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your first ever bass

M

mojtahedi

Mar 1, 2008
41
1
#1
im sure most of you didnt get a stingray for your first bass ( unless you are one of those spoilt little *****), most of us buy second hand basses or somthing thats like a toy. many get your typical squier bass or an ibanez gsr.

does anyone still own their first basses and have pictures o them?
 
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#2
My first bass was a squire starter pack (I was 13). I don't have the bass, i sold it for about $50 and never looked back. Still have the amp though. Pretty much a POS with two tone settings, on and off. Whatever, it's portable and i can't take my rig to my dorm.
 
#3
I bought a used "Satellite" jazz copy for £50. Sunburst finish was really nice but it was over a plywood body...

In the end I snapped one of the machines off it on a low ceiling so I butchered it, torched it, smashed it, and got a Yamaha.
 
#5
Hagstum something, Mark 4 (?) Sold it for twenty bucks after I got my first J bass. Wish I til had it.
Here it is...
 

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#8
Brownsville P/J starter pack. It got me hooked on bass guitar.
I still have the bass, as I used it for soldering practice - testing my ability to solder new pots, caps, pickups and jacks in different configurations. It also gave me confidence in removing and replacing hardware (bridge, tuners, etc.).
It has served a great purpose for me, and my sons are free to use it as a test bed for themselves.
 
#9
My parents were great. They bought me a new '72 Fender Musicmaster. It looked like this one. I sold it within a few months. But I still have the '73 Ric 4001 that I ordered new and that I paid for when I was 17.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#10
mojtahedi said:
im sure most of you didnt get a stingray for your first bass ( unless you are one of those spoilt little *****), most of us buy second hand basses or somthing thats like a toy.
Click to expand...
Actually, a brand-new Stingray was my second bass. My first bass was a brand-new, straight from the factory, Jetglo Rickenbacker 4003. I was 17.

Not spoiled, unless you consider working for minimum wage, saving every cent, and paying for the whole thing by yourself "spoiled".
 
#11
mojtahedi said:
im sure most of you didnt get a stingray for your first bass ( unless you are one of those spoilt little *****), most of us buy second hand basses or somthing thats like a toy. many get your typical squier bass or an ibanez gsr.

does anyone still own their first basses and have pictures o them?
Click to expand...

My first bass ended up being a GREAT life lesson. I bought a 1981 Fender Precision. I was 14 years old. I saved money from my paper route for 2 years. I think it was $350 or something like that, but until I had enough money to buy what I considered to be "the best" at that time, I just rented one for like $40 a year (rather than buying a cheaper bass).

Turns out that my tastes have changed (I play Fender Jazz basses now and a Fodera Monarch) and two years ago I finally sold the old P-Bass -- for $1,200!! So, by saving my money and buying a quality instrument I got 20+ years of use out of it AND well more than my money back!
 
#15
ok im sorry about the spoilt bit obviously i meant if you got your parents to buy you a top notch bass cause you thought you would give it a trie, im only saying this because i kno of a friend who wen he was 13 got his mum to buy him an original les paul electric guitar and gave up 2 weeks later..
 
#16
My first bass was a Washburn XB-100. It was passive with a single precision pick-up. Later I bought a used Stingray for 500 bucks, believe it or not. The guy was 500 dollars short of his rent and had to sell in a jiffy to keep a roof above his head. I have none of them now, still I regret ever selling the Stingray, eventhough I sold it for 1500 bucks.
 
#17
my first bass was an epiphone thunderbird. i don't consider myself spoiled--i had about $260 or so of my own money in the store looking to get the slightly cheaper les paul bass. when the one at guitar center was (surprise surprise) nowhere near working order, i went on trying every bass in the store. it came down to the thunderbird, and my parents only covered the extra $40 or so because i did well in school that quarter. AND that money came out of my christmas budget. we're not poor either.
 
#19
mojtahedi said:
(unless you are one of those spoilt little *****)
Click to expand...

My father let me play his 1978 Fender P Bass through one of his Ampeg B-15N portaflex amps (and also through a vintage Fender Bassman 4x10). The Ampeg and the PBass became completely mine as graduation presents from HS, but up until that point, they belonged to my dad, and playing was a privilege.

I had to earn every minute of playing that bass - it was the only effective incentive for acceptable grades or behavior. Good behavior & grades = ability to play. Poor grades or behavior = no play. One time I had mouthed off something fierce, so I lost the PBass & amp - I had to use my high school's old Peavey bass & keyboard amp for a regional jazz band concert. It was so beat up & heavy - a real beast to play & sounded terrible. It helped me keep my mouth shut in the end.

Does that count as a spoiled *****?

imp.

P.S. posted prior to viewing "spoiled" correction.
 
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#20
Don't recall the exact year (Late '85 or Early '86), but lets just say circa 1985 Right handed squire p-bass, made to be lefty. turned it into a fretless in '88-'89, has had about 3 different paint jobs that were painted over instead of stripped. Still have it, play live occasionally and still record with it.
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/Jason
 

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