What did you do with your "beginner" bass?

[Greenman72]

So....I still have the very first bass I ever bought. Obviously, I've "outgrown" it, and now I only have about a dozen basses or so that are much higher quality.

But....since this is my first, it's really hard to let go of it, purely for sentimental reasons. But there's no reason to hang on to it, either. Is there?

What did you do with your first bass? Are you happy with your decision?

 

[KevInDaBassment]

I'd hang onto it, personally...

As for what happened to mine, I had to pick "Carrots" because "Loaned it to my @%#hole ex-bandmate who pawned it without asking/telling me" wasn't an option


EDIT: BTW, it was a repaired Ibanez GSR200...not sure what pickups were in there, as the shop replaced them for me (originals weren't working).

 

[ahbass2500]

Still have and play it. Ideally a beginner bass is good enough that you could keep playing it indefinitely (though this is certainly not true for many entry quality instruments). Mine was a Peavey Milestone I (entry level Jazz bass comparable to a Squier Jazz from the time period). Swapped pickups in it several years ago. This bass is and always has been a solid Jazz bass.

In terms of your sentimental argument, that is certainly there, but I never sold mine for a much more practical reason. It plays/sounds great and if I sold it, I might net $150 out of it. Bass is too good for me to take $150 for it (would cost significantly more for me to replace it with a Jazz bass that I like as well).

 

[DirtDog]

90s Squier P that I struggled to bond with. Sold it on consignment. Went with a MIM Jazz Deluxe. Big upgrade.

When I brought it to the consignment shop, the owner fiddled with the setup for a few minutes and handed it back to me. It played like a completely different bass. A good setup on a cheap bass is worth it. But alas, I sold it anyways.

 

[Petethebassman]

I sold my first bass after two years - that was in the early 1980s- it wasn't that great but I should have kept it for sentimental reasons. The remains of that bass are probably in a landfill somewhere: it changed hands once more after I sold it and I heard the last owner did a Townshend on it and smashed it against a wall. Oh well.

 

[Doctor Morbius]

I bought my first bass - a silver metallic Squier Vintage Modified short scale Jag - around 6 years ago from a friend. Still have it and still play it. I put a Gotoh bridge on it and have replaced the bridge pickup with a Duncan HOT classic stack. It's one of my regular "go to" basses. Now I'm thinking about putting some better pickups in both positions and possibly redoing the wiring harness.

 

[pingvuiini]

My first bass was a total POS Hondo Precision copy that I bought for $125 around 40 years ago. I ended up tearing it apart which was actually good to see how things worked and were put together. I think because of this I haven't been afraid to tweak truss rods, adjust bridge saddles, do basic passive electronic soldering, add neck or bridge shims and replace tuners and bridges on subsequent instruments.

 

[TheReceder]

Sold it to a friend back in the mid seventies. I'd pay 10 times what he paid for it to get it back. It was an early seventies mustang with P Pups. Played like a dream, but the drummer in the band made it clear that only kids and women played mustangs. Technically, I was a 6 foot tall 9th grader with a reasonable mustache, so was a kid playing in a bar band with a bunch of old guys (25) so I wanted to look the part. I upgraded to a $125 jazz bass that I still have.

 

[ElectricBass72]

My first bass was a Westone 4-string. Learned how to play on it. At the time I didn't regret selling it in 1991, because I had upgraded to a Spector NS-2A. But now I do regret not having it just for nostalgiac purposes.

 

[bholder]

What did I do with my beginner bass? Well, I began....

(ok, seriously, yeah then later, I sold the first 2 I had to get the 3rd, but later regretted it and bought them back - was an early 70s Epi EA-260, and a Gibson Ripper, sold to fund my first Peavey T-40. Since replaced several times over.)

 

[steamthief]

Mine is a "big Fender little Squier" P-bass my wife bought me as a birthday gift when we first started dating. It's kind of heavy, but I never sold it. I added an overwound Reverend pickup I bought new for $20 when that company when on a bass building hiatus long ago, and the sound is massive. I keep it set a half step down from standard tuning for when I need to learn those type of songs.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

1961 Epiphone Newport.
Under the Christmas tree in 1972. Took my lessons on it, and toiled in at least 4 of my first bands on it. Sold it and bought it back twice over the years. Thought it was lost for good after giving it to a friend to have some work done who subsequently passed away while he had it. Got it back 2 years later from his family.... in pieces.
Spent the last 2 years restoring it. Love the result so much, its reminded me how grateful I am that my late parents, that knew exactly nothing about basses, gave me such a nice one to cut my teeth on.
Never selling it again.

 

[Daniel B5]

In the late 80s I decided to join my friends in jamming (punk and classic rock). My parents, who didn't have much money, especially for a teenager who might give up on this new hobby after a couple of months, got me a heavily used Gomez bass, all maple, heavy as hell, with a neck that liked to ignore the truss rod, and wildly uneven frets. I'm sure its scale was more than 34".

After learning to play by ear, then taking lessons (including theory) from a jazz teacher, I reached the point where the Gomez was preventing my progress. So I picked up an almost never used MIJ Jazz Bass Special from a buddy. 35 years later that beautiful JBS is still my baby and I almost never think about the maple monstrosity that I unloaded on somebody else.

 

[JC BASS 91]

Had mine for about 15 or 16 years during which time I had about 14 basses at one point. I thinned the herd quite a bit at one point and go down to three basses that I had for the next 15 years. My first bass was one of the first to go. No regrets at all as it was a Precision copy and one of the three I kept was a MIA Standard Precision.

 

[Square]

Late eighties, I remember buying it. I remember making the payments. I don’t remember what brand it was. I have zero recollection of what happened to it.

The band I was in had a flaky bass player and I was the least talented of the band’s three guitar players. I took on bass duties until I moved cross country. After that, no clue.

After the move, new band, new bass (Kramer aluminum neck). Moved again, and again no idea where that bass went.

Didn’t touch a bass again til 1997 (Ibanez Tr). Just gave that one away last year to a beginning player.

 

[zenrad]

I pulled the frets and made a fretless bass out of it decades ago, unfortunately I stink at fretless so it never gets played

 

[godofthunder59]

I got my first bass in 1970, a Klira 356 violin bass, my parents bought it for me. My folks are long gone it's a direct connection to them and a reminder of my humble beginnings as a musician. I pull it out quite often to play around the house. It's one of my prized possessions and I'm very glad I kept it. Here's a relatively recent picture of me and my bass visiting Bruce Schaubroeck of The House of Guitars where my folks bought the bass so many years ago. Btw I have worked on and off with the House of Guitars since 1976 and work there now in my retirement.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

See post #3. I did the exact opposite, bought the Squier Jazz instead of the Milestone. Never regretted it and it will go with me to the grave.

 

[WG Plum]

First bass was a Vantage p bass, second was a pointy head stocked Krammer p bass. I don't miss either of them.

 

[MrAB4003]

I recently donated my Squier Affinity Jazz Bass to a local school of the arts. I figured that the students there could learn and practice with it just like I did as a teenager.

It hurt to play as a piccolo bass and I no longer liked how it sounded as a regular bass, so off it went. I held onto it for 16 years trying to figure out what to do with it, so I voted for Carrots.

I’m bittersweet about the situation. But I know it went to a good home where it will be loved and played.