Your First Bass

[stingrayfan]

What was the first bass you ever played and the first you ever owned?

I'll start:

Played: Awful black Hondo II (with action like Clifton suspension bridge)
Owned: Westone Thunder 1A natural (loved it and still got it)

Edited November 28, 2007 by stingrayfan

[Clydefrog]

The first bass I owned and played was some fugly creation that someone had evidently knocked up at evening classes. It was a fretless (with inlaid lines, oh yes) and had been hacked out of a mahogany tabletop into a sort of P-Bass looking shape with a 2+2 headstock... I couldn't get much of a sound out of it through my 10W Peavey guitar amp, so I went to the music shop for My First Set Of Bass Strings. After rushing home to fit them, I found it STILL didn't sound up to much and my dad insisted I take the strings back as they must be faulty (Bloke in music shop: What do you mean "[i]they don't work[/i]"?) Erm, it turned out that the home made pickup on this thing was less than efficient

This was in the days before t'internet and helpful things like Basschat...

Anyhooo, I soon upgraded to a Marlin Sidewinder after that!

Cheers,

Si

[Dread Bass]

a hondo p bass strung upside down then an ibanez gsr200L which was a great bass

Edited November 28, 2007 by metaltime

[neepheid]

First played - an Encore P-bass copy
First owned - an Epiphone EB-3

[steve]

first bass - westone thunder I
first guitar - watkins rapier III !!

[WalMan]

A no name P copy with a pickup held up with a folded up No10 packet, hawsers for strings & an action you could limbo under

Followed quickly by my first Shergold

[obbm]

First bass I ever played was one I made in 1961. It was the shape of a Fender Precision, which was copied from the sleeve of the Shadows first album. It had shop bought tuners, bridge and strings but used the earpieces from a WW2 German flying helmet as the pickups.

First bass I owned was a semi-acoustic Framus Star Bass, small body, short scale version. It cost £45 new.

[dudewheresmybass]

a Westone Concord!
Cost me £50, my first experience of bass
IIRC i sold it a few years later for £75

[metalmaniac]

Encore P-bass all the way.
Biggest mistake was gettin rid of it.

[jwbassman]

First played - Marlin (blue)
First owned - Yamaha RBX800A (great neck - sold to a good friend of mine so still see it now and again)

[Bloodaxe]

First played (in 1982 at a rehearsal studio in Hong Kong)... A suspected pre-CBS Precision - Sunburst & with a slip of a neck. Possibly black pickguard. Lovely.

When it came time to buy I tried out the bright orange/maple P in the shop window & it just felt wrong - clubby neck, weighed a ton - hence my suspicion on the above. It was a bit outside my price range as well.

In the same shop, up on a rack was this (sans Kahler & extra holes):

Cost me a month's pay (£120) & it's still my number one.

Pete.

[chardbass]

Around 1982.
A Columbus Jazz copy.
£75.
Always had an affinity with Jazz-style basses since

[Mottlefeeder]

In 1970(?) as a folky guitarist, and wannabe bass player, I made my first bass as a project at school. The body was blockboard (inch thick pine planks with a veneer each side to keep it together. The neck was teak. It didn't have a truss rod, and it was ever so slightly neck heavy.

The fretboard was black formica, as was the pickguard. Pickups and tuners were shop bought, and the bridge was one piece of mild steel, bent to be vertical (bridge) at one end, and sloping (string ball catcher) at the other. Intonation was - measure, drill and screw it on. String height was - it's too high, I need to grind some more off the bridge. With hindsight, I don't think those teachers were particularly musical.

Believe it or not, it worked, and I was able to play The Equals - Baby come back - through my dad's Hifi sytem, a Vortexion valve amp and Wharfdale speaker in a corner mounted reflex enclosure. I eventually sold it for the cost of the parts.

About 30 years later, I decided to try again, and bought a Yamaha BBN4.

[theosd]

First played: My uncles Fender Jazz:




First owned: My mum's old Westbury Track 2. Not bad!!

Looks like this but without the stickers and I've added a badass style bridge to replace the original which had a strange curve to it, like an upright meaning the middle two strings were about 2mm higher of the fretboard - hard work! Originally strung with 20 year old rotosound black nylons it didn't ever stay in tune. First time I bought a set of strings for it (a set of fenders I think) I was amazed at how good it sounded! These are great little basses, it's very well made too.

[Thunderthumbs]

My first bass was a Kay "Gibson Les Paul" shape that cost me about £50 out of my mum's catalogue! I paid for it myself from my earnings from my paper round.

The action on it was terrible. The strings were about 2 inches above the neck.

Maybe that excuses me all my bad habits nearly 30 years later

[hogman]

First bass played- A Hondo Rickenbacker copy was quite nice if I remember.

I then beg n Borrowed loads of nice instruments till My Kramer Flying V still have it as well.... Still sounds great short scale as well so good in the studio for guitarists.

[skywalker]

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='95931' date='Nov 29 2007, 01:41 AM']My first bass was a Kay "Gibson Les Paul" shape that cost me about £50 out of my mum's catalogue! I paid for it myself from my earnings from my paper round.

The action on it was terrible. The strings were about 2 inches above the neck.

Maybe that excuses me all my bad habits nearly 30 years later [/quote]

Same first Bass for me, same price as well. About 1972 I think. I replaced with a beautiful P which I then sold for £150.00 - what a numpty.

[Old Horse Murphy]

[quote name='theosd' post='95928' date='Nov 29 2007, 01:19 AM']First owned: My mum's old Westbury Track 2. Not bad!!

Looks like this but without the stickers and I've added a badass style bridge to replace the original which had a strange curve to it, like an upright meaning the middle two strings were about 2mm higher of the fretboard - hard work! Originally strung with 20 year old rotosound black nylons it didn't ever stay in tune. First time I bought a set of strings for it (a set of fenders I think) I was amazed at how good it sounded! These are great little basses, it's very well made too.
[/quote]

This was my first bass I owned too. I think it cost me £30 after I saw an advert in the local paper.

It had be resprayed in black by Stevie Wonder (well, you should have seen it.)

The action was horrible, it was neck heavy but I loved it!! After a year or so, I took the frets out and filled the gaps in with plastic wood.

[Machines]

This Squier Bronco for me, I got it because it was the cheapest bass I could find .

[thedontcarebear]

Encore P Bass for me too in red, lent it to a mate years ago, she still has it I believe, or her brother does.

[paul h]

a shortscale Satellite P'ish copy for £25 from the local junk shop.

my next bass was a Hohner Arbor P. lovely metallic blue finish and a maple fretboard. to this day, i remember that neck and board being the nicest thing i have ever played. i hate myself for getting rid of it.

or it could just be nostalgia weaving it's evil little spell!

i'm off to ebay to look for one now!

p.

Edited November 29, 2007 by paul h

[sk8]

encore p bass copy

[ARGH]

First Bass was a Red Hohner HP Bass (P-Bass copy)ply body, Maple one piece neck,20 frets,white 3 ply scratchplate,black p/u cover, and that was bought for me by mum and Dad 16 years ago yesterday,I had stinking flu,and Dad wanted to get the Marlin Jazz copy in black,I demanded the P Bass copy "Coz Steve Harris plays P basses" and it was a bit more expensive..Dad bless him relented,he did have doubts I would just give up on it and it might be an expensive mistake..But Im still thumping away.

Satillite P Bass is my most memorable College days Bass that I miss,Heavy as ...Ash body,Maple/teak Thruneck,MEGA bridge saddles,string thru body,brass nut,it was crude as hell,and to be frank,needed a new fretboard,but it was my 1st solid (not ply) Bass.
Weighed a ton at 11.5 lbs.

[charic]

First played: Aria p bass copy
First owned: Peavey millenium bxp

[Guest subaudio]

First played was a no name P bass copy owned by the music co opertaive I was part of, first owned was a white Westone Spectrum DX