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Where did you start? When and on What?

L

LCW

Inactive
Mar 2, 2009
3,895
11
36
OREGON!
#1
so when did you start playing bass , what was your first bass , your first set up?

I started at 14 in 2003 , playing a dean edge four string i still have , with a crate bx25 i believe it was a crap 25 watt amp , got both from a pawn shop for about 150$ i think played that set up for 2 and a half years everday with only one string change the whole time:p

I've come along way haha:bassist:

how about you?
 
#2
I started playing bass in 1977, I was 13.

My first bass was a Kay shaped like an SG and I had a 30watt Univox amp (head and cab) with a 15" speaker. Both are long gone and not missed. Back in the day cheap, beginners equipment was BAD, but it had the vitue of weeding out the players who were not serious!
 
#3
First time I ever played bass was with my band at the time , around 1981(I think). I was with our drummer and lead guitar player at a friends fathers rehersal space. (I was playing guitar in the band at the time) and I was asked if I wanted to try bass. Was handed a Rickenbacker 4001 (Mapleglow) and plugged into a Marshall Super Bass Full stack.

After that, I swapped instruments with our bass player on one song that he couldn't play. That was a mid 70's Gibson Ripper with an Ampeg V4B and an Accoustic 1x18 cab.

Owned a piece of garbage Japanese plywood shortscale that I got for $40 w/ a small amp which was sold when I actually took over bass duty's with the band.

Went out and got a used 1978 Precision in 82 for that band. Those were just considered used basses at the time, and got it for reasonably money.
Had that 78 Precision for years.
 
#5
I started a week after I turned 17. First bass was a salmon pink Moridira Hurricane that I overpaid for ($200) and my first amp came a month later- a Gorilla 30w combo, both from a tiny music store. Got away from those as quickly as I could and bought a five-string Samick and a 200w Carvin combo about a year later and they both lasted me about 4 or 5 years.
 
#6
I was in high school, around age 16 or 17, playing drums in my first band. One day, the bass player — my best friend — loaned me his Cort J-bass copy and 65-watt Peavey amp, and I remember making my bedroom walls shake with that fabulous sound. Within a couple of months, I scraped together enough cash to purchase a Cort P-bass copy. Couldn’t afford an amp for a long time, so I played through my stereo amplifier.

Went to college, traded in the Cort P-bass copy and some cash for a brand-new Ibanez Roadstar II, and bought a Peavey bass amp, and haven’t left The Deep End yet.
 
#7
I started in the mid '80s in middle school. The first bass I played was the school's- a '70s Fender P Bass that I thought was junk at the time (what do kids know anyways). So when I got my first bass it had to be cool in an '80s kind of way. It was a "Mach 1," a cheap headless Steinberger ripoff with p and j pickups. First amp was a Peavey TKO 65.

I always wonder what happened to that P Bass....
 
#8
Started playing uhh....when I was 14 or 15, which would be around late 2005 early 2006. Started on a total piece of **** Squier Jazz and a Fender Rumble 15. The Jazz is gone, and I've now since moved onto bigger and better things :D
 
#9
I started playing in 1963. My first "bass" was a Montgomery Ward (defunct catalog company) guitar detuned 1 or 2 steps and strung with flatwounds to get a deeper sound. The amp was a 15W tube guitar amp with a 12" speaker.

The first real bass I had (have) was a 1965 Mosrite Ventures Model with a Gibson Atlas 40 watt tube combo amp with a single 15". The amp was a POS but I still have the Mosrite.

Rick B.
 
#15
For some strange reason I started off on violin. My father bought one for me but I wasn't really interested, I wanted a bass. I used to turn the violin on it's side and play it like a tiny bass! :D

Somehow guitar ended up being my main instrument. I'm good on it, having played it for 25+ years and also drums but a couple of years ago switched to bass permanently.

Some of my earliest bass memories include sneaking into my older brother's room and playing his black 70's Japanese Precision copy. I also ended up with a medium scale Gibson SG copy built by Grant. That was a great, great bass. Unfortunately my brother knocked it over and the headstock snapped off. I would say I learned a lot on that bass, so there you go. Grant SG is pretty much what I learned on, but I could play a bit already when I got it.
 
#16
1973
15 years old
Kingston Jazz bass copy (2-tone red / black sunburst)
Randall 2x12 combo (to this day not positive it was a bass combo, but sounded great at the time)

I remember stringing my bass with Ernie Ball Red Toobies - flashback, anyone? I remember breaking strings regularly...

:bassist:
 
#17
I started playing at 13. My first bass had a song written after it. Neil Young's "They cut the forest down to build a piece of crap". I don't remember him playing it but he must have :)

Then, 3 years later I bought a Rickenbacker. 20 years after that I bought a Music Man. All is good.
 
#20
I started playing when I was 15. I got a Fender Precision in natural finish for my birthday. I had some kind of 300 watt Ampeg amp. I don't remember the model. I used that amp and bass for a long time. Bought a '73 Ric because Geddy played one around '77. Around '78 I bought one of the first Peavey T-40's. Heavy as heck and too much for me to use very much playing live. Sold everything but the Precision for a long time because I couldn't see the point in having more than one bass at the time. How things have changed. :D
 

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