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How much did you pay for your first bass?

#241
gjohnson441496 said:
Boy! That one's beautiful too!
Ignorance is sometimes bliss, especially when your young. My very first bass was a Kingston and I hadn't a CLUE what was happening when the fretboard separated from the neck!
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Hey I know exactly - repair shops and even music stores were few and far between!

It took six months to save up for the $175 for the original Old Kraftsman and amp and in the end I had some help from my Dad. It never entered my mind that someone in a music store might be able to improve the way it played.

Here I am playing the Kalamazoo in my Dad's auto body shop - and you can see the Spiegel amp in the background under the extension cabinet we built.

1968 or 1969.jpg


My dad and I re-upolstered the amp and cabinet in automotive pleated naugahyde because it got really chewed up and looked terrible. We made it look kind of like a Kustom and it looked really nice - and we sold it as a guitar amp for $200 bucks - of course NOT trying to pass it off as a Kustom at all - it was full disclosure. It just looked really nice, with the black grill cloth. I ended up getting a Fender Bassman amp and cabinet - to go with my guitar player's Bandmaster above - with the $200 bucks from a kid in Chicago who just got drafted and was desperate to sell.

Kudos to ALL the posters here - what a great thread - enjoying reading about all of these early experiences!
 
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#242
jim777 said:
My first good bass was a '73-'74 P bass and cost me $200. Absolutely one of the worst basses I've ever played. It did sound ok, but was like playing something designed and executed by a sadist specifically to make you depressed.
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I would say my '64 P-bass was a log...those kinda basses, though, made you work hard to get a decent tone. Probably, the reason, I still shed with that bass.
The newer basses I have tried (at least mid-'90s & up) appear to have the hard work element engineered out.
My Nordstrand Jazz? Everyone sounds good on that thing...even my wife & she "retired" from bass playing about 15 years ago.
;)
 
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#244
$500.00 Canadian for my 1976 Rickenbacker 4001 in 1996. I bought her off the bass player I had been in a band with a couple of years prior (I played guitar at the time). I still have that bass, and still play her fairly regularly. :D

Cheers!
:bassist::bassist::bassist:
 
#245
Bali, Indonesia....1997. A purple Prince 4 string. Made of some hard foam material with a hard thick paint job to hold it all together. Neck wood was balsa I think, warped like crazy before I got back to the states. Paid for $40 US new! But I learned to play on that bass. Still got it, leaning against a wall. Will add pic later but I doubt anyone is interested! LOL When I got a new MIM Jazz, i was like, WOW, so easy to play, I had no idea!!!!!
 
#247
BassHappy said:
Hey I know exactly - repair shops and even music stores were few and far between!

It took six months to save up for the $175 for the original Old Kraftsman and amp and in the end I had some help from my Dad. It never entered my mind that someone in a music store might be able to improve the way it played.

Here I am playing the Kalamazoo in my Dad's auto body shop - and you can see the Spiegel amp in the background under the extension cabinet we built.

View attachment 562703

My dad and I re-upolstered the amp and cabinet in automotive pleated naugahyde because it got really chewed up and looked terrible. We made it look kind of like a Kustom and it looked really nice - and we sold it as a guitar amp for $200 bucks - of course NOT trying to pass it off as a Kustom at all - it was full disclosure. It just looked really nice, with the black grill cloth. I ended up getting a Fender Bassman amp and cabinet - to go with my guitar player's Bandmaster above - with the $200 bucks from a kid in Chicago who just got drafted and was desperate to sell.

Kudos to ALL the posters here - what a great thread - enjoying reading about all of these early experiences!
Click to expand...
That's really cool. Thank God for dad's too. The story behind my 1977 Fender Precision is, my dad bought me my first 3 guitars. The first one was a Silvertone lead guitar with a case that was the amp. Eventually, I realized it wasn't a bass, so my dad bought me Kingston Violin bass, which eventually fell apart while playing it. I'm pretty sure he bought me another bass that I vaguely remember.

So, I wanted another bass so I begged him to buy me another one and he was adamant about not doing it but he eventually broke down and said that if I save my money for the bass, he'll buy the amp. When I saved enough money for the Precision ($450 w/case out the door... the sales guy didn't charge me the tax... I didn't KNOW about taxes and now that I think about it I'm sure he had a good time watching my expression drop then light up when he "made the deal"), my dad bought me a Fender Bassman 10, I believe it was called. I'll never forget dad stopping traffic in front of the store, downtown Cincinnati to get my amp in the trunk of our Impala. Thank God for Dads!
 
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#248
gjohnson441496 said:
That's really cool. Thank God for dad's too. The story behind my 1977 Fender Precision is, my dad bought me my first 3 guitars. The first one was a Silvertone lead guitar with a case that was the amp. Eventually, I realized it wasn't a bass, so my dad bought me Kingston Violin bass, which eventually fell apart while playing it. I'm pretty sure he bought me another bass that I vaguely remember.

So, I wanted another bass so I begged him to buy me another one and he was adamant about not doing it but he eventually broke down and said that if I save my money for the bass, he'll buy the amp. When I saved enough money for the Precision ($450 w/case out the door... the sales guy didn't charge me the tax... I didn't KNOW about taxes and now that I think about it I'm sure he had a good time watching my expression drop then light up when he "made the deal"), my dad bought me a Fender Bassman 10, I believe it was called. I'll never forget dad stopping traffic in front of the store, downtown Cincinnati to get my amp in the trunk of our Impala. Thank God for Dads!
Click to expand...

Great Story!

I love the part about the Kingston falling apart and the tax deal. But yes, thank GOD for Dads for sure.

I was on my way late to rehearsal one day and I rushed out with my bass and leaned it against the back of the car. I ran back in and got the amp and threw it in the back seat. I got in to drive away and I saw my mom flailing her arms BIG TIME. I thought she was waving goodbye until I backed right over the neck on the Kalamazoo. I got out of the car expecting the worst. The case was completely destroyed but that sucker was fine and still in tune. I couldn't believe it!
 
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#251
$35 for a no-name hollow body a neighbor was selling in 1972. I'd say it was overpriced by
About $20. I really wanted it though, as the other basses I was considering were in the radioshack catalogue for a lot more. First real bass was fender natural finish P about two years later for $200.
 
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#252
BassHappy said:
Great Story!

I love the part about the Kingston falling apart and the tax deal. But yes, thank GOD for Dads for sure.

I was on my way late to rehearsal one day and I rushed out with my bass and leaned it against the back of the car. I ran back in and got the amp and threw it in the back seat. I got in to drive away and I saw my mom flailing her arms BIG TIME. I thought she was waving goodbye until I backed right over the neck on the Kalamazoo. I got out of the car expecting the worst. The case was completely destroyed but that sucker was fine and still in tune. I couldn't believe it!
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Jeez! That's like heart attack city! I can see your mom flailing her arms now! That's so funny.
 
#255
Baird6869 said:
My girlfriend bought me my first bass. A late 70's Ibanez Roadstar P from a friend for $250.

The first one I bought myself was a late 70's Gibson G3. Bought it at a pawn shop for around $300. Wish I kept that one. Ugly as sin (looked like a snow shovel) but sounded beastly!
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Here is me in 1987 with the Ibanez. 18 years old and about to go on tour with way too big an amp. I guess I thought dragging a 610 AND a 410 across the country without roadies was a good idea.:woot: I miss that Hiwatt head, but I don't miss the Traynor as it used to try to electrocute me every time I touched it.

The pic is warped, not the Hiwatt.

My wife found this pic last night, which I found funny!

0A11C4FF-B0A1-4550-9952-4A66B470BECD_zpsm7noq7vx.jpg
 
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#259
brianrost said:
Summer of 1973

Guild Madeira (import version of JS-II) $189 w/case (for reference, a brand new P-Bass was $300 w/o case)

It's the one on the right in this old ad, mine was in natural like the guitar to it's left.

fkufu2r9pla5cj.jpg
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I have a '74 Madeira tv yellow double cut les paul special copy and it sounds and plays great. You don't see too many of that line around today. Too bad, they were decent instruments.
 

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