It was 1982. The bass player in my band had a Peavey T-40 that he muddily stomped through songs playing the root and that was it. I had played my school's 72 P-Bass a lot and knew what I wanted to hear - and it wasn't
that. I knew the bass was a much more vibrant instrument than that, and he missed half of the rehearsals because of his girlfriend. So I quit guitar (I was the lead guitarist) and handed that role to my friend that played rhythm guitar. I said "I'm letting him (the bass player) go... I'm the bass player now.".
I was into Geddy Lee and Chris Squire, so I bought a second-hand Ibanez Rick copy, sunburst with a white pickguard and truss rod cover.
I took off the pickguard and spray painted it (the pickguard)black, and then took off the truss rod cover and with Testor's model paint reversed the colors so it was white on black, then restrung it with Rotosound Superwounds.
That, plugged in to a bassman 50 on the treble side with a Boss octave divider, and I was off and running in a trio.... Dang, I miss that bass!
Just as a side note my second bass was a HondoII Longhorn copy with P bass Pups that I strung with those Thick black Plastic wound strings that rotosound made to be the total oppisite of The Ibanez
