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Your first bass vs. what you play now

#522
My first bass, bought in 1989, was a heavily-used 1984 Fender P. Brown sunburst, white pickguard and pickup, maple fretboard. It had a serial number starting with E, so it was either a MIA or MIJ, but I don't remember how many digits it had, so its true identity will always be a mystery. I sold it several years ago to pay bills, and have regretted selling it ever since.

Now, 22 years later, several basses have come and gone from my life, but I have finally returned to the P bass fold with a new Squier VM P. Black on butterscotch, with a maple fretboard just like my first Fender P. I feel like I've gone home again. :)

I also own an Ibanez SR505. 5-string, active Barts, warm and woody. Very jazz. It fits my experimental side, and certain moods I get in from time to time.
 
#523
First bass was a crappy Ibanez GSR100. Sounded horrible up until about a month ago when I adjusted the truss rod and replaced the old strings. Sounds much better, still not great though.
Now I play a fretless Cort GB74. Huge difference! Smooth, warm tones, pretty jazzy but can be used for most genres. All I play now, its hard to stop playin sometimes.

On a side note, I need to play some Fenders. I want to go back to a fretted bass soon and I think a nice Fender would be perfect.
 
#524
My first bass was an ESP Viper 104. I think I bought it for looks more than anything because I really had no idea what i was doing, I just wanted to play. I still play it once in a while. It sounds very flat and has a slow neck but the action is nice. I now go back and forth between a Ibanez SR505 and a Warwick Corvette $$. They are two very different basses but I love them both. The warwick is thicker and has this deep rumble to it while the ibanez is incredibly thin and light, it allows me to play faster then I could ever play on the warwick. It has a clanky tone to it that I like...a little more mids then warwicks deep smooth tone.
 
#525
1st electric bass (early 80s) was a homemade job. I didn't make it - the elder brother of a friend of mine did. It was.. uhh.. wretched. :D Still, enough to get me hooked.

First one I owned was a Vantage thing. Half p-bass, half gibson. Very goofy. Sucked.

Next up was a '79 Rick 4001 that I still have.

Currently, I mainly play a Fender Mustang Japanese RI.

GT
 
#526
My first bass was a Rickenbacker 4001. I actually took it apart a lot of years ago and was going to put it back together. That never happened so I trashed it. It was kind of one dimensional,but I didn't know any better back then. May get another one ( just for old times sake. Probably won't ever play it)
 
#527
1st '89 Onyx PJ copy - chinese crap, only one I've sold

2nd '84 Ibanez Musician fretless - ebony fretboard, many recordings done on this, too heavy for long gigs.

3rd '82-84 Squier JV Jazz + EMG's - great gigging bass, my main bass for 15 years.

4th '92 Tobias Classic 5 in Walnut/ Purpleheart - amazing sound, versatile with active/passive electronics.

5th '05 Fender P-Bass + TI Jazz Flats + light pick - nails old school vibe, works well with bad rooms/ bad PA's when the Tobias is too overpowering.

6th Something Fretles (+/- piezo) that does a decent URB sound???
 
#529
My first bass was a Hondo Jazz copy (purchased about 25 years ago). Not that bad of a bass overall.
The next bass was a fretless jazz. I played that for a long time.
The one after that was a Pedulla fretted which was great as well.

After that I didn't realize how spoiled I was until I went through many other basses that just did not "cut it" for one reason or another.

The Pedulla and the Jazz both had great qualities that I always wished that I could combine.

Just last week I finally found the bass that did combine what I liked about both.

A Status Kingbass! Playing it makes me feel like I'm home again!
If I had only known way back when that these existed!

I'm never parting with this one! I'm already contemplating on how I'm going to get another one for a backup!
 
#531
I too still have and still play occasionally my first bass guitar. It is a Fender Squier P-Bass, nothing too special however I got it used for $25. It has been a great guitar and still is. I mainly keep it at my apartment for something to just strum on there with my little 15w practice amp. I have sense then moved up to the Fender Precision Bass, however I find myself coming back to the roots every so often. ;)
 
#535
My first bass was a late 60s Fender Precision. Since then I have owned several other Precisions, Jazzes, a Tobias 5 string (made by the L.A. crew), a Lakland 55/94 fretless 5, and a Sadowsky PJ5.

The Sadowsky was my favorite by far, and now I play a Squier VM Precision (and I am delighted with it). I am too poor to own a Sadowsky these days. Heck, my car isn't worth as much as a Sadowsky.
 
#538
My first bass was lent from my music school, a stagg jazz copy, and after 6 months i got one just like it, and i liked it, but found the neck to be at the time a bit thick. So after 8 months or so, i went on a holiday in the US and in a little town, springwater or something, I tried this Natural finish Ibanez SR400, and i was blown away, low action, fast, smooth and small neck, but i decided not to buy it. I went home to my motel and the day I was supossed to leave town I had to return and i bought it and brought it home to Europe. my later basses are laklands and a sandberg, do not think my ibanez influenced much though i still play it, as its neck is just so slim.
 
#540
My 1st Bass was in 1973. It came from Sears it was a Telecaster body stlye and weighed as much as my VW Bug did then. it had telephone cables for strings and was extremely difficult to fret because the action, well, there wasn't any action to speak of just strings 1/2" off the frets/ it went the way of the Do-do bird- within a year I bought a walnut colored Fender Precision bass - which I still own-
 

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