Rented a MIM P for a month or two and then got a MIM P and Fender practice amp for my 12th birthday. 90something.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
When did you get your first Bass
- Thread starter Chris cook
- Start date
I actually got a bass amp before I got a bass proper. The first bass I got was some no-name P-copy that I later gave to a friend, but the first was a Rickenbacker 4001 copy found abandoned in a dumpster that I cleaned up and took some time to lovingly restore to life and it’s been my main piece ever since.
I guess I could say I’m primarily a guitar player but I’ve been playing bass much, much more over the years that maybe, juuuuust maybe, I might have to fully switch my main title to “bass player”.
I guess I could say I’m primarily a guitar player but I’ve been playing bass much, much more over the years that maybe, juuuuust maybe, I might have to fully switch my main title to “bass player”.
1976. Hewitts Music Store in Roseville (suburb of Detroit at Gratiot and one of the big number mile roads- I always got lost after crossing 8 Mile). Paper route money to buy a very glossy maple everything made in Japan Magnum jazz bass copy with real chipboard case. It had a special feature I haven't seen on so-called 'good basses' -- it had a 'whammy neck' that was very flexible and almost C shaped (not the neck carve, but the length of there neck from body to tuners). Action was about 3/4" inch or so by the end of the first month, which meant that I could play open-string triads just by pulling on the headstock! Haven't seen a bass like that after I traded it in on a '66 Precision (boy do I miss that bass).
Christmas 1978. 8th grade. I had stuck with upright for 2 years in school orchestra and really wanted an electric. Dad had a good year and I got a Peavey T-40 and a TKO 80 combo. Best gift of my life.
That would be 1965. I bought a piece of
green, short scale, Japanese bass used for $40. Didn't have an amp for it then, so I would butt the back end up against the door to a closet using the door as a sound board. Wasn't loud enough for anybody but me to hear it, but it worked. Then in 1966 I bought an actual Fender Bassman amp. This was the 50-watt all-tube amp using two 12's in a large cabinet. When I finally plugged in my bass, I found out just how bad it sounded. I did play one "Battle of the Bands" with it so it wasn't a complete disaster. I didn't realize it was a short scale bass until I bought a 1965 Fender Jazz in 1966 a few months after buying the amp. So at 15yrs-old, I had a nice bass set-up.My 1965 Jazz was stolen in 1976 and in 1985 I bought my 1982 Olympic white Jazz with a white-bound, all maple neck, and 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). Still playing today and I have a far better set-up now than I did then!
Kool
Some late 50s and 60s Silvertone and Harmony basses and guitars
are worth some serious $ now
I've got a 59 Silvertone acoustic ,
It's still in good condition and playable ( kinda )
I'm old enough to know " Learnt " isn't a word
L E A R N E D
lol
By the way exo politician
I'm just a visitor to this Dimension or this
Frequency.
Last edited:
September 13, 1996 I bought my first bass at a now closed guitar shop on Long Island, Michael's Music. It was a Field P bass in red.
Might be worth looking into the creators of the language you use. Just a thought.
That would be 1965. I bought a piece of
My 1965 Jazz was stolen in 1976 and in 1985 I bought my 1982 Olympic white Jazz with a white-bound, all maple neck, and 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). Still playing today and I have a far better set-up now than I did then!
I
I've had 5 PEAVEY basses since 2002
I'm a big fan of PeAvEy Basses.
My Foundation 5 is my everyday driver
It's a great bass, All my PEAVEY Basses were for that matter.
I bought my first bass in 1992. It was a Fender JP-90. I sold it a few years later, and got something else, but wish I had kept it!
My first real bass was a Spector NS2000/Q4 that I got with money from my first job at 16. Traded a few of my guitars towards it as well.
No ragrets.....except selling the Spector, but as much as I loved it at the time I bet I'd find it just "OK" if I played it today.
No ragrets.....except selling the Spector, but as much as I loved it at the time I bet I'd find it just "OK" if I played it today.
1981. Rent to own late 70's Hondo P-Bass. 3 tone sunburst, black pickguard and all maple neck. Paid it off in 1982. Still got the receipt.
Pretty sure I've told the story on TB before...
My father was a professional musician (woodwind) almost his whole adult life. I wanted to learn an instrument so when I was 9 or 10 he bought a violin. It was an odd choice as I had shown no interest in violin and he couldn't play one. Then in 1973, when I was 12, I decided I wanted to play bass. My dad got a used bass through his contacts at a local music shop, something that had been traded in. I'm sure it was the cheapest thing he could find, because we didn't have a lot of money and he wasn't going to spend much of it on something I might give up on after a week. It was a piece of.
What I remember about it is that it was an Aria Diamond hollow body - think Gibson EB-2 shape. It was "red burst" - deep red blending to black around the edges. It had two pickups and four knobs - V+T for each pickup. One knob was missing completely, one of the remaining ones didn't match the other two. It had a trapeze-style tailpiece and both of the stays were various degrees of bent. One of the tuners didn't match the other three, and one of them had the bushing missing so the string post was pulled south by the string tension. Finally, the floating pick guard wasn't attached properly and had scratched the finish on the front of the body. And I was over the moon to have my own bass guitar!
I attached the pick guard myself pretty much straight away, and over time I got four matching knobs, pretty much straightened out the tailpiece (with a hammer - not a perfect job, but way better then it was when I got it), and I couldn't find a real bushing that sat over the top of the headstock, but I did find some metal tube that was pretty much exactly the right diameter and thickness and cut it to length so it sat in the hole around the string post and kept it straight. And I played the $#!% out of it.
My father was a professional musician (woodwind) almost his whole adult life. I wanted to learn an instrument so when I was 9 or 10 he bought a violin. It was an odd choice as I had shown no interest in violin and he couldn't play one. Then in 1973, when I was 12, I decided I wanted to play bass. My dad got a used bass through his contacts at a local music shop, something that had been traded in. I'm sure it was the cheapest thing he could find, because we didn't have a lot of money and he wasn't going to spend much of it on something I might give up on after a week. It was a piece of
. What I remember about it is that it was an Aria Diamond hollow body - think Gibson EB-2 shape. It was "red burst" - deep red blending to black around the edges. It had two pickups and four knobs - V+T for each pickup. One knob was missing completely, one of the remaining ones didn't match the other two. It had a trapeze-style tailpiece and both of the stays were various degrees of bent. One of the tuners didn't match the other three, and one of them had the bushing missing so the string post was pulled south by the string tension. Finally, the floating pick guard wasn't attached properly and had scratched the finish on the front of the body. And I was over the moon to have my own bass guitar!
I attached the pick guard myself pretty much straight away, and over time I got four matching knobs, pretty much straightened out the tailpiece (with a hammer - not a perfect job, but way better then it was when I got it), and I couldn't find a real bushing that sat over the top of the headstock, but I did find some metal tube that was pretty much exactly the right diameter and thickness and cut it to length so it sat in the hole around the string post and kept it straight. And I played the $#!% out of it.
In 1987, I was 18 and was the singer in a Black Sabbath cover band. I couldn't play any musical instruments.
We had a terrible time finding and keeping bass players so it was decided that I would learn to play bass (or else!).
The guitarist procured from somewhere this dreadful JB Player bass and I was instructed to get working. I complained that I was left handed and didn't want to learn on a normal, right handed bass.
I was told, "**** you and your ******* left handedness. You're going to learn to play this bass or you're out of the band "
So, okay then. A JB player was my first bass.
After about 6 months, I had saved enough to buy a bass of my own choosing and I bought a used '83 Ibanez Roadstar II from a local music shop.
I still have it.
We had a terrible time finding and keeping bass players so it was decided that I would learn to play bass (or else!).
The guitarist procured from somewhere this dreadful JB Player bass and I was instructed to get working. I complained that I was left handed and didn't want to learn on a normal, right handed bass.
I was told, "**** you and your ******* left handedness. You're going to learn to play this bass or you're out of the band "
So, okay then. A JB player was my first bass.
After about 6 months, I had saved enough to buy a bass of my own choosing and I bought a used '83 Ibanez Roadstar II from a local music shop.
I still have it.
1968 when I was 16. Cheap import from Lafayette Electronics. About a year later I bought my first Fender, a beat up 1956 P-bass for $75.00.
1986, in time to see Gabriel on the So tour … which tripled my enthusiasm for the instrument going forward.
I only played bass because my dad said we had a guitar that turned out to be a bass, and my bf had already got a guitar (tho not left-handed like him).
it was a Kent. I sold it to a bus driver named Bert for 75 bucks. Canadian.
I only played bass because my dad said we had a guitar that turned out to be a bass, and my bf had already got a guitar (tho not left-handed like him).
it was a Kent. I sold it to a bus driver named Bert for 75 bucks. Canadian.
It wasn't branded Univox, but that's the bass.
I bought my first bass, a used Framus Star bass, in August 1965, for the grand sum of $30.
I've spent the last 58 years doing it better, but 90% of what I know about bass I learnt on that instrument.
I've spent the last 58 years doing it better, but 90% of what I know about bass I learnt on that instrument.
