What happened to your first bass?

[KingBollock]

25 minutes ago, Boodang said:

Good old HH! I inherited a 8 x 10 HH cab from a previous bass player when I joined a band. Thought it strange I got it for free but then after a few gigs I realised what a pain it was to move. I used to slide it into my hatch back car,  after a while it deformed the back so much the door wouldn't shut. I gave it away to a bass player at a gig just so i didn't have to take it home at the end of the night. Knowing HH reputation for being indestructible it's probably still doing the rounds and ruining people's cars today.

My wife bought me a H H Bass Baby combo last year from an auction. It took both of us to roll it (end over end) up the stairs to my lair. I suffered nasty nerve damage a couple of years ago, which has affected my legs, back and left arm from the shoulder to my thumb, so I can’t even lift the amp in my own. Fortunately we’re moving into a bungalow, and once we’re in I am putting wheels on the amp (I am actually going to make dollies for each of my amps and cabs).

 

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by KingBollock

[Reggaebass]

16 minutes ago, KingBollock said:

My wife bought me a H H Bass Baby combo last year from an auction. It took both of us to roll it (end over end) up the stairs to my lair. I suffered nasty nerve damage a couple of years ago, which has affected my legs, back and left arm from the shoulder to my thumb, so I can’t even lift the amp in my own. Fortunately we’re moving into a bungalow, and once we’re in I am putting wheels on the amp (I am actually going to make dollies for each of my amps and cabs).

 

 

That’s really cool, how does it sound 

[KingBollock]

2 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

That’s really cool, how does it sound 

Some of the pots and sliders need some attention, but when you’re not moving them it actually sounds surprisingly good, nice and warm. Especially with my passive basses, and even better with flats.

[NikNik]

3 hours ago, KingBollock said:

My wife bought me a H H Bass Baby combo last year from an auction. It took both of us to roll it (end over end) up the stairs to my lair. I suffered nasty nerve damage a couple of years ago, which has affected my legs, back and left arm from the shoulder to my thumb, so I can’t even lift the amp in my own. Fortunately we’re moving into a bungalow, and once we’re in I am putting wheels on the amp (I am actually going to make dollies for each of my amps and cabs).

 

 

 I remember these. HH belatedly going for the Acoustic look on the panel.

[lonestar]

11 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Mine did well back in the day, I was in 2 reggae bands with it, I think I paid £30 at the time as it was all I could afford then, I played it through a HH ic 100s amp and 2x15 cabs , sounded good from what I can remember 

Small world: I hade one of these too. £100 from Macaris sold it back to them

in the ’80s for £100.

[iconic]

My first bass was bought new from GAK, 2009, a black Yamaha RBX374, active, dual humbucker, lovely thing. A gentleman from Perth in Scotland bought it, I was in Essex at the time, he collected it personally 😯

 

Sold it when replaced by a grass wasn't greener BB614 .....back then I didn't understand that having just one bass was considered bad etiquette and rude form.....and that I didn't like active basses🙃

 

To be honest, looking back, that RBX374 was all the bass I ever needed and, just recently I've been on a, not too serious, search for another.....they used to be on every street corner but, there seems to be a shortage of lower cost basses being advertised, plenty of higher end curtain twitchers on offer though. 

 

......the opposite of what I thought would happen what with the music instrument binge that many went on when C19 first hit🤔

Edited January 18, 2022 by iconic

[wintoid]

My first bass was an Ibanez Roadster bass bought at Gigsounds in the early 1980s. I think I traded it against a Westone Rail on Denmark Street. I remember being frustrated that it didn’t have enough variety of tones. I really wanted an active bass.

[Stub Mandrel]

I'd never heard of a Jedson Tele Bass two weeks ago, but they seem to be 20% of all the 'first basses' on this thread!

[Hellzero]

I found an old photo of my (El) Maya taken in November 1985 as an exercise for an imaginary album cover.

 

 

Now calling @Bassassin to tell us exactly what model it was.

[Rayman]

Around 1980/81, I was 15, and my first bass was a Columbus Jazz from Rhythm House in Stockport. Even back then, if it didn't say Fender on it, I knew it wasn't the real thing, but amongst the Cimars, Westones and Mayas coming in from Japan, (in those days, we didn't rate the MIJ stuff at all, we thought it was a cheap copy of the real thing, funny how they're sought after now) the Columbus seemed like my best option and the most affordable Fender copy. It saw me through my first years and gigs, but got so battered in the end, I remember it being pretty unplayable. I honestly can't remember what happened to it ultimately, it probably went on the tip.

[BigRedX]

15 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I'd never heard of a Jedson Tele Bass two weeks ago, but they seem to be 20% of all the 'first basses' on this thread!

 

Owned by bass players of a certain age. The cheaper music shops (and junk shops) were full of them in the 70s. If you bought your first bass back then and didn't have much money to spend, it was either one of those or something equally nasty from Woolworths.

[NikNik]

2 hours ago, Rayman said:

Around 1980/81, I was 15, and my first bass was a Columbus Jazz from Rhythm House in Stockport. Even back then, if it didn't say Fender on it, I knew it wasn't the real thing, but amongst the Cimars, Westones and Mayas coming in from Japan, (in those days, we didn't rate the MIJ stuff at all, we thought it was a cheap copy of the real thing, funny how they're sought after now) the Columbus seemed like my best option and the most affordable Fender copy. It saw me through my first years and gigs, but got so battered in the end, I remember it being pretty unplayable. I honestly can't remember what happened to it ultimately, it probably went on the tip.

Them, the Shaftesbury '51 P look-a-like, and an Avon EB0 were the ones kicking around when I was a brat. In fact, I remember EB0s more than anything from that period. If you had an Antoria Jazz or an Ibby Ricky, you had it made!

[Rayman]

16 hours ago, NikNik said:

Them, the Shaftesbury '51 P look-a-like, and an Avon EB0 were the ones kicking around when I was a brat. In fact, I remember EB0s more than anything from that period. If you had an Antoria Jazz or an Ibby Ricky, you had it made!

Avon yeah... Kay.... Zentor.... there were loads of them.... and we thought they were all crap, well, a lot of them were. I remember playing on some horrific driftwood, and I'm not sure the Columbus was any better.

[NikNik]

46 minutes ago, Rayman said:

Avon yeah... Kay.... Zentor.... there were loads of them.... and we thought they were all crap, well, a lot of them were. I remember playing on some horrific driftwood, and I'm not sure the Columbus was any better.

IIRC there were two versions of the Columbus Jazz in the '70s, the later one being much more like the Fender of the day.

 

Zentor? I remember Zenta.

[Rayman]

59 minutes ago, NikNik said:

IIRC there were two versions of the Columbus Jazz in the '70s, the later one being much more like the Fender of the day.

 

Zentor? I remember Zenta.

Yeah...  Zenta, my mistake, it was a long time ago! Lol. My mate had Jedson guitar, I had the Columbus, they were both pretty poor from what I remember. 

[falling_in2_infinity]

Mine was a Tanglewood copy of a Corvette, around 1997.  Beautiful green stain.  Played quite nicely, from what I remember.

 

Oddly, I was never that serious about the bass until I moved on from the Tanglewood (circa 1999).  I defretted it and kept it around until 2010-ish.  Then I gave it to a local music charity.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by falling_in2_infinity

[fergs40]

Hopefully being three weeks after the last reply won't lead to 'zombie thread' accusations - it's taken me that long to find the two (rather blurry) pics of my first bass.

 

Anyway, my first bass was (is?) a Hondo II copy of a bass by a company well known to all of us. The first pic shows the rather 'zit burst' sunburst and also the dual outputs (no recollection of whether they both worked). You can also just about make out the two impressively-sized wood screws my friend's dad used to re-secure the tailpiece after it broke spectacularly in two just behind the saddles in the middle of a particularly energetic song - it was lucky there was no-one in the way of it as the string tension fired it at some speed through the air before the strings brought it up short... The second pic is the only one I can find of the full bass - not a bad copy all in all, though I remember it having a bolt-on neck rather than being neck-through.

 

I lent it to a friend when I went to university in 1986 and he in turn 'lent' it to his cousin - the trail goes cold in an attic somewhere in Portrush on the north Antrim coast. If anyone has sighted it since, I'd be delighted to hear about it!

 

Finally, as with many others here, my second bass, and first 'proper' bass, was a Westone Thunder 1A, brand new in 1986 (thank you, student grant), in red with the Magnabass pickup. Been lucky enough that I've never lost that or had to sell it, though it's been on a few adventures...

 

 

[Jono Bolton]

My first bass was a Peavey Foundation exactly like this:

 

 

I think I got it for my 14th birthday which would have been 2001, though I'd been playing in school for a few years before that. I bought it from a boy a couple of years above me in school for £50 if I remember right. I sold it on to one of my brother's friends for about the same amount a few years later. I bought another one a few years ago out of nostalgia but it wasn't as good as I'd remembered and I didn't keep it long.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Jono Bolton

[Bassassin]

On 18/01/2022 at 22:21, Hellzero said:

I found an old photo of my (El) Maya taken in November 1985 as an exercise for an imaginary album cover.

 

 

Now calling @Bassassin to tell us exactly what model it was.

 

Better late than never etc!

 

According to my mysterious, never-to-be-disclosed sources, that's a Maya (not fancy enuff to be an El Maya, sorry!) EB-2, and is exactly the same bass, apart from the name & maybe the colour, as the Grant I started on.

 

 

 

[danny-79]

I’ve still got my first bass I got it 1994 ish. I converted it to fretless a few years back so it’s still in a way the bass I keep learning on 

[Bankai]

My first bass (a Shine of unknown model) is in my loft in a gig bag. Not been played in years but it’s so low value it’s not worth selling so it’s been retained for sentimental value.

 

At a peak, I think I had maybe 4 or 5 basses at once but I’ve slimmed down now to a grand total of 1 working bass, and that old Shine in the loft.

[Twincam]

This was taken from my first introduction post back in 2013.

 

"Bought a cheap 15 quid pre wilkinson, Vintage from a mate, that had done the rounds between friends, wasn't in the best of condition and was filthy, so i named it after a girlfriend it reminded me of haha.
Bought a cheap Hartke a25 amp locally."

 

Well Laura as i named the bass. Got defretted by me. And some cool go faster strips applied. 

I sold it on ebay and the person had it refretted apparently. 

 

[Twincam]

On 16/01/2022 at 10:15, BigRedX said:

 

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...

 

This might be the reason for the edp wasp playing random notes.

 

For cost reasons, it did not have a mechanical keyboard; instead, it used flat conductive copper plates, hidden under a silk-screened vinyl sticker.[1] This alienated some players who thought the instrument lacked the expression present with a real keyboard.[2] It was also difficult to use in live settings, and according to Gerald Casale of Devo, the synth would play itself when exposed to sweat.

 

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, Twincam said:

 

This might be the reason for the edp wasp playing random notes.

 

For cost reasons, it did not have a mechanical keyboard; instead, it used flat conductive copper plates, hidden under a silk-screened vinyl sticker.[1] This alienated some players who thought the instrument lacked the expression present with a real keyboard.[2] It was also difficult to use in live settings, and according to Gerald Casale of Devo, the synth would play itself when exposed to sweat.

 

That was entirely the reason for the failure at the gig in question. The venue was in a basement and the gig on a very hot summer's evening. There was copious sweat from both the band and the audience condensing on the low ceiling and dripping onto us and our equipment. We used to carry a suitable screwdriver for altering the "keyboard" sensitivity pre-set pot in cases like this, but this time there were only two available settings: off and playing by itself. However it would also regularly cease to function a couple of songs before the end of most gigs and those were in far less severe conditions.

 

When I bought the Wasp I picked it over synths with proper keyboards and a more conventional and rugged build, due to the fact that it sounded loads better than the competition at the £200-£250 price point. I also saw the lack of conventional keyboard as an advantage in that it opened up a completely different way of playing synths.

 

Interestingly I also played the Wasp myself at gigs in my next band, I never had any of these problems, which leads me to suspect that some of them at least were user error rather than anything to do with the unconventional design of the synth or extreme climactic conditions.

[Twincam]

18 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

That was entirely the reason for the failure at the gig in question. The venue was in a basement and the gig on a very hot summer's evening. There was copious sweat from both the band and the audience condensing on the low ceiling and dripping onto us and our equipment. We used to carry a suitable screwdriver for altering the "keyboard" sensitivity pre-set pot in cases like this, but this time there were only two available settings: off and playing by itself. However it would also regularly cease to function a couple of songs before the end of most gigs and those were in far less severe conditions.

 

When I bought the Wasp I picked it over synths with proper keyboards and a more conventional and rugged build, due to the fact that it sounded loads better than the competition at the £200-£250 price point. I also saw the lack of conventional keyboard as an advantage in that it opened up a completely different way of playing synths.

 

Interestingly I also played the Wasp myself at gigs in my next band, I never had any of these problems, which leads me to suspect that some of them at least were user error rather than anything to do with the unconventional design of the synth or extreme climactic conditions.

 

I very much enjoyed reading about your former band and equipment. Kept me entertained while waiting for a bass delivery.