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Review of the Larry Carlton S7 3TS Electric guitar. Where to buy it?

I’ll tell you how this post is built. First I list the features of the Larry Carlton S7 3TS guitar. Then you have a video or two, purchase links and useful comments from other users and then you have one of the most useful parts; comparison tables with similar items so you can compare.

  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple
  • Fretboard: Roasted Maple
  • Abalone Dots fretboard inlays
  • 22 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 648 mm (25.5″)
  • Fretboard radius: 241 mm (9.5″)
  • Nut width: 42 mm (1.65″)
  • Bone nut
  • Pickups: 1 S7 humbucker (bridge) and 2 S7 single coils (middle and neck)
  • 1 x Volume and 1 x tone control
  • 5-Way switch
  • White pearl pickguard
  • S7 2-post tremolo with steel block and stainless saddle
  • Sire Premium Locking machine heads
  • Chrome hardware
  • Colour: 3-Tone Sunburst

review larry-carlton-s7-3ts

This guitar usually has a price around 474.00 €

Now that we’ve seen the features of this guitar Larry Carlton S7 3TS watch these related videos to learn more.

Sire Larry Carlton S7 FM - Sound Demo (no talking)

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Some comments from people who come to the forum about this model:

Comment:

My most beloved guitar so far. I’m owning it for almost half a year now so guess I edit my review once again and add more details since I re-assembled my guitar from scratch not long ago.

Body and finish:
First of all this is very beautiful guitar. Well done sunburst finish, no cracks, scuffs, cavities, noticeable filler etc. Pearloid pickguard fits in just right.
Neck pocket is done extremely precise and all sides are very well fit. Neck fits in tight and there’s no gaps anywhere and absolutley no wobble.

Neck:
It’s a killer. Exceptional craft quality. Frets are all even, nicely rounded and well polished. Satin neck finish and laquer fretboard all together feels very smooth and high end. This neck alone make you feel like guitar is twice the price. You gonna love it.

Hardware:
Tuners perform very good, tuning stability is not an issue at all.
Bridge overall seem to be a high quality piece but with minor issue.
What I’m concerned by is tremolo bar (arm, handle). I absolutely hate if tremolo bar wobbles in slot even a little bit. With classic strat tremolo with threaded bar you can avoid it by using a drop of thread-locker. This one is my first tremolo with inserting bar and it wobbles just a little but just enough to annoy me. What I come up with is applying layer of self-adhesive foil tape over a bar part which goes into slot. It helps a little but doesn’t eliminate wobbling completely. Using setting screw doesn’t help much because this screw is located perpendicular to strings and doesn’t fix bar in direction that you’re actually using it. Noticeable drawback for me since it makes tremolo system feel very sloppy to light touches. I’ll sure find the way to resolve this but I guess it’s better to be done the right way from factory.

Electronics:
Electronics cavity is shielded with graphit paint. Pickguard is shielded with a small piece of aluminium foil. Pickups are not branded, middle and neck seem to be identical. Resistanse for switch positions from bridge to neck: 8.2 – 2.7 – 6.3 – 3.2 – 6.3 kOhms. In second position it splits humbacker and pair it with middle pickup. Potentiometers are branded as Alpha if that’s even matter. They used "vintage" not shielded cables under pickguard and shielded jack cable since jack cavity is not shielded itself. Jack cable is long enough for you to unscrew pickguard and flip it over (some manufacturers make them too short so you can’t do this without unsoldering things).
They probably saved on some electronics components but those perform just fine, wiring and soldering done carefull and secure.

Also addressing electronics, many people complain that volume knob taper on Sire guitars is different from some other guitars and they find it weird and confusing, some even see it as issue. This is probably because of their treble bleed circuit. You can remove it without any soldering tools by just cutting off some resistors/capacitors with pliers. On YT there’s guy Johnnathancordy coverting this in one of his videos. I myself fine with what they did there.

Guitar came in tuned and needed only slightest adjustments after long road delivery. Strings action and neck relief were up to my likings so I left them as is. Guitar was pretty much ready to play out of the box.

Comment:

The volume pot has a very, very odd taper on it; when you’re using the humbucker on distorted sounds, there’s very little difference in output between volume 1-2 and volume 9-10; the guitar won’t clean up as you lower the volume pot.

I dare say you could sort this by fitting a different volume pot, but, it’s a lot of effort to go to to fix something that shouldn’t be there in the first instance.

Well-made guitar, with great features, but this one issue was enough for me to return the guitar.

Larry Carlton S7 3TS vs Fender Player Series Strat MN BCR

The guitar Larry Carlton S7 3TSis usually 81 € cheaper than Fender Player Series Strat MN BCR.

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Larry Carlton S7 3TS

Fender Player Series Strat MN BCR
  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple
  • Fretboard: Roasted Maple
  • Abalone Dots fretboard inlays
  • 22 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 648 mm (25.5″)
  • Fretboard radius: 241 mm (9.5″)
  • Nut width: 42 mm (1.65″)
  • Bone nut
  • Pickups: 1 S7 humbucker (bridge) and 2 S7 single coils (middle and neck)
  • 1 x Volume and 1 x tone control
  • 5-Way switch
  • White pearl pickguard
  • S7 2-post tremolo with steel block and stainless saddle
  • Sire Premium Locking machine heads
  • Chrome hardware
  • Colour: 3-Tone Sunburst
  • Body: Alder
  • Maple neck
  • Fretboard: Maple
  • Matte neck finish
  • 22 Frets
  • Scale: 648 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Pickups: 3 New Player AlNiCo V single coils
  • Controls: Volume, tone (neck & middle) and tone (bridge)
  • 5-Way toggle switch
  • 2-Point tremolo
  • Standard sealed machine heads
  • Ex-factory stringing: Fender .009 – .042 (article nr 133191)
  • Colour: Buttercream

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Fender Player Series Strat MN BCR

Fender Stratocaster Player Series HSS MN BCR | demo

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Fender Player Series Strat MN BCR review

Larry Carlton S7 3TS vs Fender Player Series Strat MN PWT

The guitar Larry Carlton S7 3TSis usually 81 € cheaper than Fender Player Series Strat MN PWT.

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Larry Carlton S7 3TS

Fender Player Series Strat MN PWT
  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple
  • Fretboard: Roasted Maple
  • Abalone Dots fretboard inlays
  • 22 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 648 mm (25.5″)
  • Fretboard radius: 241 mm (9.5″)
  • Nut width: 42 mm (1.65″)
  • Bone nut
  • Pickups: 1 S7 humbucker (bridge) and 2 S7 single coils (middle and neck)
  • 1 x Volume and 1 x tone control
  • 5-Way switch
  • White pearl pickguard
  • S7 2-post tremolo with steel block and stainless saddle
  • Sire Premium Locking machine heads
  • Chrome hardware
  • Colour: 3-Tone Sunburst
  • Body: Alder
  • Maple neck
  • Fretboard: Maple
  • Matte neck finish
  • 22 Frets
  • Scale: 648 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Pickups: 3 New Player AlNiCo V single coils
  • Controls: Volume, tone (neck & middle) and tone (bridge)
  • 5-Way toggle switch
  • 2-Point tremolo
  • Standard sealed machine heads
  • Ex-factory stringing: Fender .009 – .042 (article nr 133191)
  • Colour: Polar white

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Fender Player Series Strat MN PWT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lPIkYB5mnE

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Fender Player Series Strat MN PWT review

Larry Carlton S7 3TS vs Fender Player Series Strat MN TPL

The guitar Larry Carlton S7 3TSis usually 81 € cheaper than Fender Player Series Strat MN TPL.

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Larry Carlton S7 3TS

Fender Player Series Strat MN TPL
  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple
  • Fretboard: Roasted Maple
  • Abalone Dots fretboard inlays
  • 22 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 648 mm (25.5″)
  • Fretboard radius: 241 mm (9.5″)
  • Nut width: 42 mm (1.65″)
  • Bone nut
  • Pickups: 1 S7 humbucker (bridge) and 2 S7 single coils (middle and neck)
  • 1 x Volume and 1 x tone control
  • 5-Way switch
  • White pearl pickguard
  • S7 2-post tremolo with steel block and stainless saddle
  • Sire Premium Locking machine heads
  • Chrome hardware
  • Colour: 3-Tone Sunburst
  • Body: Alder
  • Maple neck
  • Fretboard: Maple
  • Matte neck finish
  • 22 Frets
  • Scale: 648 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Pickups: 3 New Player AlNiCo V single coils
  • Controls: Volume, tone (neck & middle) and tone (bridge)
  • 5-Way toggle switch
  • 2-Point tremolo
  • Standard sealed machine heads
  • Ex-factory stringing: Fender .009 – .042 (article nr 133191)
  • Colour: Tidepool

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Fender Player Series Strat MN TPL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lPIkYB5mnE

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Fender Player Series Strat MN TPL review

Larry Carlton S7 3TS vs G&L Tribute Asat Classic BB

The guitar Larry Carlton S7 3TS is usually 6 € more expensive than G&L Tribute Asat Classic BB, but the difference is so small that this can vary..

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Larry Carlton S7 3TS

G&L Tribute Asat Classic BB
  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple
  • Fretboard: Roasted Maple
  • Abalone Dots fretboard inlays
  • 22 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 648 mm (25.5″)
  • Fretboard radius: 241 mm (9.5″)
  • Nut width: 42 mm (1.65″)
  • Bone nut
  • Pickups: 1 S7 humbucker (bridge) and 2 S7 single coils (middle and neck)
  • 1 x Volume and 1 x tone control
  • 5-Way switch
  • White pearl pickguard
  • S7 2-post tremolo with steel block and stainless saddle
  • Sire Premium Locking machine heads
  • Chrome hardware
  • Colour: 3-Tone Sunburst
  • Body: Swamp ash
  • Neck: Maple, tinted glossy
  • Fretboard: Maple
  • 2x G&L Magnetic Field Design Single coils
  • 3-Way selector switch
  • 1x Volume control
  • 1x Tone control
  • Chrome hardware
  • 1-Ply black pickguard
  • Colour: Butterscotch Blonde

Below have a look to the video of this guitar G&L Tribute Asat Classic BB

G&L Tribute ASAT Classic Guitar Demo

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the G&L Tribute Asat Classic BB review

Where to buy the guitar Larry Carlton S7 3TS

Thomann

  • Free Shipping.
  • Full warranty. If you have any problems, they take care of everything.
  • 100% reliable payment.
  • Leader in trouble-free shipping.
  • Usually Best price.
  • Best Reputation: They are the leading online store in Europe and have the best catalogue and information.

Amazon

  • Free Shipping and possibility of shipping in one day with Amazon Premium.
  • Full Guarantee but they are no experts in music equipment.
  • Sometimes better price.
  • He’s got worse stock than Thomann.

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Jaime Echagüe

Hi! I'm Jaime Echagüe, a musician and an authentic fan of musical instruments. With this blog I want to give general information about musical instruments in an easy, direct and honest way. I hope you enjoy my website and that you find it very useful.

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