Now..Your First Gig Rig Rundowns

[Low End Bee]

Now everybody's got nice portable reliable gear. Cast your mind back to the first time you gigged with your own bass and backline...

1979

Black Shergold Marathon
Rotosound strings
Gibson Heavy triangular picks
Green leather strap
Generic crackly black lead
WEM Westminster 15 watt bass combo
pitch pipes for tuning

The WEM only lasted one gig and was replaced by an HH VS100 head mixed with a 1x18 cab - Woof.

[BrunoBass]

My first gig as a bass player was Brackley Rugby Club, sometime late '80s I think. I used my Squier Silver Series Precision (so wish I'd kept that...) into a borrowed Carlsboro amp (I think) that sounded terrible. No pedals, just straight in. I don't remember how I tuned, probably to the guitarist, and he probably tuned by ear.

[indiegrungesound]

The first gig I ever played was backing up a friend and ex-bandmate at an open mic at Trof (Now known as Fallow Café) in Fallowfield in 2006. My old Ibanez GSR200 went straight into the PA via DI.
My first proper band gig was a few months later at The Retro Bar in Manchester for an all dayer charity gig. I used the same Ibanez bass through the headlining band's Ampeg rig (An old SVT Pro III head into a matching 2 x 10" & 1 x 15" stack.), with my Boss ME-50B pedal in the effects loop.
That Ibanez was the first good bass I owned. Better than my Squier Affinity P-Bass, which was an unused back up for the gig.
The only gear I still have from that gig is the pedal.

[cheddatom]

fender musicmaster, with a headphone splitter in the output so that I could play through two Kustom 15 watt guitar amps with 8" speakers. I've no idea how I managed to hear myself but I did

[leschirons]

Hohner cricket bat Steinberger copy and the dreaded 8 ton Peavey combo 300😂

[stingrayPete1977]

White Hart pub in Cannock 1999 (the band was formed in 1989! Lol), a Sunday evening for a crate of Becks I think.

Bass Collection SB320
Peavey Foundation as a spare.
Peavey TNT 120 AMP
I can't recall the pa but I think it was a borrowed Peavey, probably 200 watt at most wit just tops for vocals.

Gretsch drumkit that's still busy with the drummers covers band.

Epiphone Les Paul and a Marshall 80/80 amp.

No lights and one mic I think.

Ace fun!

[Barking Spiders]

In 1991 my first gig with a bass was when I was doubling up, my main thing being the alto sax, by which time I had a couple of dozen gigs under my belt. It was a Gibson EB copy which I'd copped for free. The only effects were a vintage Ross flanger and a wah pedal of unknown origin. Cant recall what amp it was.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Back then, it was about as simple as it could really get - my amp was a Laney HCM120B. No effects, not even a pedal tuner at the time, and I was alternating between a Brandoni Precision copy, and an Aria Pro II AVB-40.

Still got the Precision; sold the Aria about five or six years ago so I could afford my Epi EB-3 but it was a good reliable little bit of kit. After its head packed up, the Laney found a second lease of life as a 1x15 cab, but I've superseded that with a nice 2x12 now. (Anyone want a Laney combo as a repair project? I think the output transistors need replacing but it's not a bad SS amp for anyone that can get it working again!)

[CamdenRob]

Early 90s...

Westfield Bass (awful) - cable (also awful) - Carlsbro Viper combo (even worse)

[Freddy Le Cragg]

Aria Pro II Cat into a Boss od2 into an Ashdown Mag300 combo. The Aria was lovely but had an action you could park a bus under.

[Lozz196]

Yamaha BB1100s into a Laney Linebacker (had a 15 inch speaker so think it was the 150 watt version). No idea of the rest of it though, was just a strap, a lead, a tuner and a pick and whatever strings came on the bass when I bought it new.

School-boy error time. The bass is right but amp-wise it was a Fender Bassman head of some kind, into a Fender 410 or 412 bass cab. I sold those - to my shame for £60 - to help fund the Laney due to it being more portable. Doh. I also used a DOD Graphic Equaliser, a chorus by Orion I think, and a Reverb/Delay pedal.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Lozz196

[tonyquipment]

Marlin loner guitar
Cheap light electric guitar strings I purchased in bulk (mixed)
No amp- used some Marshall combo that was already on stage which was mic'd up to the PA

The gig was packed, we made some errors but the punters quite enjoyed it. We thought we sucked. 😂

We probably did.

[matski]

Aria SB Black&Gold I bass
Fender JV Precision (defretted)
Carlsbro 100W combo
Boss Chorus and Flanger pedals, MXR Phaser pedal.

[Roger2611]

Aston University circa 1986 supporting a band called Stress who were no 12 in the charts that week

Westone Thunder 3 fretless bass (with an alloy necked Kramer as back up borrowed from the band's guitarist)
Carlsboro Cobra 90 head
2 x 1x12 unnamed bass cabs ( actually from memory 1 was a guitar cab of some sorts)

[paul_5]

Hohner Baron Bass (30" scale)
Rotosound strings
Dreadful Marshall combo (open backed, single speaker with black knobs and white piping)
Tandy (remember them?) leads

[skankdelvar]

Plywood (?) Commodore P copy > White coily cable > AVS 100w PA amp > Chipboard 2x12 loaded with Goodmans Audiom 12PGs


[b][size=3]Not my bass, but one just like it[/size][/b]

Edited February 28, 2017 by skankdelvar

[lowhand_mike]

cant remember the exact spec but...
Some PJ black bass
into a HH 100watt combo of some description, think it was made of lead.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1488299691' post='3247676']
Plywood (?) Commodore P copy > White coily cable > AVS 100w PA amp > Chipboard 2x12 loaded with Goodmans Audiom 12PGs


[b][size=3]Not my bass, but one just like it[/size][/b]
[/quote]

There's an ironic hipster somewhere salivating at that setup.

[Stu-khag]

sometime around 99 -2000, my setup was a borrowed laney dp150 4x10 combo (tonnes of dials, has put me off graphic eqs and the like ever since then) and a borrowed a white bc rich bass (asian made, I think a gunslinger). I bought the amp but never bought the bass, bought a mim jazz bass in 2000 and its been the main one ever since

[Hobbayne]

1983. Westone Thunder 1 bass and Vox 50 watt amp bought from a Littlewoods catalogue.
At the White Hart in Acton. Coincidentally the same pub that burned down on New Years Eve.

[Beer of the Bass]

I think it would have been 1996, Queens Hotel in Dunoon and a couple of bars in Gourock and Greenock that I was several years too young to be in. I had a fretless Hohner Jazz copy (white with a tortoiseshell guard), a Selmer Treble n' Bass 50 SV and a really bad 1x15" made out of the shell of an HH guitar combo with a new baffle and the cheapest 15" driver from Maplin. Also a Zoom 506 for a while. The only part of that I have today is a green Klotz cable which is still going.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Beer of the Bass

[Cato]

Axe Bass (the 90s budget model, not the Gene Simmons variety) into a no name 30 watt combo at mates house party. We only knew about 7 songs, you can imagine how terrible we were.

[grumpyguts]

Westone Thunder 1a straight into a Carlsbro Cobra 90. How very 80's!

[scalpy]

Encore PB3 into a BC rich 30w combo, via a green glow in the dark lead. 90s!

[phil.c60]

The same HotRod Precision that I gig with now, straight into an Ampeg B200R Rocket Bass combo which I still own but don't use because it's too heavy. I still play through it at home when no-ones in and it sounds great. I keep intending to drag it out to a gig with an easy load in, but then pick up the LM3 and change my mind.