Your First Bass

[silverfoxnik]

[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]
My first bass was a Kay bass, similar to the one you've described.. Cost £22 from Woolies in 1975 (I think) and it was pretty awful, but it got me started. Then I persuaded my Mum to buy me this Hondo Ricky from a catalogue, which I still have!



This year, I've done a bit of work on it; replaced the tuners which had broken, had the neck sorted out etc, so it's vaguely playable again.. But really it's there as a memento of my first years in a proper gigging band and, more importantly, of my Mum.

[NancyJohnson]

Used to borrow a Jedson Telecaster bass - much like the one on sale in this very site. 1st proper one was a white Arbiter SG bass - £35.00.
P

[BigRedX]

My first band (who's retrospective CD is linked in my sig) was one of the post-punk DIY outfits where everyone played everything. Our gear was very limited at the beginning so we would borrow what we didn't have. There were two people in our year at school with basses and we would use which ever was available for loan when we needed one; so the first bass I played would either have been a Kay 'Woolies Special' that had a vague Mosrite reversed vibe, or a home-made Fender-ish bass but with a humbucker at an angle (so the pole pieces lined up with the tight string spacing) where the p pickup should have been. Both were equally cr@p producing a variety of dull thuds, with no real note below the open D string.

The first bass I owned was this one:


It's a 1961 Burns Sonic 30" scale. I bought it in 1981 with my surplus student grant. After haggling I paid £55 including the original (but equally battered case) and a fender strap. It had already been stripped back to the bare wood when I got it, but it did still have the orginal bridge and machine heads which I had to replace if I wanted it to play and stay in tune. From what I recall at the time the alternatives in my price range were horrible Columbus P or J copies. For some time I wasn't entirely sure if my bass wasn't home made as there were no identifying marks on it except for the Burns logos on the pickups, and it wasn't until I saw pictures of one in the Paul Day Burns Book that I realised exactly what I had. This ended up being my main bass for the next 10 years until I bought a Washburn 5-string and very shortly afterwards my Overwater Original 2.

[Vasquez Rich]

Avon, EB copy, high action, duff strings.. still got it, my son plays it... when he's not nicking my Spector that is hehehehe.

Richard

hey.. that Burns above, there's one of them chucking about in our rehearsal room, missing a couple of strings... just lobbed in the corner, dunno who's it is, just got left there.

Edited November 29, 2007 by Vasquez Rich

[BigRedX]

Depending on the condition that Burns might be worth a bit...

Mine's probably still only worth £55 because only the wood pickups and frets are original, everything else has been either removed before I got it, or replaced by me in order to keep it playable. Mines still in use when I need to play high Peter Hook style lines. Both pickups in series and a touch of analogue chorus - marvellous!

[Mobius]

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Still play it, it's my only electric bass.

Edited November 29, 2007 by Mobius

[paul, the]

The first bass I played was a pretty floral acoustic. The problem was that I was a tiny, sh*tty teenager and ended up with an SG copy (Kay). Not a bad bass, though.

Would love to hunt down that acoustic.

[paul, the]

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='96367' date='Nov 29 2007, 09:44 PM']My first bass was a Kay bass, similar to the one you've described.. Cost £22 from Woolies in 1975 (I think) and it was pretty awful, but it got me started. Then I persuaded my Mum to buy me this Hondo Ricky from a catalogue, which I still have!



This year, I've done a bit of work on it; replaced the tuners which had broken, had the neck sorted out etc, so it's vaguely playable again.. But really it's there as a memento of my first years in a proper gigging band and, more importantly, of my Mum.[/quote]

I had one of these. I've heard them bashed on BC but I loved mine. Haven't been able to play My Generation as perfectly since.

[KevG]

Something called a Top Twenty from a local music shop - a sort of P copy - which was in 1975 and is the excuse I give for all my current bad habits!!
Now have a Precision - lovely!!

Edited December 4, 2007 by KevG

[Deep Thought]

First one played (I think-it was a loooonnnngggg time ago) was another Satellity type thing belonging to a mate, although I remember playing a black P-bass (like mine!) in Frank Yonco's shop in Mount Charles. First owned was a Black/maple white scratchplate Westone Concord I which I still own and play regularly-it's my 'downstairs' bass!

[elom]

[quote name='obbm' post='95902' date='Nov 28 2007, 11:47 PM']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..[/quote]

Nobody can possibly compete with that OBBM!

For the record mine was a Westone Thunder 2 (Version 3 - Westone nerds will appreciate the difference) in onyx. Sold it when I was 20 to get the cash to take a girl on holiday. Still got the girl, wish I still had the bass...

[Nate]

Yamaha RBX 260

Was great!!!

[NickThomas]

Westone 1A .. chopped it in in 1984 for a Matsumoku Aria which I still have and is sitting on its stand beside me.

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='paul, the' post='96471' date='Nov 30 2007, 03:01 AM']I had one of these. I've heard them bashed on BC but I loved mine. Haven't been able to play My Generation as perfectly since.[/quote]
Great for the money and a pretty good copy of that 'Ric' sound..

[barneythedog]

Westone Thunder 1A. Traded my 6 six string for it.

It was nicked by some lowlife about 20 years ago. If I ever find them ................

[tempo]

This is great, ya all making me feel young!! My first bass (18 months ago) was a Ibanez gsr200. Been playing guitar for 15 years so had to have something nice & easy to play. On an aside, most of these "beginner" instruments are really good now. I could of definatley gigged the Gsr, unlike my first guitar (an encore strat with plywood body- eugghh).

[Rodders]

First Played: 1977 Fender Precision

First Owned: Peavey Milestone 3

[Jono]

'Rockwood' by Hohner 4 string in bright red.

Pile of s***.

Part ex'ed it for a Bass Collection in '95 which I still own...

[thebassmandave]

Ah! This brings back some fond memories.

Walking back from the junior disco , passed a music shop and had one of those "moments" like you see in the movies.

Sitting right in the middle of the shop window was this gorgeous sunburst P-bass no name copy.

It was love at first sight - didn't even notice any of the other instruments in the window - just this one: like a spotlight had just been shone on this one bass (que harps and angel voices)

Had the shop assistant swap the strings over for me as it was a right handed model and I play lefty.

Shop assistant hacked into nut with stanley knife to accomdate E string into G string space and folded up a pice of paper to wedge the G string into the E string space!!!!!


Despite this somewhat crude method of string conversion, (and being played upside down) this bass felt really nice to play and sounded warm and growly.

I eventually sold it, but wish I had kept as it was the first bass I owned and played.

Edited December 20, 2007 by thebassmandave

[Krysbass]

First bass, (1981), was a secondhand short-scale sort of Precision copy thingy. Body was later discovered to be made of plywood and having played it acoustically for a few months, the single pickup was later discovered not to work. I got hold of some copper wire, opened it up and re-wound it myself - worked fine after that.

Can't have been that bad a bass, because I stuck with it and got my first "proper" bass a couple of years later - a Westone Thunder 1A, natural finish

[Jase]

Here's my first, got it for a tenner A Vox Clubman Bass.

[attachment=4234:738vox.jpg]

[WarPig]

Squire Bronco bass, 6/7 years ago, still got it now. It had the original strings on it till recently when i changed them when i added a SCPB-1

Edited December 21, 2007 by WarPig

[Jono Bolton]

The first one I ever played was a Jim Deacon P-Bass copy that my primary school bought. I was the only one who kept playing longer than a week. I spent pretty much every chance I got practicing on it til I finished primary.

First I ever owned was a second (or third) hand Peavey Foundation, similar to a precision, with 2 soap bar pickups. And a nice maple neck if I remember rightly. I had that for about 3 years before selling it on.

My first guitar was a pink Danelectro U2. I [i]wish[/i] I still had that.

[Bay Splayer]

first bass...sattelite short scale in sunburst.
first full scale...kay precision copy, heavy as hell!
first "quality" bass...squier jazz bass.

[ronev]

Framus ....kind of a Thunderbird-looking thing, circa 1963, with the thinnest fret board in the history of the world. I played lefty upside down-strung in RAF bases all over the UK in '66-'68. I have no idea what happened to the bass.