The Brits know their bridges, and think what you will about "stogy old England," they're not afraid to demolish the old to make way for the new. Just look at London Bridge, for example. Observe, also, the unique design of the bridge on the Rees 5bass.

Not only does the bridge on the 5bass feature five individual rails for minimal crosstalk between strings, but each of those rails are mounted on a single piece of maple sandwiched* between the bridge metal and the bass's body wood. The strings are strung-through to body, and the whole bridge construction is mounted with bolts that run from the underside of the bass to the bridge rails, making for a bass with woody punch and unmatched sustain.

Nor does the rest of the bass's design disappoint. The body wood is Korina, adding to the focused tone and long sustain. The hard maple neck (think post-war Labour Party hard) features two truss rods IN ADDITION to two reinforcing steel bars. All this in a bass that only weighs 10 lbs. OK, that's kind heavy. Until you do the metric conversion. 4.5 kg seems WAY lighter.

And I haven't even mentioned the pickups yet: Seymour Duncan Passive Phase II NYC Soapbars, so-called because soap was invented in New York City. Seriously, I have no idea why the NYC moniker*; regardless, these newly-released pickups are some of the most versatile around. The dual-coil, multiple-lead wire design, combined with the intelligent control layout on the Rees 5bass, is capable of single coil (J-bass), dual-coil (P-bass) and humbucker (Musicman) tones. There's a single master volume, a three-way pickup selector, and a tone control with pull-pot for in phase and out of phase sounds.

The 5bass is listed on the Rees website at a price of £935 , which, depending on who you listen to, means you should either buy one ASAP, or wait a few months for the "economic downturn" to blow over.

*also a British invention.