First bass you ever touched.

[Chicory Blue]

Dad’s wine red lefty Fender Jazz Bass. Not sure the exact Pedigree, though I imagine it was MIM, as he’s always been a guitarist first. I recall firmly being a wee little thing, running my fingers over the strings and noting how discordant they were when all strummed at once. I didn’t understand how fretting worked until way later in life, so I wondered how in the world anyone was supposed to play a whole song with just four notes. Still, the thick strings were fun to pluck.

I wouldn’t feel the faintest urge to actually devote myself to *playing* anything with strings until maybe about two decades later. But they were always there.

--^@

 

[climber]

'64 Moesrite ventures 4 string. Obviously not this exact one, but it looked exactly like this. It played like butter as well. This one is going for over $5k!

 

[Pings Bass]

probably a fender or musicman at the mall music store in junior high

 

[Watchootognbout]

Back in '79 it was a no named EBO copy borrowed from my cousin.
With flatwounds.

Awful.

Gave it back to him.
Never borrowed it again.

In '80 I saved my money and bought a '79 MusicMan Sabre.

 

[BishopHastur]

Unknown make Violin type that was my (depending on who you ask) uncle's from the 60s/70s. Wish I still had it.

 

[Carl Hillman]

2005 Squire affinity p bass.
As expected a cheap average starter bass.

Red 70s Epiphone EA-260...

AKA "The Mud Machine"

 

[Jeff Preston]

'66 Jazz that is still owned by my uncle.

 

[Dammit_Carl!]

Some Prince-ly purpled out Hamer. Cruise(r?) type, I think, as it had a PJ config in a traditional type body.

 

[mikewalker]

It was something like this, a shortscale with dead flats that was making the rounds of our neighbourhood. Not quite as fancy as the pic here, and a lot more beat up! The original owner had upgraded to a "posh" 2-pickup SG copy badged either 'Raven' or 'Pan'. This one was unbadged, maybe Tiesco or Silvertone originally. I messed with it for a couple of days and gave it back to my neighbour.

A few weeks later (at my brother's insistent urging) I bought myself a pretty accurate MIJ Beatle Bass copy, and the year after that, I got exclusive use of a brand new 1974 Sunburst Fender Precision on permanent loan from our junior high school band teacher. Used to carry it home two miles down the railroad tracks every day... in that huge Fender orange-lined hard case that was taller than me!

 

[bassliner50]

1966. A Japanese piece of crap that like so many others at the time were inspired by American Fenders. There it is on the right. (my first bass. About $65 from Jimmy's Music on 48th St. & 6th Ave.) Never set up, strings never changed, played it to death.

 

[Dincrest]

Ibanez EXB404. That was my first bass. I worked an after school job at the local library to save up for it, and my dad went splits on it with me. Got it Xmas 1993 and started taking lessons January 1994.

(That library job also helped me save up for my first car a few years later. My dad went splits on that with me too. Thanks Dad! RIP!)

 

[GTx2]

Some model of Samick....can’t remember exactly. It actually played well and sounded good through a quality amp!

 

[bherman]

Danelectro short horn. Rented it from my local music shop to take lessons, until I bought a bass. This was back in the 60's, these are expensive now.

 

[dalkowski]

My brother - wannabe muso - had a Hagstrom with the swimming pool.

 

[IronLung1986]

Hamer Slammer

 

[PWRL]

The first bass I e'er did touch was some variety of 80's MIA Fender Jazz, black with white pickgaurd. It belonged to my school's Jazz Band. My two cohorts were setup crew for the various bands and theater productions which took place there, and allowed to play with that stuff. So, the first setup I played through was that Jazz Bass through some variety of Sunn 115 combo. Not too shabby to start off with. Definitely got me hooked.

 

[Dluxe]

This exact bass that I bought from Mark, who played in a band called Omega. It was September 1977 and in October 1978 I was playing my first gig with the band having replaced him because he graduated high school. Japanese Kingston short scale which served me well for 3 months after which it was replaced by a Gibson G3.

 

[Eilif]

Unknown half size upright in 3rd grade orchestra.

First electric handled was a Lotus PBass clone owned by the middle school band.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

Wish I knew ...

 

[MegaSwing]

In the mid-70s, my family went on a car trip that took us to many destinations in the Midwest. I was 14. One of our stops was Oklahoma City, where an old schoolteacher/local musician buddy of my dad's lived with his family. He actually had a Music Room in his house! In it was every kind of instrument, including a cheap off-brand bass (with an Antigua-like finish) whose headstock was beginning to pull upward under the stress of the strings. (I mean Cheap!) But it held tune well enough to get solid notes out of it. I was a fledgling, enthusiastic guitar player at the time. (I knew some licks, but not much else.) Within a year, I was a full-time bass player. It was the first bass I ever even noticed. And, man, was it ever cheap. Still, I couldn't resist the call.