Milestone basses you've owned

[ezbass]

First one, obviously - Yamaha BB300.

First Fender - a US made Jazz.

’63 P, first and only vintage bass.

JMJ Mustang, first shorty and my current go to.

NS WAV, first upright of any description.

[Bagman]

Steinberger L2 

Fretless 2EQ Stingray

[Earbrass]

I've only ever owned six basses: two of those were Peavey Milestone III's, so .......

[LeftyJ]

Easy: my first bass was an old 1970s MIJ Condor Jazz Bass, with a plywood body, maple neck and board, block inlays and an ugly 3-colour sunburst with tort guard. It was ugly as all hell, but it was absolutely brilliant and I should never have sold it. I sold it when I got my second bass, which was a Yamaha TRB5II that I bought brand new for €1100 in 2001 or 2002. I thought it would deem that old 4-string obsolete, and I couldn't imagine needing a second bass at any given time. I now have 12 

 

Then there's my second 5-string, my Ellio Martina Forza that I've owned since 2006 and still play regularly. It's so good it made me sell that TRB5II, and it hasn't been surpassed as my favourite bass ever for a LONG time.

 

But the ONE bass that still makes me pinch myself to check if it's real, my ultimate milestone bass, would have to be my Status S2 Classic 5-string that I've owned since 2017. It's such a dream to play, sounds so good with such an evenness across the board... 

[MacDaddy]

With apologies to @Russ and @Franticsmurf

 

[Franticsmurf]

18 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

With apologies to @Russ and @Franticsmurf

 

I know it wasn't aimed at me, but I've added relevant photos to my first post. 😀

[Russ]

@MacDaddy OK, you win. More pics. This is the Spector that changed my life (just after I had a nice set of Nordstrand BigBladeMan pickups fitted): 

 

… and me and my my Sei, which I’ve now had for 21 years: 

[BreadBin]

22 hours ago, Earbrass said:

I've only ever owned six basses: two of those were Peavey Milestone III's, so .......

I was just thinking that there was a considerable lack of Peavey content in this thread...

[blyn]

My Milestones over the last 25 years:

 

In 1989: BB3000s

 

In 2003: Fender Jazz Bass Custom Shop relic ´64

 

In 2010: Fender Jazz 1966 

 

In 2016: Sadowsky Vintage J NYC *

 

In 2018: Fender P, 1978 

 

In 2021: Fender P, 1978  *

 

2021: Fender Jazz, 1965 *

 

The ones with * are my favorites  🙂

 

 

 

 

Edited September 25 by blyn

[TrevorR]

I’ve only ever owned 7 basses and I still own 6 of those. I think that 4 would count as milestones for me. Still own and play them all.

 

My Aria SB700 - my first ever bass bought new as a 18th birthday present

 

My 1985 Mark 1 Custom bass - bought second hand in 1991ish for £500 after I saw a classified ad in the back of Guitarist Magazine. My dream bass so a real milestone.

 

My Tony Revell acoustic - funded from my split of the band recording funds when my college folk band dissolved in 1992. Custom ordered from a luthier based in Wales (he later went on to create Revellation basses - a short lived high level model)

 

…and finally my 1979 Wal Pro 2 E - bought second hand in 2001ish for about 500 quid… just because I wanted one and there it was in one of my local guitar shops!

 

 

Edited September 26 by TrevorR

[chris_b]

38 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

I’ve only ever owned 7 basses and I still own 6 of those. I think that 4 would count as milestones for me. Still own and play them all.

 

My Aria SB700 - my first ever bass bought new as a 18th birthday present

 

My 1985 Mark 1 Custom bass - bought second hand in 1991ish for £500 after I saw a classified ad in the back of Guitarist Magazine. My dream bass so a real milestone.

 

My Tony Revell acoustic - funded from my split of the band recording funds when my college folk band dissolved in 1992. Custom ordered from a luthier based in Wales (he later went on to create Revellation basses - a short lived high level model)

 

…and finally my 1979 Wal Pro 2 E - bought second hand in 2001ish for about 500 quid… just because I wanted one and there it was in one of my local guitar shops!

 

 

 

Aaaagh!!!    Music stand!!

[Jackroadkill]

3 hours ago, TrevorR said:

My Tony Revell acoustic - funded from my split of the band recording funds when my college folk band dissolved in 1992. Custom ordered from a luthier based in Wales (he later went on to create Revellation basses - a short lived high level model)

 

I live just down the road from Tony; he rebuilt my Les Paul a few times in my more exuberant younger days.  He's still building, but I'm not sure under what name, as he's had a few names that he's traded under.  Somewhere I have a Revellation neck and body without hardwear - I think it might be at my Mum's.

[Skybone]

I'd always hankered after a Rickenbacker, finally bought one and it was everything I expected and more.

 

Unfortunately, I had to sell that one, but managed to pick up the black 'plate version in my avatar a few years back.

 

Owned a few "nice" basses, and a lot of "iffy" basses, the Ric's beat them all hands down IMO.

 

Though the Westone Thunder 1A and the Aria Pro II SB Special II were definite stand out basses.

[casapete]

OK, here are mine. 3 basses, all Precisions.

 

1) 1977 USA (in sunburst). My first bass - I thought that if I was going to take this bass lark seriously then I'd

better get a proper instrument. Bought it for £200 in Leeds around the early / mid 80's. I didn't bond with it ever,

not really knowing that Fender made some right dogs as well as decent basses. After a while it dawned on

me that this was the case and I sold it for £200 so could have been worse. What made me sell it was this ->

 

2) Squier JV 57 (in black). Everything the USA one wasn't - lighter, vibrant, sounded like a P-bass should and 

far better made. Kept this for a while and gigged it a lot, and knew I'd regret selling it but this came along ->

 

3) 1963 (stripped to natural). Previously owned by a late friend, and in a bit of a state when I acquired it.

A horrible yellow refin was stripped and refinished by Paulman (Paul McNab in Huddersfield). All original

otherwise, and my forever bass. Still gig it when I can. 

 

Apart from the above I've had many Musicman / Danelectro / Japanese P-Lytes that I've loved, but the first

three basses above were arguably the most important in helping me get started on playing bass for a living. 

 

 

[SPHDS]

I still have (but don't necessarily play......) every bass I've ever owned.....
1) First - NoName Jazz (originally black, with matt silver scratchplate, then covered the edges of the scratchplate with black gaffa.....), bought at uni, with a hard case (which is still in use.....), it weighs about a stone, wasn't totally awful, but wasn't great......also found out, when it 'died' that the wires to the jack had been attached with BluTack.....)
2) Sunburst Ibanez JTKB - Unremarkable, but reliable (so not necessarily 'Milestone'....apart from taking over from NoName.....)
3) Black Epiphone Explorer - Always wanted one......so found one on eBay.....love it.....gave it a HipShot D-Tuner......gigged it extensively
4) Silver Sparkle Squier Affinity P - Always wanted a P, so when it came up for £80, snapped it up.....currently lives next to my desk for noodling/practicing etc.....
5) The Birthday Bass - Blond/Black/Maple P my father had built for my 40th - Wonderful, lives in NoName's hard case, can't wait to get it to gigs.....!
(Another Milestone, loaned, not owned, Red Warwick Streamer Pro-M, used for my guest spot with the band I roadied for, my live debut, on my 21st.....!)
Milestones I hope to hit.....A Ric, A '54 P, A Mustang, A Flying V, A Jack Casady....)

[bass_dinger]

For me, a Fender P 5 string in a music shop. I realised that I didn't like it - too big, too unwieldy, for me. I realised that I prefer a smaller body and headstock. 

 

Boulder Creek 5 string acoustic.  Beautiful instrument and clearly better than my previous acoustic 5 string. I bought it for a band that I left shortly after.  It taught me that even a beautiful sounding bass may not be necessary. 

 

My second Washburn XB500.  Compared to my first Washburn XB500, it had different pick ups and different selectors (2 single coils v two humbuckers; switch v pan pot). However, nobody in the band noticed or cared whether the basses were different.

 

So, milestones were learning opportunities, rather than playing instruments.