Do you remember your first bass...

[casapete]

12 hours ago, yorks5stringer said:

A Sunburst Gibson EB2 from 1962, acquired for £50 in 1976. Sold for £100 at one of the pre-cursers to cash converters in Leeds in the 80's, who always had some interesting basses in their packed  windows. Every lunchtime I'd walk around these shops and see what new stock they had.

Come to think of it got my JD Supernatural Roadie from one of them for £350 a few years later.

Possibly Big Deal on Eastgate (or before that just round the corner at the top of Vicar Lane?) Was only looking in there last week , plenty of stuff but the prices now have gone crazy - damned internet made them far too savvy 😕

My first bass was probably a second series JV Squier Precision, 57 style, Black with maple neck. Wish I’d kept that one. Think it was replaced by a late 70’s sunburst US Precision , bought in Leeds, possibly from Big Deal. Got it for £195 IIRC, but was total rubbish. Heavy , dead and sounded dull as anything. Being an American Fender though it wasn’t hard to move on, and for a small profit too 😊. Was replaced by my 63 P-bass which I still have and always will.

[martthebass]

A hideous EB0 copy named Avon bought from Woodruffs(?) in Brum in 1981 when I was bored one Saturday afternoon (and escaping the Uni assignment).  It only had one sound - a sort of thuddy plonk which the guitarist in the Joy Division tribby band I found myself in thought was great.  I was less impressed and much to his horror I replaced it with a brand new first edition JV 57 P bass in 1982.  I unfortunately traded the JV a few years later for a 'proper' US Jazz which I discovered was a POS compared to the JV.......oh well the folly of youth.

[tony_m]

A Tanglewood Lone Wolf P-copy, bought from the now sadly-departed Tower Music in Blackpool. Subsequently traded it in at the same place against my first proper Fender, a 1977/78 Musicmaster which I've still got, but which doesn't see the light of day very often (mainly 'cos it weighs an absolute ton!!!).

[thepurpleblob]

A Yamaha BB605 (Yes, I started on a 5 string for some reason). I've absolutely no idea what happened to it - I must have sold it but I don't remember. 

Seeing the error of my ways I bought a TRB-4ii (which I regret I don't still have). I've gradually drifted back to 5 strings, however.

Edited August 10, 2018 by thepurpleblob

[BreadBin]

5 minutes ago, tony_m said:

A Tanglewood Lone Wolf P-copy, bought from the now sadly-departed Tower Music in Blackpool. Subsequently traded it in at the same place against my first proper Fender, a 1977/78 Musicmaster which I've still got, but which doesn't see the light of day very often (mainly 'cos it weighs an absolute ton!!!).

I have the neck from a Lone Wolf here, fitted to a P-bass bitsa

[Muzz]

12 hours ago, Hobbayne said:

A Satellite short scale bought in the summer of 1982. I stuck adhesive paper on the frets to mark out what the notes were.

It was terrible.

Progressed from there to a Westone Thunder 1 from my mates mum's Littlewoods catalogue, And from there to an original 1984 Squire 57 JV Precision.

Mine was exactly that model, bought new in '75...I loved it at the time, but in retrospect it was bloody awful...traded it for a Satellite P-Copy, which was leagues better...

[Newfoundfreedom]

My first bass was 90 quids worth of pure crap. It was the cheapest second hand bass in my local music store when I was 15 and went by the name Biscayne or something to that effect. It was black and the action was so high you could hang your washing on it. I just assumed that's what basses were like having never played before in my life. I had no idea you could adjust the action. I'll say one thing for it. It gave me strong fingers. I ended up in a Metallica cover band. Try playing Seek and Destroy on strings half an inch high 😂.

I don't even remember what happened to it. 

My second bass was an Ibanez Rickenbacker copy which I chopped in at another music shop against a 6 string when I went through a wannabe guitarist phase. 

Third was a Warwick Thumb in blue glaze. That was a thing of beauty. 

[musicbassman]

A Danelectro Longhorn, bought secondhand in 1969!

Here I am playing in a folk rock band in Exeter in 1971 called Retrospect. I think that's a pick hanging out of my mouth, not a fag. We won the Melody Maker rock contest for the South West area, and then bombed miserably at the finals held at The Roundhouse in Camden. I remember we really felt like innocent country bumpkins up in The Big City.

A young Phil Beer is the violin player here, since these early days he's had a long a well respected career playing with Paul Downs as 'Show of Hands' - well known on the folk circuit for many years.

In 1972 I sent the Danelectro up to John Birch in Birmingham to fit a Rickenbacker back pup to this - hoping to get more punch and sustain. The result was an iconic bass ruined for no gain and quite a lot of expense, I recall. The stupidity of youth, as ever.

 

[Highfox]

Me and it! Some kind of 4k bass. Bought for 5 quid and here at the tender age of 15 (1979) doing my first gig.

Ended up giving it away to a mate, not sure if he still has it.

Edited August 11, 2018 by Highfox

[Bridgehouse]

2 minutes ago, Highfox said:

Me and it! Some kind of 4k bass.

Bought for 5 quid and here at the tender age of 15 (1979) doing my first gig

That AMP!!!!! I remember those!!!!

[stoo]

20 hours ago, SuperSeagull said:

A Zenta EB copy bought in 1977 from Minns Music in Brighton. It was £35 and I saved up for it at a £1 a week from my paper round plus a bit of birthday money. Sold it to a teacher at my school a couple of years later when I got a Craftsman Jazz from Macaris. 

Me too! Although mine was bought at a car boot sale in the 90s... 

 

[BreadBin]

2 hours ago, musicbassman said:

A Danelectro Longhorn, bought secondhand in 1969!

Here I am playing in a folk rock band in Exeter in 1971 called Retrospect. I think that's a pick hanging out of my mouth, not a fag. We won the Melody Maker rock contest for the South West area, and then bombed miserably at the finals held at The Roundhouse in Camden. I remember we really felt like innocent country bumpkins up in The Big City.

A young Phil Beer is the violin player here, since these early days he's had a long a well respected career playing with Paul Downs as 'Show of Hands' - well known on the folk circuit for many years.

In 1972 I sent the Danelectro up to John Birch in Birmingham to fit a Rickenbacker back pup to this - hoping to get more punch and sustain. The result was an iconic bass ruined for no gain and quite a lot of expense, I recall. The stupidity of youth, as ever.

 

My dad is a an old friend of Phil Beer's 🙂

Edited August 10, 2018 by BreadBin
Stupid phone

[SuperSeagull]

2 hours ago, stoo said:

Me too! Although mine was bought at a car boot sale in the 90s... 

 

Nice! Mine was the upmarket (ha!) two pickup version with a three way selector switch. I remember it being ok but then again I had no idea what ok was back then!

[nige1968]

Awful Satellite P-bass like this one:
 

Cost £75 new. Knowing no better, thought it was good until I tried an actual good one (JV Squier -- later sold for £100 to buy food with). Turns out it was pants all along.

Went with a 50W Kay Sound Fashion combo, which went to practices in a wheelbarrow.

Edited August 10, 2018 by nige1968
Additional info

[Maude]

I had some terrible no name EBO copy, the body was about a centimetre thick and was virtually unplayable, I didn't know about setups then, also I only had a Marlin guitar amp. 

I joined a band and bought a green Yamaha Attitude Special from Manson's in Plymouth. It was a revelation. We sacrificed the EBO copy to the bass gods on a bonfire in the back garden in return for magical bass powers. 

[bassbiscuits]

22 hours ago, thepurpleblob said:

A Yamaha BB605 (Yes, I started on a 5 string for some reason). I've absolutely no idea what happened to it - I must have sold it but I don't remember. 

Seeing the error of my ways I bought a TRB-4ii (which I regret I don't still have). I've gradually drifted back to 5 strings, however.

That's a great bass tho! I still have a four string BB604 now and it's ace. 

[Teebs]

My first bass was a Westone 1A Thunder ⚡ , bought from a friend in Newcastle in December 1993. It became "The Tiger Bass" shortly after. This was my main gigging & recording bass 'til I stopped gigging in the mid-2000's. It also featured on the band's album cover. I love this bass, I have never played a bass that is so comfortable (I did learn to play on it tho). Westones are not boutique or desirable, but this bass is the reason I still play.

 

Edited August 11, 2018 by Teebs
Pics added

[bazzbass]

a 1979 Cimar Jazz Bass 3tsb tort pg

traded 6 years later for a Vantage. it wasn't even working at the time.

I now have a Fender MIM Jazz that it copied

 

[Bilbo]

Hondo II Precision copy in black. Tried to turn it into a fretless but failed. Got skipped. 

[odysseus]

A metallic pink Charvel which one of my friends (a drummer) assured me was a great purchase.  I thought so too until I played another bass.  Pinky got traded in for an Ibanez Roadster shortly afterwards.

[skankdelvar]

On 09/08/2018 at 21:07, kodiakblair said:

 

My first bass was a Zenta very much like Kodiakblair's above ^ but with two pups (only one of which worked). 

[knirirr]

Encore E83 - an unlined fretless precision copy, black with white pickguard, probably around 1993-4.

I recall it being nice to play, and sounding OK but not great (probably the pickups). It was eventually sold to help fund an an EUB purchase.

Edited August 12, 2018 by knirirr

[doomed]

Here's mine still going strong. 🙂

[Johnsaltwell]

Grantson hollow body bass from back in the 70’s and red, I loved it, although I was only 9 so it was huge and eventually I part exchanged it for a short scale fender musicmaster which I was mesmerised by cos it was fender and I was probably 11 years old, still play fender but jazz basses these days and Lakland plus a few others 😊

Edited August 12, 2018 by Johnsaltwell
Added pic

[josie]

Only four years ago so not so interesting a story - my still most loved GMR 5, in easy arm's reach right now. I went into Promenade Music in Morecambe knowing only that I wanted to play bass and wanted a 5. Gary spent two hours helping me choose, and wouldn't let me buy until he was sure I would be happy with it - which I am more than. Still grateful to him!

My grandson - just turned 5 - is obsessed with guitars, and most loves my Aerodyne. I kind of hope he'll think of it as his first bass (he was not quite 4 when this pic was taken). Anyone else would have to prise it out of my dead hands, but if he does grow into a bass player it will be his 🙂