My start was a piano... a freebie from a friend of my mum; all we had to pay was delivery which was about £5 ($15?) back in the late sixties... had a couple of dead keys but that was the primary start for me... Started double bass at school about '68 and took an interest in drums too but didn't get my first electric (an EB2 copy with a single pup by the neck, floating bridge and a bolt-on neck) until I started work... I had no financial "free" help with any of my own musical purchases... dad had a strict policy of "if you want something, you have to work for it..." He did act as a guarantor for my RD when I bought that on hp over 9 months though but the PC and the Hiwatt purchases were almost all hard-work cash or short term loans...
Like Dave mentioned about about applying yourself, I gave it 18 months once I had a trade behind me but went back to the "real world" in '83...
The only part I have of the EB copy is the name-plate off the neck... Like Stjofön, I wish I had kept this bass, but I remember Scott talking about that first Hofner and regretting letting her go, and replacing years later... I have had a watch on e8ay for a few years and only seen one come up, but I would never dream of parting with what the beast went for, considering it was soo bad, in reality, that it would only have been a wall-hanger...