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First Bass You Got?
- Thread starter Max Vartanian
- Start date
I rented a Dean Edge to learn on and see if I'd like it, then I used birthday money from my 14th birthday to buy an MIM P-Bass, which I still have.
My answer is split in two. There's the first bass I bought, but then there's the first bass I wanted to buy.
The bass that finally broke me, that made me want to buy one to learn upon was a Squier Standard Precision Bass Special. Unfortunately, the specific one I wanted…Satin Pewter Metallic with the matching headstock…had been discontinued for three years.
However, during my long, exhaustive and fruitless internet scourings, not only did I discover the Fender Aerodyne, but spotted a ludicrously awesome deal on a used 'Dyne. It was still more than what I'd intended on spending, and it was a bit chipped-up ('Dynes do that, it seems), but it still looked great. So, I took the plunge.
But despite my excellent find, I never gave up on finding that P-Bass Special. After six months of some, if I may say "creative", searching, I finally found "My Sexy Beast"!
A great example of "having your cake and eating it too", if ever there were one!
The bass that finally broke me, that made me want to buy one to learn upon was a Squier Standard Precision Bass Special. Unfortunately, the specific one I wanted…Satin Pewter Metallic with the matching headstock…had been discontinued for three years.
However, during my long, exhaustive and fruitless internet scourings, not only did I discover the Fender Aerodyne, but spotted a ludicrously awesome deal on a used 'Dyne. It was still more than what I'd intended on spending, and it was a bit chipped-up ('Dynes do that, it seems), but it still looked great. So, I took the plunge.
But despite my excellent find, I never gave up on finding that P-Bass Special. After six months of some, if I may say "creative", searching, I finally found "My Sexy Beast"!
A great example of "having your cake and eating it too", if ever there were one!
My very first bass was a 1979 Peavey T-40 in all black with maple fingerboard. This was when I was 12 or 13 back in 1994.
It was heavy, sounded like crap at times, but it got the bass bug started and fed the bug!
It was heavy, sounded like crap at times, but it got the bass bug started and fed the bug!
I guess I have three "first" basses, and I still own two of them. The very first bass I had was bought for me from my father when I was ten. It was a black Les Paul copy, and I'm pretty sure it had no name on the headstock. My second bass was a Cort precision bass, also bought by my father, but to me it counts as my real "first" bass, because it is really the one I learned to play on. My first bass of any quality, and first bass that I purchased with money I had earned was a Washburn Bantam headless. I bought it and a Sunn combo amp with money from a paper route. My father helped with that too; I had a paper route, but Saturday involved over three hundred papers, and that just wasn't possible for a thirteen-year-old on a bike to do my himself. He didn't contribute any cash to the Washburn purchase, but he certainly delivered his share of newspapers.
Dads are great.
Dads are great.
Au contraire, I tore up the back axle and gears on my first 10 speed doing exactly that, though it was indeed lots of work. I was in great shape, then, though - perhaps I need a paper route now!
And yeah, Dads rawk, remember that while they're still around.
Who could afford a ten-speed back then?Au contraire, I tore up the back axle and gears on my first 10 speed doing exactly that, though it was indeed lots of work. I was in great shape, then, though - perhaps I need a paper route now!
Ah, well, to be honest, my Dad sprung for that, 13th birthday present. First one he got from Montgomery Wards fell apart while we were trying to put it together, so he returned that one, went to a real bike shop, and got me an Itala, much better bike for about the same money.
It was a new 1991 Ibanez EX series in black. That thing SCREAMED 80s/90s hair band. I wish I still had it, but I doubt I would ever play it in public.
I have a BC Rich Warlock bass (yeah, with the whammy bar) that I don't think I'd ever have the chutzpa to play in public. (Besides which, the electronics are messed up, another project waiting.)
Univox Les Paul...walnut.
I wasn't really serious about playing the bass back then, and it didn't get much use, but I wish I still had it.
I wasn't really serious about playing the bass back then, and it didn't get much use, but I wish I still had it.
Yamaha back in 1981... Not sure of the model,but I think BB300 or something like that. I do know at the time I had a choice of black or red.. I chose black..then 6 months later a got my second bass a Rickenbacker 4001 in jetglo. Of course stupidity set in and sold both...
