews'!
0:00 Intro
0:42 Back At It!
2:14 First Impressions
2:51 Locking Tuner Issue...
5:01 The Nut
6:39 The Neck And Frets
7:34 Pickups (Neck)
8:42 A Moment Of Funk!
9:29 Pickups (Bridge)
10:42 Isolated Pickup Tone Demos
11:43 Saddles And Bridge
12:36 The Phase Flip Mod
13:24 Mod Installation
23:41 Phase Flip Mod Demo
24:48 To Summarise...
26:41 Please Subscribe!
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Hello viewers!
My name is Toby Pearson. I'm a professional musician, with a great deal of experience in performing, recording, writing, composing, producing and much more. I acquired these skills starting from a young age, and being brought up in an immensely musical family, it seemed like the right way to go...
During the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, I wasn't really able to gig, which was my main source of income. Given that I had a bit more free time, I decided it might be worth giving some of my knowledge and expertise out to the world, through the medium of TH-cam!
If you like and have an interest in music, production, live performance, guitar or anything remotely linked to those things... You've come to the right place!
I will also be offering a few services and products that you can get hold of down the line, but all in good time...
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Have a great day, wherever you are! :) - เพลง
I’ve had an L7 since the summer of 22. Gigged many times, and a total workhorse. I did replace the volume pot on the neck pickup with a push pull for coil splits, making it way more versatile for the rock music my band plays, I’ve recommended this guitar to many people. The last outdoor gig we played a gent came up to me and wanted to know “what is it?”. He makes Uber expensive custom guitars. i let him play it during the set break and was smiling ear to ear when I told him the price. Battle tested and approved.
Great review, and a beautiful guitar.
It's like triggers broom! New pickups, bridge, nut, tuners, pots, the only thing left is the wood and now you are happy with the sound😂😂😂. Great playing as well by the way👍🏻
Great review 👏 👌 👍 🙌 thank you for this
Have the S7 FM and the L7v, both of them are great!!
Nice to see that you actually like this guitar that you mod it, that explains a lot about the craftmanship going into this guitar...
Awesome vid. Cheers from Houston, TX. God bless
Great video!
I have the blue one: wonderful guitar ! The original pickups sound so perfect: You just need to find the height for sweet tone and then for PAF area you could set tone to 5-7 and done!
PS: On my guitars I usual replace PU but not in this case...
Great playing
Hi mate. Thank you for so deep review. Even i dont understand maybe 30% of language you did a big job. Cheers from Georgia.
that intro jam was epic, have a full version? line 6 pod? which one? sounds fantastic
would you be down making a longer version, absolutely love this intro jam, such great energy and groove.
legend!
I got the H7 about 18 months ago... phenomenal guitar. Love it
I got both the H7 and L7 in White which was $60 dollars more. No issues whatsoever. I take all my guitars to my guitar doctor for pro setup and maybe that is why I didn't have issues for both. All guitars have issues coming from the factory expensive or cheap unless you are lucky... Enjoy that is a great guitar and the price is right.
I have the exact same guitar and color and also had the exact same problem with the high cut bone nut. I had it worked on and now is fine. was thinking of replacing the saddle also bridge but have not done so yet . The neck is fabulous. Have not changed the pickups yet and still deciding on that. Probably would go with Seth Lovers possibly. A really nice guitar for the price.
I have a Sire L7 as well, do you know what graptech nut can be a good replacement?
I bought a Japanese acoustic back in the mid 90s and I had trouble with one of the strings breaking when I tuned it (up or down). It was because of a sharp spot on the tuner and once that was filed down, the problem was solved. Take it to any guitar shop or workshop.
I've got the H7. It's not perfect but as Toby says, it's worth double the price tag. I'm just a bedroom noodler and it's reassuring to see a working professional using one of these as a platform to customize.
Would one of those string butlers work on this to help the D/G angles? They look good in theory but I don't think I've seen anyone actually using them
I tried the SD Jazz in the neck when I was ordering my guitar, it didn't really sit well with me so I had it swapped out for a 59 haha. My 75 les paul is due retirement (or due being stuck in dadgad), looking for something I can toss in D standard and drop to drop C, this is pretty high on my list as well along with a yamaha revstar
Did you put links to knobs, tuners, pickups etc???
How good does it stay in tune
Try a roller saddle system, no issues ever 😊
Спасибо за прекрасный обзор! А не подскажете какая ширина грифа возле верхнего порожка?
I agree with your comments on the locking tuners. Don't care for them.
I think for the many aftermarket pickups out there you dialed into a decent combo for this particular guitar and your playing style. It didn't detract or end up being all pickup and no guitar.
However since you also changed some of the control parts and the bridge, it would be hard to just give credit to the pickup swap, the whole is sum of its parts scenario. So what weighed in more as to the tone and response of the guitar due to the parts swap would be difficult to pinpoint.
That said it sounds like a good combo, for your particular guitar at least.
Who says you can't demo a guitar and change the pickups for the many demos of the L7 out there already?
I think there's value in this review even though it's not the standard guitar "unboxed" We have reviews aplenty of that and - they're pretty favourable. The mods outlined are all relevant but you don't have to change out the locking tuners (for example) although I would. I see no upside to them and I'd rather it came without them tbh. You don't have to change the bridge either or mod the circuitry for the Green sound but if you want to up-market the p/ups - no need................. but it's common enough to have favourites.
Only thing is - it's worth getting a good set up in almost all instances - like any electric guitar. The next one that I buy will be an L7v with the P90s, a black one with gold doodaas all over it. At that price, you can gig it, no worries. I don't expect to have to hot rod anything other than ditch the self-lockers and the kerfuffle that it always is to balance the P90's height/sound tra la la.
As he says, straight out the box for the second guitar you'll buy.....it sets the bar.
Is the area where the pickguard screw fits worn? I bought the same one but returned it because that area was discolored.
It is a little, but small cosmetic flaws like that don't bother me too much personally! I guess Sire did intend for the pickguard to cover that hole, so to an extent I think it's fair enough that there's a bit of a flaw there, especially at this price point! 👍
Great review...so when it was all said and done....how much over the Base price did you have to add to add the Mod's.....???
Hey, I think someone asked pretty much the same question below so I'm pasting my answer to that here as well, hope it helps!
I think the pickups were around £130 each, graphtech saddles were around £40, bridge and tuners were both about £30? What I didn't pay for was the labour my brother did to fit the phase switch and carving the nut slots, which may have come to, at a guess, around £60-£80?
All in you're looking at approximately £450 for the specific mods I had done, which means I spent about as much as the guitar is worth new, on getting it exactly the way I wanted. That said, spending £900 ish on a guitar with the specs it now has, would still be an absolute steal, so I certainly didn't feel bad about spending money on those mods!
If you're thinking of doing something similar with your guitar, just think about what you actually really need first. The mods I made were mostly out of necessity for me, but your circumstances may differ. You might find the stock parts really serve you well, so I'd say only replace what you need, but if you really want to change something and you have the available funds - go for it!
Happy playing! 🤘👍
Great video. Does it make a difference putting a gotoh bridge , if you have the time to respond. Thanks
Hi there! I didn't hear or feel any great difference from the gotoh bridge, I only installed that to work with the graphtech saddles I wanted to reduce my string breakage! 🙂👍
I've got "girl hands", as John 5 would say. Would this guitar's neck profile hinder me from playing stuff like 80s Megadeth and Metallica?
The pickups sound really good, too. I veered away from potted pickups for a while but I like the sound of the '59/Jazz combination. I don't really need the mod, and in case I dont like the sound of the 59 bridge, I have a regular JB and a Thrash Factor, which some say is like an 80s MJ-wound JB. After watching yours and a few other videos featuring this guitar, I'm thinking of getting one. Maybe two, one for potted pickups and one for unpotted ones.
I think you'll be fine with the neck on L7, pretty standard comfortable C profile I'd say! 👍
Great review except I would re-name it "How a Pro Would Set Up a Larry Carlton L7" because this guys "real world" is way different from then mine... With the exception of the tuner issue and the cut of the nut which are easy enough to have fixed I would be ok with everything else.
How much did you spend on the mods…?
Good question! I think the pickups were around £130 each, graphtech saddles were around £40, bridge and tuners were both about £30? What I didn't pay for was the labour my brother did to fit the phase switch and carving the nut slots, which may have come to, at a guess, around £60-£80?
All in you're looking at approximately £450 for the specific mods I had done, which means I spent about as much as the guitar is worth new, on getting it exactly the way I wanted. That said, spending £900 ish on a guitar with the specs it now has, would still be an absolute steal, so I certainly didn't feel bad about spending money on those mods!
If you're thinking of doing something similar with your guitar, just think about what you actually really need first. The mods I made were mostly out of necessity for me, but your circumstances may differ. You might find the stock parts really serve you well, so I'd say only replace what you need, but if you really want to change something and you have the available funds - go for it!
Happy playing! 🤘👍
Articulate review!
You really have a lot of negative issues about the Sire
What sort of clown does a review with different pickups fitted lol
The moment you mentioned swapping out pickups your not reviewing the guitar. Good player.
Hey there, firstly thank you so much for the kind words about my playing! I do really appreciate that. 🙏
I absolutely take your point, such a core part of the guitar being changed obviously wouldn't make this a true review of the stock guitar. However, my aim with this video was to review it from the point of view of a working musician, and how well suited the guitar was to my specific needs. Those needs will be of course different for any number of people, professional or otherwise!
Despite the changes I personally made to the guitar though, I would still rate it as a brilliantly put together instrument as stock. I just wanted a few different specs to suit me, whether it was practical or a preference. So in that sense, it is still a review, just not a typical out of the box one - which there are plenty of already! 🙂
I just wanted to share my own thoughts for anyone that's interested in whether it stands up to regular intense use and how easy it might be to modify, or even whether they should! My word certainly isn't gospel, just another perspective. 👍
All the best, thank you again for watching!