First love (Bass Guitar)

[3notesAbar]

This is a plea to all GAS-HEADs! Please, if you have da time, post about your first bass. Initially I wanted to post this in kopitiam for all musicians, but I think we could start here I think this could be an arousing thread if you talk intimately like this:

"My first bass was a Fernandes 4 string. Proudly sponsored by my dad! Yeah man! Besides feeling lucky, I really touched it alot (really). It almost went wherever I went! Anyway, its has a P + J pickup, small modern body, rosewood fingerboard, and i THINK 24 frets (this was 1995). Passive with Vol Vol Tone controls. Small headstock, satin finished neck, gloss finished body. haiz

I remember selling the bass off after 2-3 years of use. It was around maybe 8/10 condition! Reason why I sold it off was to buy a 6 string Ibanez soundgear. Yeah, I know, ambitious and stupid but what to do lol.

I have fond memories of this bass for a few reasons. One, it was a really good tool for learning during my beginning stages. cmon, PJ setup. Passive but versatile! 4 string?? Can groove, slap, tap, blow strings without worry! It was just that easy to explore on the bass!! And seriously, I have to thank a fellow softie for his advice almost 10 years ago. Paulo! He taught me how to use the volume control to get different sounds off the PJ config. Being the sotong i was, I just turned everything up and fiddled with amps like a champion. That simple advice, showed me how powerful a simple bass is!! Then by chance, I was exposed to Jaco Pastorius and all the other insane bassplayers who carved their names in stone. Whoa. I should stop!! Please post k??"

 

[benjso28]

Hee my turn.

First bass is my 4 string Squier Jazz Bass.
Black body Agathis wood and maple neck with rosewood fretboard, white pickguard.
Bought it at Taka's Swee Lee in 1998 with my own money lah. Haha also bought my peavey Bass amp together.

After few yrs of using it I upgraded the pickup to EMG active which improve the sound alot.
It's also very versatile as you can control the neck pickup, bridge pickup and also got a tone vol.
Later I got a Ne-1parametric EQ to improve the tone.

Nice slap tone, Good sustain,I like the feel of the bass and the sound produce. Tapping also sounds good although the action can go lower abit.
Although this is not a fender bass but the sound produce is amazing.

Recently just bought a companion for my squier.. hee the BB615. Now it wun be lonely.

To read abt my bass can go to http://learnbass.blogspot.com

Got picture lah.

Hee.

Cheers,

Ben

 

[exin]

My first bass was a TGM bass from Ranking ... that time no money lah, sponsored by my bro. It was a dark blue burst bass with 24 frets and a p/j configuration with a vol vol tone knob also.

That time really no money to buy an amp so i plugged my bass through my hi-fi system and just practice. Fun lah, i enjoyed it ... i remember i practiced so much that i fell asleep on my bed with my bass on my body, only to be woken up when my bass dropped on the floor ... sheesh .. hahahah .. it was still in good condition though.

I sold my bass off to a friend then got a hamer cruise bass who took over as my main working bass for more than 3 years before the pickups went buang. Then i upgraded my pickups to Alembics but sold it off after 3-4 months cos i wanted a new bass ... it happens to be hanging in G77 for sale now ... some guy put it there ... but selling for way too much ...

 

[RentaBass]

My first bass was a Peavey item, not even sure of the model, but it was a J/J setup, with the same control config as Jazz Basses.

I bought it first hand from Swee Lee with cash I earned from working at a warehouse and played my very first gig with it.

I do not have much recollection of it, as I was dreaming of owning a Jazz Bass and came across a $265 MIJ Fender Jazz Bass lying in the corner of Cash Convertors (Tampines). I promptly bought the ol' beater, and that has been recognised as my first "serious" bass.

That bass is what some of you now know as Frankenstein. :lol:

 

[wraith]

My first bass was an ibanez SRX500, basswood body, flame maple top with ibanez stock humbuckers. Like many here, it was sponsored, by my parents. It was actually between this bass and the warwick rockbass vampyre, but this won out cuz the flame maple and the sound was just so much sexier.

In terms of tone, the basswood gives this bass a very transparent slap tone which till this day i still find very sweet. Has a very fast and thin neck, but feels a little puny now that i've moved up to 5 stringers. But its probably gonna stay with me as my mainstay 4 stringer for awhile. But thats probably cuz i can't justify spending money on a fender jazz IV now that i mostly play 5 stringers. Hahahahaha

The bass is extremely light, at least much lighter than the rest of my basses, which mostly threaten to break my back. Relatively well balanced too and the stock electronics are pretty good considering the price paid for the whole bass.

 

[wangdexian]

Squier Affinty P-bass.
It's still a dream to play on, even with rusty frets and strings. :lol:

 

[litford]

my first bass was a fender MIM precision which i got second hand. rosewood neck and already fitted with quarter pounders. was a great bass to learn on, but after awhile when your ears get trained, i think the quarter pounders have too much output and lack any real sculpting.

still, at 400, it was affordable and made it easier and more fun to practice and jam with friends instead of having shite for tone basses.

i still use it at times, but am looking to pass it on to someone who will be helped by it the same way it helped me. -)

 

[ravenelle]

ibanez SR300DX in sunburst (korean).

less than $500 at sweelee in 2002. nice chap who sold me the bass (adam teo). its light, 24 frets neck is super thin. active, p/j w phat boost. sound? tone? >.< i dunno how to describe it in words! sounds much nicer w new roundwounds. i guess its alrite to normal ears like mine.

budget ($500) + lightweight + thin neck
thats how i've decided on this baby.

and oh! the finish is sturdy too. mine looked pretty brand new after these past years...

 

[kieran]

First bass, an Ibanez RD500(made in korea), bought in sept 05 at Swee Lee.. Colour looks like an emerald burst but somehow, ibanezregister lists it as transparent blue.. 8O Still looks good to me though, haha.

Also, like most beginners, sponsored by parents.

24 frets, thin neck, though it's slightly on the heavy side. Got used to the weight though. J/MM pups with 2band EQ.

Sounded slightly better than the GSR200 there and the 2band eq helps though i'm still constantly tweaking around to find acceptable tones for different songs.

Swapped out my J pup a few months back to SD Quarter-Pounds and intend to swap the MM pup out too, just to play around..

Love the bass but currently looking to either the Ibanez EDA900 or a Fender Precision or Jazz bass. =)

 

[jbarks]

My first bass was a Samick P/J copy I got for $200... back then I didn't know anything about bass. It's got an Agathis body and maple/rosewood neck.

I plugged it in again and I realised that the playability was actually pretty damn good, but the pickups were weak and lacking in definition. I've been thinking of selling it off but so far I've been holding on to it for sentimental value and to knock around the room with when I'm bored while the Fenders sit downstairs.

 

[rylche]

Mine was a Cort 4-String Active one. pretty good action and output. muddy outputs though. but i still love it!!

 

[dumbcube]

Samick CObra

My first bass was a Samick Cobra. I paid about 800 bucks for it and thought I had a good buy, only to realise that Yamaha ripped me off (funny thing I got a Samick form Yamaha). However, it was a bass of great sentimental value: I learnt everything I know about music on it; first gig; first jams, first instrument paid for with my own money and lotsa other fond memories.

It's even got the signature of Electrico and my Bass teacher Leroy Johnson. The sad part came when my mum dropped it when it was leaning against the wall and the electronics got screwed. Some soldering and stuff was done but it wasn't the same again.

I have since retired it for my Warwick Streamer LX 4 stringer.

However, my Cobra's still with me, displayed with scratches, dings, and faded signatures. I'll never bear to sell it for all its memories.

 

[shinobi]

first bass was an ibanez gsr200 4 string p/j config which is now owned by my drummer. bought it from swee lee where i tested it at length beside a cort of similar specs. in retrospect i should have gotten the cort. but it doesnt matter now 8)

 

[Resetti]

First and only bass is Yamaha bb414. Bought in 2006.

I was a guitarist for many many years, started to actively listen out to basslines in about 1998 lol, long time ago, but still remained a guitarist till 2006.

Anyways I really like this bass. Was an extremely good buy for me. The tone rocks, I prefer the P pickups to the J ones. And especially the neck! It's a very little wider than a Fender Jazz standard, but the neck at the back is very shallow and comfortable. It's heavy but that's the way i like it. Excellent build quality. I will never sell this off.

 

[cherns]

I started off on an Ibanez SRsomething (current model is the SR500) 14 years ago... it was my one and only bass for almost 10 years!

It was a 4 string bass with P/J config, and it had this 3 band preamp with sweepable mids which was completely crap on hindsight, but it sounded great and played great to me then... which was all that mattered

Then I stumbled upon Talkbass... and the rest is history.

 

[TidesOfBlood]

first bass is a Warwick Streamer Standard 4, pilfered off 3notesAbar at a paltry $599. the 1 soapbar version.

i saved like an idiot just to get that money. my mum contributed about 40%. only thing i can say is.. all the days of eating biscuits was worth that one fine day.

deal was cut in the wee hours of the morning. met at peninsula. didn't even bother testing out the bass. the sheer simplicity (1 volume with push/pull for active/passive + 1 bass + 1 treble) of the bass bought me over on the spot.

am still using that very bass at the moment, and i'm pretty sure i'd be using it for a long time to come. had my hands on MIJ Fenders, Squiers and a couple of Ibanez SRs.. my Warwick is still wunderbar.

 

[DarkRed]

first bass fond memories.

squire p/j from swee lee, decent bass for i think $450 or so. i remember learning guitar in church for a while and wanting to upgrade, and as im not the flashy sort and felt the bass suited my personality better. i was also really taken in by 'the groove' and realised a good bassline makes one want to do the chicken neck

remember having trouble with the double vol config, just found it a bit unintuitive. as a consequence my next few basses all had single vol - pickup selector. took a while for me to accept tt. nothing wrong with it, just personal pref and nowadays im open to any config.

donated to a church friend a few years after that. currently pretty beat up with twisted neck n a couple of unsavable dead spots.. but it served me well!

 

[yourgrandpa]

My first was a red Ibanez GSR200 I got from Swee Lee after my Os in 2003. I pretty much learnt from scratch on it and it saw quite a number of gigs and jams. I mainly use my Fender Jazz now (can you blame me? haha), but I don't intend on doing away with the GSR either, for sentimentality.

 

[yuujin]

My first was a borrowed rockbass corvette standard. soon after i bought a cij fender jazz. thats my first actual bass...learnt everything on it. then i found that my machine head was a little faulty so i actually switched all my hardware to black hipshot because of that. then i also switched to bill lawrence pickups and also lastly change to black pickguards and DR red devils...she is such a smexy bass...i call her nozomi meaning hope in japanese..

 

[thomascat]

my 1st bass was john myung 1st version signature.. haha.. as i switch from guitar, thinks that its easy to play as a same 6 string bass.. but i was wrong.. very big finger board, tought muting techniques, damn heavy body.. haha.. but this make me to learn more techniques at 1st (ala myung)...then as long i played, the less string i goes..hahaha.. but no doubt the JM6 is a very good bass for the money...