A Bass You Could Conquer the World With. Played one of his personal basses in Madrid this year. In my 35 years of playing, this is THE best bass I've ever got my grubby little hands on.

25/03/2022 Update: I'm now the owner of one of these basses. Custom front blue LEDs, satin finish and strap locks. It's a truly phenomenal instrument. The sustain, clarity and absence of dead spots are unlike any bass I've ever played. It's made me reassess my technique, and opened up the potential to be a better player. After five decades playing bass I thought I'd seen it all. It's obvious why Entwistle stuck with Status Graphite for a decade, and why he was still using them until his death. It's quite possibly the best bass available. It eliminates many of the weaknesses and flaws inherent in conventional bass construction, is built to the highest standards, plays like a dream, sounds looks and feels great, and is virtually bomb-proof.

Original review: I was lucky enough to play one of Chris' personal basses (all black) through his Drones arena tour rig this year. I've played virtually every type of bass (I currently have a Jazz, two Precisions, a Ricky & a Bass Collection) from a Kay to an Alembic but nothing came close to this bass for rock music. Despite being a through-neck (which I tend to dislike) the notes SPANKED out of it like a bolt-on. Perhaps this was a combination of the graphite neck & body shell with the 18v active circuit. It was well balanced, rock solid, a comfortable weight and perfectly intonated. The neck profile was as comfortable and fast as a Jazz bass but with a slightly wider string spacing. There were no dead spots and the fingerboard felt like the best ebony (although I believe it's plastic/composite). The string tension was spot on: bends were easy but digging-in and pumping out 16th notes was a breeze. I tried various tunings (drop D; DGCF, concert pitch): the machine heads were accurate and held their tuning. Access to the entire two octave neck was unhindered and unlike some two octave necks the first two or three frets were easy to reach (unlike some alembics where the first fret requires an unnatural stretch of the fretting arm). The LEDs (white) were positioned such that they were functional rather than gimmicky: given the complexity of Muse's music they make perfect sense as a visual aid if you're on an arena / stadium stage. If I had one complaint it would be the Status logo on the headstock: for such a phenomenal bass it seems rather cheap and cartoon-ish. It sounded great when played acoustically (always the sign of a good bass) and through Chris's monster rack it was jaw-droppingly awesome. As an aside, Chris wears his bass a little too low for my style of playing (I'm three finger-style plucking) but who would have the nerve to tell him that?! It's such a good bass I'd swap my '72 Jazz for it if I had the chance. It really is that good.

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Absolutely incredible!

An amazing bass to play, and an amazing bass to look at.