Hope you asked for change
Goes to show, you make do with what you have. The best bassist I know personally spent a couple of years playing a knackered old Strat copy with 3 strings that he found in a skip as a bass.
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What was your first bass guitar?
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Hope you asked for change
Goes to show, you make do with what you have. The best bassist I know personally spent a couple of years playing a knackered old Strat copy with 3 strings that he found in a skip as a bass.
My mother bought me my first bass. It was an 1978 Ibanez Silver Series PJ bass. I wanted the Fender bass so bad that was like 450 bones in 78, and the Ibanez was 200. I did end up with a '78 Fender Jazz bass a few years later. I still have both, but pic of the Ibanez is from the internet.
forgot pics:
forgot pics:
Mid 90s USA made peavey fury. Not this one but one like it.
It was a Sears Jazz Bass copy. The action was soooo high!!! You have to start somewhere.
1983 Ibanez Road Star II P-bass copy. Red with a white pick guard. Was my main gigging bass from 83-89.
I started about 10 years ago on an early natural Squier VM Jazz bass. The bound and blocked maple neck with Duncan Designed pickups in it. It's long gone - wish I still had it. It's on my "regret" list. 
A $100 Craigslist beginner special... Yamaha RBX170 with a 10' cable, battery powered korg tuner, 8" practice amp, and a method book.
Something I always wanted to do, and since strangers had been mistaking me for a musician all my life (and still do
) At 43yo I found that li'l starter package in the town local to where my then Wife was going to be going back to college for half the week for the next 2 years. We stopped on the way to her new half home since I knew I was about to have much more time on my hands. It was likely if I didn't start then I'd never get around to it 
A long winded way of saying that you're never too old to learn something.
Edit to add: I've only upgraded once, and likely will not part with it unless I have to since its a great knock around travel bass and I've personalized the bajeebus out of it
Something I always wanted to do, and since strangers had been mistaking me for a musician all my life (and still do
) At 43yo I found that li'l starter package in the town local to where my then Wife was going to be going back to college for half the week for the next 2 years. We stopped on the way to her new half home since I knew I was about to have much more time on my hands. It was likely if I didn't start then I'd never get around to it A long winded way of saying that you're never too old to learn something.Edit to add: I've only upgraded once, and likely will not part with it unless I have to since its a great knock around travel bass and I've personalized the bajeebus out of it
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Mine was a Kay I think I got it, rather my parents bought it for me, around 1985 or so. Virtually identical to this one except it was a dark brown color.
First was a Cort GB25. 5 string with MM style pickup, trans red finish and white scratchplate. It's been in the hands of a friend for about 10 years, think it's time to bring it back into the stable Will be nice to compare how it feels to my other instruments after all these years.
Will be nice to compare how it feels to my other instruments after all these years.
Hagstrom ii. Mid-Sixties. Looked just like this. My old man bought it brand new out the back door of some mysterious warehouse. $65, as I recall. Gigged with it until I was 18, then it was stolen.
a 1975 Fender Musicmaster. My cousin showed up with it for me to borrow to learn on for my 13th birthday. Couple years later after working my first job I bought off of him for two or three hundred dollars. It needed a little bit of work a few years ago because the neck was a hair crooked (the E string was too close to the edge of the fret board; the G too far, so the E would slide off the top of the neck if you weren't careful). It was a perfect starter bass and it's great to play around on but it's too noisy and uncooperative to play on gigs consistently (intonation will never be right, and the action will always be too low with the strings too loose for my tastes). Currently I have strung up as a piccolo bass. Either way, the start of my modest little career so will never leave my possession!
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Never truer words spoken pal.
Friend from the US was visiting last month and we got discussing some common statements on TB.
"can't play a chunky neck" "can't play bass over 8.5lb", "can't play 35" scale","must have a 38mm nut".
We thanked our lucky stars we just play bass
Mine was an Alex Copy of a Gibson EB3. The action and the string tension made it absolutely impossible to play. What was amazing was that it never occurred to me that changing the strings could’ve made it a bearable experience instead I suffered for a year and a half with that thing. I remember there was a guy in the neighborhood that actually had a real fender precision bass and anytime I saw him and played that I couldn’t believe how amazing a real bass should play like.
Mine was a Global ordered from Sears in..sometime around 1978. That's it in the middle of the photo with all the stickers etc. It is now part of the instrument sculpture at Seattle's MOPOP (formerly the Experience Music
Project)
Project)
Ductapeman
Ringmaster and Resident Geriatric
Mine was a Harmony H-22, bought used out of a pawn shop in downtown Tacoma, WA in late 1966. I loaned it to a student in the mid-1980s who then moved out of state-- twelve years later he called me out of the blue and returned it. Thought sure I'd seen the last of it. Little monster sure thumps. It needs some work now, will get it running again when I have the time and bench space. This is the Purple Grackle, my first band, from Yelm High School in Washington State-- we were all freshmen and sophomores, but managed to become locally notorious:
