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first bass to give you GAS?

#22
I am realizing that, even at 30, I'm still younger than a lot of you guys here. For me, it was a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass.

They had just come out, so this was around '97/'98. I was a huge Geddy fan and a fairly new player. Up until then, I had owned two different Ibanez basses and was using the one I had bought most recently in my first "real" band. Both of them disappeared in the mix anytime I played higher than the A string. I saw the Geddy at a music store and assumed it would be expensive, but decided to play it anyways. The high-end response was exactly what I was after. When I saw how reasonably it was priced, I nearly lost it. The blocks and binding were awesome to me. One band practice later, I went to my local store and had them order one for me. It was great. I sold it a long time ago and I wouldn't use one for my main bass today (it would be a KILLER backup to my AD Jazz though), but I still love that bass. I've pretty much been a Fender guy ever since that day. I stray every once in a while, but I always come back to them.
 
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#24
I was 11 years old (now I am 29) and really into the Red Hot Chili Peppers. So, it was a black Stingray with a maple board. I finally got one when I was 17 but ended up returning it because the battery leads were severed when I put a new battery in it. That bummed me out and I did not want any other issues with it.
 
#25
In the early '70s I used to see the glossy natural ash Jazz basses with maple fingerboards. They were everywhere...when I went to see Lightnin' Hopkins at a club on Guadalupe, his bass player had one.

I eventually bought a Global JB copy but it wasn't the same. By the time I was a full-time bass player I had a Precision (three of 'em, actually) and now I look back at the three-bolt neck and the bowling ball finish and the old flame has died.

But one of my Ps is natural ash/maple fingerboard.
 
#27
It was 1981. I'd been playing about 4 years on an Ibanez copy of a Rick 4001. I walked into Leo's Music in Oakland, California with the intention of buying a REAL Rickenbacker. And there it was .... a 1979 handmade BC Rich Mockingbird. Neck through, TWO sets of Dimarzio P-style pickups and active electronics. The GAS was overwhelming and I succumbed. Traded my Ibanez/Rick copy AND a near mint 1969 Fender Strat that I got for my 8th birthday AND came out of pocket another $300 for the BC Rich. I played her for another 3-4 years before trading it for the Rickenbacker I wanted in the first place.

Oh, as a sidenote, I recently saw a 1969 strat like the one I traded sell for $18,000 on line. Even a DEAD MINT 1979 Mockingbird would only fetch about $2,000. So, it appears that I learned early that GAS can lead to some really bad decisions in the long run.
 
#28
First bass I had ever played, 1975-79( unsure exactly) custom Odyssey. I havn't been able to find anything like it anywhere or on the net. My buddy's mom used to play bass back in the day and she had it custom made for her appraised at around $5,000 or so. Most beautiful, and comfortable bass I have ever laid eyes on or held. I have no idea hat types of wood it had, its like nothing I have ever seen before. The tone is indescribable and I'd kill for one. Too bad they won't part with it :( I'm trying to get pictures lol
 
#30
I had been playing bass for about 2 years when I first had GAS. My instructor had a Ibanez GSR200 (:scowl:) and I fell in love with it. Needless to say that I went out and bought my own.

I sold a year later and bought a Fender Jazz. First good thing I did in the world of bass. I am a happy man now.
33e7jio.jpg
 
#31
I worked in a horrible music shop in the mall, and the only bass really worth playing was a delicious Peavey Cirrus with a redwood top. That bass inspired the crap outta me and I actually wrote some material on it, when the bosses weren't around. My plan was to save up the dough and use my measly employee discount, and buy that bloody thing. Well they treaded me like such s#!t that I quit before I could buy it. I still miss that bass but now I'm super happy with my baby (Sukop).
 
#32
Double Agent said:
I am realizing that, even at 30, I'm still younger than a lot of you guys here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a *lot* younger, sonny. Show some respect. :rollno:
;)

First bass to give me GAS? My first bass.
40 years ago... DAMN! It's been 40 years?!?!
GAS *never* goes away either.

I remember, she was a shapely young thing, blond, long smooth neck...
 
#34
Back in '74 I had to have a Fender Bass VI. I finally found one a year later and couldn't find much use for it and sold it. Then 33 years later I GAS'ed over it again; now I have two. Thank God I haven't GAS'ed yet over the Mellotron I sold 22 years ago; I did find a digital replacement for it however. Funny how we dump stuff amd then yearn for it years later.
 
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#36
UncleBalsamic said:
When I was about 11, a violin bass copy in a local music shop. I bought it and still love it.
Click to expand...

That is EXACTLY it. Except I never got the bass.

I think that's about the same age when I would go to the local shop that had a Hofner knockoff. I still remember that it was $105.

I've never owned a violin bass. Part of me would like to get a Hofner or a butchered EB-1, but I really haven't liked the ones I've played.
 
#38
It was 1989, and I was a sophomore in college. I'd been playing for about a year and a half, and I went in to a music store in NYC, and they had a Steinberger XL-2 on the wall. Instant GAS, and once I played it, everything quickly progressed to a full-fledged GAS conflagration like I'd never had before and quite honestly haven't experienced since. I went back and bought it the next day. It was my main bass until around 2005, when I discovered TB and started buying others. I've acquired some nice basses recently, and one or two of them may get more playing time than it does, but it is the only one I will never sell.
Nothing else sounds like it.
And I mean, NOTHING else sounds like it.
IMG_0718.jpg


BTW: Grateful: nice story on the Ric. :cool:
 
#39
The first one that REALLY, REALLY gave me GAS was a Pedulla I played about 20 years ago. I was 18 or so and the bass was either $3500 or $4500. It was at Steve's Music in Toronto and I thought they were going to have to physically take it off of me. First and only bass that has ever really made me consider turning to crime to pay for it! Also, I was working in a gas station part time for $5.15 per hour. Needless to say I didn't get the Pedulla.
 
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