Your first bass.

[Wil]

I still have it (sort of). It was bought new from a Bristol music shop for my 10th birthday in 1995. An Encore P bass, over the years it's been like Trigger's broom, so the only thing original left is the body I think.

It's on it's 4th neck, the original neck was stolen when I was burgled. After that it had a Status graphite jobbie, a fretless rosewood mighty mite and currently, a fretted maple mighty mite P neck. The stock P pup went for a dimarzio at first, and now a US Fender P pup. I had it routed for the Aaron Armstrong humbucker in the bridge, and it briefly had a John East active circuit, but I've got it wired passive like a Jazz, with a series/parrallel switch now. Sounds great, (it's my go to bass when I'm recording) and I think looks pretty cool too. It's nice to know I've still got part of my first bass with me. I hope I don't go mad and sell it.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1245234' date='May 26 2011, 09:29 AM']Retro thread.

Avon EB0 copy. £35 mail order from Rose Morris. About £34 over priced. Hideous unplayable dead sounding firewood.

Kids today don't know how lucky they are. We couldn't afford shoes. We used to boot polish our feet and tie laces on to them, etc.....


[i]damn speeling[/i][/quote]
Boot polish! We had to dip out feet in the hearth... while it was still lit......

[SlackAlice]

Westone Thunder 1 in light oak.

Lovely to play although the PUPs weren't great. Brought it in '92 for £50 from a guy in a Country & Western band.....fair amount of buckle rash! Wished I had kept it.........

Angie

[BigRedX]

My first bass was a Burns Sonic which I still own.

You can read more about it [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=66328&view=findpost&p=648034"]here[/url]. The alternative would have been some nasty Japcrap P or J copy. The Burns turned out to be about as different from a Fender as it was possible to get at the time and influenced how I play in a completely different way to how a more traditional bass would have.

[Ross]

Some crappy stagg thing, p and j pickups, 24 frets.
It played ok after I'd had it set up, really thin neck. Sounded like total sh*t though.

[icastle]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1245292' date='May 26 2011, 10:22 AM']Boot polish! We had to dip out feet in the hearth... while it was still lit......


[/quote]

You had a fire?

[leezo666]

My first bass was a Legacy P-bass copy in sunburst which I got for £100 a few years back, They did throw in a fairly decent gig bag and put on some half decent strings before they robbed me blind I still have it but its really broken and covered in banana and god know what else thanks to curious sticky toddler fingers lol

it played ok for about 2 weeks before it randomly got some really bad fret buzz so I gave it to my bass teacher to set up but the bit you put the alan key in to adjust the trust rod smoothed out, I then took it back to the shop and they said they would repair it and set it up properly but they didn't they just gave it back to me 2 weeks later exactly how it was and moaned that I covered it in stickers. About 2 months after that one of the tone pots stopped working so I just gave up and bought a Adam Black Apollo Custom which I loved but was far too heavy and ended up braking 2 gig bags and my spine.

[Grand Wazoo]

My first bass will be the last... I once said to myself

That was 32 years ago The bass in question was a 1979 original Fender Jazz Bass in natural ash colour, maple neck which I borrowed (read -> nicked) from one of my stoned cousin as his band flopped in change for a bag of wacky backy ) eventually he was drafted (compulsory militar service in Italy in those days, I did it too a few years later), but then (check this out...) I sold it back to him 2 years later because I didn't really like the colour and it was too heavy, yes it was a wopping 12 pounder. My next bass was a Gibson copy made by an unknown jap company called EB which for us in Italy was like the equivalent of Tokai in both quality and copycat accuracy.

I can count that from then to present date I might have owned 40-45 basses more or less some lasting years and some as little as 3 months.

[Musicman20]

Cheap Encore P Bass copy. Not that great, but quite well made. Hard work to play!

The P bass style/shape/sound has never left me....in fact I cant get away from it!

[bartelby]

I had a black Aria Pro II Cardinal Series Deluxe. Lovely bass, part-ex it for a white SB Elite I.

[Doddy]

Tanglewood Rebel.....not the 4k,the earlier model with a slimmer body and with the neck and headstock
finished in the same colour as the body. I've still got it,only it's strung up in tenor tuning.

[4000]

New 1980 Jetglo Rick 4001 (not a horrible thing). Some git stole it from our van in Hendon in '86. S/n TC915 if anyone has it.

[Skol303]

Washburn for me, sometime in the late '80s. Can't remember which particular model. Bought it for cheap off a friend who'd decided to hand-paint the body with household black gloss! It looked a real mess but sounded nice; had active pickups and looked a bit like an Aria Pro II.

I also had a Hohner Rockwood (Fender copy), which was recently returned to me by my brother - I've since de-fretted it.

[Eight]

[quote name='Skol303' post='1245522' date='May 26 2011, 12:59 PM']I also had a Hohner Rockwood (Fender copy), which was recently returned to me by my brother - I've since de-fretted it.[/quote]
My sister had a Rockwood gu*tar (this is going back a long time) which I still have in my possession. Actually not bad.

Always seemed a shame to me that such a cool name - Rockwood - is used for cheap instruments.

[el borracho]

Ibanez Blazer replaced fairly quickly by a Roadster which I still have.

[arsenic]

This one has been on a couple of threads already.

Angelica Deluxe - bought new around '73 when I first started

[attachment=80979:DSCF2680.JPG]

Stll in pretty good condition, but the trussrod no longer works - playable but with quite a high action.

Edited May 26, 2011 by arsenic

[gafbass02]

Mine was a Kaman GTX53. Pointy, metallic blue Jackson type thing.

[PTB]

It was a Modulus Graphite Quantum 6. I've been working my way down steadily ever since.

[stu_g]

my first bass was a marlin sidewinder aquired in about 1985 complete with bowed neck and crap sound

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='icastle' post='1245024' date='May 25 2011, 11:48 PM']Aria ProII SB900 - still got it along with it's original hard case. [/quote]
You have a PM.

Mine:



1981 Aria TSB-400, bought new in 1982 for the princely sum of HK$1,200 (about £120) - a month's wages.

P

[woodywood]

I borrowed my brothers Fender P for a couple of years , last year i bought a CortA4, love it. recently i've been thinking of upgrading.I play pop-rock, finger style, using a Hartke amp. Any suggestions on what i should buy next.

[woodywood]

[quote name='woodywood' post='1246464' date='May 26 2011, 11:41 PM']I borrowed my brothers Fender P for a couple of years , last year i bought a CortA4, love it. recently i've been thinking of upgrading.I play pop-rock, finger style, using a Hartke amp. Any suggestions on what i should buy next.[/quote]
I should have said that i'm not too happy with the tones my current gear produces.

[spinynorman]

That TSB 400 looks very nice. I must not look for one on eBay.

Mine was a Kay

[CrackerJackLee]

[attachment=81046:g.jpg]

1969 Fender Precision Fretless Bass Guitar/Badass II Bridge

I can still remember the day I bought it new in Montreal at Marrazza Musique in the fall of 1969 - $500.
Beside it is a Gibson ES135.

Edited May 27, 2011 by CrackerJackLee

[Beer of the Bass]

I had an Ibanez rick copy, from the Cross Salesroom in Glasgow for £80. Unfortunately a previous owner had pretty much trashed it. It had moved at the heel joint which someone had "repaired" by drilling in completely useless dowels, and a big crack near the nut, which had been glued with epoxy which also locked the over tightened truss rod in place! The back of it had been oversprayed to hide all of this. It self-destructed about a year later...