Headless and Multi-Scale: Marcus Miller’s Newest Sire Bass Defies Tradition
Sire made their name by creating affordable versions of classic basses with Marcus Miller, but in the last few years, they’ve been branching out. The latest in this trend is the Marcus Miller M6 Headless bass, which comes in four-, five-, and six-string variations. It takes their existing M-style body shape and puts the tuners on the body.
“It is designed distinctively compared to previous Sire models, weighing less than 8 lbs (based on the 4-string variant) to prevent players from experiencing neck-dive and ensure enhanced comfort and balance in playing,” Sire writes.
The M6 Headless body has five color variations – Mahogany stain, Tobacco Sunburst Satin, Surf Green Metallic Satin, and Black. Each body is mahogany except the sandblasted black version, which is swamp ash. Its neck is a five-piece ply of hard maple and mahogany. Further cementing its modern style, it has a multi-scale design that ranges from 33 inches to 35 inches.
Sire fits the M6 Headless with a pair of Marcus Pure-H Revolution pickups and a Marcus Heritage-3 preamp, complete with a mid-frequency control.
The Sire Marcus Miller M6 Headless bass is available for pre-order with prices ranging from $799 to $1,059, depending on your options.
Sire Marcus Miller M6 Headless Bass Specs:
| Construction: | Bolt-on |
| Strings: | 4, 5, or 6 |
| Scale: | 33″~35″ |
| Body Material: | Mahogany (Swamp Ash on Black Finish) |
| Neck Material: | Five-piece Hard Maple/Mahogany |
| Neck Shape: | C-Shape |
| Fingerboard Material: | Rosewood Edgeless™ (Rolled Fretboard Edges) |
| Fingerboard Radius: | 16″ |
| Frets: | 24 Stainless Medium Jumbo |
| String Nut: | Graphtech Tusq XL |
| Inlay: | WH Pearloid/Abalone Rounded-rectangular Block |
| Pickups: | Marcus Pure-H Revolution Set |
| Preamp: | Marcus Heritage-3 with Middle Frequency Control |
| Controls: | Volume/Tone, Blender, Treble, Middle/Freq, Bass, Pickup Variation SW |
| Knobs: | Aluminum Knob Black |
| Bridge: | Sire Headless Individual Bass Bridge |
| Hardware Finish: | Black |
| Body Color: | MA.S(Mahogany Satin), TS.S(Tobacco Sunburst Satin), SGM.S(Surf Green Metallic Satin), BK(Black) |
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
Headless Multiscale Marcus Miller defies tradition! Who makes up this stuff? First off its just another bass amongst the however many varieties there are. Yes Sire makes good basses as do the 500 other manufacturers. Now if it were a 59 dollar temu bass it could be something to get excited about. As far as the legend Mr Miller he has not defied tradition. Unless it were a Marcus Miller Kettle Drum. Let’s all hold hands and walk down the path of stupid together. Mush on! Consumers
Who gets excited about a $59 Temu bass?
Who really cares about a $59 temu bass?! rediculous!
When are those available?
Looks like Sweetwater will have them in October.
Thank goodness I bought mine from Sweetwater. This was my first experience with Sire, with headless, and multi-scale and likely to be my last with the first two.
I had no problem adapting to the multi-scale neck. The weight, under 9 pounds, was terrific for a 6 string, and that was the end of the fabulousness.
While in playing position, the thing was damned difficult, bordering on impossible, to tune. It took a LOT of force and required the use of an Allen wrench to set the pitch. I might have wanted to figure out a solution to that, but what happened next killed that idea.
The bass came with ZERO information, so I had no idea what the switches did, but when I was experimenting, I threw two of the switches, one at a time, and the bass started producing a buzz-saw-like tone which was definitely NOT single-coil hum. My guess, because there were few other possibilities, was that it was a defective preamp. Sweetwater certainly should have detected that, which makes me wonder how thorough their check out routine truly is.
At any rate, I contacted my rep, and as usual, they issued me a return label and that was that.
This is probably what I get for buying a just-introduced product. If I were any of you considering buying this bass, I think I would wait a while until reviews are out to see if anyone else runs into the same problems that I did. Otherwise, I would not wish this bass on my worst enemy.