Did you keep your first bass?

[balton4]

it was stolen 6 months ago.

OLP mm4 5 string. not a day has gone by that i havent missed it.

Ouch... Sorry to hear that! I would kill the jerk if someone stole any of my instruments. And i have a fair few.

Jupiter Baritone, Getzen Trombone, 1960 Silvertone archtop acoustic, Epiphone Thunderbird, First Act Electric Guitar and drums, Peavy Predator Plus electric guitar, and i play tuba too.

 

[Pilgrim]

I have mine - and have for 45 years....

 

[Korladis]

I modded my first bass because I wasn't using it and I knew it wouldn't be worth much to sell.

I replaced the bridge, and routed out the body to put a 4001 bridge pickup where before it had been a P type pickup. I'm not done, either.

 

[dedpool1052]

i have most of my first bass, a squier p-bass special. the neck ended up in a bonfire(dont ask). i still have the body, pickguard, hardware and electronics. planning on repainting the body black, getting a maple/maple neck for it, dimarzio p/j pickups and new hardware for it. still trying to decide on either chrome or black hardware.

 

[s_mcsleazy]

still have mine, rarely used and im not overly into the sound but i really dont want to mod it.

 

[McBassHead]

I sold my first bass over 40 years ago. I can't remember what it was...just kidding. It was a Gibson EB3. Do I miss it? Hell no! It had a warped neck and it never stayed in tune. I've learned a lot since those days. At least I think I did

 

[packhowitzer]

nah. traded a Samick 4 string p copy for a samick 5 string with pj pickups. it wasn't really much of an upgrade though.

 

[Steelers Fan]

My first bass was a birthday gift from my wife. She's the reason I play bass now. It's a Washburn 4-string P-bass. I don't play it much anymore, but it has too much sentimental value to sell.

 

[darkstorm]

Nope no reason to. Upgraded from it.

 

[eddododo]

I de fretted, dissasembled, unwired, abandoned rewiring


But its still around here somewhere

 

[INTP]

My first bass was a Ventura MIJ copy of a '60s jazz (made in the early '70's). It would be worth next to nothing to anyone but me. I have re-fretted it and an replacing some old pots. I play it from time to time, and find it more motivational than anything. It reminds me of the early days of playing and practicing and reminds me why I love bass so much.

 

[fretlessbear]

My first bass was a cheapo sears bass, I broke it into several pieces at a gig one night, drove the crowd wild but I never regretted it. What I do regret is I purchased a gibson EB from a friend, it was the blue one worth unknown riches. He did not likethe color so he painted it black, when I got it I stripped it to the wood and clear sealed that beautiful wood then played it for a while and sold it. I have never forgiven myself

 

[GBassNorth]

Did I keep my first bass?
Nope, used it long enough to figure out that I really liked the bass as an instrument and wanted to learn how to play better. So a year after I bought my first bass (a nice looking and sounding Schecter C4 deluxe) I added a Pedulla Pentabuzz 5 string fretless to the line up with the notion it would probably be the only fretless I'd ever own so I went with a nice one. I soon realized I liked playing 5 strings better than 4 strings so I bought an Alembic Essence and sold my first bass, the Schecter.
Haven't looked back but have added many many more basses and amps and guitars to the collection. Still sorting out which ones I like best. Each one seems to have something really neat about it that I'd hate to loose but someday soon I'll be moving and I'll thin the herd to just a few keepers at that time.

 

[Temezki]

I still use my Jackson C20MJ.

 

[TNcaveman]

I had two basses that I wanted when I was 17 (1981): the main one was a Rickenbacker 4001 the other was a P-bass. The two local stores had a early 70's P-bass for around 300 bucks and another store had a used 1975 4001 for $400. I talked my Mom into lending me $200 and I got the Rick. And yes, I paid her back. I even remember playing Yes' Close to the Edge for my Dad to let him hear what a Rick sounded like. He said to get what I would be happy with. I still have Rick (my daughter named him) after 31 years. I don't play him as much since getting 2 younger girl friends - the Alembics (another story). My first bass is one purchase I have never regretted.

Steve

PS - I traded my first electric guitar and never regretted that trade.

 

[kurosawa]

I threw it in the trash.

 

[tabdog]

Got my first bass in 1984. It is the
best bass I have ever played.

Of course I still got it,

Tabdog

 

[The Sailor]

Personally, i think it helped you learn and get to where you are today, so instead of leaving it on a shelf to collect dust, give someone else an oppurtunity to buy and learn on it as well and better their playing. If you love it, let it go

 

[Jim Baritone]

My first bass was a Rickenbacker stereo. I don't know when it was made or which model number it was - I played it from 1971 - 1975. It had a distinctive sound, and also one other distinguishing feature: it was bright, bright purple - the exact same purple as found on Smarties candies, hence its nickname "the Purple Smartie". I'm attaching a picture of a purple Rickenbacker I found on the 'web. The bass in the picture is not the same model as the one I had, but the color, although faded, is probably the same as the original Rickie purple. It was a bright, bright solid-color finish, and the picture doesn't even begin to come close to that. However, it's the best I could find.

It was, as I recall a nice bass to play (given that I was a teenage garage-band musician, my exposure to good instruments was limited), with what seemed like a really long, thin neck, which I loved. I don't remember the details of the pickups or electronics, but it had a real late '60's-early 70's vibe to it, and it had what seemed to be a true stereo output with two jacks - I needed two separate amp stacks to get the full sound it was capable of producing.

Sadly, I was never the true "owner" of the bass. It was part of our collective band equipment along with amps, drum kit, etc. and, although I took it to and fro and gigged with it, I was never the sole owner. In 1975 the band began to fall apart. We sold off the band's equipment to pay off various collective debts, and I didn't have the cash to buy the Rickenbacker outright.

At around the same time, I acquired a Gibson EB0 about which I have written elsewhere on this forum - I got it in lieu of wages owed to me by the somewhat bent owner of a bad music school, so I said goodbye the the "Purple Smartie". I've never seen another one like it, and I wish to this day that I'd been able to find the cash to buy it outright for myself.

Jim Bari

 

[Bisounourse]

Yes, I kept my first bass. A Framus shortscale, which I bought used when I was 17 years old, and needed a bass to play in the group I was in. It was my main bass for 5 years, and to this day I still ocasionally play it. I'd never part with it, to love for that bass is too big.