What happened to your first bass?

[KingBollock]

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I know what you mean. In my 20s I had a beautiful 12/6 doubleneck ibanez (their copy of the Gibson 1250 but bolt on) in white, with a hard case. Loved that thing, played it all the time and as a rush fan it was perfect. GF at the time spent the rent money as she just thought we had a glut of money, so I had to sell it. Still a little bitter and now 30 years later!

 

Yeah, this was over twenty years ago, and it still hurts to think about it.

[NikNik]

36 minutes ago, KingBollock said:

Cash Converters…

 

We got into serious money trouble, through no fault of mine and it’s something I am still bitter about. I loved that bass more than I can express, for more reasons than I want to go into…

 

it was a Westone Raider I in the silver/grey colour scheme.

 

This isn’t mine, I have no photos of mine (and my ex kept the photos of my 18th birthday cake that was made in it’s image). Annoyingly, I just found this photo while Googling, and found it on BassChat from a year ago, where it was pointed out that it hadn’t sold on eBay. If only I had come back to BassChat a year earlier!

Christ, mate, you went through grief like that at 18?

[NikNik]

On 15/07/2021 at 12:46, snorkie635 said:

An Avon (Rose Morris) EB0 copy in a sort of dark wine red colour. Played and sounded ok until the tension of the flatwounds, literally pulled the whole bridge out of the body. Fixed it and last heard it was in Canada of all places. Here's proof it existed from 1975

I once answered and ad for a bassist back in '79 and it said 'We can even give you a bass!' It was an Avon EB0. It did NOT work for the Genesis tunes they wanted to play. 

[NikNik]

On 15/07/2021 at 14:51, BigRedX said:

Before I bought my first bass, my band which was a writing and recording only project would borrow one of the two bass guitars owned by people we knew at school. One of these was a home-made thing put together by someone who'd seen a photo of a P-Bass once and then had tried to make their own from memory using only what was available from the parts box at our local musical instrument store. The other was Mosrite-influenced "Woolies Special". Neither were really worthy of the description "musical instrument".

We'd got by with these for about 4 years until I actually went out and bought one myself in 1981 - a very battered and heavily modified Burns Sonic Bass which had appeared in the afore-mentioned musical instrument store. It cost me £60 including the OHC and the shop chucked me in a Fender-branded strap. For a while I wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't also home-made as there were no logos on it other than on the Tri-Sonic pickups. However I was able to get hold of "The Burns Book" by Paul Day which confirmed it was actually a proper Burns Bass guitar made in either 1961 or 1962. And that's what I used in my first two bands and on the demos my second band recorded that got CBS records interested in signing us (they decided to go with Wham! in the end), and them for writing bass lines in my synth band, until I bought my Overwater Original 5-string in the early 90s.

I still had the Burns Sonic bass until 2 years ago when I had a ruthless pruning of my musical instrument "collection" and got rid of everything I wasn't using.

Here's photo of me playing it live in 1982...

Please tell me,  with all due respect,  what's going on there.

[NikNik]

On 16/07/2021 at 07:34, Lfalex v1.1 said:

My Westone Raider 1 is still in my loft.  The electrics are dead. Maybe I'll resurrect it one day if it hasn't got a neck like a banana. 

How I learned to play in any way at all without an amp for the first 2 years, I'll never know...

Also known as a West One by the non-cognoscenti!!😄😄

[NikNik]

On 16/07/2021 at 23:20, Waddo Soqable said:

There seems to be two "first bass" threads going at the mo, tho this one has much more traffic.

I had a look round on the internet at cheap 70s jap basses, and found this, which is pretty much exactly the first thing I had. As mentioned in the other one, I've absolutely no recollection of what became of it unfortunately, knowing me I likely swapped it for something or other.  I continued after this with a borrowed bass for a bit, and subsequently bought a slightly better P bass copy.

 

Looks like a Winfield from Woolie's

[Handsome_Chris]

A Westone Thunder Jet.  I think that I may have traded it in at Percy Prior in High Wycombe towards a Charvel Model 4.

[KingBollock]

24 minutes ago, NikNik said:

Christ, mate, you went through grief like that at 18?

Not exactly. I didn’t sell the bass until I was in my twenties. Ironically, there was a period, when I was 18 (just after splitting up with my ex), where I was homeless, but I still managed to hang on to my bass (it was being looked after for me). Everything went to pot after I got married.

 

i only mentioned my 18th because of the cake.

Edited January 15, 2022 by KingBollock

[Delberthot]

39 minutes ago, NikNik said:

Also known as a West One by the non-cognoscenti!!😄😄

 

Interesting you should mention that because I have no idea if Hotone is pronounced Hot One or Hoe Tone

 

My first bass was a Marlin Slammer P copy. It was red with a maple fretboard. The reason I got a bass was because everyone wanted me to get a guitar and I tend to do the opposite of what everyone wants, even as a 12 year old lad. The reason it was red with a maple fretboard is because by 1987 I was a huge Queen fan and had seen JD using one in the One Vision video.

 

By the time I was about 15 the frets were filed down with a massive flat file as I'd seen a picture of JD using a maple fretless on the inside gatefold sleeve of the Live Killers album. Then the paint was chipped off, then emultioned over then sanded back down. The chrome started peeling off the bridge.

 

Less than a year later it was a complete mess so my mum took me to Sound Control in Edinburgh on my 16th birthday and I got my first proper bass and one that I'd have back in a heartbeat - a Riverhead Jupiter in metallic graphite, original Badass bridge and hard case that weighed twice as much as the bass.

 

The Marlin went in the bin

Edited January 15, 2022 by Delberthot

[KingBollock]

4 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

The reason I got a bass was because everyone wanted me to get a guitar and I tend to do the opposite of what everyone wants, even as a 12 year old lad.

 

When I was 12 (also in 1987), what I wanted, more than anything else in all the world, was a radio controlled monster truck, the Tamiya Vanessa’s Lunchbox. But my dad had the idea that he could get rich by making my brothers and me learn to play instruments and play together as a band, that he would manage. For some reason he decided I was going to be a drummer…

i knew I was never going to get the truck, but I wasn’t going to let him have it all his way. Being a huge Motörhead and Iron Maiden fan, I decided I wanted to play the bass. I approached my dad with this idea and he admitted that he hadn’t even thought about the bass and that it was a good idea.

 

it was probably the only good thing he ever did for me. I am the only brother that kept playing. I finally got my Lunchbox two years ago and I love it!

[Munurmunuh]

16 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

The reason I got a bass was because everyone wanted me to get a guitar and I tend to do the opposite of what everyone wants, even as a 12 year old lad.

 

The reason I got a guitar was no one wanted me to get a bass and when I was 13, I hadn't yet acquired the habit of tending to do the opposite of what everyone wants 😔 

 

Since the desire for a bass was totally instinctive, I had no chance of explaining why I wanted one, I didn't really understand it myself, so I just got rolled over. A guitar was good for impressing people when I was 15, but I had already plateau-ed and within a couple of years was impressing no one. Can't help but wonder what my bass playing would have been like at sixteen, if I had had three years of practice under my belt. [/SELFPITYINGWHINE]

[paul_5]

I used mine as an experiment board - different pickups, tone caps, defretted it.

 

It ended up in a skip cos it was made of chipboard, but it served a phase.

[LeftyJ]

My first bass was a MIJ Condor Jazz Bass. It was heavy, 3-tone sunburst, with a maple fingerboard and black block inlays. It was actually very decent, and I wish I never sold it. A few years after selling it I started developing seller's remorse and tried to persuade the guy I sold it to to sell it back to me, but he loved it and used it as his regular gigging bass. I was able to source another one, but it turned out to have a slightly warped neck that was impossible to set up right. I quickly sold it again. I managed to cure my seller's remorse by buying a Fender MIJ 1975 Jazz Bass reissue, that I'll never sell. 

[RhythmJunky]

I got a Kay Precision copy for Xmas when I was about 18 from my parents, bought from a music shop in Oldham. It was natural ash, with a black pickguard. I loved it.

 

I gave it away about 10 years ago to a local teacher who I knew and who used to give free lessons to kids who couldn't afford to pay. I asked her to give it to one of her students who she felt needed and deserved it.

 

 

[ead]

Mine was a black Squier Affinity P bass.  It was subsequently donated to a friend's son to learn on as I moved onto a preloved Spector Legend:

 

[NikNik]

On 28/07/2021 at 09:24, EssentialTension said:

I had a Hofner 185 Artist, for which I paid £30 in 1973, and played it until I got a Hayman 4040 in 1974 and a Fender P in 1975.

 

I gave it to a friend.

 

Looking back, it was a much better bass than I realised at the time.

 

I wish I still had it.

Same bass, same year, paid a Fiver more. Wish I'd kept it. Mine had the switches,  as in this example. 

 

[Lo-E]

My 1979 Ibanez Studio ST-924 was a lucky find. I bought it from a friend from school when I was 18 or 19 for $100. It was a really well made, professional instrument and I, not knowing any better, lucked into it. It was a great instrument to learn on. 
 

Unlike a lot of instruments that passed through my life in various ways, that one remains safe at home. I don’t gig with it anymore because it weighs as much as a Land Rover but I still practice with it a lot. I still love the neck. 
 

Some years ago I found another for sale locally and bought it. They’re fairly uncommon and, at some point, I’ll make one fretless.  
 

 

[BigRedX]

16 hours ago, NikNik said:

Please tell me,  with all due respect,  what's going on there.

 

I assume you mean what are all those weird people doing on "stage"?

 

The gig was at The Hearty Goodfellow in Nottingham, a pub that has since been demolished and replaced by a new building for the up-market Indian Restaurant "4500 Miles to Delhi" Back in the 70s and 80s The Hearty Goodfellow was one of the few places that originals bands could get a gig, either on a Monday or Wednesday night, or supporting avant-garde jazzers  Pinski Zoo who had a Friday night residency (and which was the only "weekend" gig available if your weren't playing rock covers).

 

The band was called "The Perfect Party" and was a post-punk/synth pop amalgam, and in true post-punk style featured "unconventional" instruments and playing ability/technique. It was formed by the percussionist and myself who'd been together in a previous band, and various weirdos we'd picked up from ads in the local record shop. The band lasted just a year of which only the last 6 months was spent gigging, but in that time we managed to rack up on average ay least one gig every week, record two demos, get a track on a local compilation produced by BBC Radio Nottingham and build up a decent reputation and following, all of which got CBS records interested in signing us. Eventually they decided to go with Wham! instead, and that pretty much resulted in the break up of the band.

 

 

On stage from left to right the "musicians" are: Percussion (bongos and home-made drum synths plus drum machine - Boss Doctor Rhythm - programming). With his back to the audience our guitarist whose unique approach to the instrument meant that we couldn't write anything with conventional guitar parts. He went on to be half of Diskonexion who had a couple of critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful house records released on Graeme Park's Submission Records label in the late 80s. Next, our singer who also played recorder on a couple of songs in true post-punk style. Two synth players one playing an Octave Kitten and the other an EDP Wasp (which belonged to me). The girl used to go out with Stevo (of Some Bizzare Records fame) which we though might help raise the profile of the band when we asked her to join. It didn't. She also did backing vocals on a couple of songs. Finally there's me on bass guitar and in control of the drum machine.

 

Musically we fell somewhere between early ACR and a low budget version of New Order. The songs were all written by myself (music) and the percussionist (lyrics). For the time (1981/2) we were pushing the envelope of what could be done with technology if you didn't have record company backing to be able to get professional quality gear. The drum synths and the Wasp were particularly unreliable, but not in any predicable way. At one gig the Wasp played random notes all by itself during the first song and then remained stubbornly silent for the rest of the set. Back at the rehearsal room the following day it was perfectly fine.

 

The photo comes from one of our later gigs when we had properly found our musical direction and had learnt how to write to the various members musical strengths and weaknesses. It was taken by a friend of mine who would go on to be a synth player in my next musical venture. Somewhere there is a mixing desk recording of the gig which sounded pretty impressive at the time, but I suspect hasn't aged as well as I would like to remember.

 

So there you go, with probably way more detail than you would care for...

[Mastodon2]

I still own my first bass. It receives more play time than anything else I own, despite everything I've bought since.

 

 

 

[alyctes]

On 21/07/2021 at 10:10, joeystrange said:

I had an early-mid ‘80s Vox 3002 Custom that my dad bought from the guitarist in his band.

Learned to play on it then got my first Precision and didn’t touch it for years. Then, about ten years ago, I sold it here to fund an Ampeg SVT.

Sounded decent, from what I remember. Weighed a ton though!

 

It's still here.  I should sell it, it's sitting under my bed.

[alyctes]

Mine was an Ibanez GSR-180.  I sold it, but I can't remember who to.  Probably my then-colleague Kev, who died a couple of years ago (before Covid). 

[OliverBlackman]

41 minutes ago, Mastodon2 said:

I still own my first bass. It receives more play time than anything else I own, despite everything I've bought since.

 

 

 

I would love that bass now as bass number 12, let alone first bass. No wonder you’ve carried on playing

[Badscrew]

Sold my first bass 2 months after I've got it. It was cheap and horrible, didn't regret it even once

[King Tut]

Westone Thunder iiA (aka Thunder iii). Bought new and quickly sold to a mate while I changed tack in a keyboardly direction. He still owns it and won't sell it back, which is a shame as it just sits in its case!

[PaulWarning]

mine was a made in Japan Hondo professional, bought it off a mate for £40, flipped it as I'm a lefty, recorded our first album with it which has just been remixed and it sounds as dirty as hell, in a good way, for a punk band, I've still got it, it's worth so little why would I sell it? I can sound more like JJ Burnel with it than with my precision