Overall this is a wonderful P Bass. The build quality is fantastic and rivals MIA Fenders for a 1/4 the price. The hardware is great, especially the tuners and bridge. The tuners hold tune great! The playability of my Sire is wonderful! It plays like a dream. I did have a few minor issues with the bass that I noticed during the first gigs with the bass.

1. The fret ends were slightly sharp. It's not Sweetwater's fault and a diamond file fixed it quickly.

2. While playing at a hot and humid venue, my sweat shorted out the volume pot and input jack. Again not Sweetwater's fault, but while reviewing the problem on a couple of forums, I found out that the main weakness in these basses are the volume and tone pots. I replaced mine with a new wiring kit that contained 250k CTS pots and a Switchcraft jack. It feels much better now.

3. The P bass pickup is weak. It is very clear and bright which I love, but it lacks a bit of low end and overall output.

Despite the issues, this is still a 5 star bass. I got mine on sale and it is worth every penny that I paid for it. The build quality is miles ahead of anything in the price range!

I got a demo version of the P5 and had them do a setup. It's perfect. I just got it and it's already my favorite bass. Thank you Darius and whomever did the setup (I can't read the name on the card)! I can't wait to get out and gig with this one!

What a fantastic instrument. In my like, I've owned Ken Smith, Pedulla, Yamaha Pattitucci, and many other fine basses. If I had paid 5 times what I paid for this pass, I would have been just as happy.

If I had to nitpick anything, it is that the big style tuners are a little heavy. It doesn't have Spector level neck dive, but it wants to lay horizontal to the ground.

I am seriously considering picking up a 5 string jazz bass and a Music Man style bass from Sire to round out the set.

Because owners often talk about buying and installing different pickups in their stock basses, here's the simple mod I did to a Sire P5: Replaced the .046uf tone capacitor with a .068uf. It darkens the tone somewhat by filtering off upper frequencies. If you don't care for the result, you can solder a .047uf back in. Cheap mod. The .068uf capacitors are available from several parts sellers.
~Andrew G. Oltsch

I've been playing my new bass for a few weeks now and it has not disappointed. It is a great looking bass without a flaw to be found. I just love the way Sweetwater lets you zoom-in over the images for the exact instrument you are considering purchasing. This bass is not heavy and balances well while playing. (I'll have no need to be replacing anything except strings.) This is my very first purchase with Sweetwater. My journey here began with tone.

I like my precision basses to be articulate and punchy. I previously own and play a Sire Marcus Miller P5 Bass Guitar - 5 string. This p - bass is a first-generation Sire production. I listened over and over to tone comparisons of first versus second generations on YouTube videos. My ears were telling me Sire had it right the first time. (Plenty of bottom end.) So, when I went searching for a 4 - string sibling to my 5 - string, I found Sweetwater with a stable full of 4 - string 1st generation beauties. I zoomed around and selected the one I liked best and purchased it with the help of my newly befriended Sales Engineer. My ears and fingers are happy! The next string change will be a set of super brights. This is my own bias pertaining to the tonal performance I prefer to play and is specific to this review. The Sire Marcus Miller P5 Bass Guitar is such a solid instrument I'll bet it is also a dream to play with flats on a 2nd generation product also. But that's not where I'm coming from regarding this review.

So, my foray into the Sweetwater universe for the first time after years spent dealing the with competitors is a pleasant eye-opening surprise. I have already returned to purchase some fretboard restoration products for other basses I own. I'm sure to return again and again. (I even get candy!) Kudos to my Sales Engineer, Andrew. He's a big help as are all the others that assure a good outcome.

Finally, in a few words, Sire Marcus Miller P5 Bass Guitar - Tobacco Sunburst - Great bass - Great value.

My friend's son had a birthday coming up, they decided to get him a "real bass" since he's starting to play at his high school and asked me for recommendations within their budget. I did but I also made a case for spending a little more for this one. Which they did. The neck is a dream, it's worth every penny and I'm very happy borrowing it for church.
One thing and this isn't a criticism: when I get my own Sire, I'll change out the pickup…but I've done that on all my basses. This is more midrange(y) and doesn't have the bottom end I want, but neither did my $1000+ Reverend. The kid's mom was very surprised and happy with the quality of sweetwater's customer service.

The rolled edges on the fretboard are such a cool touch. It plays really well and the pickups sound much better than I expected.

Amazing quality instrument for its price..

Following recent reviewer's wondering what replacement pickup to check out, I suggest the DiMarzio Sixties pickup, as reviewed by LowEndLobster on his youtube channel, on his own P5! He shows this mod. with many comparison sound examples so ypu get a great idea of the differences stock vs. Sixties. Sweetwater carries the DiMarzio Sixties. You WILL have to slightly sand or file or Dremel the scratch plate's pickuo openings to get a fit. Lobster uses dense foam pieces to support the pickup pieces instead of the surgical rubber tube that comes in the pickup box.

I absolutely love the feel and playability of this neck, although the bass came to me clearly needing a setup. After mucking around for a while and never getting it quite right, i took it and and now it plays great. I have a '77 Fender P and this thing kills it on playability. As another reviewer noted the pickups are modern sounding and are decent for slap for a P (thanks Marcus), but do seem to lack a bit in the low end. A swap may be in order, but I'm still trying to figure out to what. While the tuners and bridge are functional for the money, i think both will be upgraded with the result hopefully being a bass as good or better than anything Fender puts out these days. This is a great bass as is and even a better mod platform.

Extraordinary instrument for the price

I love this bass. Mine came extremely playable right out of the box. I've seen no reason to get it set up by a tech. It's smooth, the tonal quality is great, and it feels awesome in my hands. For the price, I'd say this bass is hard to beat.

The P5 feels and sounds like a much more expensive instrument. The build quality and factory setup on mine were fantastic and it delivers classic p-bass looks and sounds. Mine is fairly light and there's a tiny bit of neck dive as a result; I think some lightweight aftermarket tuners would fix that, but the stock tuners are nice for the price and work well.

I go back and forth on the stock pickup, though I haven't replaced it (yet). It does the classic p-bass growl and has a lot of output and punch without sounding too harsh. You get nice mids without the nasally treble that some cheaper basses have, but it seems to be lacking in low-end. If you buy this bass and haven't had a chance to hear one in person, you might want to budget for an aftermarket pickup -- I think a lot of people who buy this bass will end up swapping the stock pickup out to get more bass.

All in all, though, Sire understood the assignment: this is a great p-bass at a great price.

After a lengthy wait from pre-order in summer 2021, my bass arrived in early 2022 and it is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS! The rolled fretboard sets it apart from any guitar I've played and it is a really nice feature. I notice the string spacing at the bridge seems to be a little wider than my Squier P or J. I can imagine some people may have preference against this, but I like it. The pots are silky smooth and responsive, the input jack exactly as you would want, and the pickups pack a punch. The P5 is a true-to-form p-bass at a ridiculous price.