Marcus Miller P7 Alder 5 TS 2nd Gen 5-stars Reviews

Amazing quality

I'd read reviews about the "bang for buck", and "Great quality for the price", so I was expecting something pretty good. I'm pleased to say it passed my expectations, I did not expect this bass to be this good. Really, you could pay twice this price for something similar and still not match it.

Excellent, the knobs are easily replaced

The Sire V7 and P7 basses are famous for selling at £500 but being equal in quality to basses worth £1000 to £1500. My P7 really sits in the mix whereas my V7 cuts through the mix.

The design is very logical: one volume knob and one pickup blend knob rather than Fender's silly design with a volume knob for each pickup. So on the Sire, the blend can be adjusted without affecting the volume. Good.

The active/passive switch is awesome. The sound in passive mode has more detail, especially during the release phase of a note when the sound dies away, e.g. during a slide. But active mode is so useful. If there is unwanted noise at a gig, I can just flip the switch and immediately enter active mode at the same volume (that's important!), removing the unwanted noise in the signal chain.

On to this specific colour: If you want a pretty grain pattern, pay more for the Swamp Ash version. If you want to save money, go for this slightly uglier alder version. You can see a clear colour difference on mine where the different sections of wood have been joined.

The knobs can be replaced with 'Harley Benton Parts Dual Knobs CR' and 'Harley Benton Parts T-Style Knob Chrome' to prevent the cheap plastic dual knobs from sticking to each other.