FRANCIS : The bass that I have now is a custom Shen bass from a music store in the States . It ’ s called Fantastic Musical Instruments , and they custom-made it for me so that I can remove the neck and put it in a travel case to fly around with . It ’ s a very wonderful bass . It ’ s so sensitive ; you can hear just every note every articulation and it ’ s actually the bass that I play on the Long River album — it ’ s not on the cover , because I didn ’ t want to sit on it . But it ’ s really great . I also play with like a Yamaha . Sunburst TRBX174 . I ’ m not too picky when it comes to electric basses , because oftentimes when I perform on the road , I ’ ll get a music festival to provide one for me . So , I do really enjoy getting the opportunity to play my own bass .
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SYPEREK : I can answer in two parts because there ’ s one bass that when I was really young , the first one I saw in a magazine was a Rickenbacker . And wasn ’ t until a couple of years later that I had made enough money to afford one and bought it . And it ’ s been my favorite , even now , it ’ s really beat up and has many pieces missing . There ’ s chips out of it and stuff but it ’ s still my favorite . As far as secret weapons go , this is more recent , but we were in the studio and our producer asked if I could get a hold of a Höfner . And I happen to have a friend who has one , so I borrowed it . We ended up using it on every song and it became a secret weapon because it just sounds good on everything .
BROWN : My main bass is a Kenneth Lawrence Unity six-string . Kenneth
Lawrence is an amazing builder in California . He makes all of James Hetfield ’ s guitars . He ’ s an amazing guy . I used to work in a music store in Pickering , Ontario and I remember always buying the guitar buyer ’ s guides , and just having them around . Years after I stopped working at the store , I found this old pile of magazines and I had earmarked this page that had this beautiful instrument on it . I was like 19 years old when I when I was doing this
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stuff , and I earmarked this page , and found this beautiful bass . And underneath the picture of the bass , I wrote , ‘ I must have this .’ And by sheer coincidence , it turned out to be a Kenneth Lawrence . I ’ ve had this thing , I bought it in 1999 . And it ’ s still one of the most beautiful instruments I ’ ve ever played . I had no idea that I still had that magazine . And it was just by sheer chance that it ended up being a Lawrence .
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