Yes... if I knew then what I know now, it could have been a contender, though.
I have no idea what even happened to it.
I have no idea what even happened to it.
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Was your 1st bass a P.O.S?
- Thread starter SteffanB
- Start date
Yeah, but no I can't feel your pain because I was blessed to born to a working bass player father that traded in his upright double bass and bought a slightly used 1962 Fender jazz bass and a Kustom 100 with a 2x15 cab in the early 70s. Dad later cut the end off of one of his fingers and could no longer play bass so he gave the whole rig to me.
My first bass was a Japanese knock off of a hofner Beatle bass. my dad bought it in a pawn shop for $50 in 1972. I'm not sure what happened to it - I think I sold it to another kid in my high school. Never missed it.
Yes and I didn't even truly buy it. I found it in someone's garbage. Really POS homemade job. Baseball bat neck, noisy as hell and virtually unplayable past the fifth fret. But it's what I started out on...I was playing direct into the PA as well as I was playing in a band (transitioning from guitar).
I hardly had two dimes to rub together back then but didn't take me long to "splurge" on a Squier P Bass. This was late 80s/early 90s. Sold that one off when the band folded and didn't pickup a bass for almost a decade (played a lot of guitar, though).
Got back into it with a "Spacer" Spector knockoff, then a Godin SD-4 and right into a Musicman Stingray 4 within about a year. About the same time I joined TalkBass! Hmmmm....
I hardly had two dimes to rub together back then but didn't take me long to "splurge" on a Squier P Bass. This was late 80s/early 90s. Sold that one off when the band folded and didn't pickup a bass for almost a decade (played a lot of guitar, though).
Got back into it with a "Spacer" Spector knockoff, then a Godin SD-4 and right into a Musicman Stingray 4 within about a year. About the same time I joined TalkBass! Hmmmm....
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Yes, it was a used, short scale, no name, p-bass copy. I think my parents paid less than $100 for it. I was 11 and glad to not have to use my dad's acoustic guitar any more.
I wouldn't call my first bass a POS, because I was able to learn on it and it kept my interest in playing. I got my first bass in X-mas of '86... a Westone 4-string. It stayed in tune most of the time... only going out of tune if I accidentally banged the headstock on something. The action was high compared to the basses I played from the early 90's onward... I had some massive calluses on all fretting fingers. Most entry level basses made in Indonesian and Chinese factories of today would blow my first bass out of the water... my current Ibanez Talman TMB100 for example.
First bass I bought and owned and really started to learn bass on was back in 1996. Bought a Washburn XB-400. I think it had a trans blue finish. It had T-Bird style p'ups, passive. It was a solid player to learn on. Plugged it into a new to me Peavey TKO, one of the old ones that weighed as much as a small car but sounded great. There was a guy a few doors down that was learning guitar, so we'd buddy up and I'd play some basic rhythms for him to play over. Good times.
I grew up WAY DEEP in the country (we were farmers)… didn't have any (music) stores, nearby, so most everything was 'second-hand' 
(1975) My first bass was a no-name P/humbucker type of thing… yup - action super high + I didn't know how to adjust truss/bridge, etc 
Kept it for a few months-ish… happened upon an Epi - was ok… but saved up for a RIC - drove, a long way, to a store (age 15) & got 'er
Kept the RIC for 35yrs (sold in 2010)
(1975) My first bass was a no-name P/humbucker type of thing… yup - action super high + I didn't know how to adjust truss/bridge, etc Kept it for a few months-ish… happened upon an Epi - was ok… but saved up for a RIC - drove, a long way, to a store (age 15) & got 'er
Kept the RIC for 35yrs (sold in 2010)
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Nope. First bass was a Ray24. First guitar was a Hondo Les Paul. Got it in 1980. It met a horrible death. Lol.
Hell, yeah, it was a total piece of crap, a Peavey Patriot, which was further crapified by the addition of an EB-0 pickup, and then by tearing the frets out. Boy, I don't miss that bass, ever. Far cry from the Wal I've been playing for the last 20 years.
No, mine was a '74 (I think) used Fender Mustang. Restored it to original just over a year ago and still have it. Ignorant as I was (17 year-old trombone player), I bought it because of it's more standard appearance compared to the other basses in the store (mostly Guilds as I remember). Didn't even know at the time that it was a short scale, but switched to a G&L L-1000 pretty quickly.
no, but due to my being an idiot at the time i thought it was. i started out with an old P bass that i assume belonged to someone in the navy seeing as the case was painted battleship gray. mid 80s, it was already old and had seen better days while fully functional. it also had a pronounced V neck with a Jazz wide nut. i was starting out and what are the other basses in my life? a friend's new Ric, i'd scored a MM Sabre which i later traded for a Yamaha BB1200S. the poor P looked like the budget version of these basses and i ended up giving it to a friend. of all those basses its the main one i wish i had back again.
Nope - I bought a Ricky 4003SW. The weight was right, the price was right, and not fighting with a concert-tuned longbow helped me develop my bass technique and understanding of the role in an ensemble very quickly.
Of course, I was warned that I had a high risk of becoming a "Rickenbacker person" because of that first choice. Sadly, I succumbed to the infection, and if it doesn't have tight string spacing and that characteristic tone, I can't get excited by it.
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I think my first bass was a Univox Hi Flier, which was a Mosrite copy. Long gone.
My first one was a cheap Japanese copy of a P bass.
It was a Segova. The Japanese marketed the products with a
name that sounded like a popular name, in this case I believe
it was Segovia who was one of the world's premiere classical
guitarist. Kind of an insult to Andre IMHO.
It was a Segova. The Japanese marketed the products with a
name that sounded like a popular name, in this case I believe
it was Segovia who was one of the world's premiere classical
guitarist. Kind of an insult to Andre IMHO.
Let's see - bought it at a pawn shop for $60, no name on the headstock but said Simpson-Sears on the back. Yep, I'd say pos. Can't comment on action or anything as the last time I saw it was '85.
I don't remember the model# but I bought one of the entry level Ibanez 5 strings back in the early 90's. 92-93 ish. I had to have a 5 string, and active preamp for whatever reason. It was a POS. It may not have actually been as bad as my memory makes it, but I still cringe thinking back on that thing. It had EMG by Ibanez pickups or something of that nature. For the longest time, I've unfairly hated on EMG's because of that bass. Looking back, I don't know how much of that was my poor technique, and lack of setup, not knowing how to set my amp, or how much of it was a sucky bass guitar. It was black, though. A black 5 string with a preamp, and that made me one cool human being back then.
Mine was a 60's era Japanese something or other. Think Tiesco but a few degrees crappier than that.
