What was your first bass set up?

[MB1]

MB1.
...Frightening!
...A kay Precision Copy (a tree with pickups!)
...A Raven 10W Practice Amp

......I still suffer Nightmares thinking somebody might one day... return these!

[RhysP]

A weird little secondhand Japanese bass - the name on the headstock was "Raver".
It was shorter than short scale, a tiny little thing.
Put it through my brothers old Woolworths-bought valve practice amp, which was made for guitar, not bass.

Oh yes, and an old Jen fuzz box that plugged into the input of the bass - EVIL sound! Wish I still had that.

Edited April 18, 2010 by RhysP

[retroman]

Must have been about 93ish.......

Aria Legend P-bass copy. Nice maple neck, lovely plywood body! Still have the bass, it had a respray a few years back, as the plywood had started to go ripply underneath the black finish. It's now finished in ICI 2 pack Ford Petrol Blue, and still shines like a toffee apple. To be fair, it's a pretty good bass actually. I still play it regularly.

Peavey Microbass....bought the same time as the bass, and the transformer packed up pretty quickly. Still have the amp, although it's currently doing service as a vocal PA at a church! Far fron the best sounding bass amp in the world, but it got me started.

I think the first thing I ever learned to play on that set up was some old Sisters Of Mercy song

[steve-soar]

Ibanez Blazer bass, natural finish, left hand, into, a hifi!....until I blew the speakers.
Then into a McGregor bassman 200 and HH 2x15. Sounded terrible but the bass was nice.
Circa 1985.

Edited April 18, 2010 by steve-soar

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='809468' date='Apr 17 2010, 03:00 PM'][/quote]


One of the worst amps I have ever used.

[Clarky]

About 1980/1, an Aria SB bass into a practice amp (am thinking Trace Boxer 30 but that may be memory playing tricks, I definitely had one early on)

[alanbass1]

My first bass bought for me by my dad back in '75 which he got from a friend of his and I've still got it:



My amp set up was a Dan Armstrong valve head (I think this was the first amp to have a graphic equaliser) sitting on top of a HH 2x15. These have long gone, not that I would want them back!

Edited April 18, 2010 by alanbass1

[TJAS92]

Epiphone EB-0 sg from Ebay for £120, i made it active because pick up output was shocking on it
Then swapped for my trace elliot 7215x bass amp

and the amp was some cheap aria thing that kept breaking everytime i plugged my epi in

never regretted swapping it tbh

[faceman]

Squier Precision Bass, which I soon swapped for a Squier Jazz Bass with a Fender Rumble 15 amp. I sold the amp soon after for an Ashdown combo and sold the bass last year. The Jazz was awful neck, heavy and pretty crap all around. I believe my progression from there has been

Fender MIA Jazz --> Fender MIA Precision --> MusicMan Stingray --> Lakland Duck Dunn --> Fender Geddy Lee Jazz --> Lakland Darryl Jones --> Rickenbacker 4003 --> Rickenbacker 3001 --> MusicMan SUB --> Squier CV Precision

All of them were traded but my god I must have lost some money! Thankfully student loans...

[MacDaddy]

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='809858' date='Apr 17 2010, 09:13 PM']Westone Thunder 1A & the heaviest H/H 1X15 combo in the world. Ever.

Both belonged to the college.

The first time I owned a bass and amp together for the first time - 70's Guild B301 and Traynor 60w valve combo.

Sound = beautiful, unfortunately not loud enough. Would love to have kept them, but had to sell to buy.[/quote]

Actually that is a complete lie. about 15 years earlier I had a Fender P with added J and bass-boost switch, and a Marshall 100w guitar and bass head with a Peavey Black Widdow cab.

The head was pants.

[iamthewalrus]

Mine was a Tobacco Sunburst/Maple neck & board "Craftsman" P-Bass (bought from "Macaris" in Charing Cross Rd) into a Carlsbro Cobra 90w Bass combo.

Haven't got either anymore, but certainly don't miss them.

Cheers,
iamthewalrus

[lazzer]

trying to remember as it's been 30 years! but it was a medium scale sg type bass that came in a vinyl cover & I didn't have a bass amp so plugged it straight into my dad's hi fi amp...........soon to be replaced by a jap jazz copy in sunburst with a warped neck & carlsbro cobra 60w combo which my dad signed gaurantor for. Happy days! Lazz

[Greydad]

Bought a Gibson EB4L long scale bass in Montreal in 1977 when I was a teenager (my family had emigrated there) for $160 off a guy who wanted a pair of skis instead. It was a 1973 model which had been in the shop for a while until he bought it in '75 I think. Anyway that was about £70 at the time and he'd hardly played it. Couldn't afford an amp but got one a year or so later, a Canadian make I can't remember the name with valves (tubes), heavy as sin. Thought there was something wrong with it when I turned it up 'cos it went all horrible and distorted (ignorant noob ) but in retrospect it could be overdriven really nicely - could have done with that a decade or two later.

Lost the amp at some point ages ago after I returned to the UK but I still have the Gibby. Never play it but can't bear to sell it. Was told it was worth a £grand or so a few years ago, dunno.

[ronnus]

[b]Me Mk1 c. 1992[/b]
Hohner Arbor MX... and odd Precision/Musicman hybrid thing in GREEN (not green) with huge soap bars. Bought for £70 from a mate. Still have it, weighs a ton and has a neck like a banana, both in curvature and profile, so it's been retired to under the bed.
My "amp" was an Aiwa hifi, which I connected to the mic socket using a 1/4" to 3.5mm jack adaptor, and could only get sound from if I set the cassette deck to record, which meant I had to reach into the tape player and press the little copy protection lever by hand. Was loud enough to p1ss off the neighbours.
Happy days

[b]Me reborn c. 2004[/b]
Hohner JJ Pro bought off JPJ on here. Loved it - great bass, massive output, sold it for what I paid coz a colleague of a friend offered to buy it and it wasn't getting used after the Marcus arrived. As far as I know it's still being gigged around Edinburgh.
Amp was a Behringer BT108 practice amp, highly contemptible. I suspect it was just their starter/beginners/childs guitar amp with a new product code. Quickly replaced by an Ashdown EB180.

[Rich]

My very first gear:
1964 Höfner Artist 2, purchased for £20 off my metalwork teacher. Still got it.
homemade 30w amp, made with help from my physics teacher.
no-name 1x15" cab

Replaced by my first half-decent gear:
Columbus Jazz
Phoenix PHA-1 100w amp
Custom Sound 4x12" cab

[Dave Vader]

After losing the coin toss with my friend, I went off to learn guitar, while he got to play bass. He got a Sunn Mustang P-bass copy for Xmas, out of an Argos catalogue in 1988/9ish. I used to play on it quite a lot, in 1996 I got to reposses it from him as he owed me £30 beer money, and was skint (he'd got an Aria since then anyway).
I still have that Mustang, it's my main player, I love it (many may have terrible memories of them). We did once use it for a game of cricket with an mxr flanger as the ball, back in about 92 if I remember right.
1st bass amp was a Laney Mighty Bass that got left in my old pub by some kid practising in our function room. I still have that as well, it is not good.
But that Sunn, I'm playing it tonight, played it last night, and I'm playing it tomorrow night, can't seem to put it down...

[Wylie]

Squier Bronco, Behringer BX900 (90-watt piece of furniture).