Having owned £100-1000 basses the only one that has really stood out above the rest is the Warwick, I can't fault it, I got it in a sale at Reverb for £699. I've had a Wesley bass (£100) a Jap Fernandes Jazz (£250) a Yamaha BB414 (£220) a Jap Fender P (£325) and a Stingray (£850). All played and sounded good with no real issues. Guitar wise Ive had an Epiphone Les Paul wich I got for about £120 and an Aria ProII for my son which I paid £56 for both are good guitars and would easily hold their own.
A chap turned up for a jam with us a few weeks ago and had a Cort, one of these I think [url="http://www.cort.co.kr/english/products/common/view.asp?product_id=125"]http://www.cort.co.kr/english/products/com...?product_id=125[/url] which sounded great and he swore by it, said it was as good as any high end guitar he had played.