For 12 years, I’ve wanted to order a Sei bass built by Martin Petersen in London www.seibass.com. I’d come close to buying one a couple of times, but each time I thought that I’d wait until I could place an order. That way I could specify exactly what I wanted instead of ending up with someone else’s ideas.
In April of last year, I was able to place the order. I e-mailed some ideas for a spec to Martin and they gave me a quote, a timescale and some pics of some wood they had in stock. A couple of weeks later I paid a deposit and made arrangements to go down to London and finish up the spec. During this time I saw a bass which had some of the ideas I was thinking about !! Luckily, Matthew, the owner, was more than happy to shed some light on the spec of his 7 string Sei.
I wanted a 7 string as I’d already had a Conklin GT7 for a while. The top had to be lacewood as used on my beloved Jackson Kip Winger bass. The grain is highly unusual being lacy and sort of scaly. I’d read up a bit on woods and offered the idea of a walnut core to give the punch I wanted. Electronics were going to be real simple, 1 pickup, 1 volume control. I have a Yamaha TRB6 II which has a 3 band EQ and also a Fender ‘Urge’ Mk1 which has a whole gamut of sounds. Thing is, I never use them, hence the 1 pickup, 1 volume approach
The body shape would be the Offset Flamboyant style. Seis are also offered in Original, Flamboyant, two variations of Singlecut as well as their take on the Jazz. Martin and I discussed the idea of fanned frets as I’d heard great reports on multi-scale basses. However, I’d never played one and this would be a risk if I didn’t like it and I was used to the 34” scale of the Conklin so that idea was shelved. I also wanted two very personal touches to the instrument. One was to have my signature at the 12th fret, the other was to have the veneer which separates the core from the facings to be pink as that’s my fiancée Jen’s favourite colour.
I first thought to have the bass sprayed with a purple burst, but after seeing the wood, a gloss finish was definitely the way to go !! I’d always wanted a bass with a birds-eye maple board and I wanted that to have violet, side-only Led’s They were matched with a thru-neck of wenge and maple. Gold hardware was chosen to complement the gloss finish and the pickup was placed back 15mm from the regular position, a compromise between where I wanted the pickup to be and where Martin thought it would sound best. The pickup would be a custom wound Kent Armstrong humbucker, a way under-rated brand.
On Matthew’s 7 string Sei, there is a very clever coil tap button which sits by the inputs. I asked for one of those as well as it was such a great idea and keeps the front of the bass clutter-free. Again, Matthew was happy about me using his idea. Later in the build, I saw an Overwater bass with a built in XLR output and asked Martin to fit this for me as well. John East did his usual great work on the XLR.
When I first saw the completed bass, I was completely overcome !! Just everything I wanted it to be Through an amp, the bass is really full and punchy, which was exactly what I was after. The coil-tap thins the sounds a little and gives a slightly different vibe. The bass balances perfectly whether seated or standing with a strap, even the 7 machine heads cannot make this bass dive 
My bass was a great result of customer and luthier working together to create the best bass possible. I had some ideas, Martin had some ideas and together my dream bass was created. Kudos must also go to Matthew Foote for sharing his Sei 7 spec and to Paddy and the guys of the Sei Owners Club who were kind enough to give me updates (and send me photos !!) when they visited Sei HQ during the build.
The full story of my Sei is on the build thread (link in sig) but here’s the final spec and the photos of the finished instrument. My Sei 7.
P.S. The Sei has been named ‘Jezebel’
Final Spec: Sei Flamboyant Offset 7 string go to www.seibass.com for more on Sei basses. Alternatively, go to the Sei Owners Club thread here on TB, the link is in my sig.
Body: Walnut core, Bolivar (dyed claret) veneer, full lacewood facings front and back.
Thru-neck: Flame maple & wenge with carbon fibre reinforcing rods. Headstock faced front and back with lacewood to match body.
Fingerboard: Birds-eye maple bound with 24 regular frets, violet side LED's, signature at 12th fret laser-etched into mother-of-pearl.
Hardware: Gold gotoh machineheads, individual gold ABM bridges, knurled gold volume knob
Electronics: Kent Armstrong custom humbucker, 1 volume control w/push-pull for LED's. Jack out, XLR out by John East, concealed coil-tap button
Strings: DR's 25 30 45 65 85 105 130
This pic has our 6 month old Rottweiler ‘Luna’ in the background
Detailed pics courtesy of G.Jones
In April of last year, I was able to place the order. I e-mailed some ideas for a spec to Martin and they gave me a quote, a timescale and some pics of some wood they had in stock. A couple of weeks later I paid a deposit and made arrangements to go down to London and finish up the spec. During this time I saw a bass which had some of the ideas I was thinking about !! Luckily, Matthew, the owner, was more than happy to shed some light on the spec of his 7 string Sei.
I wanted a 7 string as I’d already had a Conklin GT7 for a while. The top had to be lacewood as used on my beloved Jackson Kip Winger bass. The grain is highly unusual being lacy and sort of scaly. I’d read up a bit on woods and offered the idea of a walnut core to give the punch I wanted. Electronics were going to be real simple, 1 pickup, 1 volume control. I have a Yamaha TRB6 II which has a 3 band EQ and also a Fender ‘Urge’ Mk1 which has a whole gamut of sounds. Thing is, I never use them, hence the 1 pickup, 1 volume approach
The body shape would be the Offset Flamboyant style. Seis are also offered in Original, Flamboyant, two variations of Singlecut as well as their take on the Jazz. Martin and I discussed the idea of fanned frets as I’d heard great reports on multi-scale basses. However, I’d never played one and this would be a risk if I didn’t like it and I was used to the 34” scale of the Conklin so that idea was shelved. I also wanted two very personal touches to the instrument. One was to have my signature at the 12th fret, the other was to have the veneer which separates the core from the facings to be pink as that’s my fiancée Jen’s favourite colour.
I first thought to have the bass sprayed with a purple burst, but after seeing the wood, a gloss finish was definitely the way to go !! I’d always wanted a bass with a birds-eye maple board and I wanted that to have violet, side-only Led’s
They were matched with a thru-neck of wenge and maple. Gold hardware was chosen to complement the gloss finish and the pickup was placed back 15mm from the regular position, a compromise between where I wanted the pickup to be and where Martin thought it would sound best. The pickup would be a custom wound Kent Armstrong humbucker, a way under-rated brand.On Matthew’s 7 string Sei, there is a very clever coil tap button which sits by the inputs. I asked for one of those as well as it was such a great idea and keeps the front of the bass clutter-free. Again, Matthew was happy about me using his idea. Later in the build, I saw an Overwater bass with a built in XLR output and asked Martin to fit this for me as well. John East did his usual great work on the XLR.
When I first saw the completed bass, I was completely overcome !! Just everything I wanted it to be
Through an amp, the bass is really full and punchy, which was exactly what I was after. The coil-tap thins the sounds a little and gives a slightly different vibe. The bass balances perfectly whether seated or standing with a strap, even the 7 machine heads cannot make this bass dive My bass was a great result of customer and luthier working together to create the best bass possible. I had some ideas, Martin had some ideas and together my dream bass was created. Kudos must also go to Matthew Foote for sharing his Sei 7 spec and to Paddy and the guys of the Sei Owners Club who were kind enough to give me updates (and send me photos !!) when they visited Sei HQ during the build.
The full story of my Sei is on the build thread (link in sig) but here’s the final spec and the photos of the finished instrument. My Sei 7.
P.S. The Sei has been named ‘Jezebel’
Final Spec: Sei Flamboyant Offset 7 string go to www.seibass.com for more on Sei basses. Alternatively, go to the Sei Owners Club thread here on TB, the link is in my sig.
Body: Walnut core, Bolivar (dyed claret) veneer, full lacewood facings front and back.
Thru-neck: Flame maple & wenge with carbon fibre reinforcing rods. Headstock faced front and back with lacewood to match body.
Fingerboard: Birds-eye maple bound with 24 regular frets, violet side LED's, signature at 12th fret laser-etched into mother-of-pearl.
Hardware: Gold gotoh machineheads, individual gold ABM bridges, knurled gold volume knob
Electronics: Kent Armstrong custom humbucker, 1 volume control w/push-pull for LED's. Jack out, XLR out by John East, concealed coil-tap button
Strings: DR's 25 30 45 65 85 105 130
This pic has our 6 month old Rottweiler ‘Luna’ in the background
Detailed pics courtesy of G.Jones
