What was your first Bass/Rig?

[Bassassin]

First bass was a nasty little shortscale J-ish thing branded Grant, exactly like this:

Didn't have a proper amp for a couple of years, for bedroom practice I rigged up a cable to connect the bass to the aux input in my little stereo.

First amp came from a local charity shop, cost me £30, I think. One of these:

Which regrettably, I don't have any more - in fact I don't know what happened to it. The band I was in split, the amp was in the drummer's mum's basement, which flooded before I got around to collecting it. It probably ended up in a skip - which is a shame, because I could probably pay off the mortgage with it now...

[spongebob]

1993, Sunn Mustang P-bass copy.

Used a small Marshall for a while, but my first 'big' amp was a Trace 715 SMC. Time I got the amp, I'd 'upgraded' to a Squier Jazz bass copy!

Both came from Flying Pig. Think they've long gone - always had good deals and prices at the time, IIRC.

[ped]

About 2000 I bought a Squire Affinity P bass in blue. It was from PMT in Oxford and I carried it home in a plastic bag! I played it through a fender 15w guitar amp which sounded ok actually if you say right in front of it. 

Mostly I played through a mixing desk and used headphones which I still mainly do today. 

I remember when I first put a new string on it (somehow I broke the G string) and couldn't believe how good it sounded; I had no idea what effect new strings could have. 

[Stub Mandrel]

41 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

Didn't have a proper amp for a couple of years, for bedroom practice I rigged up a cable to connect the bass to the aux input in my little stereo.

My first guitar amp was a repurposed Dansette auto-changer with a new speaker built into the box.

[Pea Turgh]

49 minutes ago, ped said:

(somehow I broke the G string)

Hehe!

[ped]

6 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Hehe!

Oh to be young again 

[TrevorR]

4 hours ago, Defo said:

Wow, you were lucky!!

The bass choice in the shop came down to the Aria and an Overwater Classic Bass. In those circumstances I couldn’t have lost! A win whichever way I’d plumped (the Overwater was sparkly pink so Aria it was). And yes, I count myself as super-lucky!

[casapete]

Reading some of the replies on here makes me realise how lucky I was starting out on bass. Having played guitar for years, I finally saw the light after a brief lay off from gigging when my daughter was born. Someone rang me to ask if I would dep on bass with their band, and so I thought I’d better get something that would do the job. Bought a s/h black Squier 57JV Precision and ran it into an Acoustic 120 head with a Leech cab containing 2x15 HH pro speakers.  Sounded pretty good as I remember, wish I still had that bass now! Stupidly traded it in Leeds at Alpha Music for a late 70s sunburst USA Precision which was dreadful - heavy, badly made and just dead sounding.Then some EV speakers replaced the HH ones and I used that cab for years. (Pics show the Leech with EV's and internet pic of Acoustic 120)

Edited September 6, 2019 by casapete

[nige1968]

£75 new from a music shop in Blackpool. Travesty of a bass. I got a mate at school to put a “preamp” in it, because he knew some electronics. When engaged, this made it squeal like a dying robot.

Replaced with a £199 JV Squier, at which point its shortcomings became clear. 

No idea what happened to this, presumably sold it to buy food like everything else from that era. I don’t actually remember it being that bad, but I wasn’t really qualified to judge.

(All tinternet pics — like I could afford a camera back then)

Edited September 6, 2019 by nige1968

[Low End Bee]

First 'rig' in 1977 Avon EBO copy through a WEM Westminster 15W bass combo. Truly dreadful bass but the WEM was quite decent and pretty loud for 15W.

First gig rig 1979. I had got myself a part time job in a music/hire shop when I should really have been at school. Bass was a  black Shergold Marathon which I'd bought and a rig which the manager let me borrow. The guitarist also worked there with me and played his Satellite Les Paul through a shop rig too. We were support and offered the headline band backline share but they declined thinking we would have Woolworths practice amps. We played through a Marshall half stack and an Ampeg SVT with an 8x10. It was hilarious.

After that  was a bit of a come down. I part exchanged the Shergold for a 1968 P bass that wasn't a good one frankly and played through an HH100 VS bass head paired with a hugely woofy 1x18 ex sound system cab.

[HazBeen]

Circa 1989

Squier Katana (the only bass in the store I could afford). Bass in pic is not mine, but it was same colour and just so beautifully ugly I wanted to share.

Amp I believe was a 15w Park (jr. Marshall) bass amp, later in the year replaced by a Peavey TNT with Black Widow

 

[casapete]

6 minutes ago, HazBeen said:

Circa 1989

Squier Katana (the only bass in the store I could afford). Bass in pic is not mine, but it was same colour and just so beautifully ugly I wanted to share.

Amp I believe was a 15w Park (jr. Marshall) bass amp, later in the year replaced by a Peavey TNT with Black Widow

 

I had the exact model - weird thing IIRC! My cat thought so too I think...

 

[HazBeen]

1 minute ago, casapete said:

I had the exact model - weird thing IIRC! My cat thought so too I think...

 

It didn't sound particularly good and the 32"scale was a bit odd, but I very much regret selling it. It is just so Miami Vice.

[pete.young]

A Hofner Senator bass, £15 quid from Bell Music in Surbiton, and a Watkins Westminster 10W guitar amp from the late '50s that my old man had lying around from his failed attempt at electric mandolin.

[Bigwan]

No pics, but mine was a red Sunn Mustang (newer style, no scratchplate, Yamaha RBX-esque headstock) and a 30w Vantage fire-breathing-turd of an amp. The bass lasted a whole 10 weeks until I upgraded to an Aria MAB 20/5 (that I still own and love). The amp may have lasted another year until I bought a Torque 100w.

[chris_b]

Small body Framus Star bass. 60 watt Nashville valve bass amp. 412 Crook bass cab.

All pretty good gear for a learner and the aim from day 1 was to go gigging.

I worked all summer to buy the bass and amp, then worked all the next summer to buy the cab.

[Low End Bee]

17 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Small body Framus Star bass. 60 watt Nashville valve bass amp. 412 Crook bass cab.

All pretty good gear for a learner and the aim from day 1 was to go gigging.

I worked all summer to buy the bass and amp, then worked all the next summer to buy the cab.

Intrigued by the Nashville amp. Never hear of that brand.

[chris_b]

Just now, Low End Bee said:

Intrigued by the Nashville amp. Never hear of that brand.

It was a pretty cheap valve amp. I knew a couple of local bands who used them and my second band had the PA. I think we all got them from the same shop in Acton. I can't find anything about them on the internet.

[jacko]

In around 1975/6 my first bass was a homemade effort loosely based on a rick that had a bow in the neck that would have made robin hood jealous.  Initially played through a 15 watt WEm dominator that blew up fairly quickly.  This 'rig' was followed by a King amp (similar to orange/green) and a 2x15 cab that my dad refused to let into the house. The homemade bendy bass was followed in 1978 by another homemade fretless Gibson RD artist copy that I still have.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, HazBeen said:

It didn't sound particularly good and the 32"scale was a bit odd, but I very much regret selling it. It is just so Miami Vice.

My brother had a Squier Katana six-string.

They inherited a headstock design and logo style from the performer(see sig)

[Sparky Mark]

1976; I was 14 years old and used my savings to buy a dreadful Kay bass with flatwounds from a mate (drummer) for £25, a Sound City 120 (much better than I appreciated at the time) from Rockbottom in Croydon (can't remember how much but probably the cheapest amp they had) plus an 18" folded horn cab that probably came from a larger theatre/PA system. Crap tone with no definition at all but could be heard half a mile away from the school music room where my first band practiced in our lunch hour. Soon after got a Shergold Marathon and Carslbro Stingray head; still s#@t!! but I was hooked by the low end.

Edited September 8, 2019 by Sparky Mark

[casapete]

25 minutes ago, Sparky Mark said:

1976; I was 14 years old and used my savings to buy a dreadful Kay bass with flatwounds from a mate (drummer) for £25, a Sound City 120 (much better than I appreciated at the time) from Rockbottom in Croydon (can't remember how much but probably the cheapest amp they had) plus an 18" folded horn cab that probably came from a larger theatre/PA system. Crap tone with no definition at all but could be heard half a mile away from the school music room where my first band practiced in our lunch hour. Soon after got a Shergold Marathon and Carslbro Stingray head; still s#@t!! but I was hooked to the low end.

Nah - a mate wouldn’t have sold you a Kay bass.....🤣

[Sparky Mark]

20 minutes ago, casapete said:

Nah - a mate wouldn’t have sold you a Kay bass.....🤣

True, but it was a weird 60s looking thing that seem to sell for a small fortune in Denmark Street nowadays. 

[bassbora]

22 hours ago, HazBeen said:

It didn't sound particularly good and the 32"scale was a bit odd, but I very much regret selling it. It is just so Miami Vice.

Love that Miami Vice mention. If Don J would have been a bass player he would have played this 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5CR4lSORZ_Q

[Jock]

My first bass and rig---Marlin Sidewinder and Torque 50 combo plus distortion and chorus pedals that came free from a mate. The pics are not mine just ones I found on line.