First Bass you owned - still have it?

[Billy Apple]

Another Satellite short scale here. It wasn't even mine, but on long-term borrow from my mate. Might not be much now, but in 1979 it was the mutts nuts.

[bassbiscuits]

Mine was a terrible Satellite short scale bass from a long gone cool little store called Picton Music in Swansea back in 1986.

The bass was terrible - thin plywood body, and neck which promptly warped to give sky high action etc. I sold it as soon as I'd finished paying it off on HP and got a Westone Spectrum instead.

The Satellite turned up in a secondhand shop about 10 years later. But the guy insisted it was brand new and wanted £120 for it (twice what I paid in the first place!).

Yeah good luck with that mate....

I don't miss it. I didn't even like it at the time.

[Chiliwailer]

Rockwood by Hohner LX100B because it looked more metal than a Squier P Bass.

Had the chance to buy it back at one point, glad I didn't.

Still got an acoustic bass I bought when I was 16 and found life after metal, I'd never sell that in a million years.

[Roger2611]

I still have my first guitar...yes another Saterlite but a Strat this time, it played brilliantly until I decided to repaint it Silver and hung it out of my bedroom window on a bungee strap to dry.....yep you guessed it...twang followed very quickly by crash snapped the headstock clean off and splintered the body, I managed to glue it all back together and it has hung on my wall ever since.

My first bass was a Precision of some kind, from what I remember it weighed a ton but played and sounded ok.....absolutely no idea what happened to it, probably swapped it for another six string guitar or some beer or ciggies or something

Edited April 19, 2016 by Roger2611

[dincz]

60's Vox Cougar bought s/h in 1970. Still got it though it's under a friend's bed on the other side of the world.

[URL=http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/dincz/media/Vox.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u493/dincz/Vox.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[BigRedX]

I just wanted to add to my original post that my first bass was a complete impulse buy.

The band I was in at the time was a recording project only and up to then we had borrowed a bass from one of the two people in our year at school who owned one. These were a Mosrite-influenced Woolies special and a home-made affair that looked as though the person who made it had briefly seen a photo of a P-bass once. Having left school to go off to University etc we no longer had easy access to either bass anymore, but no-one in the band had got around to addressing the problem.

I had gone home for the weekend and was on my way back to Nottingham and decided to drop into my old local musical instrument store while I waited for the next bus. About an hour later (having missed at least two buses) I walked out with the Burns bass.

If I hadn't bought that bass and we hadn't been able to borrow another bass, I imagine that we simply wouldn't have bothered with it. At the time the instrumentation in the band was far from conventional and because neither of the bases we'd been using up to then were particularly good, at least half of our songs didn't have any bass guitar in them at all. Buying the Burns changed everything and we very slowly started sounding slightly more conventional...

[Roland Rock]

Marlin Sidewinder, Silver.
It was a perfect starter bass,and even sounded pretty good on some recordings!
After I upgraded to Stingray (which, bizarrely I didn't bond with half as much) I tinkered with it and had a friend paint it a Hawaiian theme. It still resides, incomplete, under a bed at my Dad's house.

[IMG]http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg580/christopher_brown14/rackbags/20160412_091857_zpsumidogju.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg580/christopher_brown14/rackbags/20160412_091912_zpsymgdgg2w.jpg" class="ipsImage" />

Edited April 19, 2016 by Roland Rock

[TrevorR]

Yup! The Aria SB700 namechecked in my sig below. It was an 18th birthday present along with a 75w Laney Linebacker amp.



More photos here... http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/my-basses-non-wal-basses.html

Edited April 19, 2016 by TrevorR

[jezzaboy]

In 2001 a mate who played guitar took me to McCormicks in Glasgow to get a bass. I knew bugger all about them as I looked at the Jim Deacon P basses they sold. But he spotted a Squier P bass special in metalic red and after a play on that, he decided that it was much better than the others

I paid £230 for it which seems mental now and one of the reasons McCormicks ain`t there no more I imagine. After a while, I tried to trade it in at Victor Morris (sellers of guitars, pa and crossbows and samuri swords-true) and they offered me £75 for it. Told them to stick it and ended up painting it green and shortly after broke it up for parts.

Nah, don`t miss it at all.

[Mcmatt]

My first bass was a Hohner Marlin SL300B in a sort of burgundy purple colour, bought for about 80 notes in about '93. It had [i]really[/i] pointy headstock and I'm surprised I never speared someone with it by accident, tbh. Especially as I carried it about in an old acoustic guitar case with the headstock pointing out of the top!

Still, I played it mercilessly and enjoyed it thoroughly. Sold it on as I'd bought a 5-string. I don't necessarily regret selling it but I wouldn't mind another play on it, see what it's like now.

[Dood]

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1461061489' post='3030992']
This has probably been done, another thread just made me think of it though..

Mine was a [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]black Marlin slammer P-Bass copy with a maple fingerboard. Bought for £25 in 1988. I now know it was an awful Bass, but at the time I didn't know any different and I did some serious learning on that thing! Often wish I still had it, just for nostalgia. [/font][/color]
[/quote]

Mine was a red Marlin Sidewinder!! I mean, for 1989 or whatever it was when I got mine, it wasn't a bad bass, not compared to some - and even better than some modern 'entry level' instruments today if I am totally honest. I was a ply body though, but I liked it's nod to the Jazz Bass Special and Precision Deluxe models. I too learned so so much on that bass!

[James Nada]

A red Marlin Slammer, bought second hand in 1989. I somehow managed to snap a small section off the pickguard of when I fell off a drummers Bass drum mid-song.
I gave it away about 6 years ago and have come to regret it.
I'm still a P-Bass man though.

[URL=http://s712.photobucket.com/user/badgerpigdog/media/_20150928_205035.jpg.html][IMG]http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww127/badgerpigdog/_20150928_205035.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Edited April 19, 2016 by James Nada

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='LeftyBiskit' timestamp='1461068185' post='3031098']
Mine was a Hofner Artist-I bought it in 1978 off a mate for a fiver,
It came in bits as a project, as I'm cack handed I had to modify it a bit
I still have it and occasionally plug it in
the one in the pic is how it should look.


[/quote]

I too had Hofner Artist. I paid £30 if i recall correctly, which was about two week wages. It was quite playable although imperfect in intonation at the dusty end. I gave it to a friend when I got a Hayman 4040 for about £100.

[alyctes]

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1461068269' post='3031102']
My old Squier P bass special, its been played about with as you can see, was originally sunburst, since then its had a fretless neck, now gone, some new pickups, new tuners, won't ever get rid, and I still gig it too

[url="http://s1107.photobucket.com/user/Mkul0/media/2016-02-26%2015.23.56_zpsimehcjeb.jpg.html"][/url]
[/quote]
I recognise those tuners...

[alyctes]

Ibanez GSR180, about 9 years ago. Decent enough starter kit; sold the bass to a colleague, still got the practice amp somewhere.

[Oopsdabassist]

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1461111231' post='3031618']
I recognise those tuners...
[/quote]

hehe yup

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1461066900' post='3031079']
Plus now the split pickup is the 'right' way round!........I'll get me coat.
[/quote]funnily enough I did have a lot of trouble getting the volume the same across all the strings, it never occurred to me at the time about the split pickup thing, just thought it was because it was a cheap bass

[BrunoBass]

My first bass was a Silver Series Squier Precision that I bought new from a long gone music shop in Bicester in the autumn of 1991. It was black, white scratch plate and rosewood neck. I think I paid £180 for it including hard case. It was a great bass and a lovely instrument to learn on. I was spoilt really, seeing some of the other basses people started with! I kept it until 1995 when I won a Patrick Eggle NY in a Melody Maker competition. I wish I'd kept it.

As an aside, the father of my girlfriend at the time was a bass player and had several P basses. He thought my Squier was better than the 80s US P bass he was playing at the time, I didn't know any better!

[KevB]

I've posted this before but it was this

[URL=http://s30.photobucket.com/user/KevB64/media/columbusjazzbodysmall.jpg.html][IMG]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c307/KevB64/columbusjazzbodysmall.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Columbus jazz that the bass player in the band I was in at school (lots of rehearsing jams but no gigs while I was in it) had modded with DiMarzio P pickups. The bridge jazz pu had died anyway. The neck became almost unplayable and in the end i used it as a project to 'see how stuff worked' and replaced everything (mighty mite neck, tuners, badass bridge, authentic Fender pu's, scratchplate to cover the modding hole except it never matched up to the control plate because the body isn't an exact fender copy shape!) then gave it to my niece who was learning to play on some dreadful Encore rubbish. No idea where it is now, niece quit playing and I'm in no rush to have it back though the badass bridge could be worth rescuing.

[ivansc]

In 1963 the late Bubs White joined my band and I went from playing guitar to bass. Bought a used rosewood neck 1962 Precision from the chap who bought it new in 1962, about 6 months previously. He paid 80 guineas and sold it to me, complete with the Fender cardboard box, for 60 pounds.
During its busy life it fell out of the back of our van & was run over by a lorry, but virtually unharmed because it landed face down!
A friend made me a pair of solid brass knobs to replace the two broken plastic (or were the aluminium?) ones and at least those I still have.

Sadly, I had to sell it in late 63 to buy a guitar for the new gig I got.
One of the two best Precisions I ever played - the other one was also a rosewood 62 Precision.

Sting in the tale.
While it belonged to me, we played a gig with a band from Corby - the band members stole Bubs`s Binson echo and my Precision.
Happily, both turned up a month later at a music shop in Corby and the culprit got away with a charge of receiving stolen goods.
The chap I sold it to disappeared out of my life until 2012.
I was organising a reunion of all the old guys that played in bands in the Cambridge area in the 60s and at the same time I got a message saying "I hear you have been looking for me".
Was the chap I sold it to.
My daughter had set up a myspace or something like it page for me and in the "person I would most like to meet" question, I had answered with the guys name and that I was interested in getting the bass back.
Well we got to meet up at the gig and guess what? HE had also had the bass stolen in 1964 and never saw it again.

Some things are just not meant to be.
P.S. I now have a rosewood 62 reissue Precision with the proper case, but it STILL doesnt feel as good as my memories of that first bass.
And I dont even have a photo of it, since every photo taken of me when I was a kid got stolen from my Mum`s condo in Nashville back in the seventies.

Edited April 20, 2016 by ivansc

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Mine was a copy of a Gibson EB3, courtesy of Eros, in natural finish. Cost me £20 in 1995 from a friend of my parents who was moving away.
As lovely as it was I soon felt the need to 'upgrade' and a few months later was he proud owner of a limited edition Encore P bass copy - natural, unfinished body, tort scratchplate and gold hardware. My pride and joy, at the time!

Alas both basses came to undignified ends. The Eros ended up as part of an art college project - I planned to strip the varnish off and re-paint a la Clapton's SG. Sadly the stripping didn't quite work and the poor thing ended up looking like it had scabies. The Encore was dismantled in an attempt to see how it all worked. It eventually got put back together but I then attempted to de-fret it - we won't go into that...

Edited April 20, 2016 by Cosmo Valdemar

[LewisK1975]

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1461150916' post='3031855']
In 1963 the late Bubs White joined my band and I went from playing guitar to bass. Bought a used rosewood neck 1962 Precision from the chap who bought it new in 1962, about 6 months previously. He paid 80 guineas and sold it to me, complete with the Fender cardboard box, for 60 pounds.
During its busy life it fell out of the back of our van & was run over by a lorry, but virtually unharmed because it landed face down!
A friend made me a pair of solid brass knobs to replace the two broken plastic (or were the aluminium?) ones and at least those I still have.

Sadly, I had to sell it in late 63 to buy a guitar for the new gig I got.
One of the two best Precisions I ever played - the other one was also a rosewood 62 Precision.

Sting in the tale.
While it belonged to me, we played a gig with a band from Corby - the band members stole Bubs`s Binson echo and my Precision.
Happily, both turned up a month later at a music shop in Corby and the culprit got away with a charge of receiving stolen goods.
The chap I sold it to disappeared out of my life until 2012.
I was organising a reunion of all the old guys that played in bands in the Cambridge area in the 60s and at the same time I got a message saying "I hear you have been looking for me".
Was the chap I sold it to.
My daughter had set up a myspace or something like it page for me and in the "person I would most like to meet" question, I had answered with the guys name and that I was interested in getting the bass back.
Well we got to meet up at the gig and guess what? HE had also had the bass stolen in 1964 and never saw it again.

Some things are just not meant to be.
P.S. I now have a rosewood 62 reissue Precision with the proper case, but it STILL doesnt feel as good as my memories of that first bass.
And I dont even have a photo of it, since every photo taken of me when I was a kid got stolen from my Mum`s condo in Nashville back in the seventies.

[/quote]

Great story!

[Wonky2]

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1461061489' post='3030992']
This has probably been done, another thread just made me think of it though..

Mine was a [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]black Marlin slammer P-Bass copy with a maple fingerboard. Bought for £25 in 1988. I now know it was an awful Bass, but at the time I didn't know any different and I did some serious learning on that thing! Often wish I still had it, just for nostalgia. [/font][/color]
[/quote]

SNAP!
My first bass was a marlin slammer p bass copy, and yes a million mikes away from what i now use but i do owe that plank much gratitude as i learnt to play on it, performed in excess of 1500 gigs with it and recorded twice with it.
I was very young and money was tight. When i did eventually change/upgrade it was to a bass collection which was an excellent bass paid for with a little cash my dear old nan left me when she hung her knitting needles up.

First amps are interesting one..... I had a huge H and H hw100 combo, as big as a washing machine and has a neon green back lit panel long before trace elliot ever existed

Happy days

[keefbaker]

Don't even know what make my first guitars and basses were. They were all about £20 from the 2nd hand shop in the late 80s and kept breaking.

[Skybone]

My first bass was a sunburst Kay P-bass copy, it weighed a ton and had a ridiculously high action, but it was mine. 30-odd years later, I'm still playing, so it must have done it's job at the time.

I remember it came with cable-like flat wounds on. Managed to sell it to someone at school, then went out and bought a Westone Raider 1 in red/graphite. That one wasn't great, but it was far superior to the Kay!

Bought an Aria Pro II SB Special after the Westone, now that one was really good.