How bad (or good) was your first bass?

[DanDBassist]

It was 1968, I had been playing bass lines on my father's 6 string electric guitar (Western Auto Truetone). Somehow during my parents divorce, my mother bought me a Gibson EBO and a Standel 2 15 amp. Should I say more? Of course I don't have either of them.

 

[Zak TMD]

Yamaha BB300. Not a terrible bass at all. It was actually pretty good for the money.

Ayyy! A red one of these was my first bass too, and my second, as someone I knew gave me black one, which I let a friend setup with 2 strings like morphine (the 90s were wild folks).

While as a teenager I remember being underwhelmed by these, but I'm not sure why. The action was good, and the single cheap P style pup sounded fine at the time. I still req similar level MiJ Yamahas for beginners because of this bass.

 

[JRA]

my first EB looked like this one (pic snagged from reverb), but it was the 1975 version:


the good?: my friend at the music store told me "it's a rickenbacker --- it's a great bass!" so i bought it. i don't remember how much i paid for it but i got a good deal 'because we were buds'. i immediately liked it because i'd get to put my front passenger seat back into my little car (i was mid 20s, single, dating ) where i had been putting my DB to go to and from lessons and gigs and jams. my girlfriends no longer had to sit in the back seat of the car, behind me!

the bad?: it had frets.

the ugly?: there is no "ugly" --- i've been playing beautiful fretless instruments ever since!

 

[StyleOverShow]

Started plying bass in 1969 although I didn’t switch entirely from guitar until 1971. My first bass was a cheap Japanese bass with a very small body that created a tremendous neck dive. Given the more than dead flats that were strung it sounded pretty much the same whatever position the treble knob was in. It was black with a two tone pick guard, black and white. The rosewood neck was pretty good for a cheapo bass.

I worked with that sucker for about six months before buying a new Precision in 1971.

 

[definenredefine]

Peavey Milestone II "International Series" - Peavey's P-bass copy for the mid/late 1990s
White guard on white body, maple neck/rosewood fingerboard
$200 of my parents' money, purchased new in 1996 when I was 14

...SUCH a garbage can of a bass. Action was too high, even after I lowered the saddles as far they would go (14 year old me didn't know anything of setup or even to seek professional assistance with it.) Chopping up the pickguard and drawing on the fingerboard certainly didn't help matters, either.

Don't know what happened to that bass...not sure that I care.

Incidentally, that Goya in the original brown is pretty cool looking. Very curious about the tone of 2 split coil pickups...

 

[Jefus]

My first was a '91 Yamaha RBX-200 in black. If played well and sounded pretty good. At one point my teacher out a SD Quarter Pounder J in the bridge position with a separate output. Then a few years later it got EMG PJs and a BQC. Then it got a D-Tuner. Then the pickups got knocked out of it.

I still have it and recently rehabilitated it to good working order. Honestly it sounds awesome in ways that I've never found another instrument to match. I will never part with it.

 

[sonic 7]

I got my first bass in about 1972, it was pretty cheap and branded “Angelica” probably made in Japan. But I wouldn’t have been able to tell the different between that thing and an Alembic anyway so it served it’s purpose.

 

[Michael Favata]

That’s me circa 1985. I acquired that Ventura P-Bass copy in 1975 maybe? It was a great bass I had for 20 years. It had a gorgeous sunburst finish that I ruined because I wanted a black bass. Took it apart and spray painted it black and put it back together. What an idiot I was lol…

 

[rodak]

Some absolute, cheap, no-name bass that someone had painted black (not a Teisco or Silvertone, not that high-end!). I think I paid $10 for it (around 1971 or 72). It was pretty bad, I'm sure, but..... it was good enough to get me started playing bass, after spending 5 years trying and failing to get good at guitar. Soon after, I graduated to a Fender Musicmaster, then an EB-0, then a Rick 4001. After playing bass for several years, and getting pretty good at it, I went back to guitar, and it came a lot more easily - even played rhythm and some lead(and bass, of course) in a classic rock band about 10 years later. What goes around, comes around!

 

[alembicbones]

My first bass was a '76 Fender P Bass that my ex brother in law gave me. Pretty much played the heck out of it during high school and college. Funny thing though, I never truly bonded with it. Partly it was the bass but also it was my inexperience. I tried Alembic Activators in it but it never really sounded right. I sold it to help fund my first used Alembic. I've tried other P basses over the years none of them ever stuck with me. I guess I'm not a P guy. That's just me and I get those of you who swear by P's.

In hindsight I probably should have kept it. I like to think that the person who bought it has had many years of enjoyment with it though.

Bones

 

[definenredefine]

View attachment 4689429

That’s me circa 1985. I acquired that Ventura P-Bass copy in 1975 maybe? It was a great bass I had for 20 years. It had a gorgeous sunburst finish that I ruined because I wanted a black bass. Took it apart and spray painted it black and put it back together. What an idiot I was lol…

Maxon pickup. Nice!

 

[WillyW]

mine was a green soundgear P/J with gold hardware and the only working drop D tuner I have ever come across...

 

[GwenOnBass]

First bass is my early 79 StingRay, and still play it 43 years on.

 

[Isaac_James]

I don't have either of my first instruments any longer, so no pictures. The very first one was a Squier Bronco that my brother and I bought together in 1998. Squier basses have improved a lot since then, but the late 90s was not a great era for budget basses and this was no exception. We pretty quickly sold the Bronco once it was clear we both wanted to stick with the bass and each bought our own instruments - I got a black Peavey Foundation that came with a very musty smelling but sturdy hardshell case. I can still recall the smell of that, it stuck to the bass so I got a whiff every time I played. I recall not having a neck strap and using a neck tie I had poked a couple of holes in for a while and using a quarter as a pick (both terrible ideas). I ended up trading it in a few years later for a Fender P bass that I still have.

 

[voodoobassist]

In 1969, my mom bought me my first bass and amp so I could play in church. It was a 1963 Fender jazz and around a '66 Fender bassman. She gave $300 for the pair at Driver Music in OKC. Kenny, the owner, sure did us both a solid by hooking an ignorant kid and his mom up with a great rig.

 

[trothwell]

My first bass was a Yamaha BBN5. No serious complaints, I played it and enjoyed it for a long time.

To the original poster @CochinoBass -- you might be interested to know that session player Abraham Laboriel started on a Goya bass, because he couldn't afford a Fender. Other players teased him about his bass. He still made lots of great tracks, and went on to be one of the most recorded bass players to date.

 

[KaraQ]

Mine was a new '91? Beautiful black Ibanez sr1000 that my dad got for me. Loved that bass, should've never sold it

 

[Mildew Jones]

My first was a no name EB-O copy ( I think only 1 pickup worked), red, bolt on neck, buzzy frets I ended up ripping out/filling in ala Jaco. I ended up selling it in San Diego with a case that was worth more, wish I still had it for nostalgia, would put it back in proper shape.
MJ

 

[Pings Bass]

I had a Yamaha P that was pretty, pretty good! Bought on layaway ca. 1986. But it wasn't long before I traded it in for a new MiJ Fender fretless. And it wasn't long after that that I realized I still wanted a P, so I bought a 76 Fender P right after that. I still have those two Fenders. Don't miss the Yamaha, but realistically it could have done everything the Fender P did.

 

[Koog]

1963 Hofner 500/1 purchased new in early 1964 at Schmidt Musik in Kirschberg, Germany. Paid 360 DM for it. At the prevailing exchange rate, that was $90. A fortune for me in those days.

My thinking was, "If it is good enough for McCartney".... I actually enjoyed it at the time, but was also not much aware of other options beyond Fender knock offs from Hofner and Framus. Genuine Fenders were still a bit difficult to find in Europe and were at least twice the price, if not more, thus not a possibility for me.

These days, although I'm sometimes nostalgic for the 500/1, I don't care for them and no longer own one. Just a personal preference because of my ergonomic needs and playing style. They have certainly become iconic and have worked well for many players and artists, including Sir Paul.

Koog