What's the bass/instrument you have had longest?

[machinehead]

I still have my parlour size 6 string acoustic guitar that was a gift from my uncle in 1968.  He had just restored it back then so I suspect it might date from the 1950s.

It sounds good and plays well.

Frank.

[Bagman]

L2 Steinberger 

 

iirc purchased 1990/1

 

made me play better because it’s fairly unforgiving 

 

 

[Ruarl]

I still have the 5 string Musicman-style thing built for me by the Bass Doc in Newcastle around 1996-97. Lovely Wenge Fingerboard and a Bart pickup. 

[KingBollock]

This probably doesn’t count…

 

I’ve got a classical style, nylon string guitar that my dad bought from the Kay catalogue in the early 80s. I have no idea why he bought it, he never intended to try to learn how to play it, and he never encouraged my brothers nor me to learn it either.

Many years later he came to me asking to borrow £22. The trouble with him was that he would guilt trip me into lending him money and then, when I’d ask for the money back, I’d get a lecture about how I owe him thousands of pounds for the cost of raising me… He NEVER returned anything he borrowed from me. So, this time, instead of lending him the money, I offered to buy the guitar from him. It was/is rather battered and wasn’t really worth £22. But it plays well enough, sounds quite nice and I play it quite often. I’ve had it for about twenty five years, I think.

[PTB]

I still have the 1985 Stingray fretless I bought in 1987 or 88 from Julia Fordham’s bass player. 
 

I’ve been through many different fretted basses but this one has always felt and sounded just right to me. 

Edited May 21 by PTB

[Nicko]

The instrument I've owned longest is a 1994 Patrick Eggle NY, bought new from Project Music on the A4.  I still play it every now and then.

 

Bass wise I don't get the same attachment as I do with guitars (sorry for the heresy) and have turned then over more frequently.  I only have the one bass and it's a Squier CV70s P Bass. I guess I bought it around 2016 at Wunjo as a backup for my Fender P - I traded in a Indonesian Peavey Cirrus which was my first ever bass purchase for the Squier.  The US PB went a few years ago through BC Marketplace.

[Gwilym]

This one... a Groove Shoppe GS5.

The Groove Shoppe were a specialist bass gear retailer based in Long Island, NY, and designed their own basses. I think about 26 or so got made.

 

 

Don't have any pictures of my own at the moment, so picture credit to the poster on the TB thread.

I've had it since July 2008.

 

More about it here

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/groove-shoppe-5-gs5-review-pics-wohoo-sorta.269410/

 

[PTB]

1 hour ago, Gwilym said:

This one... a Groove Shoppe GS5.

The Groove Shoppe were a specialist bass gear retailer based in Long Island, NY, and designed their own basses. I think about 26 or so got made.

 

 

Don't have any pictures of my own at the moment, so picture credit to the poster on the TB thread.

I've had it since July 2008.

 

More about it here

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/groove-shoppe-5-gs5-review-pics-wohoo-sorta.269410/

 

Hey @Gwilym, the bass I’ve had 2nd longest is the MTD 535 I bought off you many years ago. 

Edited May 21 by PTB
Add pic

[AndyTravis]

Two basses made for me in 2010, so much has come and gone since then - but they stay.

[ardi100]

My American Fender Jazz Deluxe, ordered new in 1997.

 

This doesn't really count, but I've also got my double bass that I inherited around the same time from my Grandfather, and he had it for about 50 years.

[moley6knipe]

Nice! If 1997, is it one of the delicious smaller body size ones, with the Suhr pickups and preamp? I sold one of those. IDIOT

Edited May 23 by moley6knipe

[ardi100]

7 hours ago, moley6knipe said:

Nice! If 1997, is it one of the delicious smaller body size ones, with the Suhr pickups and preamp? I sold one of those. IDIOT

I believe it is, but apart from checking on the serial number website, I'm not sure how to confirm it.

[BlueMoon]

1 hour ago, ardi100 said:

I'm not sure how to confirm it

It will have 22 frets and single pole-piece pickups from the Suhr era. Great basses……..very musical preamp/pickup combination, which is rare for Fender

[ardi100]

42 minutes ago, BlueMoon said:

It will have 22 frets and single pole-piece pickups from the Suhr era. Great basses……..very musical preamp/pickup combination, which is rare for Fender

It's definitely got single pole pieces and I've always found the preamp fantastic for dialing in tones. Sounds ridiculous, but I've never counted the frets!

[BlueMoon]

The neck has more frets than typical Fender jazz basses and the body is smaller, as mentioned above. In my view these were a highlight of Fender through more recent decades. I can totally understand your connection with it! Continue to enjoy it!

[Greg Edwards69]

My Selmer clarinet. Nothing special and I haven't played it since I finished my A-levels 30 years ago. But it has sentimental value. My mum and dad didn't have much spare money when I was growing up but they made sure we had a good childhood. Like many other kids I learnt to play the recorder in junior school which sparked an interest in playing music. We had a couple of toy pianos and a Bontempi reed organ (bright orange I seem to remember), but it was learning the recorder and reading music that really got me interested in wanting to learn to play an instrument. I said I wanted to learn to play the clarinet - my mum and dad loved Acker Bilk at the time and so did what they could to source one for me. I can't remember the exact details but I believe they swapped a spare double bed they had acquired after my grandmother died with an extended family member, who needed a bed and had a clarinet she hadn't touched in years.

 

My parents took it to a music shop, got it overhauled and bought some reeds and an 'A Tune a Day for clarinet' book. I taught myself to play the first bit of 'Stranger on the Shore' on the first morning. My mum tells me I came up to her crying in the afternoon because I could play the high-register notes. I continued to teach myself and had several lessons at junior school until the teacher told my mum I should go to the local evening music school.

 

Honestly, I wish I hadn't. I hated the teacher. I probably frustrated her because I had developed some bad habits that I couldn't break. But she had no skills working with young children. It sucked the joy out of it. So I stopped going and later started having music lessons when I went to secondary school. These were much better and constructive and brought the joy back. I joined the school orchestra and the local youth orchestra as first clarinet. Then A-levels came round and once again I had a teacher who tore my technique to shreds. I sometimes wonder how I even passed the practical as I no longer had any confidence in my clarinet playing. The day of the practical exam was the last time it was taken out of the case and played. But by that time I had been tinkering with bass guitar for a couple of years and had several gig under my belt. I realised my passion lay. Bass guitar was 'me'.

 

I've considered selling it. But it's not worth much financially and I know my mum and dad would be upset if I did as they did everything they could to help start my musical journey.

[Dood]

On 08/05/2024 at 13:14, chris_b said:

I still own the Fender Precision I bought new in March 1969.

 

It went through a serious modding in the mid 80's and hasn't been used since 1996, when I switched over to 5's.

 

I'll never sell it. I'll be buried with this bass.

 

 

 

Oh wow! That's a peach! There's just something about it that screams YEAH to me! I guess also being a TV Script '69 is all the more John Deacon too, which I have a soft spot for! 

[Dood]

 

Although it wasn't a bass I'd owned the longest, it was definitely one I regret letting go. I'd love to know where it ended up, the last time I heard about it was when I tried to buy it back and it ended up in a studio in Suffolk somewhere... I just don't know which one! 

[tauzero]

5 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

My Selmer clarinet. Nothing special and I haven't played it since I finished my A-levels 30 years ago.

 

That just reminded me, my oldest instrument isn't the Eko Ranger, it's a violin I bought when I was a student with the idea of playing some violin with the proggish rock band that four of us had formed and I'd started playing bass for. This was based on me learning to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star six years before. It's still in the cupboard upstairs.

[moley6knipe]

Best place for a violin?

[tauzero]

5 hours ago, moley6knipe said:

Best place for a violin?

 

When the alternative is me playing it, yes, definitely.

[Grahambythesea]

Reading this I realise I’m not very loyal to any of my instruments. I had my Fender Jazz V for 20 years but traded it some time ago. At present my oldest is a K Yiari guitar which plays nicely, looks vintage and has a rosewood back.

[lidl e]

 

Bought this new in 1989.

 

It was actually stolen in 1991. I received insurance money and bought an Ibanez SDGR1500.

 

Then a few months later, my friend saw it for sale, called the cops, they picked it up for evidence and then several years later i got a letter saying i could come pick it up.

 

have since defretted and changed out electronics and pickups

 

 

 

 

[DGBass]

This one was custom made for me by Chris May at Overwater Basses when they just had a small unit near Haltwhistle over forty years ago, and I've had it from new.  It was gigged regularly up until the late nineties and early 2000's, and also did a gig near the end of 2023 just to get it out and used for nostalgia's sake. Last gig before that was around 2007. It's more or less a case queen these days as I'd hate for a punter to fall over it, which nearly happened on a few occasions. I do jam regularly at home with it, use it for recording,  and its fully setup and gig ready if I feel the urge. I don't have a lot of photos from way back, but here are few taken sometime in the nineties. Suffice to say it has great sentimental value.

 

 

 

As it is now

 

 

 

[Agent 00Soul]

I've had this late sixties Jazzmaster since 1984.  It became so infamous in my high school, where most of the other guitars were neon painted Charvel or Jackson super-strats for shredding, that it got a special farewell in the school newspaper when I graduated.

 

 

Edited May 27 by Agent 00Soul