Pistolera Special Edition!
For 2024, Sirena Musical Instruments is introducing the Pistolera SE finished in a custom pearlized teal finish and an unusual mesquite fretboard. This finish and fretboard combination is a one-of-a-kind color scheme from Sirena.
The 3 Funktronic split-coil humbuckers have also been updated with a new blade pole design powered with strong ceramic magnets. The result is a smoother, and deeper-sounding pickup, that still retains the focus and aggressive punch of the original Pistolera pickup. The Pistolera comes with all the standard Sirena features such as heavy-duty neck bolt anchors, handmade custom hardware, and a beautifully rendered silkscreened headstock logo.
The body is constructed with a chambered poplar body, and the 3-piece bolt-on neck is made from walnut.
Specs:
Scale: 34”
Construction: Bolt-on
Body: Chambered Poplar
Neck: Laminated 3-piece Walnut
Fretboard: Mesquite w/ Rocklite Inlays
Frets: 20
Pickup: 3 Funktronic Split-Blade Humbuckers
Tuners: Hipshot Ultralight
Bridge: Custom Made in-house
Reverb Listing
New Acquisition: 1995 Peavey Forum Bass
I’m super excited! I just picked up a 1995 Peavey Forum bass on Reverb – $325 shipped with a case. A little background – I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. Years ago, I found and played one in a local music store for roughly the same price ($275 and no case). For some reason, I immediately loved that Peavey Forum! At the time, I was not in the market for a new bass, but my nephew wanted one for his studio, so he bought it. Anyway, this Peavey Forum popped up on Reverb, so I figured, “Why not?”, and I bought it.
One one hand, the Peavey Forum is an underrated instrument. It has a lot of qualities that make it a solid, working bass. It’s made in USA, the chunky one-piece maple neck plays good, the big, fat humbucker and 2-band active EQ give it a real meat & potatoes tone that works for anything, and it’s built to withstand a fall out of the truck after someone forgets to close the tailgate after one too many pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon on a Saturday night at the local bar & grill. On the other hand, the Forum has a nondescript vibe that plagued some these 80’s and 90’s USA Peaveys. It seems like they were really just reacting to the whims of the market and producing safe instruments that were similar to other instruments out there. I know Peavey got into making neck-thrus and fancy top woods later in the decade, but even these more “high-quality” instruments weren’t breaking any new barriers in design. All that being said, I do have to give Peavey tremendous props – even though some of their designs weren’t necessarily groundbreaking, they did continue to make their own components, which it seems a lot of manufacturers were beginning to give up on at that point in time.
Oddly enough, I’ve come to recognize the influence that Peavey has had on my own instruments. I dismantled and copied a T40 pickup for my Uno bass, and the new Pistolera pickup is basically one of those T40 coils split in half. I’ve never been much of a collector of anything, but as of late, I’ve been feeling this desire to have a few of these “less desirable” instruments in my arsenal. As I’ve become a professional luthier, I’ve been more and more impressed with instruments built on a small budget than I am with more expensive basses. At this time, I have a running list of 6-7 basses that seem to be going for under $500 used.
My only complaint about this bass is that it has the super-lame Peavey “delta” logo. I would have loved to proudly rock this bass with the ugly-ass “lightning” logo.
Neck Carving Video
Here’a a YouTube video of me carving a neck for a customer. I’m building a replacement/fretless conversion for an Ibanez SR bass, and I video’d the process over the course of a few days. Usually, a carve takes me 2-3 hours, but this one took more like 4-5. Haha – operating a camera while carving a neck is for the birds!
Funktronic does all kinds of custom neck builds. Contact us for any questions you may have about building custom necks.
Fretboard Radius Fixture
I made a little iPhone video of me using Bruce Johnson’s fretboard radius fixture to cut a fretboard radius.
The Uno 2023 Update!
Sirena Musical Instruments has updated the Uno for 2023!
The re-vamped Uno draws from its original retro design and modern playability, and is newly spec’d with a wide-aperture ceramic humbucker based on the venerable T-40 pickup. Combined with an onboard 2-band preamp, the bass sounds fat, funky, and has plenty of clank. Says Southern California luthier, Jeremy Kirsch, “If you ever wondered what a T-40 would sound like if it was a semi-hollow MusicMan, this is it.”
Keeping focus on North-American hardwoods, the 3-piece laminate neck and extensively chambered body of the Uno are made of cherry. “I don’t know why more instruments are not made from cherry,” Kirsch states, “Cherry is adequately stiff for a neck, and it’s beautiful enough on it’s own to make a great-looking body.” Adding a little more flair, the body is bound with an American holly stripe.
Just for fun, the neck joined to the body with an oversized 5/8” stainless steel bolt driven into a large aluminum block embedded in the heel and makes an extremely strong joint. As with most Sirena Instruments, the bridge and much of the hardware is custom made in-house, and comes spec’d with Hipshot Ultralight tuners.
The 2023 Uno weighs in at a svelte 6.8 lbs. and is finished in a color shifting dark purple / deep black affectionately known as “Atomic Aubergine.”
For more info, check out the Uno page, and check the pricing page for current pricing.
Specs:
Scale: 34”
Construction: Bolt-on
Body: Chambered Cherry
Neck: Laminated 3-piece Cherry
Fretboard: Dark Roasted Maple
Frets: 20
Pickup: Funktronic Faux-40 Humbucker
Preamp: 9v / 2-band
Tuners: Hipshot Ultralight
Bridge: Custom Made in-house
Sirena Pistolera #004
Sirena Pistolera #004 in Wild Watermelon just rolled off the production line. This one is getting shipped out to a customer New Hampshire. Yay!