Your first three basses...

I still don't understand the automatic desire to own piles of basses. I was gigging over 20 years before I had a second bass.

 

When I was 18yrs old and first job I bought.....
- ‘84 Ibanez Musician Fretless MC924. sold it coz too heavy (11.5lbs), own a Rob Allen Mouse (6lbs) and Maton JB4 Fretless (8.4lbs) now.

- ‘82 Squier JV Jazz Bass 3TS/Tort. still own it, wears TI JFs.

When I was 32yrs old I bought....
- ‘94 Tobias Classic 5 string. Still own it.

 

Keep in mind that I've never played bass before last November...

1) Squier VM Jazz - Bought new last November
2) Fender MIM Jazz - Bought new a couple of months later when a killer deal showed up. Now I have 2 Jazz basses (that look identical) and still don't know how to play.
3) Fender MIM P - Bought new on the same killer deal as the Jazz bass. I mean you gotta have a P bass - right?

So now I have 3 basses and I still don't know how to play! But I am learning...

 

1992 - Encore P-bass copy
1995 - Yamaha RB-something PJ
2002 - Epiphone EB3

then i discovered Talkbass

 

My first 3:

1. Gibson / Epiphone jazz bass copy in white (Xmas 1989)
2. Hohner B2V headless Steinberger copy (1990)
3. Fender MIJ fretless jazz bass white (spring 1995)

I still own the Hohner.

 

1. Some variety of Washburn P-type. Had it for 8 years, never changed the strings. Traded it in on an...

2. Epiphone EB-0. Decent little bass, fun to play, but gave it away and got a shiny, new...

3. Fender Jazz MIM in Midnight Wine. Good bass, should have kept it.

 

Ibanez EX-series PJ (still have it)
Samick Fretless PJ (donated)
Warwick Corvette (german made - Long Gone - still miss this one)

 

first was a squier PJ that was my only bass for at least a couple of years


second was a plain jane bottom of the line yamaha as a backup. no pics of that, but i used to carry it to rehearsals with no bag or case, and it never got even a scratch. it was also the backup i never used at shows.

third was a.... was a... it might have been an acoustic electric carlo robelli... i think it might have been. plastic back like an ovation. but it could have been something else, too.

 

Hmmm,

First bass was an 80's black Cort P/J of some description, bought by my mother in 1987; sold it to a guy I knew in high school.
Second was a (70's?) El Degas Alembic copy thing on permanent loan from a friend's dad, which I used for most of the early 90's; mysteriously disappeared...
Third was a 1979 sunburst Gibson Ripper closet queen I bought in Calgary for $400 in 1997; this was my one and only bass until 2006 when I traded it in towards a Rickenbacker 4003.

 

1.) A "Phantom" Korean p-bass-style (not the Vox Phantom - like this, but black and right-handed - Phantom Bass 80's Trans Blue | Yox Designs). Sold to a guy I went to high school with.

2.) SGC Nanyo Bass Collection SB301 - flake fuschia (sparkly purply-magenta). Traded for #3 at Troubadour Music in Wayne, PA.

3.) MCI Intertek Fretless w/angled PJ pickups. Non-wood (that's all I can tell) lined (supposedly defretted by prior owner) fingerboard and amateurish paintjob. It sits in storage, mostly untouched for the past 12 years.

 

1. A no-name, plywood Jazz Bass
2. Aria Pro II The Cat
3. Fender Precision ’78

 

First bass....

NBD - Welcome home old friend....

Second bass.....

I want a fun bass that screams 1980s, BUT....

Third bass was a '76 Mocha P bass. Heavy as crap but sounded great.

 

Ah, it's nice to see some people started out with some decent instruments. As a poor college student in 1973, decent basses were out of my price range. Starter instruments were junk, mostly from Japan, who hadn't gotten their manufacturing stuff together yet.

1) 1973 - a really cheap mail-order Japanese Hofner Beatle bass copy. The neck was just awful. Mile high strings. A truss rod that couldn't get the curve out of the neck.

2) 1974 - another Japanese mail-order Jazz bass copy. It handled well, but the pickups were poor-sounding surface-mount junk.

3) 1978 - Peavey T-40. Out of college and married. My first decent bass. Peavey was just getting into the instrument business and they did it right. It cost $325 (new), which was still about half of a new Fender (they were all American then). I did a lot of research before purchasing it and it was a good decision. It was my only bass for twenty years and I still have it.

4) 1999 - My first Fender - An American Hot-Rodded Precision and the springboard into a modest collection.

 

Number One was a Hofner HS 185 Artist Bass, CAR with some light checking and a beautiful smell from the plushined Selmer case.

Number Two was an Ibanez 2388B DX Rick copy with factory-fitted EB3 copy pups!

Number Three was an Attila Balogh B100 Odyssey bass.

I wish I had all three back.

 

In late1980 I was given my first bass, a Global student model. When Dad saw I was going to stick with it and was actually pretty decent he bought me a medium scale double cut Vantage in1982. Played that thing until I was asked to play with an original, touring new wave group. When I agreed to join in 1983, the band leader asked me to accompany him to Atlanta to do some gear shopping. On this trip he bought me a used 1973 mapleglo 4001 Rickenbacker for $299(which I later traded for a '78 Stingray).

 

Not an automatic anything AFAICT.

Some people are perfectly happy owning and playing a single instrument their entire lives. Others enjoy acquiring and playing basses for as many unrelated reasons as there are people who do so. I don’t think you can extrapolate anything from it other than that some people buy more than one while others don’t.

 

My first bass was a Fender Performer. Apart from the string spacing, I adored it until I sold it to thin the herd.
My next bass was a G&L SB2. Black on black with a maple fretboard. Utter sweetness.
My third bass was a Washburn Bantham 6. It was my go-to for a number of years.

 

first one was a fretted ric. don't remember what the next axes were.

 

1. Gibson Ripper - 1974
2. Fender Jazz - 1975
3. Alembic Spoiler w/factory custom electronics mods - 1986

Still own and play the Ripper.