Woodinblack Posted March 14 Posted March 14 So new bass day, bought a Sei bass on the last guitar auctions, always fancied a sei. Went to pick it up today, well, it looks oddly big (my wife is laughing at how big it looks when she picks it up). I must be a longer scale, get the tape measure out.. oh, 43" scale, its a stand up double bass! Anyway, batteries are dead and it takes a while getting them out. Sounds good, and it has a lot of knobs. I am not sure what most of them do yet, but I assume it has a piezo as well as it has two volumes and two balances. It has a switch I have no idea what it does! But anyway, haven't had a chance to get decent pictures yet, but this is what it looks like as a quick snap: 5 Quote
GuyR Posted March 14 Posted March 14 I was in Martin Petersen’s workshop looking at this in the auction catalogue online. When he built it to special order, he had to have bespoke strings manufactured. He thought he might have some still tucked away, so probably worth getting in touch. He commented that it was a little unfair of GH to not have mentioned the scale in the catalogue. Cool bass though, hope you can adjust to it. 1 Quote
BassApprentice Posted March 14 Posted March 14 Wait, that wasn't a typo. 43"? Wild. Looking forward to some full length pictures, can't quite wrap my head around how it might look 😅 I imagine Newtone might be some use for new strings. 2 Quote
Reggaebass Posted March 14 Posted March 14 Looks good, just wondering..have you got long arms 😁 Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 14 Author Posted March 14 13 minutes ago, GuyR said: When he built it to special order, he had to have bespoke strings manufactured. He thought he might have some still tucked away, so probably worth getting in touch. He commented that it was a little unfair of GH to not have mentioned the scale in the catalogue. Yeh, they don't provide much description on the site. Yes, 43" - same scale as my double bass - Strangely it doesn't look that long itself, it looks perfect proportions. It is quite heavy but again, it doesn't seem disproportionate. I emailed the bass galery as I couldn't work out what the controls were doing. Clearly volume, balance, two stacked tones, but maybe also piezo volume and something else? and two switches, one that does some kind of pole switching, the other - no idea. It looks like it might have LEDs but they dont' come on, maybe broken. It plays really well, but it is a little step up from the normal size! Will get a picture of it next to my jabba 27" bass. 1 1 Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 14 hours ago, Reggaebass said: Looks good, just wondering..have you got long arms 😁 Not especially. I have never managed to get on with that many short scales though - 32" yes, below that not so much. I never even thought of a 43, although it is exactly the same scale as the NS:design bass I have. 3 hours ago, itu said: How does it feel when compared to a 34"? Actually not so big. Its very clear playing everywhere, and it sounds a bit richer, depending on where the knobs are, which I am still after an evening of playing not sure what they do. I took the back panels off - had to take the battery one off as the battery was dead (batteries, there are two). Took the electronics compartment section off and OMG to what is in there. Not sure if that is how it left SEI or if someone else has thrown their electronics drawer in there, but I don't think I am going to be working out what is going on in there very quickly! 3 Quote
jonno1981 Posted March 15 Posted March 15 Wow. Built for low tuning? Or someone with absolute monstrous proportions? Hope you got a bargain! Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 2 minutes ago, jonno1981 said: Wow. Built for low tuning? Or someone with absolute monstrous proportions? Hope you got a bargain! I never thought of that - I guess it would handle very low tunings quite well, although it doesn't look very metal. As for bargain, there is certainly a hell of a lot of nice wood in there! Would hate to think how much this thing cost to be built in the first place! 1 Quote
jonno1981 Posted March 15 Posted March 15 (edited) I think it would fit into a black metal band perfectly! It’s certainly unique and would support a drop stupid tuning really well. Edited March 15 by jonno1981 Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 Pictures in the daytime always look better, so here it is outside 9 1 Quote
Stub Mandrel Posted March 15 Posted March 15 No one's asked... how is it for weight and balance. Normally I don't notice such things but this could be extreme... Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 It was marked in the listing as just over 5kg, but although its heavy, it doesn't really come across as heavy, maybe due to the scale? It doesn't feel heavier than some of my other basses. Balance is fine, I think it has been proportionatly scaled, so sitting on a leg it feels fine - it has two strap buttons so I would imagine balance on a strap is good. I will take it to a practice this week and see what it is like to play standing a few hours. 2 Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 2 hours ago, Woodinblack said: Took the electronics compartment section off and OMG to what is in there. Not sure if that is how it left SEI or if someone else has thrown their electronics drawer in there, but I don't think I am going to be working out what is going on in there very quickly! Now I look, I think there is a bit more sense. There are two commercial preamps - I am guessing bass / treble / pan / volume for the bart pickups, volume / bass / treble for the magnetic pickups and a balance knob between the two (where the magnetic ones are quite powerful). And there are also two 'home made' preamps in the same compartment! 1 Quote
jonno1981 Posted March 15 Posted March 15 The back of neck through sei basses look so good, maybe better than the front. 1 Quote
Hellzero Posted March 15 Posted March 15 The two home made preamps are probably buffers for the piezos. May we have a photo of that preamps fair? Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 22 minutes ago, Hellzero said: The two home made preamps are probably buffers for the piezos. 3 1 1 3 1 Quote
Hellzero Posted March 15 Posted March 15 To me, there are indeed 2 Bartolini preamps and a buffer for the piezos (the one with the 2 dip switches that are certainly for the phase). One preamp is a 3 bands model and the other a 2 bands model (for the piezo obviously). One of the switches is an active/passive switch not working for the piezos in passive mode. The other looks to be for some LED's powered by 2 AA(A) batteries where there is a the white unknown thing on a PCB (it could be the power management of the LED's). Worth putting 2 AA(A) batteries there to see if the LED's turn on. Quote
Stub Mandrel Posted March 15 Posted March 15 That looks like one of my teenage electronics projects... Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 Thanks for the info. ah - the leds don't turn on, I assumed they were broken.. will try the batteries. No, still nothing I think the switch might be a coil switching mod. When I got it, the batteries were dead and I couldn't get any sound out of it at all, so it seems like there is no passive mode. Oh yes, the front volume, which I have worked out is mag pickup volume, has a pull switch. Quote
Woodinblack Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 I realised that I had just made the assumption that it was a BEADG tuning and the action was a bit high. I just tuned it to C#BEAD and it handles that well 1 Quote
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