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How much did you pay for your first bass?

#201
gjohnson441496 said:
That's a beautiful bass
Click to expand...

Thanks gjohnson....

It had very high action which was ultimately very good for me as a beginner. A guitar player friend owned a properly set up Kalamazoo mustang style bass and soon after I opted to buy that. After playing the poorly set-up Old Kraftsman - playing the Kalamazoo was a real treat! I was 12 and knew nothing about setting up basses or even tweaking rods - and there weren't any other bass players around to ask about this stuff.

Kalamazoo1.jpg
 
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#202
My first bass (1968) was a Harmony H22. I think I paid $150 for it, and I see it on eBay for around $700!
My first amp was a Fender Bassman. They had just enlarged the cabinet so it would stand vertically, rather than horizontally, and it seemed to lack punch. $330. Or maybe that was the price with the bass. It was a long time ago...
 
#203
First bass was a Peavey Fury for $147, then I got a Fender 1977 Jazz for $450 and an Aria Pro Cardinal Series for $79. This was in 1988 and then 1989. Very first amp was a Fender Side Kick 30 watter, but I don't remember how much that was. Then I got an Ampeg B-115, which may have been around $400 for, and a little down the road I got my first real loud amp, a Peavey Databass 450 watt combo. I think those were around $700, but not certain. It took my awhile to pay off with layaway, I know that, but it was well worth it. That amp had some serious balls to it. I needed it because my friend who played guitar and got me into playing bass to begin with had a Peavey Special 130 watt combo that he wasn't shy about using the volume with. I could finally keep up with him. I did fry the speaker basket a couple of times, so they probably could have put a stronger speaker in it, although it took a long time for it to go. I didn't know crap about gear back then, otherwise I would have done it myself.
 
#204
Well it was an Xmas present so I paid nothing haha. But it was 1999, a Fender Standard Jazz from that year, and it cost $300. The amp I am less certain about... a Crate 25-watter(?) and no idea on the cost; I traded up for an Ampeg BA115 soon after I started playing with other people. Still have that bass though!:bassist:
 
#208
Brand new 1979 Rick 4001 Jetglo, $400 with HSC at E.U. Wurlitzer on Newbury Street in Boston. Like driving a Ferrari with a learners permit. I had no amp for months, played through my stereo mic input. I bought a beat up SVT, also $400. Blew up my home made 1x12 cab with it. Traded that for an Acoustic 360 amp and cab. Wish I had the Rick and SVT now!
 
#210
Around a hundred bucks in 1993.

I got a particle board body bass, painted with matte spray paint, a no name P neck, no name P bass pickup, and strings. During its life I had to replace the neck screws with thicker ones because the strings were destroying the particle board with the pull. The action must have been something like 1/3" at the 12th. It was awful and it was mine and I loved it. :D
 
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#211
In 1976 I was graduating Junior High. My father was willing to buy me a Fender Jazz bass for $275, which was a super gracious gift at the time (still is). When I went to Sam Ash the salesman pointed out I could buy a Carlo Robelli bass that looked exactly the same for $175. The salesman asked if I could tell the difference, and being pretty much a beginner, I could not. Believe it or not, my father left the decision up to me and I chose the Carlo Robelli.

First amp was a Sam Ash combo with a 15 inch speaker

It's all good though as my second bass I worked for making payments every week in 1979 until I paid off $395 and had my first Rickenbacker bass

To compliment the bass, I worked and paid off a Sunn Concert Bass amp with 2x15 cab
 
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#212
Can't remember for sure on the amp, but my first bass was a Fender Mustang in 1980 (I was 13 at the time), purchased for me by my father in a pawn shop in Toledo, OH for $300. I still have it and will not willingly part with it for any reason.
 
#213
In 1970 I took the $140 I had saved up all Summer working at Dad's Plumbing Supply to Ault's Music in Ft. Worth, TX to buy what I could afford. Mom drove me as I was 14. As I was looking at the cheap Japanese bass and amp that $140 would buy, she asked "How much for those over there?" It was a Gibson Thor bass amp and a Kalamazoo EBO copy. She doubled my money and we got them-about $280 for both. I can't thank her enough and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss her!
 
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#214
I forget, it's been a while. '76 Musicmaster purchased new in '77, can't remember how much I actually paid. Too much, probably. (It was a lot then, not so much now.) ;)
 
#216
My very first bass was a birthday/Jr High promotion gift, so I don't know how much it was, but it was a pretty cheap bass, not worth more than $200 or $300 dollars.
My first amp was a Fender Sidekick 65 that we bought used for around $100.
The first bass I paid for was a used US made BC Rich ST. I think it was $350.

I still have the basses. One is in the closet and I play the BC Rich every once in a while. I blew up that Fender so many times that eventually I literally threw it away.
 
#217
When I was in high school in the late '70's, a friend of mine had a red 3/4 P-copy. A good one. I was starting to play bass in jazz band and I needed a bass. But at that point I was still a guitar player. I was not used to the standard F-style neck, like the school's bass, a Ventura P-copy with a J-style neck, even though I had actually learned on it at summer jazz band camp. So we made a deal. On a given day, we would both come to school early. I would bring a C-note, and he would bring the bass, and we would do the deal. If either of us changed our minds, we would just show up and cancel the deal. We both showed up and did the deal.

Happy part of the epilogue: I later got a full sized bass and sold the red 3/4 P-copy back to my friend. Sad part of the epilogue: a few years later he lost the bass in a house fire. But the good memories of developing bass playing on the instrument, wearing original Fender nylon sleeve strings so it was easy on the fingers, still remain.
 

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