Your history in instruments?

[charic]

What's your history in instruments?

I started out playing music on a stylophone around my nans when I was about 3 or 4 and between the ages of 4 and 5 moved onto a keyboard that was in her back bedroom.

Around the ages of 6 and 7 my Nan got me lessons on the organ and bought me my own organ which sat in my hallway for a fair while before I moved onto my first keyboard (Yamaha PSR330). I had this keyboard for yonks before buying a keyboard from my teacher which I still have today (Yamaha PSR540).

Around this point I started playing Saxophone but unfortunately really didn't enjoy it so gave it up and sold the Sax.

Back in college I picked up an acoustic guitar on the cheap but really didn't enjoy it other than when I was playing bass lines on it, didn't really think much more about it and sold it on. Then I reached uni and a mate handed me a bass, immediately I started fiddling around and promptly bought myself my first bass (Peavey Millenium BXP) and a Bass POD XT2.0. At this point in time I was playing for around 5 hours a day and quite quickly progressed without any lessons other than informal tip here and there from a friend and bought my first practice amp (Ashdown Perfect 10).

I decided I found the neck on the peavey a little thin and moved onto a MIM fender. Quickly upgraded to a quarter pounder and BAII and still have it today. I also upgraded my amp with the view of gigging, Line6 pro 300 and a Line6 studio 110 which I sold relatively recently.

I then got my first full time job and used the new found funds to buy todays main squeeze (ACG Finn 4) which I play regularly and love dearly

After this long gap from seriously playing keyboard I joined a metal band (which eventually went nowhere) and felt the need to upgrade my kit, after many MANY hours of trialing keyboards I bought a Korg M50 which is currently back at Korg (Again) being repaired.

Then not long ago I decided to upgrade my amps, partially through the fact that I live on the 4th floor and the 300pro was bloody heavy and partially through GAS.

I now play through a TC RH450 and 2 x RS210s and absolutely love it.

So there you are, my full history in instruments. A time span in total of over 20 years to date and no intention of stopping any time soon.

What's your story?

[xgsjx]

I started on key type thingys too!

When I was 4 (well 2 weeks away from being 5, as it was Xmas), I got one of those mouth keyboard things & played it constantly. My folks got me a Bontempi organ the following year & over the early years I had a few different keyboards & started getting into synths.

When I was 12, I went to a local music shop to buy a monosynth (Jem SX1000) & my brother bought an acoustic guitar (just a cheapo no name, but this was my step into stringy thingies). After a couple of months he decided the guitar wasn't for him & gave it to me. I found I mainly played basslines on it, though I did learn to play chords fairly quickly on it.

After a couple of years (aged 14) I decided to buy myself a bass to see if I liked it. I got a Vox Standard (which I still have, though it's in bits), that was 1985!
After much playing of synths I kept going back to the bass, so in 1990 I bought my Ibanez SR1000 & also got an Ibanez Artist guitar from a friend.

& that's me. I now have no synths (for the past 15 or so years) & after much chopping & changing, I still have the same bass, but the guitar is now a Freshman CE300 Electro Acoustic.

[Machines]

When I was 17-18 at college my mate had a guitar (ESP Explorer thing like James Hetfield, but a cheap one) and I thought it was very cool. Also I was getting into heavy metal at the time so my Dad bought me a Vintage VP6 (Yamaha Pacifica style) from a local shop for £110 (slight cosmetic damage, didn't bother me). Also got myself a 20w amp and a distortion pedal to go with it. I went through a few guitars, the best guitar being an Aria 7 string with flloyd rose tremolo that was an utter nightmare to set up but worked well. Should never have sold it .

After about 6 months of guitar I decided I wanted a bass too (from watching Metallica Cunning Stunts, Jason Newstead's bass solo !). Went back to the same shop my Vintage came from and sized up the options (knowing NOTHING at all). I went for the cheapest (as will be no surprise for people that know me) which was a Squier Bronco in Torino Red.

9 years (and 15 basses have passed through) later i'm where I am now, and still have the same Vintage VP6 in my rack ! It's actually a pretty damned good guitar. My Dad plays guitar and gets through more gear than me, so I regularly get chance to try out new stuff (someone elses GAS is satisfying too).

[BigRedX]

Having had zero interest in any kind of music until I heard "Get It On" by T.Rex, I started learning the guitar when I was 13 using a terrible catalogue-bought instrument my parents had bought some years earlier. The following year fro my 14th birthday I got my own acoustic guitar - a Kimbara, and within 6 months of that I had formed my first band.

We also had a piano at home, but it was very old with a wooden frame and would go out of tune with depressing regularity. My sister who is totally tone deaf had proper piano lessons and would happily play oblivious to the cacophony she was producing. A lot of the time it was impossible to tell whether she was making mistakes or simply down to the out-of-tuneness of the piano. I taught myself some simple chords but the tuning instability meant that I was forever reworking pieces I'd written to avoid the currently out of tune notes.

The Kimbara guitar continued to be my main instrument and was modified with better machine heads and both piezo and magnetic pickups. I got a Carlsbro Wasp 10 Watt amp and a home-made fuzz box.

During my final year at school I built my own electric guitar using Stephen Delft's articles in International Musician as a starting point. It wasn't a fantastic instrument but it was way better than anything you could buy at the time for £80 which is what all the parts and the wood cost me. This was my main guitar until the early 90s.

I didn't buy my first bass until 1981 when I had some surplus university grant money burning a hole in my pocket. Never one to go with the mainstream I found a strange little bass with Burns pickups in my local music shop and got it for £60 including a hard case and a strap. This turned out to be an early 60s Burns Sonic Bass and my main instrument in my second band.

In 1983 I answered an ad for a bass player for an electro-influenced band, but it quickly became obvious that all-synth was the way to go. For the rest of the decade most of my time was spent playing and programming synths - originally an EDP Wasp and Korg MS20, and ending up with a Casio CZ5000 plus a Yamaha KX5 MIDI controller.

I got back into playing bass in 1990 when I bought my first 5-string bass - a Washburn and followed fairly swiftly by a 5-string Overwater Original which I still own. In 1998 the guitarist from the band I was in quit and after a year of unsuccessfully auditioning guitarists, I started playing guitar again and started getting into custom instruments. This is when I bought my Fretking Esprit and Gus G1 Guitar.

After that band split I went back to playing bass getting into fretless and this is what I've been doing for the last 10 years.

Edited January 6, 2012 by BigRedX

[Mykesbass]

Age 11, science teacher started guitar lessons at lunch time. Got a really nasty Kay bright red and yellow sunburst acoustic. Mum made me a cloth bag for it - she was a dressmaker by trade. Followed quickly, once I'd shown real interest, with an Eko. Big old second hand acoustic with 0.14 gauge strings and a dodgy soundhole pick-up. Moved to Electric by about 13, first one was a beautiful Jap lawsuit Barney Kessel copy. Only problem was feedback - things were starting to get a bit noisy and punk had just happened. Those days we shared bass playing duties on an old Burns that the school owned - woyuld be worth a fortune now - we had no idea it was a quality instrument! Did double bass lessons for two years. Loved it but at that age and living in a flat the chance of ever owning one never happened! Switched back to guitar, Guild SA90 which I still have, faffed around with that for a while and lost direction until joining an 18 piece big band, loads of lovely jazz chords. Could never get the right sound from the Guild so bought an Epiphone Joe Pass which I still have with an upgrade of a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck. Was bought a US Tele in early 2000's which was very nice but nothing special, sold when I started getting more serious about bass. Owned a music shop for a couple of years where I fell back in love with bass, discovered the joy of five string and fretless. Had a Korean Aria SB404/5, great versatile bass, but found it sat badly cutting into my left shoulder. Replaced this with a Cort GB75 which has since had a fretless board put on it by Jon Shuker and am now looking forward to a Shuker 5 string fretless any time soon (well, by Jon's estimation)!!!

[mep]

Started on the recorder at primary school.

Dabbled with a bit of violin (my dad plays) and the piano but didn't take either too far.

Played the trumpet for 5 years whilst at secondary school.

Gave up the trumpet and started on Bass 30 years ago and have not looked back.

I have been messing around with the acoustic guitar for years too but have not really advanced for a while.

[Happy Jack]

Recorder -> Piano -> Guitar -> Trumpet -> looooooooooong wait -> Bass

I still vaguely remember how to play a bit of Piano and a bit of Guitar. Recorder and Trumpet disappeared from my brain a very long time ago.

What I chiefly did was sing ... for five years at school I was in three choirs and a choral society.

[farmer61]

Recorder - Football with mates - Piano - Football with mates - Guitar - Girlfriends - Bass - Engaged/Married/Kids - 20 years later Bass.

[brensabre79]

Guitar > Keyboard > Trumpet > Drums > Girls > More Drums > More Girls > Bass > Less Girls > Drums again > One Girl + Bass =

[charic]

I hope ">" doesn't mean greater than in this case

[Mr_Nitro]

I started, like most others, at school.. I tried Violin, Cello, Cornet, Trumpet, Euphonium, Tuba, Piano, Drums, but nothing really stuck.. My brothers girlfriend at the time (1988) had a 3/4 size Classical acoustic guitar, which she left under my brothers bed. I used to sneak a go on it when he was out, crudely bashing out Iron Maiden bass lines. Eventually, I bought my own classical acoustic for £5 from a car boot sale, and then later that month a very cheap electric (£10!) My sister bought me a Metallica tab book for my birthday, and I put my money towards an old Satellite Strat.. which I did a lot of self learning on. By this time I had been messing about for a year or so, and after a bit of a cash injection, my school invested in a Marlin P type bass, and a gorilla amp.. I started picking it up every music lesson, and liked the way it felt. My friend got a bass for christmas, and another inherited his dads old drum kit, and a band was formed, with me on guitar.. thats how things stayed for about 10 years, until I bought my Ibanez SB900 from a friend who was emigrating.. Ever since then I have been on bass, where I belong!! Having had countless instruments pass through my hands, I have finally almost settled on My 1994 Charvel Fusion 4 string, My Scecter Damian 4, and my Peavey Firebass 700 head, and Ashdown abm 8x10 cab. I have recently picked up the guitar again for one of the three bands I am currently playing for, and it makes a nice change sometimes! This year is my 24th year, of stringed endeavour, and as I think back at some of the quality instruments I have owned, destroyed, sold, built (!?!) swapped and lusted after, I ask myself.. WILL I EVER BE HAPPY??? THE ANSWER IS.....

I VERY MUCH DOUBT IT!!

[Immo]

When I was a kiddo, I had a 3/4 or even 2/3 guitar, but never played it. It was just sort of laying around. I also has some child instruments, but never used them in proper way either.
First 17 years of my life I spent in a house that was in poor condition - it was always cold and quite humid. After some time, the owner of the ground floor moved in and it turn out it's a woman with paranoid schizophrenia. Those two reasons were responsible for mine not even thinking of playing. Oh, and the fact I was not a big fan of music, I just liked to listen to it sometimes.
Then I started to listen to more and more music, shaping my taste for it and I moved. After that suddenly I started wanting to play - play a bass, as I was big Ramones fan and I liked Dee Dee a lot nad big RHCP fan and I liked Flea a lot, too. It took my two and a half years to get my first bass, but meanwhile I got a guitar, but never played it a lot somehow.
My bass history is [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/27102-bass-history/page__view__findpost__p__1458222"]here[/url].

[goblin]

I was born into it, parents are both musicians for a long time previous, although it was never push. Started learning keyboard when I was very young in primary school. I think I was year 1 or year 2, something like that. When I went into year 3 I started playing Trumpet, was a bit crap and didn't like the weight of it, so by year 4 I moved to Cornet (in hindsight, there wasn't much difference in weight or playability!). I then went all the way up to year 9 in high school progressing with Piano (I switched from keys in year 4) and Cornet, and then I decided Bass was a good idea. When a mate let it slip that I was learning bass, some little sh*t turned round saying "I don't care if you're dad's semi pro, you'll never be as good as me", so that spurred me on a bit... it only took 2 months . By the time I was in year 11 I was playing in bands much older than me to a pretty high standard, but college wouldn't let me have it as my main instrument, so I sat through A level music for 2 years with Trumpet and Piano as my main (went crawling back to Trumpet because I didn't wanna go down the brass band route), and I also picked up French Horn and Double Bass at the same time, both of which I picked up stupidly quickly. And then in upper sixth they realized just how good a bassist I was when I was off timetable for a week doing studio work Once I left college, took a gap year and wanted to persue Bass, so I spent the majority of the time really fine tuning my playing, ended up getting into uni based on audition as my A level grades were crap. So now I'm at uni, Bass and double are my main, with Piano closely following. I've still got the Trumpet, sold the French Horn a few months ago as I wasn't playing at all, and it was too good an instrument to leave knocking around.

So my first bass was a Hohner B2a which PaulS now owns, then I moved onto the Wal after about 2 months of playing which I ran for about 3 years (can technically say I learnt on it!). Dad decided he wanted it back, so got me a 5 string Peavey Grind which I probably should have never sold. Not long after we spotted the Warwick Corvette Fretless for not a lot of money, dad's take on it was that if I didn't take to fretless, then he would just have it. Somehow that one didn't work out on his part At the time my working amp was the Peterson, and eventually an Acoustic 470 and 4x10 for bigger gigs which I ran for a good few years. This was a good 3 or 4 years ago, in that period I picked up the fretted Warwick, then sold the Peavey 5 after leaving my last band, then started doing shows and regretted selling it. Due to the uptake in shows, I made the rig more portable in December '10, then I laid my hands on the 6er back in March. I'm in that lucky situation where I have all that I need / want!


I wouldn't say no to a 5 string Thumb or a Marleaux Constat Sopran though

[EdwardHimself]

I started out on the guitar at the end of '04 when, in year 9, we were asked to do some "band" thing for music class. It never actually happened or anything, but being in that room with a couple of mates playing the guitar inspired me to pick it up. I picked up the bass more out of necessity rather than that I really wanted to, although I did come to very much enjoy it. We couldn't really find someone to play the bass for the band I was doing at the time, so I decided to pick it up. That was just after my 14th birthday. For the next couple of years I was in a sort of "band" with some of my friends. It was a female fronted gothic type jobbie but it ended up being more talk than practice unfortunately.
In '07 I finally managed to get a band together where I played the bass and we had a drummer and singer and everything(!) I played the only gigs I've ever done in march, one was in the school for comic relief and the other was at a local youth club in front of about 16 kids lol. Musical differences with the guitarist ended up with ME being booted out of the band just after the start of year 12 in about october that year (I asked him to be in the band!). I had always wanted to play the drums ever since I had picked up the bass really, in order to "complete the triangle" as it were of bass, guitar and drums. The problem was that I didn't want to go down the route of cheap, low quality beginner kit and thus didn't really have the funds to go through with it. So what I ended up doing was buying high quality hardware for my 16th birthday, plus some money I'd saved up and some money I got for getting half decent GCSE results (about £500 in total). Then christmas that year I got the drums and pretty much just gathered some cymbals over time.
In 2008 I ended up being a drummer in a band with a guitarist I found, one of my best friends decided to pick up the bass in 2009 and we had a pretty good few practices over that year with us 3 but due to lack of singer and me feeling I wasn't doing very well on the drums, I ended up quitting.

I also played the double bass for a small amount of time but I was never really into the formal method of learning. Then again, I was never really into formally learning anything in those days, maybe I should give it another go at some point in the near future.

Edited January 7, 2012 by EdwardHimself

[Jam]

I started out playing violin in year 3, I played for about a year but I hated it, my teacher was so strict and looking back, probably not great for teaching kids.

After that, I picked up the piano (strong arms!) in about year 8 and played for about 2 years, but due to studies I couldn't focus on both so that fell by the wayside. It was only in 6th form that one of my guitar-playing friends suggested I might enjoy bass. I mentioned it to my brother and he surprised me with a bass for my 18th birthday

When I spent a year abroad in Japan I found an odd looking flute at a flea market, and long story short, that's how I started playing the shakuhachi. I've since been playing for about 5 or 6 years, and I love it just as much as bass.

I'd quite like to go back to piano but with bass/shakuhachi as well as work and training, I don't think I'd be able to commit. I also want to play the banjo, the western flute and the uilleann pipes. Too many instruments, not enough time (or skill)!

[chrismuzz]

Christ, erm...

I started off playing the violin in lower school, learning nursery rhymes and other relatively simple stuff. Lessons ended because not enough of the kids had enough of an attention span to actually practice the bloody thing!

Middle school - Had two drum lessons, both of which were spent solely learning how to hold the sticks 'properly', and was not allowed to actually touch or even hear the drums... So I lost interest!

Started a new school where, for some bizarre reason, they expected everyone to be a proficient pianist and singer... We didn't have 'lessons' on them, we were just told to play/sing stuff with no assistant whatsoever... That went well..... Also even more bizarrely, and much to my horror, recorder lessons were compulsory! And how I hate hearing 'Hot Cross Buns' on that god awful thing! The bane of my existence!

A few years later in high school, I took up trumpet lessons. I got pretty OK at it but as none of the music I listened to at the time involved any trumpet playing, it just became a chore, and I eventually lost interest in playing an instrument...

...until I was about 14 years old and my uncle turned up with a Squier Strat (which I still have. Cracking guitar!), Kustom practice amp, and even an instructional CD Rom! Had a whale of a time cracking on with the lessons, learning songs, jamming and thinking I was a teenage rockstar (in my bedroom anyway!) I cottoned on to the fact that said uncle was a bass player, and I slowly became more and more intrigued by this mysterious instrument... The curiosity became a longing, which grew and grew! Especially the moment I heard Metallica's early stuff, Cliff Burton, and the wonder that was the bass solo!..

Then at the age of 16 my best mate who was currently in a band said to me "Dude we need a bass player, you can already play guitar, so give it a go!". That was all the excuse I needed! Turned up to a rehearsal, using a borrowed bass (it's actualy the 4 string Peavey International that's still in my possession!), and loved it! Never felt so natural to me! Spoke to my uncle about it who seemed to be over the moon! (He must have been, as he lent me his Limited Edition Ibanez Musician for ... like ages.. And what a bass to start on!). And yeah, I never looked back! I fell in love with the bass so easily that I pretty much let my hard earned guitar skills completely go to waste... Can't play the thing to save my life now even if i do like to have a tinkle from time to time! 8 years later and I'm still holding down the low end proudly!

I er... hope I didn't bore anyone to death

[jackduran]

Keeping it concise...

Recorder --> Electric Guitar --> Bass (with some messing around on keyboard thrown in midway through stage 2!)

[Ancient Mariner]

Borrowed father's recorder at 4 or 5, piano lessons at 8 (didn't stick - why would a kid be interested in learning scales? Give me a *reason* first) then brass at 11. Played tuba in school and boys brigade bands until 18 or 19.

At 16 picked up a nasty Eko acoustic guitar, and would work out tunes by playing them on the tuba first, then transfer to guitar. Went through a series of home assembled electrics (there was a local shop selling left over guitar parts from Watkins, Eko and the like, all grotty plywood bodies and badly designed trems & bridges) before buying a columbus Les Paul, soon traded for the Dynelectron you can see on page 2 of 'guitar porn'. A better acoustic arrived, and then an Avon EB0 bass which was PX'd for another guitar.

Roll forward 30 years with various bands, shows etc.

3 years ago we found ourselves in a new church where my electric guitar playing wasn't entirely welcome, so 2 years back bought a tweaked Johnny Brooke Jazz bass from Gaf and started playing bass a bit. Presently up to 3 basses, including the Jazz (now with Geddy Lee pickups) and playing guitar again, though mostly synth through a GR33.

[Old Horse Murphy]

I started on the Recorder probably like 80% of my generation. I moved swiftly on to the Clarinet as it was my Great Grandmother's favourite instrument (Acker Bilk fan).

At the age of 11 I graduated on to Saxophone and stayed with it for 12 or so years until I lost my front teeth in a Rugby incident involving a fist.

I was proficient enough to get to grade 8 on the sax and played mostly Alto and Soprano sax and whilst at University played in a popular pro band in the Glos/Somerset area. I was fortunate enough to have shared the stage with Humphrey Lyttelton, Ruby Turner and Beverley Knight (not all at the same time).

In the background from the age of about 12-13, I heard and fell in love with Marcus Miller's Bass Solo at the Beginning of Run For Cover on David Sanborn's Straight To The Heart live album and bought my first bass as a direct result. I played in a couple of bands at school/uni, but once the Sax playing really took off for me I dropped the bass for a fair while.

My one regret is that I didn't go down the music lessons/readign music route for the bass that I followed for the Sax.

[tauzero]

Got about as far as learning that middle C is the note by the keyhole on the piano that we had in the house (my dad was a reasonable pianist, probably influenced by my grandfather having been an organ builder). Got about as far as learning that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star played the way I did it on vioin sounded more like a cat being tortured. Then my brother got an acoustic guitar and I kept borrowing it and learnt a bit, then got my own electric (a Vox Stroller) and learnt a bit more. Started playing rhythm guitar with a band at school, playing Glenn Miller stuff.

I'd got as far as a Les Paul copy when I went to university, and joined up with a few others in the same hall of residence to form a band. As the other guitarist was a bit better than me and we needed a bassist and the Fender Soundhouse had just had a fire and Hayman had gone out of business, I bought lots of bits of Hayman 40/40 and put it together. Played a gig that actually got us some money then dropped out of university.

Took me a little while after that to restart musically, and I finished up on bass as my main instrument. I still play guitar too, and own a keyboard (which I am by no means proficient on, and there isn't a keyhole so I don't know where middle C is).

[chris_b]

[size=4]I started with a cheap Spanish guitar my parents bought me for Christmas. The action was so high I couldn't hold down a chord so I started to play bass lines. My friend had a Futurama and an amp so he played all the guitar parts.[/size]

[size=4]I worked through the summer hols on my Grandfather's nursery to earn the money to buy my first bass. [/size]

[size=4]The list is in order and I still have the basses in bold print: [/size]

[size=4]Framus Star Bass[/size]
[size=4]Gibson EB0[/size]
[size=4][b]Fender Precision[/b][/size]
[size=4]Fender Precision Deluxe[/size]
[size=4]Ernie Ball MusicMan Stingray 5[/size]
[size=4]Wal mk2 Custom 5 string[/size]
[size=4][b]Wal mk3 Custom 5 string[/b][/size]
[size=4][b]Lakland 55-94 Deluxe[/b][/size]
[size=4][b]Mike Lull PJ5 [/b][/size]

[musophilr]

7 yrs old - recorder
8 yrs - violin ... took nearly 5 yrs to realise what a big mistake that was
13 yrs - acoustic guitar ... because I couldn't afford an electric
17 yrs - first electric ... but it was crap
25 yrs - first decent electric, first band
31 - first keys (s/h Rhodes Mk I)
33 - first bass

since then - more GAS !