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Basses you are emotionally attached to

I miss my first halfway decent bass a Rickenbacker 3001. I sold it when I got my 1st fender Jazz about 25 years ago. Every once in a while I look on ebay to see if someones selling one, could it be mine?....My dad bought it for me :crying: wish I never would have sold it!!! well I was a punk who didn't know anything.
 
Dr. Cheese...
I also traded off a bunch of good stuff.
But, if there's a bass you keep coming back to, even though you have better looking, more expensive, better "on paper" basses... that's the "home" bass. Sometimes, it's your very first bass, sometimes it's one you struggled to get, and sometimes it just drops in your lap unexpectedly.

By the way, I'm relocating to outside St. Louis... PM me and tell me where the GOOD music stores are!
 
Since I have let go of my originals, I would gues that the basses are most ideal to me are Stingray V's Quantum V's because I have had two of each and I would be very happy if I got one of either again. I also suspect that a Peavey USA Millennium V or a Lakland 55-94 or 55-02 would be a keeper for me also. The one's I have played have really impressed me.
 
For me it's my Ibanez SR300DXL which I named "Gloria". This is my first one and fell in love with it at first sight. When I bought it my buddies came with me I said to them "B.B. King has his Lucille and I got my Gloria". Although I've only had it for six months I've become quite attached to it. Since then I also bought a Dean Edge 5 but still have that thing for my Ibanez, when I go and play at the church or try to learn a new song it's the Ibanez I use I guess because it is so familiar to me. As I mentioned to my buddy "Big Al" when I pick it up it's like saying "hello" to an old friend. I don't think I'll part with this one.
 
This one. 35 years of my life have passed while this bass has laid down the bottom.

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Most of my basses have been traded in to get my next bass. That's what happens when you're po'. Notice I said po' , not poor. That's because I can't afford the whole word.

My first bass was bought by saving my lunch money from my (nearly) entire freshman year of high school. It was junk. But it was mine. It was a Beatle Bass copy by Ventura. It lasted a year or two before being traded in. I don't miss it, except for being my first. I tended to get better each trade, incrementally.

I had a Rickenbacker 4003 copy by Univox. Awesome bass, actually a little better than my real Rickenbacker 4003. The Univox was supposed to be a backup for the Ric. It ended up going the other way around. Then American Airlines killed the Univox.

WHen I got out of the Navy I just had the Rick. I got a Schecter Jazz copy to be the backup for the Ric. Again, the backup became the main bass. So I traded the Ric for a fretless Fender Jazz. It's my main bass, now. It has been for four or five years I think.

I wish I still had the Schecter, but it was dying and a new neck is a lot of money. So I traded it for a Guild Pilot. I loved that thing. Solid two piece flamed maple body, EMG's, fastest neck I had ever played. The neck was too thin, though. It would shift while I was playing. If I held up the weight of the bass with my left hand, it would go out of tune and the G would buzz. So I traded it in on a Spector NS2a.

The NS2a and the fretless Fender Jazz are what I have currently. I love the NS2a, But I don't LOVE it the way I did the Univox and the Schecter. And I have told my wife the fretless is to be buried with me.
 
I was hoping there would be a post like this out there somewhere.

My first bass I'm never selling is my Ibanez GSR200 (dun dun dun). It has been through SO much with me. Sure it only cost like $200, but you can't put a price the memory of learning to play an instrument that you're going to stick with for the rest of your life.

It looks nothing like it did when I bought it. I've converted it to fretless and done many other crazy conversions through the years.

The next bass I'm never selling is my Stingray. It was my first real bass. It was the bass that I learned to really play on. The Ibanez was good for a beginner bass, but I knew my playing would never be the same after I got that Stingray in my hands. This also kind disproved that whole, "It doesn't matter what bass you play. It's all about what you play" saying for me considering that there are somethings I can do on the Stingray that are physically impossible on the Ibanez. It does matter to some degree what kind of bass you play. But anyway...

The Stingray was the bass that I learned to slap, tap, and all of that good stuff on. I will NEVER part with it.

My current beauty, though, is my new Kubicki Ex-Factor. Not only am I emotionally attached to it, but I'm ergonomically attached to it as well. That thing is sick! (Ooh. I used a middle-schooler term. :D ) You can do whatever your brain tells your hands to do on that bass. It's also true when they say that you can make it sound like almost any other bass out there. I say almost because you (I) can't make it sound like a Stingray, but lucky me. I've got one. That coinsidence worked out to my advantage, I guess.

I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but it's never going anywhere. I'm also afraid though that I might never buy another kind of bass. I like it THAT much.

Well, I guess that's all for me. My three basses are my first bass, my first real bass, and quite possibly the last bass I'll ever need.
 
Yes. Not my first bass, though. My first was a total POS that caused more anger than joy. My second was was/is a '78 Rickenbacker. When I bought it, it was just a decent bass for a decent price.
But it never let me down. At one point, it was the only good piece of gear I owned (some would contend this is still the case). In the end it's sentimental because I associate it with a particular period in my life. It's part of the memory.

Now I'm in the process of trading it...oddly enough. Through the whole process I've had to remind myself that it's just an instrument.

Mike
 
Mine would be my '76 Rick 4001. I earned the money to buy it by working at a drive-in theater. I was a high school kid, Chris Squire and Geddy Lee were my biggest bass heroes, I had to have a Rick! I bought it on 6/17/80. It was a big event for me.
I started gigging in the bars in 1982, and I used the Rick up until 1985 when I found a beat up '57 vintage re-issue P-Bass for like $ 300.00. I felt better about abusing the P-Bass in the bars, so I put my Rick into semi-retirement.


-Art
 
Well, as goofy as this story is, it's the absolute truth! Mine would have to be a 1980 Ovation Magnum. Played a few jobs with it and then decided to "retire" for a few years to pursue another job in the "music industry". Well, a "friend" of mine (another bass player) asked me if he could "borrow" it for a recording session and I said fine! After about a month of not hearing from him I finally called his house only to hear those dreaded words "The number you called is no longer in service...." Later I heard that this "friend" had moved to Paris, France.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. I was parusing Ebay one day and WHAMMO!!! There is MY bass (Yes! I remembered the serial number!) for sale in pristine condition. I didn't hesitate for a second! Bought it and have had it ever since and will NEVER loan it out again, for any reason! Now, I currently own a Ric 4003, Daion Mark XX, Fender American Deluxe Jazz QMT, but the Ovation holds a special place in my heart, simply because I never thought I would see her again...I guess small miracles happen every now and again. My so-called "friend?" Never heard from the jerk again. Seems as though he had pawned it those many years ago and it had stayed with the guy I eventually bought it back from, still in my old hometown....
 

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