NBD - Sei Jazz 5, the Basschat Bike

[tauzero]

This has been through many BC hands - at least @Gwilym, @bubinga5, @carlsim, and @eddking (who I bought it from).

 

Ed and I met up at Gordano services after an eventful journey down (for me) and exchanged a Cort GB5 Custom and some money with the Sei.

 

The neck is lovely, as I'd expect from a Sei - slim and shallow. It's light and is well balanced, both seated and on the strap. The tuners are smooth and free of play. The bridge is nice and chunky.

 

Soundwise, the Bartolini pickups have plenty of output with nothing lacking. The East Uni-Pre controls are volume/blend, bass/treble, mid sweep and boost/cut, and passive tone, plus a mute switch and an active/passive switch. The blend is very effective. Treble and bass do their jobs nicely, with a lot of boost and cut but very controllable. The mid controls definitely work but I think I'll steer clear of them. The "passive" tone works in both active and passive modes, and in extremis gets rid of all the treble.

 

With any luck, the Basschat bike has found a forever home.

 

[lemmywinks]

I don't mean to alarm you but that bass has a headstock!

[Gwilym]

49 minutes ago, tauzero said:

This has been through many BC hands - at least @Gwilym, @bubinga5, @carlsim, and @eddking (who I bought it from).

 

Ed and I met up at Gordano services after an eventful journey down (for me) and exchanged a Cort GB5 Custom and some money with the Sei.

 

The neck is lovely, as I'd expect from a Sei - slim and shallow. It's light and is well balanced, both seated and on the strap. The tuners are smooth and free of play. The bridge is nice and chunky.

 

Soundwise, the Bartolini pickups have plenty of output with nothing lacking. The East Uni-Pre controls are volume/blend, bass/treble, mid sweep and boost/cut, and passive tone, plus a mute switch and an active/passive switch. The blend is very effective. Treble and bass do their jobs nicely, with a lot of boost and cut but very controllable. The mid controls definitely work but I think I'll steer clear of them. The "passive" tone works in both active and passive modes, and in extremis gets rid of all the treble.

 

With any luck, the Basschat bike has found a forever home.

 

This is a lovely bass. I got it from ebay back in about 2004 probably, and was the first basschat owner, probably! Bought from a pro musician producer based in east London who i think was the original owner.

It was originally passive, but i had a preamp installed by Martin Peterson at the Gallery, although i can't remember which pre i had put in there, i think it's been changed again since then.

There were Barts already in there, so they are probably the same ones.

I seem to remember a lovely woody tone. Can't remember why i sold it, probably to help fund my GAS. Anyway, @molan was the next custodian.

Congrats, hope you enjoy it 😊 

[tauzero]

42 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

I don't mean to alarm you but that bass has a headstock!

 

That's OK, I swapped it for another one with a headstock so the Zero Towers headstock count has remained constant.

[Mokl]

I had this bass for a couple of years. It's fantastic and I regret parting with it!

 

Balance, feel, tone and playability all top notch.

 

I hope you enjoy

[GuyR]

I bought this bass from @carlism a very few years ago - August 2020, I just checked.

Sold it maybe 2 years ago via Martin Petersen. Lovely bass. The neck is very easy to play, it weighs sub-9lb, sounds great and looks a million dollars.

 

It doesn’t deserve to be in the classifieds again anytime soon. Enjoy it @tauzero.

[bubinga5]

I probably have 400 pics of this Bass.  I bought it from Molan. I think in 2010. I absolutely loved it for many years. Played it on many gigs in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire. Personally at that time i thought it lacked some punch. I spoke with Martin Peterson about this bass and he said it was never meant to be a typical sounding jazz bass. He designed it sonically as a smooth sounding jazz bass thus the passive bass and the original Bartolini single coil pickups. The woods just dont do a 70s or 60s jazz bass.. Regrettably i sold it to Steve Mills who is a dep for Ed Poole who plays for Bonnie Tyler atm...  Then years later i was able to get it back. (Steve is selling that white Sei 5 string on BC ) I drove to Reading to see Steve and got it back. I utterly love that bass to be honest. There is a reason i owned it twice. Its so comfortable, the neck is just superb. And the way Martin cut away the body/ neck is just.... And it sounds not like a Jazz bass. Thats the great thing about it..  Maybe one day i may get her back.😁 Anyway enjoy the Sei bro. It aint no bike. That bass is a fantastic instrument. 

Edited August 10 by bubinga5

[Schnozzalee]

I wanted it when Bubinga5 had it, but it always appears at the wrong time for me. I love the top - Enjoy!

[bubinga5]

BTW put some DR High Beams on her. She comes alive with those strings. 

[carlsim]

I remember this bass well, I got it from @bubinga5 and was ‘on it like a car bonnet’ as soon as I saw it for sale. I always hankered after a ‘super jazz’ as I love a jazz bass but passive ones always seem a bit ‘meh’ to me… unless your talking a ‘76 in natural finish with mojo and the 70s logo… anyway…

it served me very well and to be honest, I only sold it due to financial issues I was facing at the time. It is an amazing player, and certainly no throwaway, stick it in the corner type of bass… when I saw this come up for sale I was quite tempted but have fallen into the Atelier Z web and am loving my current DAL5 that is one of go to’s at the mo…

@tauzero it will certainly serve you well ( the Barts x-axis pups were in there when I got it and I put the John east uni pre in there… not sure if that is what it is still sporting though… it’s an excellent bass for modding and experimenting with configs… a great bass and a looker! Enjoy!