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Double Bass How did you get your first double bass?

ole Jason

ole Jason

Apr 3, 2003
6,681
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Louisville, KY
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#1
I'm always interested to hear how people get their basses. I've known people who have saved a little at a time for, literally, years to buy a bass and people who have had them given to them.

I went to college with a guy who owned a very nice bass from the late 1800's. His parents took out a second mortgage on their home to buy it. Talk about a good reason to practice!
 
#2
I was the trombone player in the band and used to 'borrow' the bass player's instrument. Liked it and even went out and did a couple of gigs on it - he never knew! So when it came to get my own I worked in the school holidays in Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory. I went up to London to Footes and chose the cheapest in the shop at $80 (1959). I spoke to a pleasant tall black man and when he had left the shop the assistant told me he was Ray Brown!
 
#4
A friend of mine went to Japan and while visiting his friend's home, he remarked at how nice his friends' p-bass was. Turned out that if someone says something is nice in Japan, the culturally correct thing to do is to give it to them, so against his protestations he ended up with his friends' mid-nineties MIJ p-bass. After a few years of rarely playing it, I visited him as I was getting into bass and borrowed it, and he has since moved to Toronto, happily leaving it with me. So I guess I kind of own it now... It's been almost two years I think. Great bass. Vintage white with a red pearl pickguard. :)
 
#5
I saved roughly two years for my first DB. Got it from an older guy who had been a pro player, but had developed rheumatoid arthritis, forcing him to quit. It was a pretty crudely-made German hybrid that had been beaten within an inch of its modest life. I still have it.
 
#8
Bought my first Kay back in middle sixties for $100..saw it in the local paper. Had no idea what I was buying other than being an upright, but the price was right, though $100 was a lot back then. Strange thing was, in a city of over 100,000, the seller turned out to be an old schoolmate of mine! Small world!
 
#10
My brother put on a punk show at a firehouse for my 14th birthday and gave me half of the proceeds. I rushed to the store the next day and payed $179.00 for a mexi squire jazz bass. That was 12 years ago. I wish I still had it.
 
#11
Wanted to be Gene Simmons, found out that strange guitar he played was called a "bass". Begged mom & dad, promised 'em I'd play in church once I learned enough to. They bought me a "Memphis" bass at the military base bx. (the "Memphis was a sticker I later peeled off to find the brand name "Trump")

Took me 30 years, but I finally did start playing in church...
 
#12
Damn it all to hell. This was on the front page so I didn't realize it was from the double bass forum.

I got my first db when I went to store to rent one and my wife just told me to get ahead and buy it.

Not very interesting.
 
#16
My DB was a graduation(high school)/birthday/Christmas/birthday present from my Dad. He covered the bass, pickup [first one], and bag. I covered the smaller stuff-wheel, quiver, bow, etc.

I later sold my first pickup on here and used part of that money to buy my current one. First pickup was a K&K Bass Master Pro setup-was OK, but it didn't do it for me. Second pickup, I bought at the recommendation of my teachers, is a Realist. I like it much better.
 
#19
I borrowed a school bass, until we found an old bass that some guy had abandoned at the house of a priest my family knows. Apparently it had just been sitting in the house untouched for a long time. It was in very bad condition so we weren't really expecting much out of it - just thought it would be fun to get the bass fixed up. So we bought it for almost nothing, got it restored, and it turned out to be a MUCH nicer instrument than we could have ever expected. I feel like I got really lucky with this one - i got a 70 year old carved German bass for a few hundred bucks.
 

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