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Did you keep your first bass?

#21
I still have mine. I will never sell it. Too many great memories. Plus, it has a killer rock sound. I tracked with it a couple years back but sadly I don't get to play it as often as I would like.

Charvel CHS-4 bought new in September of '95.

I have upgraded the pups to Dimarzios, the crappy tuners to Hipshot ultralites, and rewired it for push/pull series/parallel knobs for each pickup.

Great sounding and playing bass.

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#23
My first bass was a Hondo II P-bass knockoff. I was at one point in a band with a very label-conscious, yuppie kind of ****er, and he of course played all brand-name ****, and was always talking about how his former bassist had a real BC Rich. I ended up sanding the logo off, which I wish I hadn't done.

I sold the bass to -- amusingly enough -- the bass who had sung in a barbershop quartet with me in our HS of The Music Man (I was the "ice cream" tenor). I tracked him down 3 years later and bought it back. He had installed a (useless) toggle switch but otherwise it still worked great.

I still have it, and I actually have replaced all the tuning keys on it since one of them got smashed when it fell over a couple years back. It sounds very nice, actually. So nice I used it on the first track on my band's latest CD. I wanted a thumpy sound, and the Hondo delivered. The only reason I don't play it more is the electronics are shot to hell and the neck isn't as comfortable as I'm used to, but I could overcome those things. It is a very light-weight instrument and with some new pickups and wiring, it would sound badass.

I sold it when I got my Rickenbacker, but I regretted it bitterly a few months later when the Rick abruptly started popping its D tuning key (it was a closed-back pewter-cast Grover, and it sucked). I could have used a backup bass.

I don't sell any instruments. I pick them very carefully, and when I want one it is because I really want it. And I just get very attached to them.
 
#27
I have become attached to some instruments over the years, but I try hard to remember they are tools and nothing else. It's the music, not the instrument that matters.

And no, I don't have any of my 'firsts', be that guitar, bass, keyboard, ice skates, karate gi, whatever.
 
#28
josiah goldfish said:
If you're not sure then don't do it. You will probably regret it (there's so many stories of people who miss their's on here). I love my bass, it has memories in it.

If you only get $50 for it, what's the point? You can't buy it back, and if you wait a bit longer you'll get that much money anyway.

In short, don't put yourself through it
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Mmm... I suppose your right, i shouldn't sell it. Ill keep it around, and try my hand at modding it. Maybe turn it into a jazz bass. My friend is always dissing me because i played it all the time, and he plays all brand name stuff that his parents buy for him, where as i have to buy all my crap on my own. I don't care what he says, a 1960 silvertone archtop acoustic guitar for 75 bucks in great shape off craigslist? GOOD DEAL.
 
#30
balton4 said:
Mmm... I suppose your right, i shouldn't sell it. Ill keep it around, and try my hand at modding it. Maybe turn it into a jazz bass. My friend is always dissing me because i played it all the time, and he plays all brand name stuff that his parents buy for him, where as i have to buy all my crap on my own. I don't care what he says, a 1960 silvertone archtop acoustic guitar for 75 bucks in great shape off craigslist? GOOD DEAL.
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Much better use of your time, modding, and if you mess it up, what have you got to lose? I defretted my first bass (still my only bass) and now I play it sooooo much more!
 
#31
I still have my first bass. It`s a 2000 or 2001 MIM Fender P bass in midnight wine. I learned how to play on that instrument. I also joined my first band and played my first show with that bass. I would like to hold on to that bass forever. After a few years it`s neck started to warp and between my bass collection growing I set it aside. About ten years later my girlfriend took it to a shop and had it de-fretted and set up for me. Turned out super nice!
Now my first bass is also my first fretless bass.
 
#32
I purchased my first bass new in 1993, a MIM Fender Jazz bass. I put DiMarzio Model J pickups in it that same year. To this day, almost 20 years later, it is still my primary bass and the only electric fretted bass I've ever purchased. I will never part with it. I inherited an Ibanez SR400, which I use as a backup; it never gets played.
 
#33
josiah goldfish said:
Much better use of your time, modding, and if you mess it up, what have you got to lose? I defretted my first bass (still my only bass) and now I play it sooooo much more!
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Hmm... Defretting? That sounds pretty good actually. I have been looking into a fretless, so that isn't a bad idea. Turn it into a fretless jazz bass, maybe switch out the pickups as the stock ones are pretty weak. Sounds... interesting haha
 
#34
change-jug said:
I still have my first bass. It`s a 2000 or 2001 MIM Fender P bass in midnight wine. I learned how to play on that instrument. I also joined my first band and played my first show with that bass. I would like to hold on to that bass forever. After a few years it`s neck started to warp and between my bass collection growing I set it aside. About ten years later my girlfriend took it to a shop and had it de-fretted and set up for me. Turned out super nice!
Now my first bass is also my first fretless bass.
Click to expand...

Thats how it is with the silvertone and i. Played my first gig at band camp before a dance with it. Joined my first rock band with it. Played at my high schools battle of the bands with it. Got insulted from my "you need a good brand name amp, bass, and a few good pedals too" friend quite a bit :rollno: Lots of sentimental reasons behind it.
 
#36
jim777 said:
I have become attached to some instruments over the years, but I try hard to remember they are tools and nothing else. It's the music, not the instrument that matters.
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Well, they are also works of art themselves. I don't know how many people I've shown my beat-to-hell Rickenbacker to, who have immediately commented on how gorgeous it (still) is. That happened just the other day. It is an unsolicited comment and I get it a LOT.

To me, it is a mess of scratches and repairs, but I usually am looking at it from the backside.

They have different personalities. The Ric is my long-suffering friend, I've played more than any other bass, who sometimes just gets cranky on me but we love each other and she's good to me.

My Spector is my rock-solid reliable friend who is just a tad heavy on my back. She's never let me down, but I can't hold her up for very long without hurting my shoulders.

My maple finish Squier VMJ is my hands-down no-trouble-ever-at-all bass that I can drop into any situation and she does it all, perfectly. I would bronze her if it made sense -- an absolute dream performer, versatile as all get out, never complains never gets weird, never is the wrong bass to take at a gig.

My Squier VMJ Fretless is my challenge, my peak to climb, who is currently humming and crackilng and needs some technical work done, I think. Sounds tremendous, though.

They are all precious to me. I like to invest a lot of time into learning an instrument through and through, finding all of the quirks, all of the nuances, all of the colors. I'm forever changing around knobs and settings, adjusting string heights, tweaking this and that. The longer I play an instrument the more fluid I get on it. When I get a new one the old ones go on standby for awhile, but I always come back to 'em.
 
#38
I chopped it up and burned it. A Kay POS with a plywood neck and body that made a old woman with scoliosis look straight by comparison. The thing crackled less while it was burning than the pots did when being adjusted. I'm still playing some 35 years later so I'll say; thanks dad for that initial $40.00 investment!
 
#39
my first bass was a soundgear sr400. i traded it, along with my second bass (tr expressionist), for my usa fender p. its still my nuber one to this day. i kinda wish i still had that sr400 around, but i wouldnt have my main go to bass if i still did.....so i sleep good at night.
 
#40
Sell the Silvertone, sell the electric that you want to upgrade from. Earn a bit of money and put it all towards buying an electric that you think is great, regardless of the name brand. Forget the name brand.

Since you're kind of new, find the best guitar repair shop in town and ask their advice about any new electric you are considering, before you buy it. They can tell you its potential to be great, based on several factors you might not be thinking about yet.

Buy and play quality instruments, not ones whose deficiencies you have to work hard to overcome. You want to make music, not nostalgia.
 

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