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What was your first bass and why did you start playing?


damo200sx
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Mine was a Hobbs Music 4 string bass I traded it for a cheap Columbus Les Paul copy in 1990. I believe they were for the Hobbs music shop in Lancaster but could be wrong. It looked like a Matsumoku made bass with precision pickups, stained finish through neck. It was quite nice as I remember. Started playing because the bigger boys were better guitar players and I wanted to be in a band!

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Back to when I was almost 16 ,mummy got me a black Les Paul copy Gu****! from a catalogue.
I was worse than useless on that.
After a few weeks a good friend of mine said,"you've got big hands and a bass has only got 4 strings -why not try that?"


Sooo, got mummy to send it back for a copy of a fender precision (Hondo11) or Hondo 2)

1st thing I noticed is that it never had a plectrum supplied with it.

Anyway,despite it being built like a large tree with corrosive metal it became the 1st bass I
used before my 1st proper bass.

Edited by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE
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A Hohner B2 (i think) PBass copy. Ugly and pretty rubbish.
£120 from Crack Converters, thought i'd got a bargain until i saw a pretty little Dean in a music shop, so i swapped the Hohner for a PC so i could do my school work on it (actually just played Football Glory and Doom but meh)

Put me off Ps for years until i played a decent one, still old man's basses though........

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My brother was already a guitarist, so I had to take up something else by default. I wanted to learn the basslines from Hey Joe and Sunshine of Your Love, so I got interested in playing bass. Tried out the rubbish p-bass copy at school (I think it was a Stagg), and demanded a bass for Christmas (I was 12 at the time). Went to New York that year for Christmas, and got to try out some stuff in Manny's. As I didn't know anything about basses I ended up with an entry-level Ibanez in black, with a precision p-up. I got a slightly better Peavey Fury IV a couple of years later and sold it.

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1973. My mate Nigel Townsend, got an electric guitar, played through a Woolies (wall of sound) amp, and got me to play bass on his acoustic, so I saved up for a bass.

I got a Kay 'SG'. Thin bodied, sunburst, and probably short scale. £20 new, from Norman Hackett's in Reading (where I believe Bryan Adams also got his first six string). Rode home to Woodley with it on my back, on my Raleigh Runabout moped, which was a bit naughty, as I was 15 and not yet legal on the road.

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Started playing when I was 14, with a Fender Musicmaster lying flat on my knee (think Jeff Healy R.I.P) .

Music was in the family, Dad's a guitarist, Mother has one of the most wonderful singing voices I've ever heard period, Grandad was an outstanding Trumpeter, one Uncle was a big band leader, another a bassist, Aunty a Piano teacher yadda yadda yadda....I had to play something and the bass felt damn good (once I got a strap on it lol).

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[quote name='deaver' post='397381' date='Feb 1 2009, 11:03 PM']A Kay Rickenbacker copy which I think I bought from Sounds Great (Heald Green, Sth Manchester) in 1979. I bought it to make girls immune to my spots, glasses and complete lack of wit or charm.[/quote]

Satellite through neck P bass from Russell Acott in Oxford - £118 in 1981 - and why.......? Of course the legend that was and is Phil Lynott.

Slightly off topic - I was in Sounds Great on Saturday, and I have to say ...'what credit crunch?' - it was 'kin heaving with punters buying (not just looking at) guitars, and the interesting thing was, they were all 40+ age group, paying big money for Strats etc. They've actually got some unusual/nice stuff in too - a 2nd hand Parker Fly bass (commission sale) and a lovely old T Bird too.

Oh...... and Johnny Marr was in, trying and buying a new multi fx - and testing it out with what looked like a 60s white Fender Jaguar. He's still proper pop star skinny too - what a legend.

If you ever get the chance to go - it's the best guitar shop in and around Manchester. Right by the big John Lewis at Cheadle too (half a mile - tops) - so let the Mrs go for a look round there whilst you have a mooch.

Cheers

A

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[quote name='The Admiral' post='397401' date='Feb 1 2009, 11:37 PM']Satellite through neck P bass from Russell Acott in Oxford - £118 in 1981 - and why.......? Of course the legend that was and is Phil Lynott.

Slightly off topic - I was in Sounds Great on Saturday, and I have to say ...'what credit crunch?' - it was 'kin heaving with punters buying (not just looking at) guitars, and the interesting thing was, they were all 40+ age group, paying big money for Strats etc. They've actually got some unusual/nice stuff in too - a 2nd hand Parker Fly bass (commission sale) and a lovely old T Bird too.

Oh...... and Johnny Marr was in, trying and buying a new multi fx - and testing it out with what looked like a 60s white Fender Jaguar. He's still proper pop star skinny too - what a legend.

If you ever get the chance to go - it's the best guitar shop in and around Manchester. Right by the big John Lewis at Cheadle too (half a mile - tops) - so let the Mrs go for a look round there whilst you have a mooch.

Cheers

A[/quote]

I was in my local R&T music on Saturday too and it was heaving. Not just with spotty kids but with people spending money!

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Contrary to what I previously said about getting my first bass from me Mum's Kay's catalogue, I now remember it was a no-name P-copy from Bee's music in Arundel Arcade, Pompey.

Why? Geezer, 'Arry, Burton, Lynott, Alan Davey off Hawkwind, Dobby off Saxon, etc. And, of course, my mate had just got a guitar and he knew a drummer who flogged a bit of puff. The mighty 'Lunchhead' were then born, with their [s]hit single - 'My Little Girl', written about Cheryl, the bird Smutley [guitarist] was knobbing at the time.

Edited by johnnylager
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My first bass was a sunburst Satellite Jazz copy. I saved up the £85 from my paper round. I was 13 when I got it. It looked like the bass on the cover of a book scales I had. I started playing bass as a development from making my own instruments out of boxes, springs and elastic bands. I used to multi track by using two (cheap) tape recorders! I got into bass because I liked what JJ Burnel was doing.

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My first bass was a Squier P-bass Affinity. Cost me 30 quid.

I started playing as I wanted to help out at my youth group, but I selected the bass because someone sent me the 'Higher Ground' cover by the RHCP.... I just [i]had[/i] to be able to make that glorious noise at the beginning. No question about it.

Oddly enough, I rarely slap now. I can, but I don't.

Mark

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I played a bit of guitar when I was younger, but due to me putting a bit of a band together with a mate (and him being a better guitarist than me), I decided to buy myself a bass and teach myself how to play it. I'd also had a fascination about the "guitar with only four pegs" since the mid 70s due to my sister's obsession with Alan Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers.

So I bought a Kay Les Paul shaped bass out of my mum's Burlington catalogue with my paper round money, then phoned Sounds Great in Heald Green (they've got a lot to answer for on here!) to ask them what notes the strings should be tuned to.

Then flew upstairs, tuned it, whacked my Jam records on and anything else I could find and attempted to play along to them.

The rest is history.

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