Anyone else remember looking at this and dreaming of things to come?

[Horrorhiker]

1 minute ago, casapete said:

Mate in a band had a Linebacker combo for his keyboards, 50 watt I think. That amp got 

used for everything over the years - keys, bass, guitar, small vocal PA / monitor,etc - and never missed a beat.

He still has it and it still works great.

Yes, I sold mine to a friend and it was still going strong at least 3 or 4 years ago. Different topic I suppose and I imagine it has been talked about, but I wonder if stuff was generally made better in those days. I couldn't imagine getting a practice amp that would last 20 years today without spending a whole lot of money. That could very well just be my, grumpy old man attitude though I guess. 

[Wayne Firefly]

I remember someone who had the bass... a red one.... back of the neck was shaped like a 20p piece..... make your own conclusion !!

[Earbrass]

For me it was gazing longingly at a "Top Twenty" (?) sunburst solid 6-string in Woolworths - probably 1971 or 1972. Cost around £20 if I remember right. Ended up being taken to a proper music shop and being offered a choice between two Columbus copies - an SG and a 335-alike.Got the SG. Cost my Dad £40 - and me a summer of lawn mowing. First bass came a few years later.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Earbrass

[4000]

I actually wanted to play guitar, and my playing and tastes probably reflect that to a degree. My dad (a jazzer) refused to lend me any money to help buy a guitar and told me if I played bass I’d get more gigs.

[odysseus]

The first bass played was a Kay bass owned by a friend of mine. You could've fitted a ham sandwich between the strings and fretboard... nearly cured me of wanting to play bass for the rest of my life. Fortunately another friend lent me an Encore Coaster which was, at least , playable...

[BrunoBass]

The prices aren’t dissimilar to Harley Benton’s beginner stuff today!

[Cato]

£100 in 1990 (around the time these guitars came out) would be worth close to £200 today.

Having played both I'd say the Harley Bentons of today are considerably better than the Axes were back in the day.

[BrunoBass]

22 minutes ago, Cato said:

£100 in 1990 (around the time these guitars came out) would be worth close to £200 today.

Having played both I'd say the Harley Bentons of today are considerably better than the Axes were back in the day.

Absolutely.

It’s difficult to buy a bad bass these days. I have a J&D Jazz Bass from DV247 that cost £105. I have quite happily gigged it.

[DaveFry]

Here is one I defretted and put chicken head knobs on . I don't remember how much I paid for it from a charity shop , but I remember the tapewounds cost more than the bass . Underneath the black dye was an attractive piece of aromatic rosewood .

[casapete]

8 hours ago, Earbrass said:

For me it was gazing longingly at a "Top Twenty" (?) sunburst solid 6-string in Woolworths - probably 1971 or 1972. Cost around £20 if I remember right. Ended up being taken to a proper music shop and being offered a choice between two Columbus copies - an SG and a 335-alike.Got the SG. Cost my Dad £40 - and me a summer of lawn mowing. First bass came a few years later.

I remember the ’Woolies’ stuff too. Think a lot of it was marketed under the ‘Audition’ brand IIRC. I had a similar amp to an Audition, which was badged as a Zenta. Separate 10 watt head that clipped onto a speaker cab. The amp had reverb as well! My first electric that I played into it was a no name red 335 style guitar, followed by an Avon Les Paul copy and then a sunburst  Antoria. Soon after that ( aged 14)  my mate wanted to buy a guitar so we got a cheap day return on the train to London, where we spent the day up and down Shaftesbury Ave and Charing Cross Road. After trying out endless guitars he settled for a Columbus SG, I think in a brown colour. Bolt on neck meant he didn’t need a whammy bar..... 😄

[Rexel Matador]

On 09/02/2018 at 11:08, Kevsy71 said:

"The bass guitarist: The whole room is filled with power. Your power, pure power. Without you, the core of the song is gone. They need you and you know it."

I love how subtly defensive this is - trying to appeal to the budding bass player's nagging inferiority complex 🤣

[Skybone]

Marlin Sidewinder's... they weighed a ton IIRC. There again, so did the Kay P Bass I ended up with.

[Old Horse Murphy]

I’m probably giving my age away here but I remember seeing adverts for the Marlin stuff which used to make me go weak at the knees. It was the colours for me, especially that purpleish one. Our local guitar shop had them in stock and I used to go and drool and dream of great things. Happy days

[ahpook]

I remember those Axe adverts.

I'm afraid it elicits the same metal-phobic reaction now as it did at the time

I grew up on indie - the guitarists I knew all lusted after cheap semi-acoustics....I remember Hondos being flavour of the month.

Edited October 10, 2019 by ahpook

[4000]

27 minutes ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

I’m probably giving my age away here but I remember seeing adverts for the Marlin stuff which used to make me go weak at the knees. It was the colours for me, especially that purpleish one. Our local guitar shop had them in stock and I used to go and drool and dream of great things. Happy days

I wouldn’t worry too much about giving your age away. Those things came out years after I started playing. In my day it was Kays and Hondos, with the odd CMI or Aria if you were lucky.

[darkandrew]

On 08/02/2018 at 18:36, Horrorhiker said:

I remember being in talks with my folks about the possibility of getting some kind of instrument, and then seeing this ad in some magazine and thinking..wow. I just found it online and it's one of those things that makes you go right back in time. 

I was 13 or so, going back and forward deciding between guitars and bass as my final request, sure that one of these would be mine. 

We ended up going to a shop and I got an Encore P-Bass (which was actually great). 

Here's to joint Christmas and birthday presents. 

That was my first bass! I ordered it in black and to be honest it was actually playable. The amp, on the other hand, was the same one as came with the guitars and was next to useless.

[Bassfinger]

I remember the Axe stuff, though it was a bit late for me.  My Mum thought me a Hohner Les Paul, which looked lovely but which was a bit nasty to play die to set up difficulties.  A mate of mine got guitar'd up at about the same time and went for the Encore Strat, which was a much better instrument, albeit not as nicely finished as the Hohner.  By the time the Axe stuff came about I was in my 20s and had money and had moved on to Yamaha and Washburn.

Didn't Axe do a guitar with a carrying handle cut into the body, or was that someone else?