I played the accordion for a couple of years when I was in grade school, but that wasn't by choice. By the age of 12, I got addicted to the Beatles (still am, in fact). I don't think I ever consciously noticed a bass line until I heard Paul McCartney play. Then I started paying attention to the bass in everything. Shortly thereafter, I saw Rush's "Exit... Stage Left" concert video at a friend's house and I was utterly blown away. I loved the power and growly tone of Geddy's Ric and I had never heard the bass right out front in the mix like that before. That same year, I bought my first Yes album (Tormato) and when I heard "On the Silent Wings of Freedom", that was it. I was gonna play bass.
My stepfather had a cheap "Montaya" bass that my mother had given him for Christmas one year, but he never touched it - he didn't actually play, but he liked guitars and had a couple of awful, cheap, Japanese guitars that he plinked around on from time to time (I don't even think he knew how to tune a guitar). Mostly, they just hung on the wall. My mother didn't know the difference between bass and guitar and bought it for him because he commented that it looked nice when they saw it in the window of the music store. But it turns out he wasn't as interested in pretending to play a bass as he was in pretending to play a guitar so I "appropriated" it.
After about a year, my stepfather said he wanted his bass back (I lived with my dad at the time and I don't even think my stepfather noticed it was gone most of the time I had it). I was kinda bummed, but looking back, I think if I had been able to keep that bass, I wouldn't be a bassist today. That Montaya looked pretty, but that was all that was good about it. The body was made of particle board (learned that after dropping it on the sidewalk once), the tuners were stiff and tight, the single pickup (looked like a staple-top Hofner pup) sounded weak and thin and the action was a mile off the neck. I don't even think it had a truss rod. As a result, I assumed that all basses were a struggle to play... but for Christmas that year, my mom and stepfather got me a used EB-3 copy with a case and I thought it was the greatest bass in the world! They bought it from a guy who was knowledgeable about guitars and it came with a good set-up with low action. Up to that point, I thought "bass" was synonymous with "high action" and I didn't know you could do anything about that. If I had to continue on with that Montaya, I'm sure I would have given it up before too much longer.
