Originally Posted by: jimmy_kwtxI am not an achomplished bassist by any means but it sounds to me to be a fretless bass.

You are able to get that "bendy" sound becuase you have no frets and you are able to slide into a note smoothly.

I once knew a player who had one and this reminded me of the sound.

Could be that, personaly I never tried a fretless bass. But I don't think that for someone who only plays once a month that a new specialty bass is a very reasonable investment. I seriously think the best thing you can do is to get him to practice more.