First Bass you owned - still have it?

[LeftyBiskit]

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.

[Oopsdabassist]

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][IMG]http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h391/Mkul0/2016-02-26%2015.23.56_zpsimehcjeb.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[gapiro]

Still got my lovely Ibanez Gio, and it generally sits about an inch away from my desk for noodling at home. I use it very occasionally for gigs if I need a downtuned bass (/cba to transpose it for one of my 5 strings!)

[RhysP]

First bass I ever had was a secondhand, shorter-than-short-scale Japanese thing that said "Raver" on the headstock.
Got rid of it.

[LiamPodmore]

'94 or '95 Squier Jazz. Black/Rosewood. I sold the body and neck to someone on here a few years back. Sometimes wish i hadn't. Still have the first one i paid any money for though.

[JTUK]

No idea but I soon traded up to a Muscmaster as it was a 'Fender'
I kept that until I could afford a Jazz on HP with my dad 'sponsoring it.

Dogs all of them... and well rid.

I had Ibanez's (924) which I could make work but my first decent bass was a late 70's MM which was
a real good workhorse and set the bar.

[doomed]

Bought new in 1983, still going strong. 😊

[bootleg]

Jedson Telecaster, short scale, 40 years ago. Had flat wounds on it IIRC. Dreadful bass. Made me appreciate just about everything else since. No longer have it.

[gary mac]

My first bass and rig.


[url="https://flic.kr/p/qY9Kx8"][/url]

[charic]

Peavey Millenium BXP, I now miss it but know not to get another as the neck was too skinny for me and gave me hand cramp.. mind you I used to play for 5 hours a day on it!

[Huge Hands]

My first was some guitar body with a short scale bass neck project that my brother or dad had sourced from somewhere. No electrics worked and the strings were touching the neck in places. I turned up for my first ever bass lesson and got laughed at. I went to Grott Guitars in Newcastle and ended up with a short scale Fenix which had a white plastic coating feeling body on it. It was brand new but again, not the best idea.

My bass teacher must have felt sorry for me and put me in touch with Howard (BassDoc) who had a Squier JV Jazz for sale for about £150. Although I don't use it as a gigging bass anymore (I prefer 5s) - it still has pride of place in my collection and I will never sell it. Today, around 23 years later, the neck is still as straight as the day I bought it from Howard when it was already about 10 years old - and I've never adjusted it.

I did tell Howard about this about 2 years ago via PM on here and his typically humorous reply was along the lines of "I'm glad you liked it - if you'd now like to settle the balance on the initial downpayment...." Classic!

P.S. I was able to return the Fenix to Grotts under a "if you don't like it return it" policy they said they had, but then conveniently forgot about when I tried to return it. After some arguing, I left with some of my original cash which went towards the Squier.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Huge Hands

[TransistorBassMan]

White Squier Precision. Bought brand new from the Ealing Music Centre in December 1988. Didn't really get on with it soundwise and traded it in for a Tokai Jazz about 4 months later.

[Rich]

Here 'tis. 1964 Höfner Artist II, cost me 20 quid off my metalwork teacher. Plays like a dog but I could never sell it. Yes those are Strat knobs and the decal should be a plastic badge... but have you seen the prices of old Höf parts on fleabay lately???
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/jazza42uk/Mobile%20Uploads/Hfner%201%20front_zps5vshgusw.jpg[/IMG]

[chriswareham]

My first was a pointy headstock, Korean made Aria. Neck was too narrow at the nut, and really deep, making it awkward to play. The headstock snapped off and I binned it. I still have my second bass, a short scale semi acoustic made from Eko parts by Brandoni, and bought from Macaris in Charing Cross Road as my 21st birthday present from my parents. Lovely neck and huge "piano" like tone from the body and dual humbuckers. Love it, and had it completely restored by the Gallery a few years ago. They did such an amazing job that I'm in no way ashamed to say I had to quickly leave the shop as I welled up with tears of happiness!

[AndrewJordan]

A cheap black plywood bodied Stingray copy. Bought for my son when he was thirteen so about seventeen years ago. He quickly decided to concentrate on drums so I took over the bass. That was the start of some of the best years of my life with us playing in a band together for many of them. He still has the bass now and uses it occasionally.

[tauzero]

First was a dreadful thing called a Rosetti Bass 7, though I never used it. When I actually became a bassist, I needed a bass, so my real first bass was a Hayman 40/40 put together with bits from the Fender Soundhouse - there had been a fire there and Hayman were going out of business so I got the bits cheap. One of my biggest regrets, looking back, is that I part-exchanged it for a Precision, which wasn't as good a bass (but everyone played Fenders then).

[Marvin]

I sold my first bass a long, long, long time ago. I was relieved to get rid of it, it was an appalling instrument.

[url="http://en.audiofanzine.com/electric-fretted-bass/westone/spectrum-series-ii/medias/pictures/a.play,m.247507.html"]WESTONE SPECTRUM SERIES II[/url]

It wasn't even much good as firewood I imagine.

[neilp]

That's the thing! Gonna have nightmares now! Truly truly awful. Luckily the nice guy in Cloakes took it back in p/x against a Jazz copy

[sprocketflup]

Still have my first bass, a Westfield 5 PJ in red, though its been through the mill abit, now sports a defret ( home done with a shovel and some wood putty) a missing B string coz one of the saddles broke, and the tuners all swapped around on the tiny headstock so I could get a Hipshot detuner on.

These days tho, it sits in a bag in the loft just in case my preferred fretless goes awry for some reason.

[ubit]

First bass I owned was an unknown short scale horrendous effort. At some point the top horn must have been broken off because someone had made a hooked effort and stuck it on with filler, then roughly brush painted over it. The strings were old when I got it and I never changed them. I eventually saved up and bought a Hondo P bass copy. I thought it was amazing !

[kevin_lindsay]

The first bass I ever played was my friend Jimmy Davidson's 1973/4 Fender Jazz Bass. This was around 1978 or so. I remember thinking that it felt huge to my 14 year old hands. Jimmy had bought the bass in 1975 and it was always his favourite instrument.

When it came time for me to buy my own bass, Jimmy came along with me to the music stores. I ended up getting a Westone Thunder 1A. Great bass to begin on. I then traded that in for an all-black, unlined, fretless Westone Thunder 1A.

5 years ago, my friend Jimmy was feeling a bit under the weather. He saw his doctor, who sent him for tests. The results came back that he had cancer. This was in the December. By the following March he passed away. The family contacted my brother about selling the bass. I called The Bass Gallery to see about sending it to them in order to get the best price.
When I called Jimmy's family to advise them, his daughter said, "we're glad you called us Kevin. My dad always said that if you showed any interest in it, he wanted you to have it". I explained that at the time, I wasn't in a position to afford an instrument of that value. She then replied, "no, you misunderstand, we want you to have it as a gift"!!!
It was an incredibly touching gesture, and I shed a few tears. The strange thing was, that whenever I played it, I always thought "this is Jimmy's bass, not mine", and I couldn't enjoy it for what it was at that time. So, I loaned it to my friend Paul Turner for a few years. He used it on various gigs (Jamiroquai, Shuffler, Take That, etc). I got it back last March to use on a charity gig for the hospice who looked after Jimmy in his final few weeks. I could, at long last, enjoy it. It's a great sounding bass.

So, I now have the very first bass guitar I ever held in my hands.

[URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/kevin_lindsay/media/FB_IMG_1426058937455.jpg.html][IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/kevin_lindsay/FB_IMG_1426058937455.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1461079201' post='3031256']
The first bass I ever played was my friend Jimmy Davidson's 1973/4 Fender Jazz Bass. This was around 1978 or so. I remember thinking that it felt huge to my 14 year old hands. Jimmy had bought the bass in 1975 and it was always his favourite instrument.

When it came time for me to buy my own bass, Jimmy came along with me to the music stores. I ended up getting a Westone Thunder 1A. Great bass to begin on. I then traded that in for an all-black, unlined, fretless Westone Thunder 1A.

5 years ago, my friend Jimmy was feeling a bit under the weather. He saw his doctor, who sent him for tests. The results came back that he had cancer. This was in the December. By the following March he passed away. The family contacted my brother about selling the bass. I called The Bass Gallery to see about sending it to them in order to get the best price.
When I called Jimmy's family to advise them, his daughter said, "we're glad you called us Kevin. My dad always said that if you showed any interest in it, he wanted you to have it". I explained that at the time, I wasn't in a position to afford an instrument of that value. She then replied, "no, you misunderstand, we want you to have it as a gift"!!!
It was an incredibly touching gesture, and I shed a few tears. The strange thing was, that whenever I played it, I always thought "this is Jimmy's bass, not mine", and I couldn't enjoy it for what it was at that time. So, I loaned it to my friend Paul Turner for a few years. He used it on various gigs (Jamiroquai, Shuffler, Take That, etc). I got it back last March to use on a charity gig for the hospice who looked after Jimmy in his final few weeks. I could, at long last, enjoy it. It's a great sounding bass.

So, I now have the very first bass guitar I ever held in my hands.

[url="http://s7.photobucket.com/user/kevin_lindsay/media/FB_IMG_1426058937455.jpg.html"][/url]
[/quote]I was going to put 'nice story that' but your friend died so I guess it's not, but I hope you know what I mean

[Bassassin]

Mine was a shortscale Jazz-ish thing branded Grant - not mine in the pics but exactly the same:

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:53794] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53795]

Had this new from Unisound in Chatham High Street in July 1978 - the £59 it cost was absolutely all I could afford, even with my dad helping out. It was awful and probably held my playing back by a few years.

Now long-gone, I think the remains of it were left in the loft of a house I vacated several decades ago. I'd defretted it, resprayed it, messed with the pukups and smashed it off my bedroom walls - and it was still unplayable crap. Much as I appreciate old MIJ stuff, I have absolutely zero nostalgia for this piece of sh!t. And it was plywood, so it wouldn't even have burned well.

Jon.

[LewisK1975]

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1461079201' post='3031256']
The first bass I ever played was my friend Jimmy Davidson's 1973/4 Fender Jazz Bass. This was around 1978 or so. I remember thinking that it felt huge to my 14 year old hands. Jimmy had bought the bass in 1975 and it was always his favourite instrument.

When it came time for me to buy my own bass, Jimmy came along with me to the music stores. I ended up getting a Westone Thunder 1A. Great bass to begin on. I then traded that in for an all-black, unlined, fretless Westone Thunder 1A.

5 years ago, my friend Jimmy was feeling a bit under the weather. He saw his doctor, who sent him for tests. The results came back that he had cancer. This was in the December. By the following March he passed away. The family contacted my brother about selling the bass. I called The Bass Gallery to see about sending it to them in order to get the best price.
When I called Jimmy's family to advise them, his daughter said, "we're glad you called us Kevin. My dad always said that if you showed any interest in it, he wanted you to have it". I explained that at the time, I wasn't in a position to afford an instrument of that value. She then replied, "no, you misunderstand, we want you to have it as a gift"!!!
It was an incredibly touching gesture, and I shed a few tears. The strange thing was, that whenever I played it, I always thought "this is Jimmy's bass, not mine", and I couldn't enjoy it for what it was at that time. So, I loaned it to my friend Paul Turner for a few years. He used it on various gigs (Jamiroquai, Shuffler, Take That, etc). I got it back last March to use on a charity gig for the hospice who looked after Jimmy in his final few weeks. I could, at long last, enjoy it. It's a great sounding bass.

So, I now have the very first bass guitar I ever held in my hands.

[url="http://s7.photobucket.com/user/kevin_lindsay/media/FB_IMG_1426058937455.jpg.html"][/url]
[/quote]

Incredibly touching story Kevin, thank you for sharing that..and here's to Jimmy

[howdenspur]

My first was a purpley red Avon EB0 copy, though I can't remember how I acquired it (1977ish). It was fun but had rather odd build quality, especially in the bridge department. This was traded against a very "well used" Musicmaster from a second hand shop somewhere in Cardiff. I liked it, though the fretwork needed fettling. This went a couple of years later post University and wasn't replaced until 2008 with the arrival of the MIM Precision! I was happy with one bass...until I came to this place