After my last blog post on the Sire V7, I thought I’d take another look into direct replacement parts for these basses. I came across the Hipshot HB14 during a quick search, a model that I’d actually not heard of before.

“Replace those sloppy, squeaky, worn out tuning machines with a set of Hipshot American Classics. The HB14 is a direct replacement for the tuning machines found on Sire basses and many other brands.” – Hipshot Products, Inc

At some point Sire changed the mounting pattern on their machine heads, making the HB14 unsuitable for newer models. Following that, Hipshot discontinued the HB14 and now recommend the HB7 as the next best replacement.

The thing is, the Schaller BM machine heads were very close to the V7 tuners. That would therefore also make the Hipshot HB1 a suitable replacement, being pretty much an exact copy of the Schaller tuner. However, the problem is, I don’t know the age of that customer’s bass so we don’t know if those machine heads had the old or new mounting configuration.

I guess we’ll have to take Hipshot’s word for it. If you have a newer Sire bass and want to change to Hipshot tuners, your best bet is the HB7.