"The build quality is superb, it plays like a dream, and unlike other guitars in this price range, the electronics don’t let it down": Sire Larry Carlton S7 Ash Top review

What is it?

The term Stratocaster-style guitar is a bit of a loaded one at the moment, but that’s what we’re dealing with today in the Sire Larry Carlton S7 Ash Top. It’s a double-cutaway instrument with the ever-versatile HSS pickup configuration, a vibrato bridge, and a 25.5-inch scale length. S-type? ST-type? Double-cut? I’m not sure anymore.

But I digress; Sire is a South Korean company that first found fame through its partnership with jazz legend Marcus Miller. In a rather shrewd move, instead of releasing a pricey signature model, Sire bucked the trend by releasing cut-price instruments with the sort of features you’d expect from pro-level instruments.

In 2020 Sire partnered with Larry Carlton, legendary session guitarist, to recreate that same magic. Carlton, whose credits include Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Dolly Parton, and plenty more, has his name put on S-styles, T-styles, 335-style semis, and LP-type guitars. The ethos is the same: good value instruments that deliver pro features at a price most musicians can afford.

Looking at the spec sheet of the S7 Ash Top, it’s hard to believe that it sits so far below the $1k mark. The alder body is paired with a solid Swamp Ash top; it’s got a roasted maple neck and fretboard combo with a 9.5-14-inch compound radius, and 22 stainless steel, medium jumbo frets.

A Graph Tech TUSQ nut is positioned below a set of staggered locking tuners, negating the need for a string tree, while Sire’s own 2-point tremolo bridge anchors the guitar at the opposite end. The Sire LC Super HSS super pickup set is augmented by a push-push knob that splits the humbucker, with a single volume and tone knob and a 5-way position switch.

Specs

• Launch price: $869 | £739 | €749
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Alder body with solid Swamp Ash top
• Neck: Roasted maple / C shape
• Fingerboard: Roasted maple with rolled edges
• Scale length: 25.5 inches, 647.7mm
• Nut/width: Graphtech Tusq XL / 42mm
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo, stainless steel
• Hardware: Sire premium locking tuners, Sire modern 2-post tremolo bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 54.3mm
• Electrics: Sire LC Super HSS pickup set, volume, tone, 5-way lever switch
• Weight: 8.15 lbs, 3.7 kg
• Options: Non-ash top available for $769
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Natural (as reviewed), Amber Burst
• Cases: No
• Contact: Sire

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Taking the Sire S7 Ash Top out of the box, I’m once again reminded why I don’t really like natural finishes on electric guitars. They just look like your grandmother's kitchen table. That said, pictures of the swamp ash top on the Sire site don’t quite do this guitar justice. It’s got a bit more depth to the color and grain of the wood under natural light, versus the rather surgical shine of the product photography lighting, and it grew on me in my time testing it.

The back of the body has a cherry-red stain, and the alder grain is visible underneath, revealing a three-piece body construction. The difference in colors creates a rather dramatic contrast between the dark back and the lighter wood of the Swamp Ash top, which is immaculately bound together.

The body has a forearm carve, as well as a belly cut to make it more comfortable to play. There’s no sculpted neck heel, but the lower horn is slightly carved on the back side, though, to be honest, I never feel like this really aids playability, as my hand tends to go over the front of the guitar when reaching for the upper frets.

The fretwork is exceptionally well done, much better than I’ve seen on a lot of Indonesian-made guitars of late, and better even than some of the Mexican-made instruments I’ve had pass through my hands.

The ‘Edgeless’ fingerboard ends are nicely rounded off, with nary a sharp edge to be seen or felt. The tangs of the fret ends are neatly finished, so there are no visible gaps or bumps on either side of the fretboard edge.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

Sitting down to play the Sire S7 sans amplifier, I’m immediately impressed with the playability. It’s listed as a ‘C’ neck profile but feels decidedly modern and fast-playing as I tear through some of my favorite licks and riffs. It’s a nice all-rounder neck that, combined with the compound radius, feels effortlessly playable no matter where I am on the fretboard.

It feels satisfying bending and playing against the medium jumbo frets, although a full jumbo-sized fret would likely take it into proper shred guitar territory. As it is, it feels more suited to more classic rock styles rather than all-out guitar acrobatics, which I don’t mind one bit. It’s still comfortable enough to pull off frenziedly fast legato, and I can’t find any dead spots or scratchiness across the length of the neck.

Trying some power chords with alternating strikes of the two high strings open, the high E pops out of the nut slot when I really lay into it. This only seems to happen on the upstroke, occurring a couple of times when I was striking the strings very hard. It points to a nut that's likely been cut too shallow, but could also be compounded by the lack of string trees.

The tremolo comes ‘decked’, with the bridge sat against the body so you can’t pitch up, only down. This means it’s a lot more stable, preventing any forward lean when bending the strings and making the tuning more sturdy. You can set it up to float if you want as it’s a two-point design.

In the decked configuration, it works really well, maintaining stability even under heavy load. I can pitch it down two-to-two-and-a-half tones, and it puts up with the abuse, pretty much perfectly maintaining its tuning alongside the locking tuners.

One thing I do notice when playing is that the position of the push-push tone knob is a little further away from my picking hand than I’d like. While a push-push knob is much more ergonomic for live players, its position –– spaced apart from the volume knob ––means you have to reach over the tremolo arm to get it, which can sometimes get in the way when you need to make a quick change.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Plugging the Sire S7 into my pedalboard and feeding it into the clean channel of my Orange Rocker 32 tube amp, the first thing I notice is that the humbucker feels quite a bit louder than the other positions. Going from soft-picked arpeggios and laying into some power chords results in quite a jump due to that midrange bump, so some players may need to slightly adjust their playing style (or the pickup height) to account for this.

Flicking through the positions with the clean channel engaged, as well as a nice helping of spring reverb with a sprinkle of tape delay, it's got all those typical S-type honk and spank tones you’d expect. It sounds great with some of my favorite Spaghetti western-inspired licks, and adding in some tremolo is the cherry on top.

The neck single coil is particularly great. It’s warm and round but never feels dull, and I found myself noodling here for a good twenty minutes during my testing. With some generous reverb and delay, it’s great for those Explosions in the Sky-inspired spacious licks, and chords sound full and articulate.

The split humbucker sound was my least favorite of the bunch. There’s a little harshness in the top end here, although I was able to tame this with a little roll back of the treble knob. If you have a particularly bright amp, you might find that this is a little much in this position, but you can help cure it by rolling back the tone knob a touch. In combination with the five regular pickup selector positions (where position two gives a mix of the split humbucker and middle pickup regardless of the push-push switch setting), that gives a total of six pickup selections in total for a lot of versatility.

It’s not just good at the clean stuff, either. Adding in my Joyo Tauren Klon clone into a Victory Amps V1 Sheriff overdrive pedal, I get some properly good, raunchy rock, PAF-tones from the humbucker. It can chug, too. It’s not quite djent territory, but cranking up the gain I can get some nice modern hardcore tones with chugging power chord licks, and it lends itself well to some prog metal fretboard expeditions.

Verdict

Much in the way AI is disrupting the world, I think we’re getting to a point where players are recognizing you don’t have to pay premium prices when looking for a new guitar.

Of course, there will always be those loyal to the old guard, but this Sire is living proof that if you’re not fussed about brand loyalty or particular headstock shapes, you can get a lot more bang for those hard-earned smackeroonies.

The most striking thing about the Larry Carlton S7 for me was that I couldn’t help myself from picking it up. I’m always testing gear, and I often have a round-robin of guitars on my $7 D’Addario guitar neck rest. The Sire has been solidly in position for the past week, and I’ve picked it up to play countless times, whether testing pedals, an audio interface, recording demos for an upcoming project, or taking it to rehearsal with my band.

The fretwork is particularly good, miles better than guitars I’ve tested costing closer to the $1k mark, and apart from the issue with the high-E nut slot, I can find little to fault here with it. The fact that the non-solid wood top is available for well below $800 makes the S7 a real dark horse, and for those working players who need playability and tone without spending loads, I can’t think of many guitars that deliver better than this.

Guitar World verdict: I’ve tested too many guitars to remember over the past few years, from budget-friendly to those costing in the thousands. Honestly, I think the Sire Larry Carlton S7 Ash Top is one of the best value-for-money instruments out there right now. The build quality is superb, it plays like a dream, and unlike other guitars in this price range, the electronics don’t let it down. It had a couple of tiny niggles, but overall it plays and sounds like an instrument that costs two times as much.

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