My First Bass

The very first bass I bought was a Carvin V440T that I bought in 1986 at the urging of my best friend who played guitar.  It was an eighties thing and looking back now seems ostentatious especially in light the fact that I did not even know how to play it.

It was a very well-made instrument and crazy expensive.  I think I paid over a thousand dollars for it which was a lot of money back then.  While the tremolo was an interesting piece of gear to have I rarely used it and as I developed as a bassist and became more focused on tuning I found that it impacted my tuning.

I left music for a number of years to start a family and never gave music a second thought until my best friend, who had continued to play music, dragged me back into it about five years ago. The band we were in at the time was into drop tuning and as they dropped lower and lower I was less able to properly intonate the bass.  Ultimately I ended up buying a new ESP -LTD 204SM and then as tunings dropped even lower an ESP-LTD B5E.

The Carvin V440T was sold earlier this year with mixed emotions.  While I play five string basses exclusively now I will always remember my first bass fondly.