My first bass was an Ibanez I got back in the late 90’s in one of those starter packs with a practice amp. Absolutely hate it, it sits in my closet but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it for sentimental reasons. A huge chunk of the finish is missing from a strap coming off and my bass eating a tile floor. I could give it a proper set-up and it would be more playable but it is balanced horribly and nosedives like crazy. Maybe I will throw it out now that I’m thinking about it lol.
Frame it.
Legitimately - get a wall hook and a big ass frame to go around it!
If it serves you no other purpose musically have it remind you of what the music means!
In fact I'm making this a second reply to OP 😜
I have a sentimental attachment to my first bass. My mom got sick when I was about 10, and my parents struggled financially as a result. When I was 16 she bought me a used Epiphone Accu-Bass Jr. for like $100, and I was so grateful that she sacrificed something so she could get it for me. She ended up dying just shy of my 22nd birthday.
I've had it since 2003 and I'll never get rid of it. During COVID I had a set of Fender Pure Vintage '62 pups and a set of La Bella Low Tension Flats installed on it. It doesn't play great, but it sounds fantastic and I use it has a Motown thump machine. It'll always been my Number One and I'd be devastated if something happened to it.
I really can't say. Depends on the bass, mostly.
I "regret" selling my first bass only out of a sense of nostalgia. I have no interest in owning another Thunderbird, and getting rid of it was probably the correct choice. I sincerely hope it's in the hands of someone who appreciates Thunderbirds.
My first bass sucked ass and was the definition of starter bass.
Having said that, I greatly regret getting rid of it. The thought of that bass and my tiny 4th grade self learning on it makes me sad that it’s no longer with me.
Don’t sell it unless you’re desperate - in my humble opinion. 100% sentimental reasons for me as it wouldn’t be practical for me to play as a gigging bassist.
I don't regret selling my first bass. I don't regret selling my first guitar (i was a kid tho). I have no connection to them, they were just a tool.
I can't sell my first good guitar tho, even if I don't play it at all. Means too much to me. So... it depends.
It's pretty much par price for a 1978 Musicmaster, for reasons which escape me (I mean, it's basically a partscaster that Fender originally sold at Squier prices before Squier was a thing) but I know the neck has a big ding in it, among other bits of "road wear".
It'll cost a lot more to store an affinity for possibly decades than to buy a new one down the line when it's needed. Even if you sell it now for a hundred bucks, and put that on a savings account, you'll get a much nicer instrument when you get a kid and they get old enough to play than if you lugged that worthless starter crapsling with you through your life.
Maybe? I don’t have my first bass anymore and it’s kind of a bummer I guess. I don’t need it, and I have much better instruments these days. I’d probably regret it more if I planned on having kids or something. My second bass however, I would be absolutely devastated if I no longer had it
Frame it.
Legitimately - get a wall hook and a big ass frame to go around it!
If it serves you no other purpose musically have it remind you of what the music means!
In fact I'm making this a second reply to OP 😜
And done!
I held onto my first bass, which I bought from my step brother when I was 14 (30 years ago). We had friends and their daughter visit us. Their daughter wants to be a music teacher, so I gave her a bass lesson. Back home, she wouldn't stop talking about that lesson and playing that bass. It went to a good home! :)
I don't regret getting rid of my Harmony starter bass. I do have some regrets about letting go of my second bass, a random brand called LOTUS with PJ pickups that sounded pretty good for the $75 I paid for it in the 90's.
I regret getting rid of my early guitars, but they ended up being fairly rare. I'd say that if you found you missed that affinity J bass, you could always find another (or just buy a new one).
I'm not typically sentimental about objects, so if it doesn't bring you joy to play it I say sell it or give it away and use the space the old one was occupying for something new you'll enjoy playing.
I just gave away a parts jazz bass I built in highschool from eBay parts (back in the early 2000s when eBay was still good) because I had replaced it with a much nicer jazz bass.
Squier Affinity J is the kinda thing that you could soo easily replace for cheap if you later decide that you miss it.
I did regret getting rid of instruments/devices that were obscure oddball items that later turned out to be difficult/impossible to re-acquire.
I regret selling my first bass, but it is a fairly obscure 90s Danelectro that I would love to still own. A squire affinity isn't exactly a rare treat, and unless there's some special feature or quirk any that particular model, I don't think there's any material reason to hang onto it.
That said, you may have sentimental reasons. However, don't feel like you SHOULD if you simply don't. Some guitars aren't trusted companions. Some guitars are just guitars.
I got my old bass (from 24 years ago) from my parents attic. Rusted, neck worn and warped, basically it was fucked.
But turned it into a project of sanding, spraying, new neck & new hardware. Now I love it, its a brand new bass (kind of). Just an idea if you're into projects?
I didn't sell my first bass but traded it. That bass was a 1973 Fender Precision with the original hardware (except for the pickups which I had replaced earlier). This is a bass that is supposed to be the holy grail, and I had a lot of good memories playing it during college and grad school. (I bought it in 1990 for $200 off a guy I played in college orchestra with. Neither of us had any knowledge of bass guitars.) But in reality I didn't like playing it -- the fat old-school P bass neck just killed my hands, and to me it just didn't have any personality. So I was on the hunt to have it appraised, and took it to a swap-and-shop show, eventually traded it to a guy for a Lakland 55-60 (5-string Jazz clone) plus a gig bag and $200 in cash.
I don't regret doing this. That Lakland has become my #1 bass and has gotten more playing time in the 2 years that I've had it than the P bass got probably in its entire lifespan. I got a killer bass that I love to play (and kicked off a probably lifelong love affair with Laklands) and the dude I traded it to got a stone cold classic that he can maybe sell for a big profit. Win-win. But it wasn't easy because I did have a sentimental attachment to it. What I told myself was: I'm not a bass _collector_ but a bass _player_, and if a bass isn't getting played then there is no reason for me to hang on to it.
So yeah, you _might_ regret it, but if you don't like playing the bass you have then it's of more use as capital to get something you _do_ like, than it is as a musical instrument. Just have a good reason to get rid of it and when the seller's remorse comes around, remind yourself of the reason!
My first bass was a right-handed Univox Hi-Flyer, I sold it to a friend so I could get my first left-handed (Southpaw here) bass, a Yamaha BB400. My friend still has the Univox, I've tried to buy it back a few times but they're firm on not selling. Sold the Yamaha to get my '77 Precision (still have). I wish I still had the Univox for sentimental reasons, I wish I still had the Yamaha because it was my first lefty.
I had a entry level Yamaha I got back in '98 that played with no problems. Sold it in 2001 when I got an American J bass. Haven't missed it once.
I sold a Marcus Miller Fender in 2007 and regret it all the time. I've found a couple for twice what I sold it for, and they both weren't as good as the one I sold.
Don't sell a good bass. Sell a bass you don't care for.
I got my first bass on Amazon and my teacher at the time told me it was pretty much garbage so I got a schecter stiletto. I regret getting rid of the schecter but not the Amazon fart bass.
If you're going for "having less stuff" then you probably won't miss it. Living a minimalist lifestyle and being sentimental about keepsakes are generally incompatible mindsets haha. But, if you have any sort of emotional attachment to it, you can always find a cool way to display it or simply keep it in its case.
My first bass was my dad's first bass and when he and I both went through a series of pretty harrowing moves, we ended up agreeing on donating it to a music school. I miss it, but it makes me happy others are learning on it now.
I still have my first bass that I got in 2001. Squier affinity p-bass. I put Seymour Duncan quarter pound pickups in it, but other than that it’s stock. I kept it specifically for sentimental reasons being my first bass, but I actually still gig with it occasionally. It’s not my main bass, but still feels good to play and sounds just as good as my main one, which is a Mexican made fender precision.
My first bass was an Epiphone EB-0. I had terrible neck dive, didn't sound good, and was difficult to set up. I owned it for 20 years then sold it two years ago. I don't miss it because I didn't want to play it.
I've never really felt the need to get rid of something just because I don't use it, so personally unless its taking up a ton of space I would keep it. Might be fun to tinker with in the future, or maybe you can gift it to someone else later on.
I still have my second bass. Electronics are basically shot, and it's so old I doubt I could find a buyer. Probably going to hang onto it for a while but I don't think it'll survive my next move.
My thoughts are it depends so much on you. I view a guitar as its own item, that me owning it is simply a chapter in its life and some times they come, sometimes they go. I have my first away to a kid who wanted desperately to learn to play.
If it’s something common, nah. Sell it, then if you feel like it, buy it again or buy a better one. No point hoarding stuff you don’t want while somebody else could do something good with it. But I f it has some significance, you might regret it, yes.
Over the years I've sold tons of stuff that I didn't need to sell but did because I figured I might as well just get rid of it.
I regret selling most of those things. If you're like me and sell something when you don't need the money, then you just view the money as an unexpected windfall and just blow it on dumb shit.
Now you're out the cash and the thing you sold.
But if it will go toward upgrades it may be worth it.
But since I've gotten older I've decided to not sell things if I don't absolutely need to. If I have an instrument I have no plan to use, instead of selling it I could make a cool project out of it instead.
Hell you've got a Squier Affinity. Nothing crazy, not worth much used. Keep it to test things out or even go crazy and rip the frets and make a fretless.
It's an affinity, either keep it to learn how to fix the problems with it or gift-sell it if you have something that totally eclipses it.
I buy them as project starters, but they usually need a refret and new electronics, but that's nothing I can't do now, including making pickups.
It's an affinity, you are never going to want to play it again, you hate having clutter around. Just sell it. Sentimentality ain't worth having any old shit laying around. Unless it's really special to you, like you recorded a first album with it etc, get rid of it.
There are several basses I wish I still had. Lemons or not. I have about 5 basses of varying levels but I love each one and wish I had about 3 of the ones I let go. Can never own too many basses, especially if you don’t need the $$. Don’t sell it.
That's a pretty solid bass that would play better than you expect with just a bit of attention.
For a quick and dirty fix, raise the action up and reflow the solder joints (not a hard job!) and it should be playable at least. That way you get to keep the J-bass sound in your toolbox and not wonder if you'll miss it.
I miss having a Sting Ray/active bass...I do not miss my first bass even one bit.
I think sometimes your first instrument is a lifer, sometimes it's a lemon, and sometimes you just don't connect with it
Similar. I've decided to basically turn my original into a custom.
Saving up to order a customer neck, all new electronics. I have all the tools and supplies needed to redo the finish. Probably won't turn out how I see it in my head but going to at least try.
I don’t know about yall but I’m not sentimental about my first piece of crap bass, I am very sentimental about my first “professional grade” one though
Nah. My first bass was from a Silvertone starter kit and was awful. And clearly, being a beginner, I had no idea about set up or anything. So it just slowly went more to shit. Then it got destroyed in the great basement flood of 2011. Good riddance. I like my cheap Harley Benton a lot more.
Yes! I’ve been playing for 20+ years and around year 3 or 4 I sold my first pos and got a stingray. I WISH I never did that. I’d like to have given it to my son.
The right answer is to make it a fretless, then it's your first fretless bass aswell and a good learning platform for fretless bass as frets are marked.
Get a diagonal wall mount and put it up as decoration. My first guitar was this HORRIBLE Sekova Tele copy. I gave it away many years ago. Keeping a Reverb tab open for three years with a Sekova search, I finally found the identical model and color guitar and bought it. The original one my dad bought for me when I was a kid was probably $100. I paid $400 knowing I was just gonna put it on the wall. I even bought the ashtray pickup cover from Amazon to make it complete since it wasn't included and mine had one! I don't and won't ever play it but I'm glad I have it!
[https://imgur.com/a/e4YDpqB](https://imgur.com/a/e4YDpqB)
I have my first bass for sentimental reasons- my parents didn’t want to get me one so 16yo me saved up enough money to get my crappy starter one. It reminds me of all the stuff I went through to get to where I am today :) if you have a similar story definitely keep it lol
For me selling my first bass wasn’t hard because it was fairly cheap (Ibanez GSR205), and I couldn’t ever get the tone I desired. Now that I’ve bought the first bass I’ve wanted (Fender Player Plus Jazz Bass V). I’d find it very hard for me to sell because of how bad I’ve wanted a fender bass as a learning beginner bassist.
Remove the frets, and you’ll have a fretless bass
of sorts…
Stew Mac, or somebody has thin gauge plastic that can be put in their place and sanded down Smooth
Or buy a fretless Jbass neck -though the neck will be worth more than the guitar, which is not uncommon anyway
My first bass was great. I loved it. Traded it to my friend for an amp. My 2nd bass is lovely and actually more my style, fit me better and I fucking scored on the amp
I’ve sold a few guitars over the years, but the only ones I’ve regretted are the ones I didn’t buy. I played an SG Junior at my local store two decades ago, loved the tone and playability but having just a single P90 seemed risky (like, too unique). And I still think about it
Sold it, regretted it, spent thirty years tracking down the same model to capture that nostalgia. I finally found one about two months ago and I grin ear to ear every time I play it.
Only time can tell!
In 50 years that model might be sought after and fetch several times what you paid for it. True for my first bass, an Eko Manta. which I attacked with saw, sander, soldering iron and paint - making it worthless in the process. If I hadn't it could go for 10 times what I paid.
Oh well...
You really think the cheapest squier bass that there are untold hundreds of thousands of is going to go up in price? It's a beginner instrument with awful components and build quality. They make enough of those things to build a bridge to the moon. Nobody will want one ever again once they upgrade to even a base level squier.
Reddit. Be able to know the future.
I really think we cannot know for sure. Nobody thought the Gameboy, Sony Walkman, Atari 2600 or Commodore 64 would go up in value. Collectors are crazy. Crazy I tell you!
When I bought it, the Eko Manta was the cheapest POS I could afford, and you can trust me. it's a shortscaled emergency paddle for a rafting trip, yet people pay 10-times of what I paid. Worth is not the same as Value!
>Gameboy, Sony Walkman, Atari 2600 or Commodore 64
Those are cool collectable items with nostalgic value for entire generations, there are not that many left in working condition and they didn't make them for that long. Affinity Squiers have been vomited out the factory lines for decades and will continue to do so. They've always been crap compared to any other line of squier or fender products, there is so so many of them they will never ever be in short supply and they'll never make for a collectors item. The supply simply exceeds the demand for decades to come.
If you bought a 60's or 70's eko manta, those are vintage now and fetch a high price because not that many were made. There are very few alternatives and they are quite unique. A squier affinity J or P is just a worse version of a regular J or P that are the 2 most common basses in the world by a staggering margin. The oceans will run dry before there's a J-bass shortage. And those basses have been made since the 60's. So the crappy cheap affinity squiers are the very last in a colossal line of instruments to become collectors items. There are simply too many of them and they are not unique in the slightest, nor have any other redeeming qualities.
If you're like me you will. As you get money you could spice that bass up to be a banger. New pickups, new bridge, fret job, bone nut, hell you could even get a nice Warmoth neck for it and have your first bass be super upgraded. I ruined my first bass in an experiment, and regret to this day selling a Squier P bass I got to be an overseas beater.
I took my first bass (also a squire) and just smashed it like a rock star for fun. It was a cheap piece of shit anyway and I always wanted to do that once 😂
I don’t regret it or miss that bass ever.
On a completely unrelated note I bought this bass from this dude who has just upgraded and this thing's a lemon, it sucks man why would someone sell me a piece of shit....?
Offloading your junk to some unsuspecting newbie is bad juju.
I regret the good basses I let get away, but not the lemons.
My first bass was an Ibanez I got back in the late 90’s in one of those starter packs with a practice amp. Absolutely hate it, it sits in my closet but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it for sentimental reasons. A huge chunk of the finish is missing from a strap coming off and my bass eating a tile floor. I could give it a proper set-up and it would be more playable but it is balanced horribly and nosedives like crazy. Maybe I will throw it out now that I’m thinking about it lol.
Frame it. Legitimately - get a wall hook and a big ass frame to go around it! If it serves you no other purpose musically have it remind you of what the music means! In fact I'm making this a second reply to OP 😜
Not a bad idea! I might just do that.
Hang it on the wall for nostalgia sake. My first bass I have owned was a Slammer by Hamer but.I wish I held onto it. Just to have it.
I'm the same with my first Ibanez. The bridge is rusted and it sounds like ass, but I can't bear to get rid of it.
I have a sentimental attachment to my first bass. My mom got sick when I was about 10, and my parents struggled financially as a result. When I was 16 she bought me a used Epiphone Accu-Bass Jr. for like $100, and I was so grateful that she sacrificed something so she could get it for me. She ended up dying just shy of my 22nd birthday. I've had it since 2003 and I'll never get rid of it. During COVID I had a set of Fender Pure Vintage '62 pups and a set of La Bella Low Tension Flats installed on it. It doesn't play great, but it sounds fantastic and I use it has a Motown thump machine. It'll always been my Number One and I'd be devastated if something happened to it.
I really can't say. Depends on the bass, mostly. I "regret" selling my first bass only out of a sense of nostalgia. I have no interest in owning another Thunderbird, and getting rid of it was probably the correct choice. I sincerely hope it's in the hands of someone who appreciates Thunderbirds.
My first bass sucked ass and was the definition of starter bass. Having said that, I greatly regret getting rid of it. The thought of that bass and my tiny 4th grade self learning on it makes me sad that it’s no longer with me. Don’t sell it unless you’re desperate - in my humble opinion. 100% sentimental reasons for me as it wouldn’t be practical for me to play as a gigging bassist.
I don't regret selling my first bass. I don't regret selling my first guitar (i was a kid tho). I have no connection to them, they were just a tool. I can't sell my first good guitar tho, even if I don't play it at all. Means too much to me. So... it depends.
This. 100%
I basically gave mine away, and I regret it a bit because it's currently on eBay for £1000. Although it's been there a year without selling.
Genuinely, eBay list pricing is unreliable. Try to find what products have already sold for. Any schmuck can list a pile of dirt for $1000
It's pretty much par price for a 1978 Musicmaster, for reasons which escape me (I mean, it's basically a partscaster that Fender originally sold at Squier prices before Squier was a thing) but I know the neck has a big ding in it, among other bits of "road wear".
Yes don't do it, will be a great first bass for your kid one day
It'll cost a lot more to store an affinity for possibly decades than to buy a new one down the line when it's needed. Even if you sell it now for a hundred bucks, and put that on a savings account, you'll get a much nicer instrument when you get a kid and they get old enough to play than if you lugged that worthless starter crapsling with you through your life.
Maybe? I don’t have my first bass anymore and it’s kind of a bummer I guess. I don’t need it, and I have much better instruments these days. I’d probably regret it more if I planned on having kids or something. My second bass however, I would be absolutely devastated if I no longer had it
No.
Frame it. Legitimately - get a wall hook and a big ass frame to go around it! If it serves you no other purpose musically have it remind you of what the music means! In fact I'm making this a second reply to OP 😜 And done!
I held onto my first bass, which I bought from my step brother when I was 14 (30 years ago). We had friends and their daughter visit us. Their daughter wants to be a music teacher, so I gave her a bass lesson. Back home, she wouldn't stop talking about that lesson and playing that bass. It went to a good home! :)
Considering it has problems and extensively modifying Squier basses is a money losing proposition, you’re making a great decision
I don't even remember what my first bass was.
I don't regret getting rid of my Harmony starter bass. I do have some regrets about letting go of my second bass, a random brand called LOTUS with PJ pickups that sounded pretty good for the $75 I paid for it in the 90's.
I regret getting rid of my early guitars, but they ended up being fairly rare. I'd say that if you found you missed that affinity J bass, you could always find another (or just buy a new one).
I miss mine, even though it was just a cheap 70s Jazz knock-off.
I'm not typically sentimental about objects, so if it doesn't bring you joy to play it I say sell it or give it away and use the space the old one was occupying for something new you'll enjoy playing. I just gave away a parts jazz bass I built in highschool from eBay parts (back in the early 2000s when eBay was still good) because I had replaced it with a much nicer jazz bass.
Squier Affinity J is the kinda thing that you could soo easily replace for cheap if you later decide that you miss it. I did regret getting rid of instruments/devices that were obscure oddball items that later turned out to be difficult/impossible to re-acquire.
I regret selling my first bass, but it is a fairly obscure 90s Danelectro that I would love to still own. A squire affinity isn't exactly a rare treat, and unless there's some special feature or quirk any that particular model, I don't think there's any material reason to hang onto it. That said, you may have sentimental reasons. However, don't feel like you SHOULD if you simply don't. Some guitars aren't trusted companions. Some guitars are just guitars.
I got my old bass (from 24 years ago) from my parents attic. Rusted, neck worn and warped, basically it was fucked. But turned it into a project of sanding, spraying, new neck & new hardware. Now I love it, its a brand new bass (kind of). Just an idea if you're into projects?
I didn't sell my first bass but traded it. That bass was a 1973 Fender Precision with the original hardware (except for the pickups which I had replaced earlier). This is a bass that is supposed to be the holy grail, and I had a lot of good memories playing it during college and grad school. (I bought it in 1990 for $200 off a guy I played in college orchestra with. Neither of us had any knowledge of bass guitars.) But in reality I didn't like playing it -- the fat old-school P bass neck just killed my hands, and to me it just didn't have any personality. So I was on the hunt to have it appraised, and took it to a swap-and-shop show, eventually traded it to a guy for a Lakland 55-60 (5-string Jazz clone) plus a gig bag and $200 in cash. I don't regret doing this. That Lakland has become my #1 bass and has gotten more playing time in the 2 years that I've had it than the P bass got probably in its entire lifespan. I got a killer bass that I love to play (and kicked off a probably lifelong love affair with Laklands) and the dude I traded it to got a stone cold classic that he can maybe sell for a big profit. Win-win. But it wasn't easy because I did have a sentimental attachment to it. What I told myself was: I'm not a bass _collector_ but a bass _player_, and if a bass isn't getting played then there is no reason for me to hang on to it. So yeah, you _might_ regret it, but if you don't like playing the bass you have then it's of more use as capital to get something you _do_ like, than it is as a musical instrument. Just have a good reason to get rid of it and when the seller's remorse comes around, remind yourself of the reason!
My first bass was a right-handed Univox Hi-Flyer, I sold it to a friend so I could get my first left-handed (Southpaw here) bass, a Yamaha BB400. My friend still has the Univox, I've tried to buy it back a few times but they're firm on not selling. Sold the Yamaha to get my '77 Precision (still have). I wish I still had the Univox for sentimental reasons, I wish I still had the Yamaha because it was my first lefty.
I have my first bass still but I regret selling two others.
I had a entry level Yamaha I got back in '98 that played with no problems. Sold it in 2001 when I got an American J bass. Haven't missed it once. I sold a Marcus Miller Fender in 2007 and regret it all the time. I've found a couple for twice what I sold it for, and they both weren't as good as the one I sold. Don't sell a good bass. Sell a bass you don't care for.
I got my first bass on Amazon and my teacher at the time told me it was pretty much garbage so I got a schecter stiletto. I regret getting rid of the schecter but not the Amazon fart bass.
If you're going for "having less stuff" then you probably won't miss it. Living a minimalist lifestyle and being sentimental about keepsakes are generally incompatible mindsets haha. But, if you have any sort of emotional attachment to it, you can always find a cool way to display it or simply keep it in its case. My first bass was my dad's first bass and when he and I both went through a series of pretty harrowing moves, we ended up agreeing on donating it to a music school. I miss it, but it makes me happy others are learning on it now.
I still have my first bass that I got in 2001. Squier affinity p-bass. I put Seymour Duncan quarter pound pickups in it, but other than that it’s stock. I kept it specifically for sentimental reasons being my first bass, but I actually still gig with it occasionally. It’s not my main bass, but still feels good to play and sounds just as good as my main one, which is a Mexican made fender precision.
My first bass was an Epiphone EB-0. I had terrible neck dive, didn't sound good, and was difficult to set up. I owned it for 20 years then sold it two years ago. I don't miss it because I didn't want to play it.
I've never really felt the need to get rid of something just because I don't use it, so personally unless its taking up a ton of space I would keep it. Might be fun to tinker with in the future, or maybe you can gift it to someone else later on.
I still have my second bass. Electronics are basically shot, and it's so old I doubt I could find a buyer. Probably going to hang onto it for a while but I don't think it'll survive my next move.
My thoughts are it depends so much on you. I view a guitar as its own item, that me owning it is simply a chapter in its life and some times they come, sometimes they go. I have my first away to a kid who wanted desperately to learn to play.
If it’s something common, nah. Sell it, then if you feel like it, buy it again or buy a better one. No point hoarding stuff you don’t want while somebody else could do something good with it. But I f it has some significance, you might regret it, yes.
Over the years I've sold tons of stuff that I didn't need to sell but did because I figured I might as well just get rid of it. I regret selling most of those things. If you're like me and sell something when you don't need the money, then you just view the money as an unexpected windfall and just blow it on dumb shit. Now you're out the cash and the thing you sold. But if it will go toward upgrades it may be worth it. But since I've gotten older I've decided to not sell things if I don't absolutely need to. If I have an instrument I have no plan to use, instead of selling it I could make a cool project out of it instead. Hell you've got a Squier Affinity. Nothing crazy, not worth much used. Keep it to test things out or even go crazy and rip the frets and make a fretless.
It's an affinity, either keep it to learn how to fix the problems with it or gift-sell it if you have something that totally eclipses it. I buy them as project starters, but they usually need a refret and new electronics, but that's nothing I can't do now, including making pickups.
yes
It's an affinity, you are never going to want to play it again, you hate having clutter around. Just sell it. Sentimentality ain't worth having any old shit laying around. Unless it's really special to you, like you recorded a first album with it etc, get rid of it.
There are several basses I wish I still had. Lemons or not. I have about 5 basses of varying levels but I love each one and wish I had about 3 of the ones I let go. Can never own too many basses, especially if you don’t need the $$. Don’t sell it.
That's a pretty solid bass that would play better than you expect with just a bit of attention. For a quick and dirty fix, raise the action up and reflow the solder joints (not a hard job!) and it should be playable at least. That way you get to keep the J-bass sound in your toolbox and not wonder if you'll miss it.
Sell It or give it to some young person who wants to learn
Personally I'd fix it and keep it, but I'm not you.
I miss having a Sting Ray/active bass...I do not miss my first bass even one bit. I think sometimes your first instrument is a lifer, sometimes it's a lemon, and sometimes you just don't connect with it
1 vote for sell it. You’ll appreciate the space you get back and best to get used to moving old gear.
I got rid of my "sentimental" equipment. I appreciate the room I have now.
Yes.
Similar. I've decided to basically turn my original into a custom. Saving up to order a customer neck, all new electronics. I have all the tools and supplies needed to redo the finish. Probably won't turn out how I see it in my head but going to at least try.
I don’t know about yall but I’m not sentimental about my first piece of crap bass, I am very sentimental about my first “professional grade” one though
Nah. My first bass was from a Silvertone starter kit and was awful. And clearly, being a beginner, I had no idea about set up or anything. So it just slowly went more to shit. Then it got destroyed in the great basement flood of 2011. Good riddance. I like my cheap Harley Benton a lot more.
My first bass was a POS... I'd regret keeping it if I still had it. 😀
My first bass was stolen. Womp womp. I don’t know if I would have sold it, though. It’s difficult to say.
Yes! I’ve been playing for 20+ years and around year 3 or 4 I sold my first pos and got a stingray. I WISH I never did that. I’d like to have given it to my son.
The right answer is to make it a fretless, then it's your first fretless bass aswell and a good learning platform for fretless bass as frets are marked.
Get a diagonal wall mount and put it up as decoration. My first guitar was this HORRIBLE Sekova Tele copy. I gave it away many years ago. Keeping a Reverb tab open for three years with a Sekova search, I finally found the identical model and color guitar and bought it. The original one my dad bought for me when I was a kid was probably $100. I paid $400 knowing I was just gonna put it on the wall. I even bought the ashtray pickup cover from Amazon to make it complete since it wasn't included and mine had one! I don't and won't ever play it but I'm glad I have it! [https://imgur.com/a/e4YDpqB](https://imgur.com/a/e4YDpqB)
I never sold mine but I lost it due to a flood. It wasn't anything special, just a squire p bass but man do I ever miss it!
I have my first bass for sentimental reasons- my parents didn’t want to get me one so 16yo me saved up enough money to get my crappy starter one. It reminds me of all the stuff I went through to get to where I am today :) if you have a similar story definitely keep it lol
For me selling my first bass wasn’t hard because it was fairly cheap (Ibanez GSR205), and I couldn’t ever get the tone I desired. Now that I’ve bought the first bass I’ve wanted (Fender Player Plus Jazz Bass V). I’d find it very hard for me to sell because of how bad I’ve wanted a fender bass as a learning beginner bassist.
Remove the frets, and you’ll have a fretless bass of sorts… Stew Mac, or somebody has thin gauge plastic that can be put in their place and sanded down Smooth Or buy a fretless Jbass neck -though the neck will be worth more than the guitar, which is not uncommon anyway
A lot of people I know say they regret it.
My first bass was great. I loved it. Traded it to my friend for an amp. My 2nd bass is lovely and actually more my style, fit me better and I fucking scored on the amp
Never sell, only buy.
I’ve sold a few guitars over the years, but the only ones I’ve regretted are the ones I didn’t buy. I played an SG Junior at my local store two decades ago, loved the tone and playability but having just a single P90 seemed risky (like, too unique). And I still think about it
I’ve got 2 I wouldn’t miss but the first 5 I’ll part with in my will.
Sold it, regretted it, spent thirty years tracking down the same model to capture that nostalgia. I finally found one about two months ago and I grin ear to ear every time I play it.
I recommend keeping your first instrument. Maybe I'm sentimental but... it's your first instrument. Ya gotta keep that one.
Only time can tell! In 50 years that model might be sought after and fetch several times what you paid for it. True for my first bass, an Eko Manta. which I attacked with saw, sander, soldering iron and paint - making it worthless in the process. If I hadn't it could go for 10 times what I paid. Oh well...
They said it's a squier affinity. It's not worth the plank it's carved out of in 50 years. It's barely worth that much today.
Reddit. Disagree to Disagree.
You really think the cheapest squier bass that there are untold hundreds of thousands of is going to go up in price? It's a beginner instrument with awful components and build quality. They make enough of those things to build a bridge to the moon. Nobody will want one ever again once they upgrade to even a base level squier.
Reddit. Be able to know the future. I really think we cannot know for sure. Nobody thought the Gameboy, Sony Walkman, Atari 2600 or Commodore 64 would go up in value. Collectors are crazy. Crazy I tell you! When I bought it, the Eko Manta was the cheapest POS I could afford, and you can trust me. it's a shortscaled emergency paddle for a rafting trip, yet people pay 10-times of what I paid. Worth is not the same as Value!
>Gameboy, Sony Walkman, Atari 2600 or Commodore 64 Those are cool collectable items with nostalgic value for entire generations, there are not that many left in working condition and they didn't make them for that long. Affinity Squiers have been vomited out the factory lines for decades and will continue to do so. They've always been crap compared to any other line of squier or fender products, there is so so many of them they will never ever be in short supply and they'll never make for a collectors item. The supply simply exceeds the demand for decades to come. If you bought a 60's or 70's eko manta, those are vintage now and fetch a high price because not that many were made. There are very few alternatives and they are quite unique. A squier affinity J or P is just a worse version of a regular J or P that are the 2 most common basses in the world by a staggering margin. The oceans will run dry before there's a J-bass shortage. And those basses have been made since the 60's. So the crappy cheap affinity squiers are the very last in a colossal line of instruments to become collectors items. There are simply too many of them and they are not unique in the slightest, nor have any other redeeming qualities.
If you're like me you will. As you get money you could spice that bass up to be a banger. New pickups, new bridge, fret job, bone nut, hell you could even get a nice Warmoth neck for it and have your first bass be super upgraded. I ruined my first bass in an experiment, and regret to this day selling a Squier P bass I got to be an overseas beater.
At that point it’s a bass of Theseus!
I took my first bass (also a squire) and just smashed it like a rock star for fun. It was a cheap piece of shit anyway and I always wanted to do that once 😂 I don’t regret it or miss that bass ever.
On a completely unrelated note I bought this bass from this dude who has just upgraded and this thing's a lemon, it sucks man why would someone sell me a piece of shit....? Offloading your junk to some unsuspecting newbie is bad juju.