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First Bass stories

P

peaveyuser

Inactive
Oct 18, 2006
4,349
7
Montreal,Canada
#1
I just thought this idea would make a good thread, basically post the story on how you got your first bass I'm sure there are some really interesting ones here.

So on to business.

I remember I originally wanted to be a guitar player (this was long ago), high school was coming up and I decided to join the music program, only thing was they had no guitars (classical music specialized school), so I decided to choose what would be the closest to guitar and what would be the closest to playing in the rock genre, so I chose double bass. I played it for a while and then after learning the bass clef and such, I just decided to go electric bass, also considering that there were too many guitarists. I went to different shops (for some reason I wanted only an American brand, no yamaha, ibanez etc...), my dad showed me Squires but I thought the neck was too thick (smaller hands only 12 at the time) actually most basses I thought had too thick necks. After looking and looking I finally found a bass that felt right, my Peavey, sound and looks didn't matter I just liked the feel. So I tried this AMAZING bass (at the time) at a pawn shop, which was selling it for 300$, thing that kinda dissapointed me was it was red but still seemed to be the only one for me. After a while my dad checked out another music store, figured out they were selling the same bass New, in black, for 230$! We went to the shop and turns out I tried the last model they had!:D So happy after that even though I could play very little it felt so awesome to have my own instrument. Was winter too so it made the experience even nicer:D


4 years later I still have that bass. The neck has warped on me a few times, the neck has scratches and small dents, the knobs are wobbly (tone knob is super glued cause the pot broke, doesn't move), some of the pick guard screw holes are stripped, one tuning knob is cracked a bit and the body finish has scratches and paint cracks.

Still I love this bass, it sounds great (that p style pickup is great, nice full tone), and the playibilty is great for what it is (great action). I wouldn't sell this bass.

PEAVEY MILESTONE IV! :bassist:
 
#3
I couldn't afford to buy my first bass. I had to rent it. The local music store had 2 basses on the wall. One was $100, the other was $135. I had to go for the $100 bass, which I rented for $5/mo. That bass was a Vox Mark IV teardrop. It really was an awful bass, but I learned my chops on it. I ended up buying it, since my rent money went towards purchase.

The other bass? It was a green Epiphone Embassy. I've never seen another one in over 30 years. Go figure.
 
#4
my first bass was a left handed westone spectrum ST about 4 years ago, I was looking for a left handed bass but figured I should learn right handed instead.

I picked up the bass and the salesman told me I was holding it upside down: a lefty? beauty!

I switched to right handed a year or so later, I think the bass ended up in canada after I sold it.
 
#5
This is very topical - I just re-discovered this old scanned photo of my first bass, today :).


Westone Thunder 1A:

Andysfirstbass.jpg


It was my 17th birthday present (back in the mid-'80s ;)) and was paid for with some money that I had just inherited from a very kindly relative :smug:.

I was inspired to take up the bass by seeing an English band called, New Model Army, whose bass player was using a similar bass ("Thunder Jet") at that time. This marked the beginning of my love affair with black basses :D.

After a while (when I'd accquired a second, fretted bass), I decided that I wanted to try my hand at fretless bass playing, so I ripped the frets out of the Westone and painted the fretboard with matt black paint (to look like fretless ebony) :rollno:. I also installed a pair of recessed, metal "slap plates" into the end of the fretboard and changed the brass hardware for chrome parts. It looked pretty sharp and I had no trouble selling it to a London guitar store ("Maccarris", where mark King had previously worked ;)) for a decent sum :).

It was a good, solid bass, but I've never really GASsed for another one, as I was subsequently spoiled :p by owning a Westone Thunder IIIA bass - that really was a gem that I'd like to have back now ! ;)
 
#6
About a year ago, the jazz band at my new school (I am the K-12 band/music teacher) did not have a bass player... Being a tuba player I was playing the bass lines on my horn, but when we started playing "Groovin" (Simple bass line...) I decided to try my hand on the school's Yamaha bass... Loved it, started learning the rest of the songs... Started looking to get my own. Was about sold on an Ibanez when I went to Apple music here in Portland and played an Epiphone Viola, and loved it! Now I was torn... First thing when I got back from Christmas, I walked into Guitar Center and saw the Viola marked down from $399 to $249 and could not walk out without it... I love that bass and just plan on never giving it up... I love the sound more every time I play it... Great for playing classics like Brown Eyed Girl, and of course Beatles stuff and sounds fantastic with the jazz band... Anyway... there ya go.
 
#8
My Dad bought me a CHEAP bass in 1969...(THAT DATES ME!!) Anyway it was a Fender "copy" (Didn't even have a brand name on it) that he got at a hawk shop for $25.00. That's what I learned on....Wish I hadn't given it away when I got a "Lyle" for Christmas.I also had a 1960's Fender Bassman amp to play them through....I GUESS I WAS JUST BORN STUPID...I also sold my 66 Mustang convertable for $800.00!!!!!!!
 
#9
Wow, back in 98, a friend convinced be that because I had large hands, guitar would be more difficult, so I picked up a bass at a local music shop, and just noodled for a little while. That first bass was a cheap fender jazz knock off that I bought new for $88. it was a RokAxe... traded it a year later for an Ibanez gsr 200
 
#10
I had been playing guitar in bands since high school and occasionally would borrow a bass if someone needed a bass player. I kept doing this more and more - I guess people liked my bass playing :). I bought a TEAC 4-Track tape recorder in 1980 to make home demos and went out and bought a little drum machine and an Ibanez P-bass copy. I guess it would be called a "lawsuit bass" today because it had the Fender headstock. It wasn't a bad bass but I soon moved on to real Fenders. The next one I had was a nice late 60s Jazz that I wish I still had! Didn't realize that it would become so valuable because it wasn't "pre-CBS". I sold it because the pickups were really microphonic and would squeal. Now, you all may think I'm bulls#@ting but this is the truth: I was once playing in a little club in Philly in the 80's and Jaco Pastorius came in and sat in and played on that Jazz bass. (his dad lived in Norristown, right outside of Philly) Right away he realized that the pickups were microphonic and so he started singing into the pickups and his voice came out of the amp!
 
#11
i saved forever to get my first bass. i got a package that included a GTX bass with a carpeted yellow Marathon combo amp (and the other usual suspects in these starter packages). must've cost me like $300 or $400 or something like that. terrible but at the time it was the most amazing sound i had ever heard. the amp eventually blew out from constantly playing it with all the knobs turned all the way up in an effort to match the volume of a drum set in my first band. the bass got sanded down, i yanked the frets out and filled them with wood filler and eventually sold it for probably $25. ah memories...
 
#12
my first bass was a Kramer Striker with PJ pups and action at least 2 inches off the fretboard. not cool, but i didn't know any better.

i had be wanting to play bass for the longest time. i'd bugged my parents endlessly. i went to a church camp where we saw a band comprised of our friends. that convinced some friends of mine and i to form a punk band. problem is, i didn't have a bass. (they didn't know that). my plan was to go home and make a clear, concise, persuasive presentation to my parents about how a bass would enrich my life and convince me to do the chores more often, yadda yadda. anyhoo... end of the camp week, i get home, my parents are just chilling at the table, reading papers, whatnot... i decide to launch into my schpiel, when out of the corner of my eye, what do i see? a red bass sitting in the corner. i look at my father, "what's that?"
"a bass." he replies
"who's it for?"
"we're not sure yet. we figured there might be someone who'd like it."
"y'know, i could take a look at it. let you know what i think."
"yeah?"
"yeah."
"alright. have fun!"

i love my father. he's very understated, and has a great sense of humour.

played it for a few years, graduated to a Cort Curbow 4. put a shim in the neck pocket of the Kramer, fixing the action. sold it to the kid next door who immediately took it all apart, and lost most of the pieces. i lost no sleep on that one.

/story
 
#13
My first bass story is boring; I walked into a shop and bought an Ibanez Blazer.

Several moths later, I went into Palings in Pitt St mall and was utterly gobsmacked by the most beautiful instrument I had ever seen, a walnut Alembic Distillate. I immediately set about finding the money for it. A few weeks later I went back (ther had been many 'visits' in between just to look longingly) to purchase it, it was still there in the glass case, but it had a sold tag wedged in the strings. I was gutted. I went back to the studio I was working in and one of my workmates asked what was up. I told him the story. He listened and I felt a little better. later he came back and asked if I still wanted it. "Of course" I replied. He told me to go and pick it up. I drove into the city, and the saleshack sold it to me muttering something about a mistake. Seems my workmate's dad was on the board of directors of the chain that owned the store and he'd pulled strings to make sure I got it. Sorry for the other guy, but it was a great thing for a mate to do for me.

I sold it a couple of years later when I was really broke and hungry, but I'm still searching for that same bass; 83D2915
 
#14
Dateline: Austin, Texas, 1984.

I played the cello in the school orchestra, and a little upright bass too. Some friends of mine wanted to put together a band for the annual school talent show and needed a bass player. I convinced my folks to buy me a bass so I could join the band. It was an obnoxious red Ibanez Destroyer bass - like the one in this pic:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I wish I still had that bass. I played with the same group all the way through high school, and then continued to play with the drummer in the jazz program at UT Austin in the early 90s. The singer was Rick Trevino, who ended up having a decent country and Tejano career - still does, as far as I know.
 
#15
The first bass I remember buying was an old 1960's Framus solidbody, made in Germany. It was made up of laminated woods, neck and body, IIRC. The laminations were meant to be decorative, and it was pretty and interesting to look at. Paid $60 at a second-hand store in Gallup, NM (just passin' thru). I intended on learning to play it, but traded it off (for something unimportant evidently, because I don't have that any longer either).

Bill Wyman was a Framus endorser at one time in the mid-sixties.
 
#16
I was a harmonica player first and foremost, since I was 5 years old about. One day my friend Andrew comes up to me, I must've been twelve at the time, and says he wanted to start a band.

"Do you need a harmonica player?"

"No."

"Oh..."

"Wanna play bass or drums?"

Well I wanted to be in a band so I guess it was either bass or drums. I knew we had both at my house, but I was too lazy to move around a drum kit so I said bass. Went home said "Dad I wanna play bass." "Why?" "Because I wanna be in a band and get rich and famous."

He gave me a funny look and handed me a cheap old Japanese bass from the 60s called a Zimgar and a Fender Deluxe Reverb (the fact it was a guitar amp didn't seem to matter) and told me not to put the volume past 7 or he'll beat me to a pulp.Then he handed me a pitch pipe and told me that it was tuned EADG and left closing the door. I was left to ponder what EADG meant. (As I said I played harmonica first but it was based on a number system and I mainly just played along to stuff)

That bass had action that must have been two inches off the fretboard. I said playing it was too hard. He said fine. He handed me a beat up 1958 P-bass. It was baby blue and most of the paint was gone. I thought it was ugly and kept the Japanese bass as my main player. Eventually when I took it serious enough he gave me an Ampeg B-15 from the basement.

When the Zimgar broke I bought a cheap Washburn XB100 and it was a piece of junk and hurt my hands. I asked my dad for that arse-ugly p-bass and haven't looked back since.
 
#17
Well my first bass was the school loaner in 7th grade (circa-1982). I have no Idea what it was??? It was kit that our band teacher had made in the early 70's. It had 2 chrome pickups (looked like Les Paul pups), an aluminum pickguard and weighed a ton!! Then in the 2nd semester I moved up to B band and got to use a new Ibanez Roadstar (sweet at the time). Then in 8th grade my parents bought me a brand new Westone Concord I bass. I had 2 color choices, seafoam green w/white pickguard and black with white pickguard. I loved this bass!! I kept it until 1991 or so. I had upgraded the P style pickup with an EMG. I then traded it of for who knows what of many basses. I regret getting rid of it! It was a fun bass.
 
#18
I was in ft lauderdale for christmas break, and my uncle always bought me these ridiculously overpriced gifts, and i had gone to the music store because there were 2 of us who played guitar and my buddy was better than me, so I had the choice between a bunch of basses, and got it down to a MIM p, and MIM J and an epiphone violin bass, i chose the black J bass, and to be honest I cant think of why? I was 12, and i'm 25 now.... Maybe i just liked the idea that for the same $250 price tag, you got 2 pickups with the J instead of just one on the P??? haha come to think of it, maybe its a good thing since i've got a jazz bass that i bought in Jaco's hometown?
 
#20
interesting story, haha

In grade 8 an 'ex-friend' got a guitar. he told me I should get a bass, becuase another friend had gotten a drumkit, and they wanted me to play bass. I asked my mum and dad if I could get a bass if my marks were good enough. 2 weeks before marks were even given out my dad asked if I wanted to go out for brunch. We drove to the music store, which made me very happy. We went in and headed straight to the bass section. I was crowded with gibson thunderbirds, fenders jazzes, squire's, ibanez's, ESP's , deans, the whole bunch. I picked up a nice looking ibanez GSR200 and started belting out seven nation army, the song I had been learning on a friends bass for nearly a month. Sales rep. comes over and sees i'm interested in bass. Him and my dad get talking away (My Dad is in the music production biz) about something or another. Few minutes later the sales rep, who I jam with sometimes at the store, comes back saying he'll give me a deal on the used ibanez i was playing plus a 15w Behringer amp all for 250$. I look at my dad with those big eyes and ask him if we could. He happily agreed. The sales rep included a free strap, free book, free cables, and offered to help whenever I needed any. We drove back home and stopped off for brunch at a small restaurant, Then got home. I was so happy, It was such a great day, I'd never played any instrument before, other then the tuba. I felt so proud of myself. I played that thing everyday for hours on end until my fingers bled and my hands were numb. All summer I played about 6 or 7 hours a day. Non-stop. Thats all I did. By the end of the summer I knew about 15 songs off by heart.

3 years later, I now own 3 basses, a 450w bass rig, I know countless songs off by heart, But I'll never forget how I felt on that day. I regret not thanking my dad in a better way, other then saying ''thanks dad!"...
 

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