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What was your first bass guitar?

#941
I started with a Westfield jazz copy which I still own and love, even though the neck is waxy and dented, and only one out of three knobs works, and currently it has three tuning pegs. When I have the time I'm going to refinish it, and refurb it, and polish and poly the neck, and brand my own logo into the headstock, and make it a regular gigger, I'd imagine it'd play great still.

I now play...a lot of basses. But I have a few gigging Jags.
 
#945
A $99 Sunburst Univox. Then a cherry red Epiphone with the Precision shaped body, not the SG shape. Next came a Fender Fretless Precision: white, that was set up so perfect by Pyramid Guitars in Detroit that it almost played itself. It was sold to a bassist in the University of Michigan Jazz Band back in 1981 when I needed cash to pay tuition at Michigan State. The irony of it all! Years later I picked up a White Yamaha RBX200, nothing fancy, but great neck and fun to play. That ended up with my nephew who needed an ax for a garage band he hooked up with from his high school. I now have a MusicMan StingRay 5-string with a set of TI Jazz Flats on it.
Peace, Johnny
 
#946
My first was a no name, cream-colored P-esque thing that a friend of mine had under his bed for apparently a very long time. One of the tuning key heads came off, so I had to tune that string (and often) with a pair of pliers. This was in the early '80's (Vintage!)

I now have a Fireglo 4003, a Douglas 6-string fretless, a MIK Precision and a Jasmine/Takamine acoustic. GAS'ing for a 5-er and a 6 string fretted.
 
#947
My first bass was a "Sears Special"... sort of a Jazz-styled thing with little chrome pickups. Good enough to learn my way around the fretboard on.

My first REAL bass was a '77 Rickenbacker 4001.

Now? I've got 'em listed in my sig line. Don't figure on needing anything more than what I've got now.

:eyebrow:

But then again, no one ever expects... THE SPANISH INQUISITION! (G.A.S.)

:p
 
#949
Very first: Lotus P copy.

Now: Fender USA Deluxe Jazz V, Fender MIM Standard Jazz V (with pickup and preamp upgrades), G&L 1505, Ibanez ATK 305, Korean Peavey Fury V (its in pieces right now).

In between there I had, a Rogue P copy, a Samick P-J, two USA Fender Standard Jazzes (one was a late eighties and the other was a nineties model), a USA Fender P (I REALLY wish I sill had that now. It was repainted professionally (white) with EMG pickups), and a Peavey Cirrus. Sigh........
 
#951
1983 Ibanez Musician bass. I've had it 19 years. Haven't played it in years but for Christmas I ordered special fitted Bartolinis, yanked out the brutal preamp in it, had Stan from Has-Sound rig me up a custom tone mod, put flat wounds on it and now that bad boy KILLS!
 
#952
My first bass was a Squier P-Bass Special. I sold it to a buddy of mine several years ago. I was over at his place last year and saw it sitting in the corner. I picked it up and was amazed at how well it played. I plugged it into his amp, and was further amazed how great it sounded. It sounded and played WAY better than some of the basses I bought after it.

My current bass is a custom jazz bass with an alder body from Warmoth, a Status Graphite J neck and DiMarzio Model J pickups (neck in parallel, bridge in series) wired straight to the output jack. While my first bass was (and still is) surprisingly good given its pricepoint... My current bass... well... for me its ALMOST everything I want in a bass. If I could get a Status Graphite neck with the same profile as my current, but with fanned frets.... oh my..... :p
 
#953
My first bass was a Dean Edge Q4.

Made in Korea
Basswood body
VERY thin quilted maple top
Rosewood fretboard with abalone dots
EMG HZ's
Two-band EQ
Gotoh tuners
No name bridge
Graphite nut

Not a bad bass, but nothing truly special


My current bass is a Peavey Millennium Plus 4.

Made in USA
Alder body
1/4" flamed maple top
Nicely figured Pao Ferro fretboard with maple dots
Internally active Peavey pickups
Three-band EQ with mid-frequency selector
Hipshot Ultralite tuners
Hipshot Quadrajust bridge
Tusq imitation bone nut
Carbon fiber rods in neck

I see a huge difference in playability and tone!

I have owned nicer basses than the Peavey, but I still have a better bass than I started with!
 
#954
My very first bass was a P-Bass copy that I bought from some crappy music store on Broadway in the village back in 1985 when I was in 8th grade. I don't recall the name on the headstock but it was a decent copy. It was a pretty good bass until I ruined it. I worked in an auto body shop over the summer and we painted it. I tried to strip the paint off but I clearly had no clue what I was doing so I made horrible gouges in the body and then used wood putty to fix it. Then we primered it (yes, using car paint). Then I bought some eeriedescent paint and after about 4 coats of black, purple and midnight blue it looked amazing like holographic. A few more coats of clear and voila! A perfectly ruined bass. Seriously it wouldn't even pluck it was so heavy and ruined. No sustain and it just sucked. I ended up giving it away to my music teacher at the time who hung it on the wall like art. Sorry for the long story I just thought people would get a kick out of it. All this and I could barely even play the stupid thing. I then got a Guild Burnside and it proved to be a great bass, but I sold that one too in the 90s.

Anyways, I have a couple of Fenders and stuff but the two I cherish most are a 90 Ric 4003 and my fairly new American Deluxe P with humbuckers.
 
#956
First bass I owned was my DeArmond Pilot Deluxe 4-string:


ZZ42862D8A.jpg



Still have it, still play it, still love it! :D
 

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