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What was your first bass guitar?

#406
WJF said:
Mid-70s Gibson Ripper.
Click to expand...

Yeah! A '77 Ripper was the first brand new bass I bought. Shipped in from Kalamazoo, will never forget the new smell, peeling the protective paper offa the pickguard, and the purple crushed velvet hardshell. Black fretless. Still have it and use it in a jazz trio.
 
#407
An early nineties Navy Blue Vantage Precision bass copy, the ones with the arrow shaped headstocks. Plywood body, I bought it without tuners and electronics.

I beat the tar out of that bass, chopped out a hole for a Dimarzio model one pickup, replaced the neck a couple of times and refinished it white. In that guise I still have it. The picture shows it when I just got it, you can clearly make out the plastic slab I used to cover the Pickup cavity in the pickguard.

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#408
My first "proper" bass was a Sears & Roebuck Jazz-copy special. Before that, I had modified an old beat up nylon string classical guitar to play as a "sortabass". :smug:

One day, the Sears special starts to give me problems. So my mom drives my 16 year old butt over to Sears' service department to get it shipped off for fixin'! Two months later, we get a call that the bass had been "lost in the system", and I get a monetary reimbursement for my trouble.

What do I do with that cash?

I get myself over to my local Rickenbacker dealer and plunk it down on ordering a brand new '77 MapleGlo 4001, which of course was my first "TRULY PROPER" bass! :bassist:
 
#412
I think I liked the pseudo-vintage look of Epiphone guitars and basses back then (1996), so I decided I really wanted an Epiphone "Power Bass" in all-black (the lefty version only came in black, of course), which was essentially a P-clone with an added J pickup, no pickguard and a maple (cardboard) body.

It was cheap-ish, sounded alright, but was pretty hard to play (for some reason the string tension was pretty high) and its output was pretty low. The teacher who led my school band kept on telling me to play harder even though it was essentially the bass's fault. The fact that our mixing board was "adjusted" to my precursor's bass whose output was hotter, didn't help, either.

When one of the pickups came loose and several other things broke after one year of owning the bass and the bad playability got on my nerves, I replaced the Epi with an Ibanez ATK, which was quite an upgrade. I no longer have the Epiphone, I took it apart and burned the wooden parts when I got tired of the bass standing around and taking up space. I couldn't possibly have sold it, a first bass like that would be close to a punishment.
 
#413
My first ever bass was a Proaxe P-bass clone, terrible bass, the electronics died after i had it for about 6 months, so i had to play it unamped until i could afford a replacement. I still have my 2nd bass which is a early 90's Yamaha RBX260, which i love. It has seen better days but the neck is incredible, nothing i have tried in the stores comes close. I play this poor thing really hard too, i use Billy Sheehans neck whammy technique, it gets banged on things daily :D but i am keeping it forever, it will get a restoration when i can afford it.
 
#415
A Aria Pro II with PJ PU's that I borrowed from the local music school. The headstock was so cool - it really looked like a bass that would do well in Heavy Metal :p

The first bass that I bought was a Peavy TL Five. Then I sold it to buy a custom made bass.
 
#416
A 1965 Gibson EB-3, bought used (or should I say "pre-owned"?) in 1968. The headstock had been broken off (sound familiar?) but had been nicely repaired. Played that for a couple of years, then ripped the frets out. Not a good idea.
 
#417
A ZimGar... about 3/4 size and a real POS.
After I was making steady $$ gigging in clubs, bought a Fender Jazz... which I sold about 5 years later when I got tired of touring and quit music. Wish I hadn't done that... sold the bass, that is. Now I've started back playin and have a G&L Tribute L2000.
 
#419
Since this is my first post here, I figured I'd post in the "first bass" thread! I actually joined TB about two years ago, but have only lurked.

My first bass was a Rickenbacker 4003, which I bought new. Black with white pickguard. I nearly got the reverse of that, a black on white one like Rick James had. I had borrowed a few friends' basses that were utter crapola, and when I saw the Rick I knew I had to have it. So I got a job and worked every day 'til I could afford the Rick. I was 15 at the time.

~ Keef

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