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the bass and amp you started witz.

I was damned lucky - In 1968, I worked at a music store and was able to get a deal on some decent stuff to start. My first rig was a Kustom 100 with a single 15 and a Kalamazoo KB1 bass. The Kalamazoo basses were made in Michigan and it used the same pickup as the Gibson EB-0. My Kustom amp was silver sparkle - and it looked and sounded good. Don't ask me how much it cost - but I think the bass was $50.00. Kustom 100.jpg
 
Uuugghhh! A Chinese Squier P-bass and a Crate 10" combo amp. Total garbage. That Squier left such a bad taste in my mouth...for a long time, unaware of their notoriety, I believed all P-basses were obsolete junk. Years later I learned from YOU guys, the TB community, that this was not the case. But I have US Spectors now so I kinda leapfrogged the whole Fender thing.
 
I guess in practice 16 almost 17 years ago (i'm going on 24 yrs old), I started with a squier bass pak Pbass & 15 watt amp. But in terms of gigging, Always played a precision (although its not the squier i started with, & i have my share of thunderbirds & grabber copy basses). I've never had my own gig amp until a couple years back when i lucked & found a mid 70's peavey century at a pawn shop (walked with it for 50$) & my 410 swr goliath II (160$ cause one of the speakers needs a recone). I always just used whatever combo/bass head-cabinet was shared amongst bands. Only the last couple years of gigging with my own band have i used my drummers Peavey TKO 115 circa 90's, or my own gear. The TKO is just a lot easier to lug around.
 
'78 P-Bass-1.JPG Amp 2.JPG Depends on what you mean by "started with"...
- The First bass/amp combo I ever played? They were a friend's bass and amp, back in 1969. A '68 blue Lefty Rick 4001, and, since his parents bought him whatever he wanted, probably the same Vox rig that Paul McCartney used..
- The first ones I ever played in a band? They were somebody else's, too. The bass was some early '70's Japanese P-Bass copy - and it was a righty. Which I had to play that way (and, I really don't do that very well). The Combo amp was some cheap-but-barely-adequate little thing that I can't remember the name of. We were all young GIs, and in 1973 , young Gis didn't make a lot of money... I'm still not sure how I got roped into being the substitute bass player...
- The first bass and amp that I started with, that I owned? This '78 P-Bass, that I bought in 1988 from a friend in England. He had a little pub band; when I asked him what amp he used, he showed me this Marshall Bass 12 combo. I'd heard his band, and I knew the amp was plenty for that kind of thing. So, next weekend, I went to Denmark Street in London, and bought one. Still have them both, and the Marshall is still more than adequate...I'd love to have that Vox rig, though...:cool:
 
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Carlo Robelli Precision, sunburst/tort/rosewood, bought in 1980. Had a neck so bowed I could have strung it up and shot an arrow. Paired with a Roland Spirit 50 (or was it 60?). I ditched the Robelli as soon as I learned how to play, but kept the Roland for a while. Nice little amp--wish I still had it.
 
This Brice Hxb-405 from Rondo, which I still play and love:
20180507_154702.jpg

And, since I was a converting guitarist, not sure on how far I was going to go with this, I played through this Peavey Special 112 guitar amp until I got a proper bass amp:
20180507_154721.jpg
 
My first bass and amp were 1960's when "cheap" meant "crap". The guitar was a Kingston that looked like a deformed Jaguar reject. The amp was a no-name combo with a single 8 or 10 inch speaker and bass, treble, and volume knobs.
 
I bought a Martin Stinger p-bass copy from the seconds pile in their factory in Nazareth for like $60 in 1990. It had a split in the neck at teh first fret between A&D.

I took it home and used my guitar's Ross 10 watt practice amp. A couple weeks later, my friend gave me a Holmes 40B and offered me his Music Man bass. I didn't take the bass coz I thought his parents would be pissed.

I'd like to go back and kick 1990 me's ass.
 
My first bass was a Pan EB-3 copy, plugged into a Gorilla GB-30 bass combo. The bass was a gift from my Granddad, which I first played through my folk's stereo system...they bought me the amp for Christmas. I'm grateful to this day for those gifts and what they led to musically, but I don't miss either of them.