How bad (or good) was your first bass?

[Gruff]

My first bass was an Aria "Pro II Wildcat", bought in 1985 maybe but sold during a bass-playing gap when I took up piano. I regret that now Not my photo, but it was just like the one pictured.

My second bass was an Emex Romaxe, again not a photo of my actual instrument. Bought second hand in 1999 maybe. It had various faults but it did have a bottle opener built into the headstock. But when I started lessons my teacher loaned me a Yamaha TRBX and the Emex was broken for parts to make a 'Lego' bass - the neck and pickup live on!

 

[mcrawfordmusic]

I started playing in the mid-2000’s and my first bass was an Ashton P bass. I don’t think they were available in the states.

It was a rubbish instrument, but it’s the bass that made me fall in love with music. You have to give it some credit!

My first “real” bass was my ‘98 Yamaha TRB5II that I bought used in 2006-ish.

About a year later I bought my first Fender and have been a ‘Fender guy’ ever since.

 

[markymac]

My first bass was a Hondo 2 Rickenbacker copy. It was really good. Traded it in '79 for a brand new Fender Precision bass. Sunburst and rosewood fingerboard. Second worst bass I've ever had. Just behind a pair of Squiers.

 

[leftybass54]

My first bass was a used 1970-72ish(?) Gibson EB-0L -- an early long-scale version with slotted headstock and turned-back tuners. Came with tape wounds and the standard "mudbucker" PU, so it really sounded extra muddy. I eventually replaced those with new flats and a DiMarzio PU, which really helped. But it also could have used some neck bow adjustment and overall setup, which I only learned to do years later.

 

[TomB]

My first bass was a used 1970-72ish(?) Gibson EB-0L -- an early long-scale version with slotted headstock and turned-back tuners. Came with tape wounds and the standard "mudbucker" PU, so it really sounded extra muddy. I eventually replaced those with new flats and a DiMarzio PU, which really helped. But it also could have used some neck bow adjustment and overall setup, which I only learned to do years later.

I’m surprised to hear that a bass as young as ‘72 would have tuner slots. Can you confirm the date? Also, there is a vintage Gibson thread on here somewhere with lots of experts if you’re interested. Post a pic!

 

[MichelD]

My first "bass" wasn't a bass but a borrowed electric guitar we too the high strings off.

My first real bass was and is a fretless. Raven brand sort-of Jazz bass copy that was just fine. Nice neck and the odd single-coil pickups (Maxon?) put out like crazy. I eventualy found a fretted version of the same bass and bought it .

 

[Nedmundo]

Like many folks around my age (born 1967), my first was a Peavey T-40, which apart from its considerable weight was a fantastic bass. Even as an energetic teenager, I used a neoprene strap to manage the weight. It sounded great though, and a Berklee Music student in my neighborhood loved its tone for a recording project, saying he'd never heard anything like it before.

 

[Wibble666]

my first bass was an olympic white fender musicmaster in the 70s...and to be honest i wasn't taken by the note /string definition ...very whumpy ...amazed people are paying high prices for these things today.

 

[basslicks]

My first bass was the cheapest bass my parents could afford from a pawn shop and it was a hunk of dookie - especially because I had no idea what the concept of a "setup" was or anything. This was back in the way early 90s so I didn't really have access to good information and my parents aren't musicians at all, so to me it was just how basses were. I still loved it though.

I don't have any pics, ended up getting rid of it, regretfully, somewhere along the line. Picture a dark walnut brown Gibson SG clone (can't remember the brand), cheapest one possible, with a black pick guard and action that could have the bass double as a longbow

 

[bass-shy]

Mine was a '94 MIM Fender P-Bass that was covered in bumper stickers and had a broken bridge. Two of the saddles were missing altogether.

I gave the dude $60.00 and some CD's for it in like, 1998.

After removing the stickers and putting a Badass II bridge on it, it was actually a really good playing bass and it recorded super well. It was one of those rare basses that you just couldn't get an unpleasant tone out of.

I sold it around '06 or '07. Sometimes I wish I had kept it but I ended up putting together another P-Bass using a '94 body and a recently acquired 2020 neck.

 

[IPA]

My first first bass was a fretless hand me down, but I don't really consider it my first bass

My real first bass, that I chose and bought, was a Mexican p-bass. What do I play now? A different Mexican p bass. I was on the right track.

 

[GreyBeard]

Mine was a used Japanese Tiesco bought in 1968. It actually was OK. It stayed in tune and wasn't all that hard to play.

 

[Ostie]

Mine was a POS Kingston that I borrowed from my GFs brother. When I got my own i upgraded to a Kalamazoo KB-1. My first real bass was a T40.

 

[Andy Marshman]

I can't remember if I responded to this thread earlier? My first was from Sears. Some heavy, ordinary thing. Likely a Silvertone (not a Dano model). In '65 we didn't know about intonation or things like that. It was a working bass and did the job. I got hold of a Framus that had a flip on/off mute next (likely a short scale) and the first pro instrument was a Fender P that I bought used, sold to go to tech school (good move). Would love to have kept it.

 

[Michedelic]

By the time I started playing, there was a glut of gear available(purchased by the older brother age group who had massively consumed all the guitar/bass/drums/amps in the British Invasion era)that was being sold off due to going to college, starting their own families, getting drafted, getting killed. Yet a lot of that equipment was considered dated or unfashionable. Nobody wanted to be seen with Gretsch hollowbodies, Mosrite guitars/basses(in spite of Iron Butterfly), Fender Jazzmasters(left over from Surf), or Vox amps anymore.
After observing the other guitarist kids in the neighborhood struggling with a Teisco or Decca or Kingston, and because I was fixated with Jack Bruce at the time(plus a Fender would have been out of my, uh, my parents price range), I jumped on an “EB-O” in the want ads. Of course I didn’t know enough that Jack played an EB-3, so I ended up with a circa ‘60 slab body, the original design that was based on a LP jr., backwards banjo type tuners, single mudbucker pickup. I was dissapointed, it didn’t look right, but I didn’t want to test my parents’ patience(plus it came with an amp, 20 screaming watts!). No tone, short scale, floppy flat strings, it might have been a Gibson, but I hated it. Sold just it(no amp)for what it was paid for originally, $150 a year later to get an actual P-bass(the amp blew up anyway), and once I learned about roundwounds and could get a set, I couldn’t be happier.
Should have hung on to it, though; who saw this kind of appreciation coming?

 

[arbiterusa]

Mine was a 1960s Kapa Continental bass, basically an east coast 60s Fender, 32” scale, and is one of the reasons I am extremely leery of “vintage” instruments, because like so many electric instruments from the 50s and 60s, it was trash. But it got the first few months done.

 

[Michedelic]

Mine was a 1960s Kapa Continental bass, basically an east coast 60s Fender, 32” scale, and is one of the reasons I am extremely leery of “vintage” instruments, because like so many electric instruments from the 50s and 60s, it was trash. But it got the first few months done.

Yeah, but would you leery of an early 60’s P,J,Ric, or T-Bird? Of course that Kapa was going to be junk, it’s almost understood that it would be. Like I mentioned, my buddies were struggling with Teiscos, so I went for the Gibson. Even though it didn’t work for me, it was a nice piece of wood, and had potential if it was upgraded, but “modding” was unheard of then.

 

[arbiterusa]

Yeah, but would you leery of an early 60’s P,J,Ric, or T-Bird?

Yes. I worked in two music stores that specifically dealt in high end vintage instruments and most of them, regardless of condition, were fit for trash as far as tone went.

This was not the case with quite a few of the old vintage acoustic instruments. Just the electrics.

 

[John Keenan]

My first bass was a Hondo 2 Rickenbacker copy. It was really good. Traded it in '79 for a brand new Fender Precision bass. Sunburst and rosewood fingerboard. Second worst bass I've ever had. Just behind a pair of Squiers.

the worst god awful was a bass by gear 4 music completely atrocious found out infact it was just a collaboration of less than sub standard pieces of junk , i would not even insult a dead person with that companies crap that they sell and attitude of them is to say the least abysmal condescending and outright insulting towards customers

 

[EagleMoon]

My first bass was a ‘75 Fender Precision in natural finish. Had it for 32 years before I let it go. Refinished it several times but it finally ended up back natural before I sold it. Still think about it now and then.