"Ba-ya-ya, ba-da-da-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya!" Sorry, Seal, we couldn’t resist.
Yes, it’s true: The world-renowned singer/songwriter, known for tracks like "Kiss From A Rose," is a gearhead—and he’s bringing a collection of boutique pedals, guitars, and more to The Official Seal Reverb Shop, which is open now.
The Official Seal Reverb Shop is now open.
From his slew of self-titled albums to 2017’s Standards, Seal’s decades-long career includes more than 20 million records sold, six platinum records, four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, and two chart-topping tracks, putting him among the most successful artists of the modern era. However, for all his musical fame, few know Seal as more than a singer and philanthropist. Now, he’s opening up on his passion for guitar—and selling a collection of guitars, pedals, and more that he’s used throughout his musical journey.
"I’m fortunate enough that I have a lot of gear. I’ve bought way too many pedals, way too many amps, and there are only so many hours in the day. I’m giving people the opportunity to buy some guitars I’m not playing, as well as a whole bunch of pedals I’m not using," said Seal.
Speaking on his love of stompboxes, Seal continued: "Each pedal that you buy, you have to give it a certain amount of time, even the ones that you don’t gel with at the beginning. This is what [pedal makers] do, it’s their art. They hear something and they try and create it or manifest whatever it is they’re hearing, and so each pedal requires a certain amount of time for you to sit with and find its sweet spot and what it wants to do—and what it doesn’t want to do. And then you decide whether that’s for you."
The Official Seal Reverb Shop features a number of left-handed guitars, including a Lowden 0-23 acoustic. Said Seal, "[As a lefty], I learned how to play right-handed guitars upside down. I played like that for most of my career, and then about a year and a half ago, I had this idea of learning to play a left-handed guitar. I took lessons for about six months to try to relearn the chords I knew in a true lefty way, but the C and G chords weren’t natural for me. During that time, I had a bunch of existing guitars converted from right-handed necks to lefties, and I also bought a number of left-handed guitars like this one from Lowden… and then I decided it was a terrible idea because I didn’t like how my chords started to sound normal!"
Additional items in The Official Seal Reverb Shop include:
- A collection of Spaceman pedals.
- Four Line 6 DL4 pedals that Seal told us were bought for band members when he used to only play acoustic.
- Two James Goodall TRD-Cl-7116 Lefthanded Dreadnaught single-cut guitars. "These two are true lefties. They suffered the same fate as the Lowden—I can’t play them! It pains me to part with them, but I would rather someone put them to good use," said Seal.
- An array of boutique effects from Sabbadius, Gamechanger Audio, Vemuram, Crazy Tube Circuits, and more.
The Official Seal Reverb Shop is open now.