[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1417093434' post='2617015']
When I first started playing bass I didn't actually own one. The band I was in (with 3 other school friends) was a recording band only, so I would work out the bass parts on the guitar and then use a borrowed bass when we came to record the songs. There were two people in my year at school who had basses I could use - one was a Woolies special that was vaguely Moserite shaped, and the other was a home-made contraption created by someone who had once seen a photograph of a P-bass. Both were horrible to play and sounded completely dead.
I bought my first bass - a Burns Sonic - while I was at University in 1981. It cost £60 including the original hard case and the shop threw in a Fender strap. What I really wanted was an Ibanez or an Aria Pro II, but both were way over my budget. The affordable alternatives were Grant or Columbus copies of P or J Basses, however the Burns looked so much more interesting looking, and actually played and sounded far better. The bass had been heavily modified by the previous owner(s) and I had to buy new machine heads, a bridge and replace all the electrics apart from the pickups to get it into a proper useable condition. It was my main bass all through the 80s until I bought my first 5-string in 1989. I still own it and it gets the occasional use in the studio when I need that particular sound. In many ways through it's strengths and weaknesses it shaped both my playing and my tastes in instruments - I can't imagine being the same bassist if I'd decided to get one of those Columbus or Grant copies instead.
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I was similar in that I actually played bass way before owning one, I used a Rose SG bass copy from 1989 until buying my Peavey in 93, the Rose was awful, really heavy, dodgy weak looking neck joint, muddy neck pickup only, a very accurate copy you could say!