molan

[quote name='rslaing' post='525516' date='Jun 26 2009, 11:44 PM']Hey man, you're selling this far too cheaply![/quote] I guess I've priced it to sell, so hopefully it'll go fairly quickly before I have second thoughts!

I've been going round in circles on this since I bought it from Gwil a few months back. The main reason for selling is that I tend to prefer a more modern bight tone (my favourite basses are US Spectors) and my Overwater J covers this territory already if I want to use a J shaped bass. The Sei has a really nice 'organic' woody tone, some very nice mellow jazzy tones available with the high end rolled off etc. I had been thinking of keeping it for a while longer to let it sink in with me more but got very close to a trade recently for something and have now got it into my head that it needs to go. It's just lovely to play with a low action and a really nice 'silky' feel to it. I've always thought it would be a great first 5 stringer for someone looking for something a bit special because of the 34" scale and 17mm spacing. These two build features along with the beautifully sculpted body and lovely birdseye maple neck make it incredibly easy to play. A fellow BC'er tried it out recently and commented on how well it played and he also thought it would make a great bass for a nearly effortless transition from 4's to 5's or maybe for someone who likes to switch between both fairly regularly. I'm really not sure what the body woods are - looks like a swamp ash body to me but no idea what the nicely grained facing wood is I'm afraid (I have some vague recollection of it being something like tulip or olive wood but I may have just imagined this!). Neck is birdseye maple with what I think is a, very high quality, rosewood board. The birdseye maple carries through to the headstock as well. Pickups are Bartolini J type and the tuners look like Hipshot ultra-lites but aren't branded. Bridge isn't branded either but, again it feels like a quality piece of kit. Gwil had it professionally fitted with a U-Retro deluxe by Martin Petersen at The Gallery which retains the warm woody tone but with a lot of tonal options. Controls now are: Volume/Pickup pan Bass/Treble with addition 'pull' function for high end treble boost Mid/Mid-frequency sweep Vintage tone (this is a really interesting little addition - it's like a passive tone control that works in both active or passive modes to roll off treble) Active/passive switch Another switch that either enables the pickup-pan, or sets a passive equal mix of the pickups There's a tiny hairline crack in the wood facing just above the controls, only visible close up and, to me, just looks like part of the grain. This is cosmetic rather than structural and does not go through to the control cavity. A similar bass would now retail for around £2,200 & the U-Retro would add another £200 or so. I'm always open to potential trade offers. Either for something of equally high quality or maybe a lower priced bass that would be relatively easy to sell on if I needed to E.G. USA Fenders, Musicman etc. Any questions just zap me a PM & I'll do my best to answer them The photos below are all taken in natural light with no enhancements or photo-shopping etc. As is usual with exotic wood facings, I'm not entirely sure these pics do it justice but they give a reasonable idea of what it looks like

Looks great and I really love the green one with the maple board & block inlays Thinks to self - get that Sei J5 sold!

So pleased to hear this Stu - great news on all fronts

I have the 10T - handles small gigs and rehearsals against a live drummer with ease

I've had a quick play on this - it really is very nice indeed

[quote name='Schnozzalee' post='521585' date='Jun 23 2009, 11:47 AM']*Unscrews cavity* Oh ho ho.... thats embarassing, I jus thought the pickups were high output/overwound or something! I've been using the Active Jazz setting A LOT and it hasn't ran out yet! It has a great growl to it, and the slap style is the best i've heard but the passive jazz would be the most realistic to gig with unless its one of those bands where its all about the bassist...Jamiroquai. That battery thing is really weird, thatnks for clearing that up! Its definately the lightest bass I've played, It seemed like it had been setup before, I only took out the buzz on the A string around the 19th fret, by adjusting the saddle and leaving the neck straight. I could get it professionally setup at Cardiff Guitars in september. The frets are barely worn.[/quote] I'm a big fan of seperate battery compartments - At least you know where you stand & thye ping out easily, lol.

[quote name='Schnozzalee' post='521535' date='Jun 23 2009, 11:02 AM']Hi Molan! Yeah its in fab condition, the owner afterwards looked after it brilliantly as well. Do you know how the active passive electronics work? I was looking for a battery input, still puzzles me - but thats not hard. I'm still a lil apprehensive on selling this one because its hard to find a bass for small hands that has that kinda tone.[/quote] I seem to remember the battery clipped into the main control cavity on the rear? I don't remember it ever running out, lol. I used to use the passive 'J' setting a lot so that would really cut down on battery use anyway. I'm pretty sure the three passive settings are true bypass as well so they would all work should the battery fail. There's a fair bit of info on the Philp Kubicki site as well. The neck is really nice & definitely great for smaller hands. I'd say it's quite similar to my '75 Jazz Reissue. I think it only weighs about 7lbs as well Have you had it professionally set up since you picked it up?

Ah, my 'baby' returns - I wondered where it had been hiding out I was the first owner of this after it was reviewed in Guitar mag. Really nice bass, so light and super versatile, great covers band gigging bass as it switches so fast from Jazz to Precision to high definition active sounds at the flick of a switch, even has a bass boost option for soloing. Hope it goes to a nice home

Hey Sean - I thought the 'wife' always said you would never be allowed to sell this one