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What was your very first bass?


eggs

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My first bass was almost exactly like this Univox:

mfb3.jpg

It had a really nice deep ruby-red burst over a cool looking Foto-Flame top and back. It also had a pickguard, unlike the one in the picture.

Mine was re-branded (with a nailed on plastic name plate) a Maestro. Out of curiosity I pried off the plate, and it had the Univox logo underneath. I suspect it was a factory second because it had a couple of spots on the edge binding where paint had slopped over. It was a really nice playing bass, but I couldn't tell you what the tone was really like, I never got the chance to play it thru a good amp. Wish I had it now.

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My first bass was a Red SG copy short scale loved it.. for a while i thought it was a gibson even took it to a local dealer to find out he did have to look at it for a min. he said it didnt have any serial numbers was the give away. I wound up trading it for a black fender squire. and it was not a week when the guy had dropped something in the front and it put a big gash on the front.. wished i had never traded it.. I have not yet found another one like it. it had no name on the headstock but did have the crown in the middle and looked just like angus Youngs guitar. I loved it. and miss it...

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  • 3 months later...

Wow nostalgia night. First bass was a 70's Epiphone Genesis. Bought it in a pawn shop in Salem, Oregon for $150. Black with some monster sounding double coils with tap switches and chrome hardware. Set neck. Looked like Gene Simmons Lebau bass from the early years. Weighed about 11 pounds so it was a grueling practice every night, not to mention gigging. So what did i do, traded it for a set of chevy small block heads for my broke down car and bought a Peavy T40, which weighed about 15 pounds. Now rocking an Ibanez BTB 400QM but awaiting the arrival of a Korean Thunderbird next tuesday. BTB is sold (if i ever get paid). Holding down the bottom end since 1986. cruzerjd

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My first bass was a Silvertone Dolphin-head Danelectro as in the pic below. The picture is not of mine ... I traded in in on a Vox Cougar in '68. I sure wish I had it back. I've sold the Vox too although that was just 4-5 years ago. It was cool but I don't miss the Vox much.

post-53038-040670300 1359500276_thumb.jpg

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Around 1972/73 I bought a used 60's Kalamazo blue bass single pickup , blue oolour out of a pawn shop in Killeen Texas. I was stationed at Ft Hood at the time. I have no idea what I did with it. I guess I traded it off to another pawn shop. Wish I still had it.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

My first bass was a Gibson EB 3, bought through 'Hy's Pawn Shop" in Nashville. Hy ordered through Manny's in New York (if my memory is correct), which really pissed off Mr. Stone, the manager of Hewgley's Music Shop, which was the only authorized Gibson Dealer in Nashville at that time. I had tried to buy it at Hewgley's but they were of no help in getting it financed, and HY simply walked down Deadrick Street with me to Commerce union Bank, and basically co-signed for me to take a loan out for the bass (this was all pre credit cards).

 

It was a great bass, but as we started getting into recording, the recording engineer kept hearing intonation problems with the bass (probably was simply my playing!). We discussed that, and decided the short scale was causing the problems, so I went to Hewgley's this time and ordered a long scale Kalamazoo (USA) (about 1963/64?), because I liked the Gibson, but they didn't have a long scale at the time. I eventually caved and sold the Kalamazoo, and bought a Fender Precision...but always liked the EB3 the best.

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I got a Vantage something or another in the late 1970s. It was very heavy and had neck dive that wouldn't stop. It looked OK and probably sounded OK through decent equipment, but I didn't have decent equipemnt to play it through. I gave it to my youngest brother when I got the Free Bass. The Free Bass was a Coral Wasp or something like that, made by Danelectro, that had been found in a bathtub in an abandoned building. It got its name because I got it for free, and at that time, crack cocaine was called free base. I thought it was funny. It probably isn't so funny now, but when you are 19 or so, a whole lot of things are funny that turn out to be less funny later.

 

The Free Bass sounded awful, so I took it apart and discovered that the neck had been shimmed up with matchbooks. Eight cents of change made for much better shims, and it needed shims since the neck was non-adjustable. It weighed almost nothing and had a double octave, short-scale neck that was very narrow. Beats me what strings were on it, because I just left the ones it had on it the whole time I had it. It looked a lot like a Fender Mustang, and it was black, with a mother-of-toilet-seat plastic pickguard and about a dozen switches and knobs that did who knows what. The paint was thrashed. I played that thing from about 1979 to 1983, when I was living in New York. I just happened to have it with me in the East Village one day, and wandered into a guitar shop on St. Mark's Place. A guy there had to have it and offered me $300 cash on the spot. The bass had a bit of neck dive, and I figured I could do better anyway, so I took the cash without thinking about it much. Only problem is that it left me without a bass.

 

From there, I wandered over to the West Village and into another music shop, just to look around. I hadn't decided what to do about being bassless, or anything else for that matter. The shop had an EB-2 with two pickups that they said was a 1965. It isn't, but who cares. Nobody much wanted Gibson anything at that point, let alone an archtop Gibson bass. They were asking $350 plus tax for the EB-2, and I had $300. I offered them $300 including all taxes and everything else. They took it. I rode the subway up to 96th and then walked home to 102nd with that bass - no case, no gig bag, just the bass. I eventually got a gig bag and then about five years ago, I got a case for it. It's a miracle nothing bad has ever happend to it, since it got schlepped around all over the place in a gig back, my son "borrowed" it for a while, and I have played it a whole lot. It's probably one of about a dozen Gibson basses from that era that has never had a neck or headstock repair. The finish is work and dinged, but it is still very presentable and doesn't have any holes. I don't think I'll ever let it go, and it's original purchase price was the eight cents of change I used to shim up the neck on the Free Bass.

 

I don't miss the Vantage or the Free Bass, but they served their purposes.

 

The Free Bass looked like this guitar, except it had four strings:

 

1970s-coral-hornet-vincent-bell-model-guitar-vintage-electric-guitar.jpg

 

The Vantage looked like this:

 

Vantage-bass-1-768x1024.jpg

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Anybody who would actually pay real cash money for one of those old Vantage basses should have a quick trip to some kind of therapy, because it is a sign of some latent mental issue that could come out at an unfortunate time. Like, for example, paying real cash money for a Vantage bass that is like holding a stick with a boat anchor on the wrong end.

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Before my Gibby Grabber (circa 1976) I had what could only be descibed as an Ibby 'Shield Bass'

 

It was kinda a simplified '59 EBO* meets an Alembic style, & I've never seen another one like it since...

 

... but that sucker REALLY had dive issues [scared]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ-xt1hjC1g

 

* 1959 Gibby EBO (modded tuners) [love]

gibsonebo1959cherrys1.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

My first bass, and the one that went through 14 years playing in bar bands with no backup was a late1950's Danelectro Longhorn, copper sunburst long scale...came with a factory case, and I have never seen another case like it. GREAT sound great neck...paid about $125 for it in 1962...probably cost as much as my old car now, but I'd love to have another original...

 

mark

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My very first bass is the Ibanez Blazer BL 700 NT (natural) # 823106 I bought new on April 6th, 1982. I added a serial/parallel switch what top-endorser Hellmut Hattler (Kraan) had done, too, as I found out years later, and a Fender thumbrest. This bass was a favorite among my friends especially for recording and TV gigs, and so it looks a little worn. In 1996, my later and meanwhile divorced wife threw a 2AA MagLite torch on it while I was practicing which left two deep scars on its top.

 

I still play it regularly although there is competition since exactly five months. When my drummer who owns a digicam will be back from his vacation, I will post pics.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My first and only bass that I've had before my Thunderbird was a black '87 Peavey Patriot. It wasn't a terribly expensive bass, but man, was it solidly built, and pretty damn good sounding with the Super Ferrite pickup. I only had a first gen Peavey Minx amp, but it was plenty to piss off the neighbors in the apartment complex. I ended up selling it when our kid was on the way. I would definitely like to have another one, or a Peavey Foundation. I also had a Washburn 5 string for a couple of weeks, mostly bought because I got an insane deal at one of the local pawn emporiums on it. I ended up using it for trade on the Tbird. I even doubled my money on it.

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  • 4 months later...

kent......with a supro amp

WishI had them both now.......or at least the supro!

 

 

Found this old Kent on ebay and bought it.

After I got it I remembered how cheap Kent's were....

stll got it but I got a Allen Woody for something to play.

 

 

kentbass.jpg

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I bought a bass in 1985. It was made by Lado, a Toronto guitar maker. It was basically a Precision copy, metallic orange, white pickguard with a "hockey stick" headstock. I picked it up after my first band broke up and I switched from rhythm guitar to bass, we went from a five piece to a three piece. I was the singer in both bands. Like a fool I was young and stupid and sold it for drinking money after college and we all went our separate ways and I have regretted it ever since. I wish I had a picture.

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  • 1 month later...

OK, as I said above, I wanted an old Danelectro Longhorn bass...but the few I found were far too expensive and many of those had been either modded or "restored", so I looked around and found this guy from a few years ago, made in Korea...

 

DSCN2022_zps08a7f241.jpg

 

I have to get used to the color but I guess it's no more outlandish than copper burst. It plays really well, and looks barely used.

 

And here is a GREAT pic of my old and long lost Dano Longhorn bass...Played one just like it for almost 15 years in bar bands, still working fine when I sold it.

 

http://drowninginguitars.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/danelectro-longhorn-bass-4423.jpg

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My 1st bass was a 1964 Fender P bass bought in 1964.

My 2nd bass was my 1967 Rivoli Cherry Bass, bought in 1967 and still owned by me.

In 2012 I added a MIM J bass

In 2013 a Ibenez 5 string Soundgarden

In 2014 a Fender Deluxe J Bass MIM (sold the standard MIM)

Bought and subsequently sold a 2009 Standard J Bass Made in US but I preferred the MIM deluxe feel and sound

just added a 2013 Gibson EB

post-63567-007982100 1393030667_thumb.jpg

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