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How bad (or good) was your first bass?
- Thread starter CochinoBass
- Start date
Completely agree, the standard is way higher now than even the the 90s and 2000s. I think as CNC machines have gotten better so have a multitude of overseas made guitars. Then again, a brand new mid-range Ibanez was a better bass ten years ago. That's one reason why I stick with Ernie Ball Music Man over everything and then the pick of Fender's chosen litter comes next for me. As manufacturers have changed, some have truly evolved, and Ernie Ball Music Man is one of them.
Speaking of my first bass, it was a Squier (by Fender) P-Bass Special. Back in 2003, you could buy the Squier Affinity Series P-Bass with the single split pick-up or get the more expensive $250 P-Bass Special that played significantly better. I got a pretty standard one - I had to file down the nut to bring down the action and the truss rod did a lot less than it was supposed to. Decent instrument though.
I eventually upgraded to an EBMM USA Sterling and still get sad when I think about the time I had to sell it.
I had to tell every student I had to buy a decent Fender, EBMM Stingray, or G&L for years because everything else wasn't up to par in my opinion. Nowadays there are way better choices in the Squier line.
First one I owned was an Aria ProII “Thor Sound”. It’s as good a bass as you could find at that time for that price, and served me well. But after some years its weaknesses started to grate on me, and I traded it for a cheaper but better-sounding instrument. Today, it’s worth like $600 on the used market - I never imagined that would happen.
My first bass was a Yamaha RBX-170. Thanks to Yamaha, i got to really like bass playing. It was a beauty, great sound (for the price), light weight and nice looking. Thourout the years, i always kept it tucked away. In last December, i was looking for space for new stuff, you know, i took it out to play just one last time. Man, the sound was...bad 
. But at my beginning, it was just what i needed. 10 years later, i'm long way from there but when i sold it, it gave me a pain in the heart. I will always remember my .38 special (I name all my bass, don't ask, I'm like that).
. But at my beginning, it was just what i needed. 10 years later, i'm long way from there but when i sold it, it gave me a pain in the heart. I will always remember my .38 special (I name all my bass, don't ask, I'm like that).My first bass was a Kalamazoo KB-2. What a horrible piece of junk.
Doesn't stay in tune for more than a song, sounds like poop with the mudbucker, and is hard to setup due to the two point gibson bridge. Lets not even get into trying to intonate it.
Still have it and my first amp, a Fender sidekick 30.
Doesn't stay in tune for more than a song, sounds like poop with the mudbucker, and is hard to setup due to the two point gibson bridge. Lets not even get into trying to intonate it.
Still have it and my first amp, a Fender sidekick 30.
Mine was a Hagstrom just about identical to this one, but white. I didn't think much of it at the time as it was difficult and a bit painful to play, but that could have been a result of my lack of playing ability and ignorance of proper set-up. I replaced it with a '69 Jazz bass which I still have in my posession some 40-odd years later. It made a world of difference, like going from a Yaris to a Cadillac.
My first bass was a Squier Precision Vintage Modified PJ, which is really a pretty good bass, but I decided I was better off, given my circumstances, with a short-scale bass, and to try that out got a Squier Bronco, which was pretty bad in comparison (though maybe not so bad given the $200 price tag), and so it was in very short order replaced with something better.
The first bass i played was a Kingston that I borrowed from my GF brother. It was pretty awful but it got me started. The first bass I owned was a Kalamazoo kb1. Wish I had kept it but it wasn’t that great. This was 1978 or 1979 I think. Long time….the Kingston was bad. Laminated neck, high action. The kb1 wasn’t bad, but it amazes me what they go for now. They weren’t great basses to begin with.
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My first bass is my avatar pic, American Pro II P-bass. I traded a 2001 PRS singlecut 10 top for the bass, an amp and some cash. I never bonded with the PRS and nearly immediately fell in love with the bass. At the time it was out of necessity as my church worship team needed a bass player. I do feel for those who started on poor quality basses, especially those with a bad setup. The better the instrument feels and sounds the more fun it will be to play and it will make you want to practice.
I wish I could have edited my earlier reply... but found a picture of my 1965 Teisco bass. I actually had it until I moved in 2007. It had the original strings that I put on in '66. I GAVE it away, now kicking myself because they're selling for just under $1000. I gave away a Sears Silvertone Twin 12 to. And again selling for big money..
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I wish I still had a picture of it, but I'm glad that I no longer own my first bass. On the plus side, it looked really cool - it was an early 70s Japanese Epiphone that looked like a cross between a Rickenbacker and an SG. It also sounded great and was really loud (great pickups). Lastly, it was geometrically more or less a P bass (scale length, nut width, bridge spacing), which ultimately became my favorite 4 string dimensions.
On the downside, it was really neck heavy - tremendous neck dive that I had to constantly fight against. The neck was also finished in a very sticky high gloss that, combined with the neck dive, made moving up and down the neck a challenge. It was really hard to play standing up - sitting down was ok though.
On the downside, it was really neck heavy - tremendous neck dive that I had to constantly fight against. The neck was also finished in a very sticky high gloss that, combined with the neck dive, made moving up and down the neck a challenge. It was really hard to play standing up - sitting down was ok though.
First bass I owned and gigged was a Gibson EB-0 in 1969. It s**ked hard. Nothing I did made it sound any good. I moved to a Fender Jazz in 1971 and never looked back. I've pretty much happily played Fender Jazz basses or at least FSO's since then. I had a few exploratory deviations over the years ... 80's Ibanez Musician, Kramer w/aluminum neck, but I always came back to Jazz basses. They just work for me.
Currently own:
Lull M4V - main player (basically Mike's take on a 62/63 jazz bass)
(2) Fender Roscoe Beck IV's (but they are pretty much just tarted up Jazzes) - other main player
MIJ '51P reissue - gets a few gigs here and there, but mostly used for tracking when that kind of sound is called for
Rick Turner Renaissance fretless 4 - used here and there for specialty gigs
94 MIM Fender Jazz - my backup bass, or for when I don't trust my better basses in certain venues
Currently own:
Lull M4V - main player (basically Mike's take on a 62/63 jazz bass)
(2) Fender Roscoe Beck IV's (but they are pretty much just tarted up Jazzes) - other main player
MIJ '51P reissue - gets a few gigs here and there, but mostly used for tracking when that kind of sound is called for
Rick Turner Renaissance fretless 4 - used here and there for specialty gigs
94 MIM Fender Jazz - my backup bass, or for when I don't trust my better basses in certain venues
I wish I started playing when I was a kid. I might have actually been competent by now. 
I was in my late 30s or so when I started playing and my first bass was a Candy Apple Red 1999 MIM Fender Jazz Deluxe 5. At the time they had the same Suhr pickups and preamp that were in the MIA Jazz Deluxe and were a great bang-for-the-buck value. This bass just sounded fantastic. The only problem with it was the weight - 13.5 pounds.
I had no idea that it was a heavy bass and just thought that's what a bass felt like. But, after owning it for a while and then going to a store to see what else was out there, I realized that that one was unusually heavy, so I eventually sold it and found a much lighter bass that was also a nicer bass. But I still remember how pretty that Jazz was and how nice it sounded. It was a good starter bass!
I was in my late 30s or so when I started playing and my first bass was a Candy Apple Red 1999 MIM Fender Jazz Deluxe 5. At the time they had the same Suhr pickups and preamp that were in the MIA Jazz Deluxe and were a great bang-for-the-buck value. This bass just sounded fantastic. The only problem with it was the weight - 13.5 pounds.
I had no idea that it was a heavy bass and just thought that's what a bass felt like. But, after owning it for a while and then going to a store to see what else was out there, I realized that that one was unusually heavy, so I eventually sold it and found a much lighter bass that was also a nicer bass. But I still remember how pretty that Jazz was and how nice it sounded. It was a good starter bass!
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Ah yes....I remember my first quite fondly .
Oh ! Bass....uh, yea.....1987 G & L SB-1...purchased new for $318.00 with case !
Oh ! Bass....uh, yea.....1987 G & L SB-1...purchased new for $318.00 with case !
It's interesting how many had different basses for their first instrument but so many of them were terrible like mine and we didn't know any better.
I offered him the choice between a DS Leica M3 with a 50/2.8 collapsible Elmar or the Nikon . He chose the Nikon . The F2 was black with just the standard non metered pentaprism . A nice combination .
That 50 Elmar was freakishly sharp in the mid apertures . Unbelievable lens .
I auditioned for an established band and was the only one that showed up for the audition , so I needed a bass fast . Picked up a Marshall amp “on time” and was off to the races .
Whenever somebody would play that Pbass they’d inevitably say “ this is a nice one”.
This was around... 1966, I think. My mom was a member of the Capital Record Club and I got all my albums through her. Each month we'd get a brochure with mass quantities of albums covering all genres and there were always some good rock bands available. Well, the brochures always had some kind of promotion going where you could buy stuff at low prices. One month, they had a bass guitar that looked very similar to Paul's Beatle bass, only the body was about 50% larger and the neck matched. That guitar came with a combo amp, strap, picks and a line cord. I think it was like $50 for the whole thing. Terrible action, strings were like 1/2" up and no sustain.
That was my first "real" bass guitar. The first guitar I used as a bass was an old 6-string acoustic with the E & B strings removed.
That was my first "real" bass guitar. The first guitar I used as a bass was an old 6-string acoustic with the E & B strings removed.
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The first bass I played was lent to me for about a year. It was a WEM Sapphire with insanely high action, no sustain, a volume pot and an ABCD knob that had different EQs for each position. I learned the basics on it and then when the time came, my parents bought me a Samick neck-thru passive PJ 4 string. That bass had insanely low action and looked and played incredibly. I honestly regret parting with it. Here it is, circa 1991?
