Your first crappy bass

slinkp · November 15, 2011, 09:56:29 AM

Cruising around ebay I found a dead ringer for my first bass.
Montaya short-scale. Mine cost $50 used at the local Sam Ash store. It had a warped neck and I now think the tone control was probably shorted to all mud all the time.
Even though it was total crap, it brings back fond memories.

Who else started out on a piece of junk?

Droombolus · November 15, 2011, 10:29:53 AM

A Welson baritone was all I could effort at the time .....

I modded it with tuners from my brother's Egmond ( another piece of crap ) later on .......

ack1961 · November 15, 2011, 10:34:18 AM

Brownsville ($119 Bass Pack) P/J is now a clock on the Jam Room wall.

godofthunder · November 15, 2011, 12:14:27 PM

My "first" bass was a Kingston Jazz bass wanna be terrible piece of work it's a wonder I stuck with it. My folks insisted I rent that before they bought me a bass, they wanted to see if i would stick with it. I did find one on ebay a few years ago ....................just as bad as I remember.

slinkp · November 15, 2011, 01:24:49 PM

Wow, Scott, I wonder if that Kingston came from the same factory. The pickups look very similar, and I believe under the bridge cover the montaya has the same kind of semi-adjustable bridge - where the E and A strings share "intonation".

dadagoboi · November 15, 2011, 01:37:13 PM

I made my first bass by removing 2 tuners and 2 strings from a crap Italian electric guitar.

Then I got one of these, no name and no trussrod. Kent? Teisco? It LOOKED like the bass on the cover of my bass scales book and on the Venture's "Walk Don't Run" album...sort of.

Then I got my EBO. If you look closely you can see the filled screw holes where I surface mounted the 1/4" pup from the Teisco/Kent in an attempt to get something less than mud from it (B-18 amp, what a combination!). I added the Tele pup much later.

Aussie Mark · November 15, 2011, 02:54:27 PM

Mine was an Ibanez Tele bass, exactly like the one on the left. I bought it used in 1974.

slinkp · November 15, 2011, 03:47:41 PM

Mark, was Ibanez crappy back then?

I still have my much-hacked Ibanez Blazer circa 1982. That was a great P-bass.

gweimer · November 15, 2011, 03:53:30 PM

My first crappy bass was a Vox Mark IV Teardrop. Truly an awful bass. The sad thing is that I spent $100 on that bass (rented it for $5/mo. from the local music store) because I couldn't afford the $135 for the other bass that was in the store. That bass was a green Epiphone Embassy. I've never seen another green one since then.

Aussie Mark · November 15, 2011, 04:22:42 PM

Quote from: slinkp on November 15, 2011, 03:47:41 PM
Mark, was Ibanez crappy back then?

They weren't too good until around 1974. Mine was a 1971 model or thereabouts. It was ok for a 13yo kid to play, for sure.

godofthunder · November 15, 2011, 05:22:06 PM

Mark my cousin started out on the exact same bass ! Right about '74!

Quote from: Aussie Mark on November 15, 2011, 04:22:42 PM
They weren't too good until around 1974. Mine was a 1971 model or thereabouts. It was ok for a 13yo kid to play, for sure.

Pilgrim · November 15, 2011, 05:33:06 PM

I can't admit to my first bass being crappy. Although later I had a really crappy violin bass (that lived in the closet), I started with the '63 P I still have:

OldManC · November 15, 2011, 06:44:43 PM

Mine was as bad as most of yours. Kent hollow body similar to this one. I put Model G pickups in it and it squealed like a stuck pig.

hieronymous · November 15, 2011, 07:13:12 PM

Quote from: OldManC on November 15, 2011, 06:44:43 PM
I put Model G pickups in it and it squealed like a stuck pig.

Is that good or bad?

OldManC · November 15, 2011, 07:45:06 PM

Definitely bad. I filled the body with thick foam and that helped a bit, but in reality that bass was beyond help. My next was a Precision Special I bought on layaway in 1980 (finally took it home in May of '81). HUGE difference!