In a new interview with Guitar World, new ZZ Top bassist Elwood Francis shared his regret about playing a 17-string bass. He explained:
“I did it to myself. I hate playing that f*cking bass. I found it late at night while internet surfing on one of those Chinese websites. I couldn’t believe they were making something like that.”
It seems that the bass was so hard to play that even the guitar tech struggled to get it ready for the show:
The bass went viral for its extreme number of strings and people even thought it was a joke. Francis then thought it was over, but it in fact wasn’t. He continued:
“I thought it was over, but the son of a b*tch went viral, and I woke up to all these messages and links to all this f*cking bullshit.”
How Francis Decided To Play A 17-String Bass
Francis took the bass duties in ZZ Top after the original bassist Dusty Hill’s passing. Although he started with a standard 4-string bass, the rocker later continued his career in the band with the 17-string bass.
In a post he shared on social media, Francis revealed that switching to the bass came out as a joke but later became serious. Moreover, the bassist thought the original designer of the instrument would be offended:
“Well, now… I thought I’d use this bass once or twice for no other reason than amusement. It’s such a strikingly absurd instrument. We’d all laugh and then move on to something else. However, it’s gotten too much attention not to talk about the guy that actually came up with the idea: Jared Dines.”
The bassist added:
“The bass I play is a Chinese-made POS. It’s a mid-copy of something he plays, and he’s probably all pissed off. I don’t know if he designed it, but the cat’s an amazing musician and sees me playing simple ass bass lines that I could play with one string while he has worked up music to make use of the damn thing.”
However, it seems that Dines isn’t offended at all. He commented under the post and wrote:
“Not pissed at all! I thought the picture of you playing it was photoshopped at first. I love that it’s real! Guitars are modified and remade all the time; I’m glad you had fun with it.”
You can see a fan-recorded footage of Francis playing his 17-string bass down below.