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Oldest Bass you've played?

My 1964 P-Bass..
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i played my teachers 18th century double bass once. that was a real treat. for electric basses, an all original '60 jazz bass. nice bass.

The oldest bass I ever played was my first upright bass. I bought it for $50 from some really old black dude who had an ad in the newspaper. He told me that the bass was the bass that came over with the first opera company to come to New Orleans (who knows when). Personally I figured this story for a huge bunch of BS, but the bass was clearly very old. It also was a nightmare of constant cracks and buzzes and had about 150 coats of varnish on it.

The oldest bass guitar I played would have to be about a 58 or 59 Fender (which were new then). But since I was playing upright then the basses belonged to other players. It took me a while of carting the upright around in my VW beetle (plus AMP AND 3 x 12 CAB!) until I finally got tired of it and went bass guitar. That would have been in the early 60s I guess.
 
First bass that I owned was a 60s Kent. Suitable for the archery range.

Second bass I owned was a 72 P that I bought new.

Oldest was a 50 something P bass that was used for testing bass amps back in the 70s. It had been doing that job for years and was beat up and unloved. Wonder what had happened to it.

js
 
got to play p bass number 2 and I can't remember if the other one was 4 or 5, both 51's so thats close to as old as it gets for electrics, played a few uprights and acoustic guitars in the 100-200 year old range as well, hugely noticeable difference in the sound and feel of a well aged acoustic instrument.
 
I've posted this before, but I got to take this apart (& play it) when I worked at Gruhn's a few years ago.
1937-38 Audiovox bass by Paul Tutmac:
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Moonshine :bassist:

NEW WINNER! (on the elect. front)
What on earth did they use for amplification back then? I know tube radios were very popular then but outside of that I can't think of any other amplified instrument.
 
I have played various late 50's, early 60s and 70's Fenders. The electric bass has not been around very long in the history of musical instruments.

In the world of double bass, those are not old. My teacher plays a bass made in what is now Austria made in 1801. Plenty of basses made in the 1700s and 1800s are played in major orchestras around the world everyday.

While 40 - 60 yr old basses seem old to electric players, double bassists have a much bigger time scale.
 

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