The first bass you had!

[PilbaraBass]

my first bass is the P-bass

built it from parts back in '91...

It's a terrific bass...



other basses are Carvin AC40, '95 ATK fretless, & Squier Jazz Deluxe Active V (my #1 player at the moment)

 

[Craig_S]

1974 or 5 ash/maple black blocked and bound Jazz Bass I bought with gig money I earned using a borrowed Univox Mosrite copy bass. That was around 1981. By 1982 it had been stolen. One day I'll have another one just like it.

 

[oyobass]

Wow. This thread brings back some memories! First bass came from a buddy in junior high, who got it for free off his hippy neighbor, along with a beat up guitar. I ended up with the guitar for $7.00, which was all the money I had. I had to talk my parents into buying me the bass for a whopping $15.00. I was the proud owner of a beater Univox Beatle bass Hoffner copy. Next bass was an Ampeg Little Stud precision copy made of many layers of laminated wood with a natural finish. Quite unique and beautiful in a cheap sort of way. I had started playing in high school jazz band, and the Univox sounded bad and was falling apart. The Ampeg was quite an upgrade, solidly built, stayed in tune and sounded decent.

 

[clmayhew]

My first bass was a Hondo Fame series 830 with a quilted sunburst finish bought from a pawn shop in 1989. I worked all summer mowing lawns to buy it. Eventually it fell into a state of disrepair and over the course of several moves, I lost it. I wish I still had that bass...

 

[Luckie]

Squier P-bass.
Great bass really, after a setup and some Roto flats, she was good to go!
Replaced the Pups with Barts couple years back, unbeatable tone!

 

[bassasaurus]

My first bass pruchased in 1971 was a Harmony H22. Hated those banjo style tuners but it actually played pretty nice and had some great tone. Sold it for $50 and bought a 72 Fender Telecaster bass.

 

[DMMaxwell]

Squier Bullet. Still have it. Still play it. Still rocks.

 

[AaronD]

Westone Thunder I A

 

[FelliniFlex]

Yamaha RBX-250... natural finish, precision pickup. Got it for Christmas in 1995... when i got my Warwick Streamer LX the Yamaha was transformed into a fretless yamaha, but has rarely seen any live action since.

 

[Unrepresented]

Not sure what counts:

First bass I learned to play on was a mid 90's Epiphone P-bass clone. Bummed it from the drummer in the band. It was my first experience playing bass and I learned as I went.

First bass I purchased is a bit of a toss up too. I won two auctions on eBay simultaneously for both a beat up Fender JP-90 and a beat up Aria Pro II Cat Bass. Both arrived within a week of each other. The Cat bass arrived with a significant bow in its neck and never really won me over even after a proper setup made it almost playable. I ended up giving it to a college roommate which inspired him to take up the bass a few years later after it'd sat around for awhile. I ended up rocking the JP-90 for a few more years until I got enough budget together to purchase something a tad more refined.

 

[Achtane]

My first bass was a mysterious Hondo Precision copy. The headstock just has the Hondo name on it; the ones I look at on eBay always have a symbol or say "Hondo II". The Wikipedia article says the Hondo II guitars were of superior quality...but I have no idea if mine was made in Korea or Japan, or what year. The only marking on it anywhere is the inspector's initials.

Anyway, I love this bass. It's set up nicely and still feels good to me after getting a Jaguar Bass. I don't think the flatwounds really mesh with the Quarter-Pounds I put in it, though...just sounds dead to me.

 

[Sonic65]

Mine- Right out of the Radio Shack catalog. First good bass, a P from Venemann Music, $200 brand new, $35 for the case...I miss those days.

 

[BillyB_from_LZ]

Mine- Right out of the Radio Shack catalog. First good bass, a P from Venemann Music, $200 brand new, $35 for the case...I miss those days.

Since my first bass, a '74 P-Bass, was purchased brand new for $330 with the case (I think list was $333 for a custom color (mine was natural, sunburst was standard) with a maple fingerboard (rosewood was standard), a case cost $75) you must have been buying before I did!

I remember wanting a bass from Lafayette's catalog (I believe that it was the mail order wing of Radio Shack) but I didn't have the $$$ and had to wait a couple years until I bought the '74 P Bass.

Of course, wages were quite a bit lower back then so American made Fenders are about the same price (corrected for inflation) now as they were then....well they were before the 2009 price increases

 

[Deathblade Eric]

1981 Aria Pro II TSB-400:

Bought new, cost me a month's wages. No.1 for 25 years, then I got an SB-900 & it's kind of gathered dust since (then I went fretless & the SB-900 is somewhere to hang my headphones).

The TSB is the last one I'd let go if I had to though, too much of me in it.

 

[TMBTC]

my first was a Univox High Flyer, got her for $40 back in the mid 70's

 

[diamond]

i was 14 years old when i worked all summer mowing lawns for 2,50 i saved up 50 dollars that summer. as it turned out i would be 10.00 short (my mom spot me on that). i went into the music store could not find anything for less than 100.00. but the salesman recommended a violin shaped bass made by klira. i did like the beatles and it looked like pauls bass except for the cat eye sound holes. i bought it, now it is worth about 500.00. i still use it everything works on it. booming neck pick pickup. Thanks mom.

 

[nutso42]

My first bass was a Squier Affinity P-bass. Since then my bass collection has grown to a 5-string Traben, a Fender P-bass Lyte, and a Yamaha RBX250......

But I still use my Squier primarily. I've put so much time, money, effort, and mods into it that it could take on a Rickenbacker bass any day!

 

[dminer]

My first bass was back in the 60's. I worked de-tasseling corn up in Ill for the summer and got this "beatle" bass and gibson amp. Not sure of the bass brand ...probably kingston/silvertone /teisco ect?? I was recently informed from a fellow TB'er that the gibson amp is probably a Titan I.

My first real bass was in the mid 70's when I bought this 75 p bass brand new from Metro Music in Atlanta...at first I had a Traynor head and a v4b 2x15 folded horn cabinet...sold the traynor and got the svt and cab and kept the v4b for a while...the svt with the v4b cab would literally shake the P**s out of ya...ah, good times!! That's my Gibson sb400 next to it.

 

[MadsDK]

My first bass was a rather old Squier Jazz Bass, not the Affinity series, but something else. It was one hell of a beginners bass (or at least I think) but the best part was, that it was very very cheap. I had it for 2 or 3 years.

 

[BillyB_from_LZ]

...

But I still use my Squier primarily. I've put so much time, money, effort, and mods into it that it could take on a Rickenbacker bass any day!

With a claim like that, we simply must see photos!