What was your first Bass/Rig?

[mangotango]

OK, Serious Nostalgia Time, peeps.

I said in the "Best Beginner's Bass?" thread that, since many of us had a real moan about the first bass that we had, back in the day, it might be interesting to see on exactly what kinds of junk we began our bass-playing odysseys and I would start a thread to that effect....so here we go. Please post details, preferably accompanied by pictures (library pictures will do, though vintage photo's of you with your not-so-prize possession will be welcome) of:-

• Your First Bass
• Your First Amplification set-up  - from back in the days before we called them "rigs"

and the date when you had these beasts in your possession. 

Happy to start the ball rolling. I played my first gig on an Eko violin bass through an Impact 60 amp and two unbranded 2x12" bass cabs (could have been Simms-Watts??) Would have been early to mid-1976 that these came into my possession.

As @Scoop would confirm....the worst bass sound ever known to humankind. Putting it through the very cheapest of fuzzboxes probably didn't help any, if I'm honest.

Edited September 2, 2019 by mangotango
typing...as ever

[Twigman]

Kay PBass circa 1979 - weighed a ton, skyscraper action

it was a while before I got amped but when I did it was with a Carlsbro Cobra 90 head with a home made (not by me - i bought it for £30 at SohoSoundhouse or somewhere like that)  1x15" cab

Edited September 2, 2019 by Twigman

[Teebs]

Circa 1996:

Westone 1A Thunder;

Peavey TNT100 Combo.

 

 

*picture of amp off t'internet - mine is in storage

Edited September 2, 2019 by Teebs

[Rexel Matador]

My first bass was one of these - circa 1993. The amp was an ancient guitar practice amp given to me by a mate of my dad's - no idea what it was.

The first song I tried to learn was "Everything About You" bu Ugly Kid Joe. I switched to guitar shortly after and only came back to bass (via drums) about four years ago. And now, the band that I joined pretty much as soon as I took up the bass again is supporting Whitfield Crane in Newcastle next week! How's that for synchronicity?!

Edit - just realised you can't really see the headstock in that picture - it's an Aria Pro 2 in case anyone was wondering

Edited September 2, 2019 by Rexel Matador

[Raymondo]

My first bass was from Woolworths,branded Audition and cost me £29.00 in 1973.

I played through a New Laney 100w Klipp guitar amp bought from Mum's catalogue on the never never!

Plonked on top of a  Second Hand Carlsbro 2x15" cab that cost me a fortune...£80.00!

I don't remember my bass having the split scratch plate ,but that is probably because I immediately took it off and spray painted the bass Black..as you do!  With a cheap can obviously!

I couldn't find a pic of my old Carlsbro cab , Mine had a fully covered front and there wasn't the side vents but it was old ...and VERY heavy.

I had to keep my gear in my bedroom ,that eventually led to many drunken nights stumbling upstairs with it after a gig ,trying, and failing , to not wake my Mum and Dad or my two sisters.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Raymondo

[CamdenRob]

Squier P Bass and a HH Combo. 

Both were so utterly awful I gave up playing after a few weeks of zero enjoyment... About six months later I got a Westfield and a Carlsbro Viper which whilst also sh*t, were so much better that I actually bothered to learn to play.

I still shudder thinking about that initial setup... scarred me for life... 

[Lozz196]

Kay EB-0 copy for bass, and some form of Vox practice amp. Action on the bass was incredibly high but at the time I didn’t know any better so that was how I learned and it made playing a better instrument so easy.

[Grahambythesea]

Fenton Weill, don’t know the model name but looked like this, except I took the red scratch plate off ( it was superfluous) and put an aluminium bridge on it. It actually played pretty well. Don’t remember the make of the amp but it was a combo with 2 x 12in speakers one facing forward the other backwards. What an earth the idea of that was I have no idea but it was replace by a Marshall 2 x 12 with a Selmer T & B amp 50 watt as I recall. 

 

[kodiakblair]

My intention of buying a slug gun were quashed by 2 pals learning guitar.

 

"You can play bass" they said.

 

Boy down the road was selling one,Commodore semi-hollow.

Mine was green,the pots were mounted on a piece of ply as there was a big hole in the body. Stuffed with paper if I mind right 😃 Pickup screws had been replaced by brad nails. Buttons on the tuning pegs were missing,used pliers to tune it's 3 strings. Aye it only had 3 strings. Cost me £1 😲

 

Folks banned me from using the tape recorder in the music centre so I'd rest the headstock against cupboard door while trying to play along with Jim Gregory's"Play Bass Guitar" book. First amp was a Badger Bassman .

 

[BrunoBass]

My first bass was a Squier Silver Series Precision, bought new in 1991. My first amp was a Badger keyboard amp that I bought from a synth player. He played big fat Moog Rogue bass lines through it so I figured a bass guitar should sound good through it too. 

The amp is long gone, can’t remember where. The bass too, sold to fund some other musical purchase in the mid nineties. I wish I’d kept it. It was very similar to this one. 

[bartelby]

My first bass, when I was 16, was an Aria Pro II CSB Deluxe. It was a really nice bass. Medium scale, which is something I didn't realise until I traded it in for an SB Elite.

It was kind of let down by being plugged into the amp I had at the time:

[luckman67]

First bass was a Marlin Sidewinder with a matching, Marlin 15 watt combo back in 1987, 

My first bass rig though was a Peavey T-40 & a HH  Valve sound 100 watt head with  a matching 2 x 15 cab. And for some unknown reason a separate 1 x 15  cab. This was back in 1988.

Edited September 2, 2019 by luckman67

[Pea Turgh]

1994 ish, so I was 15.  Got given a wrecked Kay P-bass, got it sorted out at a guitar shop, then bought a crackly Carlsbro Scorpion 30w combo.

Neither are with us any more!

Here’s some internut piccies.  Don’t be fooled - that bass looked cool from a distance but it weighed silly amounts and the neck was some weird ply crap! 

[bassbora]

It was around 1990 and it was a Japanese Squire P from the ‘80s. It was dire but started me on my journey. I played with a pick with no amp for a year. I got it in my head I didn’t want to spend too much money on this new hobby in case I would not stick with it. I did and after a year I bought an old Yamaha amp,  B100-115 which was really heavy beast but got me going in bands at 17 - 18. 

Dont miss either of those to items but you have got to start somewhere I suppose 

[SPHDS]

My First Bass/Rig is a completely different beast to what I made my live debut with
(Live debut being on my 21st birthday, playing a song with the band I roadied for...)
For that I used a red stained Warwick Streamer (apparently worth £1500) into a Peavey Nitrobass 410/115 stack
However......MY first rig was a little more humble.....
£150 No Name Jazz Bass Copy (black with a Matt Silver scratchplate (with a hard case....!))
£40 GDR made SoundCity SC50 combo
Still have them both, but neither get much use.....but were gigged in their day....!

[Skybone]

Looks like @Pea Turgh's beaten me to the Kay P bass, in sunburst, though the neck on mine wasn't ply, but it did weigh an absolute ton.

I just bought the bass, as I couldn't afford an amp at the time. A few months later, I managed to scrape together enough money to get a Marshall Bass 15. Again, not brilliant, but good enough.

 

[Pea Turgh]

@Twigman got in with the Kay first, @Skybone!

[BassApprentice]

My first bass was the Squier Musicmaster Vista that I still and my first rig was a Leney Ricther 1x12 combo and 1x15 cab. Glorious. 

[Mastodon2]

My first bass, still got it and no intention to sell but it currently has a set of La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass rounds on it and they are crap, the B is like a rubber band. This bass definitely needs a stiffer set on it next. 

My first rig was a Markbass Little Mark III and a Markbass Traveller 2x10, I quickly upgraded to Markbass Ninja 1000 Richard Bona sig amp and added the Richard Bona NYC 2x12 cab to my setup. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Mastodon2

[intime-nick]

First bass was a sunburst finish Jedson short scale bought from a junk shop for a tenner back in 1984ish - I only bought it because it had a Motörhead sticker on it.  Terrible thing looking back now, the strings were wrapped around the wrong tuning posts and I decided to spray it with some random car paint rattle cans I bought from Halfords - it looked even worse than before but it was my first 

First amp setup was the amp module from a loud hailer, powered by a 12v car battery (carried in a rectangular bucket) into an old hi-fi speaker I rescued from a skip - rose-tinted spectacles aside, I don’t think you’ll ever hear a bass distortion quite like it again, ever 😁

i then moved onto my first proper bass, a Yamaha RBX800 in the late 80’s (and the RBX5 shown in the background I converted to fretless with a screwdriver and wood filler - ahem) and rather stupidly can’t remember what happened to either of them  

Edited September 2, 2019 by intime-nick

[mangotango]

22 minutes ago, Mastodon2 said:

My first bass, still got it and no intention to sell but it currently has a set of La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass rounds on it and they are crap, the B is like a rubber band. This bass definitely needs a stiffer set on it next. 

My first rig was a Markbass Little Mark III and a Markbass Traveller 2x10, I quickly upgraded to Markbass Ninja 1000 Richard Bona sig amp and added the Richard Bona NYC 2x12 cab to my setup. 

Not exactly roughing it with the rest of us, then?😉

 

😄

[stewblack]

Carlsboro Cobra 90. It replaced my H&H 100w guitar head when I came over from the dark side back in 82. I think I stuck with the H&H 2 by 15 cab for a while before getting a 410 also carlsboro. 

Borrowed bass of unknown provenance until I bought my Aria SB600 from The Guitar Workshop up St Michael's Hill in Bristol. in '83. I'd tried an Aria in a music shop on the Isle of Wight and was astonished at the sound. 

I had a Kay but even back then it was just awful. The Aria is still the one I'd save from the fire. 

[itu]

I bought my black Rickenbacker 4001 (1976) in 1986 from Rose Morris, I think. £400.

Back at home I bought a Session 100 bass amp. Amp was not flashy, but that 4001 was a good one.

[mattbass6]

My first rig was a black Marlin Slammer bass and a 25-watt MArlin bass amp. I felt like I was Steve Harris. Wonderful memories. Wish I had kept them 😊😎

[lemmywinks]

One of these:

Through one of these:

I also got one of these:

 

 

Sounded bloody awful if I'm honest.