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Your first bass vs. what you play now

#241
Newbie here. Great site.

Aria Pro II => Ibanez Soundgear => Warmoth P-Bass

I've recently picked up the bass again (I play guitar professionally) and am totally loving it. The Warmoth parts P-Bass is about 10 years old now and after about 7 years in mothballs, it still sounds and feels amazing.
 
#242
My first bass in my teens (1980's) was a Vantage that was supposed to look like an Alembic. Had a P/J pickup config, set neck and a Ash w/ laminate body. Weighed a ton though recently I have come to understand that it was probably built in the Aria Japan factory and not a bad bass. When I picked the instrument back up about 6 years ago I bought an MIA Jazz Bass. Then I got the MM Stingray bug and bought a 4 and 5. Sold them went through a couple of other basses and have recently gone back to Stingray 4H. So I guess a Stingray is as close as I get to my original though I don't have the genuine article.
 
#243
I started out with an active washburn that really gets those modern and deep sounds.
After a couple of years i invested in an ibanez acoustic and a year after that got me the vintage modified pbass to get that vintage tone.

As i am a student and don't have all the room i would want, my first bass stayed at the parents together with the gig rig.
I recently got my good old amp to fit in our new appartment and rediscovered the feeling of that good old washburn.
I really appreciate it even more now that i can use it to its full potential.
It's a great bass and i love playing it. Never gonna get rid of her!
 
#244
My first one was a "Lark" jazz bass copy bought new in '78. 30 years and many trades later I'm back to playing jazz basses again. Everything in between listed chronologically from most recent:

Lakland DJ5 (LPBlue) - I own these 3 currently - no more gas
Lakland JO5 (black)
Lakland 55-02 (natural, fretless)
-------------
'94 MM Stingray (trans-teal) - traded for 55-02
'02 MM Stingray (copperhead bronze) - sold to fund JO5
'87 MM Stingray (black, 2-band) - best SR4, traded for DJ5
'00 MM Stingray Fretless (sunburst, 2-band) - first fretless I really liked, traded for the '94 SR
'99 MM Sterling (trans-green) - traded for the "87 SR
Yamaha TRB6 (de-fretted, cherry-burst) - another fretless experiment
'93 MM Stingray 5 (trans-blueburst, Bartolini) - owned for ~10 years, many gigs, traded for the '02 SR
Kubicki X-Factor (sea-foam green) - ~200 more w/this
G&L L-2000 (black) - ~250 gigs w/ this
G&L L-1000 (mahogany) - started gigging w/this one
Fender Precision (de-fretted, dimarzio j added) - first fretless, traded away after 2 wks. for the L1K
Alembic Spoiler (koa) - too much bass for me at the time
'65 Fender Precision (sunburst) - paid $350, sold later for $225, ouch
Lark Jazz Bass copy (natural) - a decent starter bass
 
#245
Epiphone AccuBass ( plywood P clone )

BC rich warlock.....yes the really pointy one

Dean q4 Euro, still play this one 50% of the time

Dean q6 Korean, sold it 2 weeks after I bought it, thing was garbage compared to the Euro made

SX P clone, play it a lot, strung up with fender SS flatwounds, stripped the evil pumpkin tint off it

TBC j/mm 5 string , play it once in a while, the pre amp is kinda weak on it

SX J clone, play it often, SD antiquity 2 pups, fender stainless rounds, it sounds gooooooood

Dolan single cut 5 string fanned fret....Thats my main player at the moment.


So...ive taken a big step up from the first bass : )
 
#246
My first bass was a knock off P-bass. Pretty run of the mill, didn't sound as bad as one would expect. I still play it from time to time when I'm just messing around.

I now play a Ric 4003. So about everything you could think of about bass has gotten better tenfold.
 
#248
My first bass is at my High School that I graduated from in 2005. It was a Peavey P style bass. I now play a '71 Fender P and '74 Fender P on the road. At home I keep a '03 P, '07 P, '04 J, and '05 J. All American Fenders for me.
 
#250
I started on a Pandora, some early-70's MIJ wanna-be-a-P-bass poo that was cheap and a real bear to play. Then to an Aria hollowbody. My first real bass was a Gibson G3 (of the Ripper/Grabber/G3 trinity); when that was stolen I got a Yamaha BB1200 (1980) and pretty much stuck to that style for the next 2 decades.
Now I have a stable of basses that pretty much conform to the Precision/Jazz design, if you ignore the 5th strings and occasionally fanned or missing frets...
 
#251
My first bass was an Aria Pro II 4 string that my church let me use for a few years. I was great for a first bass for free bass. Earlier this year, I bought my own first bass, a Schecter Stiletto Elite 5 string in an orange sunburst color. Having access to the low D and C notes come in handy :)
 
#255
I still play my first bass; a black 1983 "Fullerton era" p-bass bought almost new in 1984. I'm not new to this forum but possibly posting for the first time.? Not to derail....I have thoroughly enjoyed talkbass.

Thanks to everyone for all the great info,

Mark
 
#256
My first bass was a Dean Edge 1. I mostly got that one 'cause I thought it looked cooler than the Fenders at the store. It actually made a pretty good starter. After that, I upgraded to a Dean Edge Q6.

At the time I was into horrible nu-metal music, so I stuck to active 5 strings (all Deans-- I thought they were pretty, and never liked the feel of Ibanez. Get off my back. :smug:). When I got a Dean Demonator, I realized that I actually much prefered 4 strings.

When I bought my Moser Spawn, I grew to love passive electronics. When I discovered SX, I realised that I really like the Fender style basses. When I started modding the SX P bass, I went a bit overboard-- but it was really cool.

... so now I've sold off all my old active basses, and mostly just play a Squier TB (modded, of course). :bassist:

I've played expensive basses... I guess I don't feel like they're any more comfortable or really sound much better. Plus, you can't carve giant holes in them. :hiding:
 
#257
My first one was a Hondo P-Bass knockoff. Not really a bad bass, actually.

I then got a Peavey T-20 which I really loved, sold it for $ to buy my G-K amp. I'd love to get a Grind, Cirrus, or T-20 again.
I'd really like to supplement my one axe Rick arsenal.
 
#258
First bass was some sort of short-scale Precision-ish bass. Black and maple. I had stickers all over that bass, but they never seemed to improve the tone... :hmm:

Went through a lot of basses over the last 15 years, including Alembic and Dingwall and all that, and finally recently realized that I actually like making cheap basses sound and play like a million bucks more than spending a million bucks.

Thus my latest project, a de-fretted matte black Peavey Grind.

:shrug:
 
#259
First bass was a Lotus P+J set up that weighed a ton, felt like driftwood, and sounded like someone tied some strings to a cardboard box. It was black, looked rather sharp actually, and had these little bumble bee stickers on it.

I wish I had kept it just for nostalgia's sake, and to mod around with and see if I could fix it up a bit.

Since then I've played and owned several different kinds of basses, my least favorite was a Squier that felt and sounded as bad as the Lotus, my favorite so far has been my ATK, with my old 1996 Ibanez SR 405 (back when the SR's were still damned solid basses) coming in second, but I sold that one as well to get my car fixed :/

Still have the ATK though, love that bass.
 
#260
Mine was a Vox Beatle bass with dead flats, and very high action (1/2"+), and I had no knowledge of string types, pickup types, or set-up back then.

For me I need small thin narrow necks, the hi-fi sound, and it must look good with the right price point so I've pretty stuck with Ibanez SR's
 

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