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The first bass you had!

#141
here it is. My 1995 Ibanez TR-505 Expressionist. This is my first bass and i plan on having it till i die. I have done a bit of work on it though. Thought the B string was unusable so i have been stringing it EADGC since i got it. I also have de-glossed the body and neck andripped out the active electronics. Now that it is wired passive i think the bass really oppened up. even the passive mode on the EQ was lacking. I plan on haveing a new flame maple/wenge/flame maple neck with a wenge F-board, and a wenge finger ramp built for it and i was to put some bart pups in it. who knows what will be done to this bass in the future. i can tell you that it will never leave my side.
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#146
It was an Ibanez SR? something that I used to play at the church. It was black with a maple neck and a rosewood fretboard. It was all passive and had an Ibanez PJ pup set up. The action was about a mile off the fretboard and it cramped up the muscle right under my shoulder blade after about 45 minutes of straight playing. It made me into a man.
 
#147
Still have it after 25 years, J-Bass copy made in Japan by Aspen.

Vintage unknown, but probably early 70's. Paid $100 back then.

Heavily molested since with a Warmoth neck, Bartolinis, Schaller tuners, pickup switch w/vol and tone on each and a Kahler bridge.

Weighs a ton and gets no play these days, but it's not going anywhere. I plan to put the orginal neck back on (block inlays and bound edges) now that I can afford to have it re-fretted.
jcopysmall.jpg
 
#148
Kay short-scale single cutaway, dual pickup Les Paul style bass sold through Sears. My mom bought it for me in 1965 after I'd bugged her for a year. I had it for roughly a year before I traded it for a Gagliano 32-inch Fender-style body with Hofner staple-top pickups and Hofner electronics, including the 3-slide switch, 2-knob design of the Beatle bass. I liked it because it looked like a Fender but had the Hofner hardware, plus it was a bit longer than the Kay, but not too long. In another year,I picked up used '59 P bass that had a wacky custom body that I kept for almost 30 years.
 
#154
mccartneyman said:
Kay short-scale single cutaway, dual pickup Les Paul style bass sold through Sears. My mom bought it for me in 1965 after I'd bugged her for a year. I had it for roughly a year before I traded it for a Gagliano 32-inch Fender-style body with Hofner staple-top pickups and Hofner electronics, including the 3-slide switch, 2-knob design of the Beatle bass. I liked it because it looked like a Fender but had the Hofner hardware, plus it was a bit longer than the Kay, but not too long. In another year,I picked up used '59 P bass that had a wacky custom body that I kept for almost 30 years.
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That Lakland in your Avatar sure looks purty:D
 
#155
My first (1967) was a Harmony hollow-body, and the neck had a concave section at the higher frets. (I couldn't find the truss rod socket; I assumed it didn't have one.) The tuning pegs were tiny, and it actually hurt my hands to tune this thing. It wasn't totally horrible, but it wasn't long before I went to an EB-3.
 
#156
In 1987 I got a Kramer P copy with a maple fretboard and flatwound strings. I have no idea how old it was at the time. I sold it a couple of years later to get money for a bass that was more "modern" (active electronics, slim, fast neck). I never should have gotten rid of it.
-b
 
#158
Man! talk about a long running thread...almost 6 1/2 years!
7 years ago I bought my first bass which was a bit too much bass for me to handle...a Washburn RB 4500 FL. It was a 35" scale, 5 string, unlined, fretless bass with neckthru construction. For a noob to try out an unlined fretless (with long scale at that!) is a bit too pretentious. Don't get me wrong, if someone wants a fretless as their first bass, go for it! But be prepared to work your butt off to actually learn to play it right and in tune! So at least for me, it was WAAAAY too much bass for me. I ended up selling it within a month and got a Tacoma Thunderchief :D And that one just made me look like a midget...that thing was huge. But it sounded great!
7 years LATER, I only play on fretless, or at least feel more comfortable on them then I did before :)
 

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