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What was your first bass guitar?

The first one I ever played was a '66 Fender Jazz. That was from 1970 to 1973. Tried to buy it, but couldn't meet the price my cousin wanted for it. Went for a spell without any bass after that.

The first bass I ever owned was a 1974 Gibson L9-S Ripper which I bought new in April 1974. It's still all original, and in service as my main bass.

What a long strange trip it's been since then.;)
 
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100,- Deutsche Mark for a kind of shortscale sunburst P-Bass copy made in Poland according to the woman who sold it to our bassplayer with a fat pickup very close to the neck and a 2x2 tuner headplate. Didn't have a model-name on the headstock or the name of the manufacturer. Bought it used from the bass-player in my punk-band in 1981 or 1982, when I started my not so glamouress career as a singer with a 50,- tapedeck microphone through the same old Dynacord 2x12 bassamp our guitarplayer and our bassist used.

Never thought about chosing the guitar as my main instrument. Never read any gear-magazines and didn't thought about buying another bass. Never thought about new strings either. Just used it as it was untill about 1987 or 1988 and played about 3-5 hours a day in the mid-80s. When 1 string broke, our local music-shop sold me 2 flatwound and 2 roundwound strings. Changed it to 4 roundwounds. Was totally shocked when I heard the fresh roundwounds, thought something must be wrong with them.
Later came an Ibanez Rick-Copy (think: Peter Hook) and than my first serious bass: a Yamaha BB1100s which I bought new in 1989. Never considered a Fender back then. Now that I think of it: had a Hoefner Beatles Bass from the 70's for a few weeks. Hate at first sight. I was really dissapointed.
 
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Black Squier P-bass from the mid 90s from a local family-run music shop. I took bass lessons from the 75 year old guy that originally owned the shop before he passed it off to his sons.

Like this one. I have no idea where the one I had went though.

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I upgraded to a MIA Jazz bass after a couple to a few years, purchased from the same shop. It was a night and day difference, the action and neck were just so much easier to play with. They were set up by the same people. Squier is much better these days though.