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What was your first bass guitar?

#2,581
First bass was a Daion - cheapo right handed junk outta Momosuko. It looked kinda symmetrical, so flipping it just meant changing the strap peg and nut.

Then it was a Cort Steinberger headless ripoff - right hander, again, and same reason...
Then a Westone Thunder II - first true lefty. Damn I wish I still had that, but my brother stole it and sold it to buy drugs.

Next up was an Ibanez Roadstar II 850. Great, great bass...for rock n rawl yeah! Limited scope.
And so on...
 
#2,582
I had an 80's Aria Pro II, 2 soap bars, passive tone controls. It sounded like A$$. Then I got a loaner Peavey Dyna-Bass Unity (oil-finish Koa and Purple Heart woods) with 3-band preamp.
Had to give that back when I bought my first "Real" bass, an EBMM Stingray.
 
#2,583
First I played: '54 Precision burst finish (not mine, my brother's), first I owned myself: '76 Musicmaster, Epi EA260, Gibson Ripper.
 
#2,584
Not afraid to fly my 80s freak flag.....My first....1975 Jazz with Bad Ass2 and Alembic Activators...I miss the the hair almost as much as the bass....No hating the shorts and socks unless you actually partied thru the 80s!!
FullSizeRender (8).jpgold bass.jpg
 
#2,585
FretNoMore said:
Eventually I bought my own first bass which, if I remember correctly, was an Aria Pro II "The Cat".
Click to expand...

My first was a Cat too! I bought it in Germany when I was over there with the army in the late '80s, after a guitarist in my unit talked me into learning bass to play in a barracks-band that never quite came together. I still remember going to the really cool music store in Stuttgart with a pocket-full of Deutschmarks and asking if they had any second-hand basses. “Yah," replied the salesman as he gestured toward a dark corner off to the side, "ve haff zese; a (something I don't remember) und ve haff ze Cat-Bass.” It looked like a candy-apple-red, heavy-metal rocketship and I was instantly smitten.

I still have it today! It went through some bad experiments early on, and entered into a 20+ year period of neglect before I really accumulated much ability to play. Recently I've gotten back into music and have been having all my basses professionally refreshed, and two days ago I got the Cat back from the shop! It got a freshly-leveled fingerboard, new frets, new oversized paua abalone dots, a new graphite nut, a good cleaning inside and out, and a good professional setup. I'm beside myself with joy about it, and I'm falling in lust with it all over again now that finally, after more than a quarter-century, I can actually play it half-competently. It's a really sweet bass to play, and my hands really love it. It's an old friend rediscovered on so many levels!

P_20150225_170825-XL.jpg


The work still isn't really finished though, as there are one or two small cosmetic things that I think it still needs. One is that that little dugout in the body for truss-rod access has always bugged me, so I want to make nice-looking cover for that. Functionally I'm thinking about new pickups and maybe a tone module. Those EMG Selects were definitely an upgrade over the stock pickups, but now that I have a nice amp I'd like to refine the sound a bit.

I'm looking forward to many many years to come enjoying 'ze Cat-Bass!'
 
#2,586
My first bass was a no name Fender Jazz bass copy. I bought it for $35 from an older bass player in high school around 1977. The bass was probably sold by Sears or Montgomery Wards. It had two pickups with 2 white rocker selector switches and a volume and tone control. It was a sunburst body with an aluminum metal pickguard and rosewood fretboard. It was really beat and came with a cheap case. I sold it to a high school friend when I got my second bass....and Electra Rickenbacker copy (maple fingerboard with black inlays). The Rick copy was horrible and it went and I got my first REAL bass a 1976 Fender Precision Ash body/maple fingerboard. I still have the P-bass.
 
#2,590
I hitched down the Post Road to Poughkeepsie Music in the winter of 1971, and came back with a solid body...sunburst... VERY used Sears Silvertone. It had 3 steel flatwounds and a D string that was a black plastic wrap affair. I paid $35.00. I beat the crap out of it for a year; until I thought I was ready to step up, and went back down to the same store and traded it in on a beautiful new Univox copy of an EB-1...'tobaccoburst'...the reason they invented the word 'neckdive'. I didn't know any better...I loved it! Played that Univox (I know I have a pair of pictures of it around here somewhere!) until '74 when I bought the heartbeat of our home, my '73 4001. It had been hanging on the wall at Terminal Music in N.Y.C. for almost 2 years...waiting for me. :)
 
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#2,593
I started out playing guitar when I was about 11, and then I took lessons in the 7th grade, but after seeing Purple Rain in 1984 I got the inspiration to play bass. (don’t ask why)

I went to a local music store and bought a Hondo II. (Fender copy)

I bought an old (tube) Fender cab from the neighbor that was a professional bassist, and I played that Hondo until I couldn’t feel my fingertips.

Looking back now after owning much better made basses, I realize just how lacking it was but back then I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

I wish I still had it if for nothing else to hang on the wall to remind me of those days……

This is a picture of what I had but it’s not an actual picture of the one I owned.

hondo3.jpg
 
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