First Look : Sire Larry Carlton H7 - the Sire "335"

There is a sound that comes from a semi-hollow electric guitar that is unique and special. There's no solid body or chambered solid body that delivers this tone. Where a solid body transient on picking is snappy and right up front, the transient on a semi-hollow rolls up on you, like a smooth rolling wave and embraces you in ways that you will never get with a solid body.

The challenge for some time is that the real poster children for these instruments has been the Gibson ES-335 and family members such as the ES-345 and ES-355. They are all double cutaway designs, elegant and graceful.

Some folks think that a semi-hollow suffers for rock and roll. I would direct your attention to a Mr. E. Clapton who created some of classic rock's most wonderful guitar tones on a 335.

When Sire decided to build their own deviant of the classic ES-335, they went to the man best known for the 335, Larry Carlton, aka "Mr. 335"

I was in The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario today as they were unpacking the long awaited shipment of the Sire H7 guitars, what you and I would call the Sire 335.

I personally unpacked the one featured in this article and used it right out of the box. It wasn't checked or tweaked in any way. I took it out of the protective shipping bag and tuned it. I did not even dust it off. These things are like hen's teeth and I wanted to get this first look done before it was sold out of my hands. The Arts Music Store has stock, and that in and of itself is a rarity. They also just got stock on the Sire "Strat" and I think that I saw boxes for the Sire "LP".

Back to the H7. I played it first acoustically and being a 335 owner, as well as multiple 355s, I noted immediately that the acoustic voice was very pleasant. It was not overly bright, nor overly boomy, very much like my '63 Reissue Gibson. The guitar is finished in poly, as expected these days and while the back of the neck is finished, it did not get sticky in any way. Fit and finish was excellent, and you can really see this by checking the binding at the f-holes which is where things typically fall down for 335 clones.

Sire is already renowned for their superlative rolled fingerboard edges and this is the only guitar in this value range that I have picked up that required no work on sharp fret edges. Sire has done a great job on this instrument. Like a real 335, it is made from laminated wood and the finish on the maple top is beautifully done. There is nice transparency in the amber and the transition to black in the two tone sunburst is very nicely down. I did not peel the protective plastics off, so if the photos look a bit off, that might be the reason. I normally use the maker's images, or shoot my own with studio gear, but I had to work quick so all images here were shot with my iPhone.

In my opinion, the headstock treatment is very classy, with minimal flash, a delivery model that I personally prefer. No enormous logos, no candy colour, no metal flake. Simple and clean, keeping with the classic, dare I say "iconic" body. Normally I hear makers use the words iconic and authentic and I throw up because of their self serving attitudes, but in this situation it applies.

I then plugged the H7 into a Fender FSR Princeton amplifier in Seafoam Green. For a little tube amp, it is surprisingly loud. With the tone controls all at 5, and reverb at 4, I tried out the H7. The neck pickup is rich and toneful, but a bit brighter than I expected. I had to roll the tone control off a bit to get what I was looking for. I chose the Princeton, because I see no point in auditioning pickups through pedals or dirty channels, and the Princeton tube amp is a known quantity to me. The bridge pickup is also nice and bright but in line with expectations. One thing I noticed is that the tone controls are done properly. Unlike so many guitars where the volume falls off a cliff when you roll the tone completely off, the Sire H7 just rolls the treble off without impacting volume. Switching between pickups is positive and silent in the signal chain. I was less thrilled with the volume pots, because I like to do manual volume swells from zero, and the pots go from nothing to HELLO rolling from 0 to 1. Reminds me of a Deluxe Reverb amplifier. Not a show stopper by any means, and since most folks use a volume pedal or swell pedal for that sort of thing, likely not a serious consideration.

The Sire came strung with Ernie Ball strings, which is nice as most often the first thing that I have to do with a new guitar is replace whatever shipped with it, with good strings. The thicker strings needed a bit more stretching to hold tune but once done, they were fine. I use the ever trustworthy Snark to tune and also used it to check intonation and found that the guitar was well set up. Action was good, no fret buzzing and no fretting out with aggressive bends.

Moving from blues and classic rock to a jazz theme, I found I had to roll the tone off more than I do on my Gibsons. That's just acclimatization. I still hear to near 17KHz and would rather have too bright than too dull. The sound from the pickups is very nice, about on par with a factory Gibson, or one of the PRS SE Hollowbody guitars.

The Sire H7 was tagged at $1099.99 CAD. For that investment, it's awesome and I personally preferred it over similarly priced Epiphones. The body is larger than a PRS SE but it is also less expensive. The one downside is that like all Sire products, there is no case or gig bag so when you buy yours, or someone buys it for you, be sure to get a gig bag or case for it.

If you like the idea, head over to The Arts Music Store right away, these guitars will not stay in stock for long and it takes a long time for stock to arrive.