Find the specs for the Sire "Larry Carlton" S7 here.
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Find the specs for the Fender "Player" Strat here.
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If you've followed my other videos you'll know that I've played quite a lot of Sire instruments by now. I like all the instruments I've played to varying degrees and you can find some of my other reviews in the following links.

This is my review of the Sire "Larry Carlton" H7.
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And I've done a few videos for the SIre "Marcus Miller" Basses, you can find them in this playlist.
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Sire seem to have found the knack of giving guitar and bass players what they want for less than you'd expect to pay. They design and build all their own pickups, preamps, hardware etc. which helps to keep costs down, and they've secured the endorsements of legendary American musicians Larry Carlton and Marcus Miller, which was a marketing master stroke.

A lot of the Sire instruments are clearly targeted at musicians wanting a Fender, without paying Fender money. The S7 and T7 guitars are obviously Strat and Tele style guitars, while the V7 basses are like active Fender Jazz Basses (in the style of Marcus Miller's modified 70's Jazz Bass).

So, it seems like an obvious comparison to compare a Sire "Larry Carlton" S7 with the cheapest Fender Strat that you can buy, which is the Mexican made "Player" series. Which one should you buy if you want an S-style guitar on a budget?

You can see that Sire have really thought about that question. The "Player" series has an obvious advantage over the S7 in marketing terms because it has the name "Fender Stratocaster" on the head stock. So, in order to compete, Sire needed to produce an instrument that sounds really good which means it needs authentic sounding pickups, plays really well which means having a great neck, and offers a bunch of extra features over the "Player" series. It's also cheaper than the Strat.

To my taste, both guitars sound authentically Strat like. I like the neck on both guitars. Of the extra features you get with the S7, I would say that the locking tuners and the nut are relatively cheap upgrades you could make to a "Player" Strat if you wanted to. The baked maple neck doesn't matter much to me (although some people love it).

The place where I think the S7 feels noticeably better than the Strat is in the tremolo arm. But i don't use the trem a lot so it doesn't bother me that much. And the Strat trem is more authentic, but then I guess everything on the Strat is more authentic as it's a genuine Fender product.

The thing that I prefer about the Strat is that it's lighter (although there's no guarantee that every guitar weighs the same) and it feels (to me) more like a real Strat, but I am willing to believe that it might just be the name on the head stock that makes me feel like that.

It feels like a bit of a cop out to say this, but I honestly can't say which guitar I prefer. I can say that I'm surprised by how much I like the Fender "Player" Strat. I was expecting to like the S7 more, and I do like the S7, but I like the Fender as well. I honestly don't think you can go wrong with either of these guitars.

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