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What was your first bass guitar?

Wwwweeeelllllllll, my first (and only, so far) was/is a Fender MIM Jazz 5 String. The technical color is midnight wine, but I just call it purple. 3 ply white pickguard. Not too bad, I should say. After listening to all the "nostalgia", I am reluctant to sell it!! I will prob end up selling it one day though.

Hey Biski, you only been playin a year too huh? I got my bass on July 3 of 1999. Nice to know I'm not the only young un' around here.

[This message has been edited by hunter585 (edited July 17, 2000).]
 
The 1st bass with a name on it? My first I bought off of a friend's father for $10...had a neck so bowed you could shoot arrows off it. The first name brand was a red/black Peavey patriot. I loved that thing..it was actually playable....
 
My first bass was a 62 Fender Jazz that I got from a guy in Houston in 74 for $75.
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Really it was a short scale thing my brother put together out of left over parts. My son (5) plays it now, but the rosewood fretboard is starting to come unglued from the neck.


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Paul

 
Think there was a similar thread elsewhere, but what the heck. My first bass was a short-scale Kingston a friend loaned to me, which we lovingly referred to as "the Duckfart" (the bass, not the friend) because of its tone. I then graduated to a candy-apple green Sekova Beetle Bass copy, which was just every bit as awful as it sounds. This was all around '75. Got my first "good" bass in '77; a Gibson EBO -- sweet, wish I still had it!
 
I'm still on my first bass sadly. It's a 1998 Squier P-bass. It's good for a beginner, but I'm progressing too fast, and I want more. I stuck stickers all over it right after I got it, and had to get a thumbrest because I was killing my thumb on my pickup. Man, what I wouldn't give to get my hands on a new Stingray 5-string.
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I'm still on my first bass sadly. It's a 1998 Squier P-bass. It's good for a beginner, but I'm progressing too fast, and I want more. I stuck stickers all over it right after I got it, and had to get a thumbrest because I was killing my thumb on my pickup. Man, what I wouldn't give to get my hands on a new Stingray 5-string.
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My first bass was a Telecaster guitar set on the neck pickup and the tone rolled off completely. I played that way for quite a while and then borrowed an Ampeg Big Stud bass...talk about heavy...ouch.

The first bass I ever owned was a 4 string P style I made up from Kramer parts obtained from their factory down the road at one of their "yard sales" in the '80s.

[This message has been edited by Rumblin' Man (edited July 20, 2000).]
 
My first bass is my current and only bass, a Ibanez GSR 200. I just got EMG pickups in it and had the truss rod/action/intonation adjusted, and now it sounds great.

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"Music's what I need to keep my sanity." - 311

 
i remember first getting into bass a couple years ago, it offered me a lot of things that guitar did, but i was pretty broke at the time and decided to build one, it turned out pretty bad actually, and i ended up giving it away as a gift to someone. It had about as much tone as a low priced fender P that had been run over by a greyhound bus.
 
My first bass was a "Aria Pro II" the model was called "The Cat Bass series". Passive picks and as i recall a pretty soft scale !
I had it for about 4 months and i had a stroke of luck when i saw an add ,somebody wanted to sell a 1971 USA made Fender Precision Bass . I didn´t had any money on me but i visited the guy and ,this was unbelieveble we swapped basses .I still have it this day .It is baby blue w/ a white pick guard.I don´t use it live
 
Well, I loved Billy Sheehan and thought he was about as cool as a bass player could get, so, of course, I thought I could be equally cool IF I played his same bass...the Yamaha Attitude Limited Edition. This red bodied, white pick guarded, double stereo jacked, four string had three buttons and one toggle switch. I bought the coolest padded strap with black background and red chilie peppers on it...perfect combination.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the fretboard has grooves in it at the 16th through 21 frets for string bending like Sheehan does. The fretboard has a pearlized varnish on it that glows from pinkish to blueish depending on the angle. And the bass has a HipShot D-tuner. The bass is passive. Some fancy bass all right! I named it Scarlett O'Hara.

Anyway, I never needed those grooves. I never needed the Hip Shot D-Tuner. Plus, I went to a bass clinic given by Jeff Berlin and he looked at my hand and told me I'd be able to play much better if I had a bass proportioned to my hand. He said Sheehan, being a really tall guy with very long fingers could handle that bass, but it was too big for me, especially the fretboard.

And I guess he was right. I still have the beautiful bass, but rarely use it. I love my Tobias Basic-5 five string now. And even with five strings it isn't any wider in the freboard than Sheehan's Yamaha Attitude.

Jason Oldsted
 

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