What was your first bass guitar?

[dinogroovie]

My first bass was a Hondo II copy of a Rickenbacker in natural. Got it at Sam Ash in Hempstead, NY somewhere around 1978. My brother got a Hondo Les Paul at the same time.
Still playing in a band with my brother that plays out every other month. Main bass at those gigs rotates between a 77 P bass and a newly acquired frankenfender Jazz bass with a 78 neck. Still sometimes drag out my first real bass - the 74 Rick in my avatar.

 

[FrenchBassQC]

My first real bass was a Rickenbacker 4003 and now my main bass is a Sandberg California TT4 (active/passive).

 

[infraviolet]

My first was a Squier Bronco. Short scale, sounded okay, hasn't really been touched since I started buying other instruments. My mains are a Squier VM 70s Jazz Bass and a Warwick Streamer.

 

[micgtr71]

My first was a cort short scale sunburst jazz that I wish I still had. My main bass now is a 95 jazz am std that I bought new

 

[static0verdrive]

I started with a late 80's / early nineties Mako P-bass:

mako P bass

• static0verdrive
• Feb 18, 2015
• 1

My beat up ol' first bass

Then I got my black Ibanez P/J (both pups, jazz neck) which probably would still be my main if the truss hasn't popped out...

So I got my $80 used 5-string Squier which I used most until I got my fretless Squier jazz and put Nordstrand pups in it:

Squier Vintage Modified Fretless

• static0verdrive
• Jan 29, 2015
• 3

Replaced the control plate with a black one. La Bella low tension flats installed for now until...

I swap back and forth between that fretless and my jj jazz:

JJJ black pearl & metal knobs

• static0verdrive
• Mar 27, 2015
• 3

Replaced the vintage plastic knobs with black metal ones.

Only occasionally play the mako or 5-string, or should I say rarely.

 

[Zodion]

I had been playing drums for two years and it came to a point where I couldn't really find anyone looking for a drummer and moving drums is tough when you're 16. So on a suggestion from a friend (after a session of guitar hero when I played the bass to either a dragon force song or dream theatre) I decided to pick up bass. Another factor was I had taken an interest in bass after discovering how cool bass players were.

So, I picked up a Squier affinity jazz bass in the "Stop dreaming, Start playing" box. After playing on that and much trial and I error with set up I picked up a 5 string to go with it. At that Point I wasn't ready for a 5 and I didn't care for the tone much so I ended up trading it in.

After a long while of figuring out what bass I wanted to get next, I walked into my music store and aw the Ibanez SR1400E V.N.F. on the wall. It has 5 knobs and 2 switches so being a budding bass player I was a little intimidated by this expensive well made bass. One day I decided to pick it up and play, that is when I was sold on it.

I really liked the bass but figured I would get something less expensive but, my mom was with me one day and I was playing the ibanez and she said, "Well if you like this one so much then why not get it". So of course I did. I've been playing it ever since and I only had to put a little veneer under the G string bridge because it was a little low, other than that it's a beast of a bass.

Fast forward a while of playing and we get to wanting a 5 string again. I had a bass on layaway at r he time but I walk into the store (again)

 

[Zodion]

And the guy there says "I've in something for you" and brings out a David Ellefson signature 5 string bass. Of course I get it and had played that for about a year when I decided I wasn't super happy about the tone for my style and I liked smaller basses (Ibanez style) So I traded it in for an Ibanez 405QM.

Oh yeah and I played a 6 string for a while but I don't really go that high up. G string is as high as I'll go since I got into bass because it's the low end and it crushes. I do love solo guys and what they do though like Eric Czar etc. I don't like to play 6 strings much (maybe one day as was with the 5 string).

So now I have my squire jazz, And my main basses are the 1400 and the 405.

 

[FunkyFresh]

Hello,

I am new to the forum (although I've been a longtime reader). I'm looking forward to getting involved. This thread has been a pleasure to read. My first bass was a Yamaha RBX350, PJ style bass. I can't convey my excitement when I brought it home from the store. The next time I experienced that excitement was when I took home my main player, my Elrick gold series - my first love.

 

[EagleMoon]

First bass was a 1975 Fender Precision, ash with maple fingerboard. Current bass is a Sadowsky Will Lee, ash body, maple fingerboard.

 

[Neon Blues]

Squier Vintage Modified J was my first and I modified it many times until there was nothing left of it except the body (truss rod blew through the fingerboard at first fret and it also developed a hump near the heel). I tried several different shapes sizes and styles over the years. Now I have four Fender spec Warmoths. I tend to play the J's equally at home and the P gets the most playing time away from home.

Here is a picture of the Squier, fully modified before I sold it and the triple J Warmoth that most resembles it vs the other three in my current lineup.

View attachment 705898

I would love to take that pickguard and put it on a Guild Starfire, if you know what I mean!

 

[kodiakblair]

First bass semi hollow Comodore,pickup held in by nails,tuning pegs snapped off (used pliers),scratchplate from ply again nailed on.
Upgraded to Woolworths Kaypackaging grade plywood body

These days I've plenty to choose from but normally found with 1st Gen Peavey Fury strung with Chromes.

 

[gfen]

I bought a Martin Stinger SBX in 1987 from the factory's discount room, I think I paid $70. It had a crack between the A and D strings on the fingerboard.

(not my picture)
I wish I still had it. I replaced it in 2000 with a BC Rich "Platinum Series" Mockingbird because I always wanted one. Turned out it's great to look at, but not so great for me to try and play.

Now, I guess I've settled on a Fender Blacktop Jazz.

(also not my picture)

 

[Haji]

My first was a mid 80's Aria Diamond PJ, black with a rosewood (I think) fingerboard. I don't remember exactly because that was quite a while ago. I went looking online for one like it recently with no joy. I thought I remembered them being fairly common. Haven't seen one like it in the couple years I've been lookin'.

After a 15 year break, the second first bass in Jan '14 was an Ibanez GSR200 that was quickly replaced by a Sterling SUB SB4 that I still have and have been playing quite a bit more of late. My main is a 1988 Charvel 4B with EMG's and an Epiphone TBird IV with a Tone Monster preamp as the backup/sometimes main. Both of those are string with Dunlop Heavy Core strings and tuned in Drop C.

 

[Unfinely Tuned]

My first bass was a Squier P Bass special. As a lefty, I bought it used with a badass bridge in like new condition.

I now play a USA G&L L2000? Spector Rebop 4 DLX and an RG Custom Bass. As a lefty, I've owned a few basses from Schecter and Fender but find that custom and American made basses are the way to go for quality for us lefties.

 

[Baird6869]

My first bass (1985-ish) was a used Ibanez Roadstar P bass.

Now my main bass is a Fodera.

Wish I still had the Ibanez though. It was a great bass.

 

[zontar]

I've only ever owned 2 basses, and have posted this picture before, but here they are together.
My first was a Granada EB3 copy I got used when I took lessons many years ago.
then I got an Ibanez SR500F closing in on two years ago to try my hand at playing fretless.
While I still play the EB3 copy, the fretless is my primary bass--and I've played a lot more bass than I ever have since I got the fretless--should have done that years ago.

Invalid Link Removed

 

[cronker]

I wanted to be a pianist, originally, but my folks could simply not afford a piano for me. This was before the cheapo keyboards and such.
So my Aunty (with, no doubt, the encouragement of my parents) convinced me I needed a guitar.
I played an acoustic nylon classic and took lessons etc.
Never was very good.
I started working. Very young, but saved my pennies and bought a shithouse Casio keyboard. Still not good.

One day, I picked up a bass, and guess what? It clicked! In every single way. I just took off in my learning, everything I knew now made sense!
My first bass was a cheapo Daion - I'm a lefty and they are EXPENSIVE here in Australia.
My now bass is a MM SR5 which I love, and also love the 62Ri jazz from Japan that I own.

 

[Dluxe]

First was a Gibson G-3. Currently playing a Roscoe Beck 5.

 

[Shovel]

2002 Fender Mexican Jazz bass, It's still my main bass 7 years after I got it.

 

[spigmu]

First was an Aria SB-900 flipped over. I really wanted a bass for home recordings and subbing for our bassist, but since I was an organist first, guitarist second and then maybe imagined bassist third it had to be cheap but I didn't want crummy, and in 1980 that was asking a lot. Found it for $200 in one of the pawn shops that went from north of Times Square to north of Penn Station that have been lost to the Disneyfication of NYC but where you could still find bargains if you checked in often and didn't mind the karma of some poor soul pawning their bass.

Image from Graeme Fyfe's Aria bass page - Link Removed

It's probably the only instrument I ever had that I wish I had back. Super fast neck, very non-Fender narrow and untapered, about the weight of a small canon. Sounded great, passive though you wouldn't think it for the amount of switches that I never did learn the functions of, and I played great on it. Only problem, aside from lefty neck dive from up to down in .3 sec no matter where I put the strap button, was it really didn't intonate well up the neck, and once I had some cash to spare I had a good luthier tend to it but it didn't get much better. Many years later I loaned it to a friend and when I got it back it didn't work. It turned out that it was only that he was rough on the rotary dial, which had been funky, and the wires lost contact, but at the time I couldn't figure it out so I just left it. After all, there was this new thing called the internet that showed lefty basses in St.Louis and Santa Fe, so I took it as a sign, but anyway I needed a working bass so my first actual lefty bass, a Warmoth part Jazz from EU Wurlitzer in Boston, arrived. Then an ATK. Then a...you get the picture. Oddly enough, a few years later I would be legit half baked bassist and by the next decade was a de facto bassist. It lay unplayable under the pile and space in an apartment is a premium, so few years ago I brought it to my luthier's shop and just gave it to her for doing me such solids over the years and for future consideration, and it sold it in a flash. That was when I found out it was just the loose wires.

I miss that neck : ) It was the most comfortable and effortless neck I've ever played.

Anyway, I stumbled on an Ashbory in 2000 and for the last ten years it's been 90% Ashbory.