C'mon...inform us on your worst bass-related experience...anything from a bad gig to a nasty scratch on that new bad-boy...

-Jon:o

Lugging my amp around without a car.

I had a bass that fell off the top off my stack.(no guitar stand) It stayed in tune:D But when I got home seen a crack in the body about 3 inches long

I was helping the Percussion ensemble push a Keyboard with my Bass around my neck (with a strap of course) and then my strap broke and my bass fell onto the street, Making a humongous crack in the wood and shattering most of the finish around the Input jack, I cried and cried and cried then eventually had to kick the crap out of myself.

...OUCH!

sorry to hear that you two.

What kind of basses were these?

what'd you do w/ 'em?

Do you still have 'em?

-Jon:o

Now, what the pic doesn't show is the fact that I got a mild concussion, and that little shot of blood was actualy a gash that almost needed stiches, and the entire white part of that eye was GONE later that night. The whole white was blood red, from a burst vessel or something. Brad Barker and a few kids at my school can vouch for that much.

I drove for about five minutes w/ my little bro in the car, then pulled over, threw up three times, and called my parents to pick me up.

Got out of a day of school for it, but it hurt like hell.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=924949

I was playing a gig many moons ago with my Ric 4001. I broke a string on it (a common thing in those days) and I switched mid-song. A buddy of mine was helping out and was used to the quick switch. I unplugged, tossed him my Ric, and he tossed me my P bass. I plugged in an kept going. What I did not know is that he had not quite caught the bass...it split down the lower neck line 8 inches or so and never played right again. I had it fixed, but it was never the same.

So it goes!

-Trip

Originally posted by Brendan
Now, what the pic doesn't show is the fact that I got a mild concussion, and that little shot of blood was actualy a gash that almost needed stiches, and the entire white part of that eye was GONE later that night. The whole white was blood red, from a burst vessel or something. Brad Barker and a few kids at my school can vouch for that much.

I drove for about five minutes w/ my little bro in the car, then pulled over, threw up three times, and called my parents to pick me up.

Got out of a day of school for it, but it hurt like hell.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=924949

Ok nice descripition of ur injury, Now whats the story behind it? Does it even have to do with bass?

Yessir it does.
Gigging, I was jumping around like the big ape that I am, and my guitarist whacked my face with his inverted ESP heastock (Pointy side UP). When I say whack, I meant I pretty much accidentally gored myself on it. I doubled over, went down on one knee, still playing bass, and screamed like a gorilla.
So, playing bass IS an occupational hazard.

Also had a fugue during a show, but Brad Barker can tell you about that one...He'd also probably be able to explain why me jumping into a headstock would give me a concussion.

One of my worst, is my most embarassing.

I was doing some fill in work playing a wedding reception. While I was walking around a little bit in my area of the stage, my foot hits a wet spot and I go flying right on my back in mid song.

BEST
THREAD
EVER :D

Since I was the only one present, the details are a little sketchy. The following is what I think happened, but I can't be totally sure of anything except the beginning and end events.

Playing my P-bass last year, when the bottom strap button decided it had enough and let go of the body. The headstock promptly came up and whacked me in the temple with the E tuner, which hurt a lot. My hair also managed to get caught up in the tuners somehow. Since I just got clocked, I naturally dropped the bass...Which pulled me after it, on account of my hair. I whacked my head on the headstock again as the bass hit the floor, then I sat down (hard) in confusion...Right on that strap button that started it all.

I've still got a scar on my tush from that day. :(

Originally posted by Only
Since I was the only one present, the details are a little sketchy. The following is what I think happened, but I can't be totally sure of anything except the beginning and end events.

Playing my P-bass last year, when the bottom strap button decided it had enough and let go of the body. The headstock promptly came up and whacked me in the temple with the E tuner, which hurt a lot. My hair also managed to get caught up in the tuners somehow. Since I just got clocked, I naturally dropped the bass...Which pulled me after it, on account of my hair. I whacked my head on the headstock again as the bass hit the floor, then I sat down (hard) in confusion...Right on that strap button that started it all.

I've still got a scar on my tush from that day. :(

Hahaha, that's hilarious. My story is actually about another bassist. I was playing guitar in a band at this one club and we were all hopping around on stage when our bass player kinda just hopped off the side of the stage. Well, actually, only one of his feet went over, and he started falling. He tried to grab on to a small shelf/bar that was on the side of the stage, but managed only to slam his hand onto an ashtray, which went flying into the crowd. He did this a second time and hit a second ashtray with the same results. The crowd was screaming with all the ashes and burnt cigarettes falling on them and our bassist hit the ground. The funny thing is this all happened within about 4 seconds and he never missed a note!

Originally posted by Osama_Spears
...OUCH!

sorry to hear that you two.

What kind of basses were these?

what'd you do w/ 'em?

Do you still have 'em?

-Jon:o

It was an Ibanez SR305 DX

I didnt do anything to fix it, The repair would probably cost more than the bass and it didnt affect the sound so I just left it as is.

Yes I still have it, sitting in my room, waiting to die...

I remember that day, the guy from UPS dropped my bass, and I was so happy to have it, my first bass a Fender Jazz bass Deluxe MIM.

I opened the gig bag en that f#/** touched the body of the bass !!!

I even not touched the bass yet I did a scatch :mad:

I hate gig bag !

does an amp story count ?

I was playing a solo bass concert at the University of Maryland College Park about 10 years ago.

In the middle of the second solo piece I blew both speakers in my amp.

Unfortunately I was using a combo amp so
I could not unplug the cab. Plus, i could not stop playing so I had to play for another 40 minutes with speakers cracking every time the dynamics went above a certain level.

:bawl:

i was defretting my bass, and I found the most stupid thing to do it with. I swiss army knife (non-lockblade) I was on the 19th fret, and it was a deep fret. I pushed the knife really hard in, and the blade closed on my thumb with at least 30/40 lbs of force. it cut throught the top of the nail, strait down to the bone. It bled immediately. I got so nervous, i wrapped my thumb in a sock, and nearly passed out. that was about 1 1/2 weeks ago, and my thumb is doin pretty good know. ive really got in touch with my finger styles :D

.....OUCH!

sorry to hear that dude.

I am interested in going fretless,but I'm not gonna defret the bass I have now (after hearing that;) ) hehe,but I'll just go out and buy a crappy one..

get well soon!

-Jon:o

Originally posted by Brendan
Yessir it does.
Gigging, I was jumping around like the big ape that I am, and my guitarist whacked my face with his inverted ESP heastock (Pointy side UP). When I say whack, I meant I pretty much accidentally gored myself on it. I doubled over, went down on one knee, still playing bass, and screamed like a gorilla.
So, playing bass IS an occupational hazard.

Also had a fugue during a show, but Brad Barker can tell you about that one...He'd also probably be able to explain why me jumping into a headstock would give me a concussion.

And I thought getting sore fingers was bad !

Mine would have to be...

My band was playing a gig in a church for a bunch of friends. Since I was a complete showoff I decided to leap on top of a table to play a solo.

All was going well until the table split in half and I fell towards the floor , cracked my head open and nearly fell unconscious. Then my bass landed in my eye and I passed out.

Ouch.

Well, on my way home from bass lessons once, I got in a car wreck and broke my left collarbone. That sucked. I couldn't play bass for like two weeks. My bass was fine though.

I was levering the fingerboard off an old, crap guitar with a chisel. The fingerboard all of a sudden flung itself off the neck and my right hand still clutching a sharp metal carving instrument flew nicely into my the side of my left.

It didn't hurt all that much, and it didn't bleed as much as I expected it too, but for a while I had some left hand difficulties when playing, which did not make me happy.

It could have been bad, as in can-no-longer-play-bass bad, and I got off with only a scar - I'm never going to disrespect a sharp instrument or power tool around my hands again.

I was wasted playing a show in Madison Wi. I knocked my bass over after the set break. Then neck hit some sharp & made a huge gash in the neck by 15th fret (High G). I do a lot of slides & I slid up the the High A & got the longest splinter ever in my hand.

http://www.mp3.com/leftundone

Ouch...what kind of bass was it? May I ask...


-Jon:o

The time I crapped myself on stage. :rolleyes: :cool:

My old band...

I had to always play the root of the chord so that the guitarist did not sound to much like a fart...

Osama,
It was an Ibanez Soundgear. I still have the bass, but I don't play it anymore.

L.U.
http://www.mp3.com/leftundone

Jumping around, I tripped on a mic stand, then got my balance, tripped on the cable form my bass to the amp, then fell back and hit the bass drum and sat down for the rest of the song :D

Originally posted by Osama_Spears
.....OUCH!

sorry to hear that dude.

I am interested in going fretless,but I'm not gonna defret the bass I have now (after hearing that;) ) hehe,but I'll just go out and buy a crappy one..

get well soon!

-Jon:o Which prooves my point that you need health insurance to play these Damn things call Bass giutars.Swollen&bleeding eye sockets,extreme thumb lacerations,headstocks to the temple

Bass is for the extreme...

I really think so too,I mean it's hard to have good stage prescence w/ the bass...

easy for guitar,it's so tiny and light...

just my .02

-Jon:o

ah the humanity

one time with my old band, they were doin an acoustic song i wasnt playing on it so i had to get of stage. because of the wooden stage it creeked alot and i didnt know this did i jamp off and heard a huge craaaack,:D

i still had it on tape somewhere.

Originally posted by ravelleneil
ah the humanity

one time with my old band, they were doin an acoustic song i wasnt playing on it so i had to get of stage. because of the wooden stage it creeked alot and i didnt know this did i jamp off and heard a huge craaaack,:D

i still had it on tape somewhere.


I think thats BS,you should still be able to stay on the stage if you're in the song or not...I mean,you're in the band...it's your guy's song...

you coulda just went in like the back and drank some water,or maybe you could make a bassline to it...

my .02

-Jon:o

Originally posted by StupidMatt
The time I crapped myself on stage. :rolleyes: :cool:

GG?

Originally posted by Drew Gutrath


GG?


GG??:confused:

Ahem.

I lean down during a gig to adjust something, my bass comes off it's strap and WACKS me in the eye with a tuner......great..... burns like hell.....

I am playing,,,,,when I loose my pick, lean down to grab it real quick, and the same thing happens. I play with it on my leg while my girl comes and puts it back on for me.

I said "Dang, what a dumbass".

2 mintues later.


happened again.


Moral: BUY STRAPLOCKS.

Originally posted by PollyBass
Ahem.

I lean down during a gig to adjust something, my bass comes off it's strap and WACKS me in the eye with a tuner......great..... burns like hell.....

I am playing,,,,,when I loose my pick, lean down to grab it real quick, and the same thing happens. I play with it on my leg while my girl comes and puts it back on for me.

I said "Dang, what a dumbass".

2 mintues later.


happened again.


Moral: BUY STRAPLOCKS.



No,No...

Moral: GET RID OF THE PICKS.
;)

I am not getting straplocks on my bass,I have never gigged but,I've basically been in every position(don't think perverted :rolleyes: ) with this thing...and the strap didn't fall off,nothing

but,one time...I saw this local band play... both guitarist and bassist had these strap fall off the button thing atleast 1 time that night...I think they should get straplocks.

-Jon:o

Originally posted by Osama_Spears



GG??:confused:

GG Allin. Well known for his disgusting stage shows.

Back in my younger days (80's) my band was opening for another local band and the place we played at was rented for the show with the stage just built for this event. The stage was appox waist high and it had a drum riser another 18 inches above the stage. Well we're mid way through our set and I'm thinking visuals so I hop up on the riser and proceeded to jump off at the key moment. I didn't know that the morons had built the stage out of particle board. I went straight through up to my waist and was stuck. I broke the jack off my cord so here I am with no way to get out of the hole and no sound coming out of my bass. The other band members lifted me out of the stage and the other bass player who was about 300lbs. thanked me for testing out the stage for him. Funny now though. :eek:

Originally posted by grooveguru
Back in my younger days (80's) my band was opening for another local band and the place we played at was rented for the show with the stage just built for this event. The stage was appox waist high and it had a drum riser another 18 inches above the stage. Well we're mid way through our set and I'm thinking visuals so I hop up on the riser and proceeded to jump off at the key moment. I didn't know that the morons had built the stage out of particle board. I went straight through up to my waist and was stuck. I broke the jack off my cord so here I am with no way to get out of the hole and no sound coming out of my bass. The other band members lifted me out of the stage and the other bass player who was about 300lbs. thanked me for testing out the stage for him. Funny now though. :eek:


holy....


sorry to hear that...


was the bass ok? any scratches?

-Jon

Originally posted by Drew Gutrath
GG Allin. Well known for his disgusting stage shows.
yep. he also promised to kill himself live onstage. he probably would have if he hadn't ODed when he was still pretty young.

Bass Ok. Only I was banged up. The bad thing was we had another gig that night and I could barely walk because I was so stoved up.

Originally posted by grooveguru
Bass Ok. Only I was banged up. The bad thing was we had another gig that night and I could barely walk because I was so stoved up.



:hmm:





















:) keep it real

I used to be in a hardcore band called "bug' in my younger days. We were like 16 or 17 and used to primarily play parties, and the occassional gig in providence(sunday all-ages shows). Anyway, I was working part time in a library and my boss was this old biker dude named "buzzard" (for real man, he used to park his bike out front and come in wearing his german helmet with his colors scaring the old ladies). He got his MC to hire us for a birthday party, and the only stipulation was we had to play "born to be wild". whatever, a gig's a gig. So we set up and start our set in front of about 35-40 bikers (we're all hard-cored up, with short hair jeans t'shirts etc). After a bout five songs they start screaming for "born to wild". So we tear into it with all the venom a teenage hardcore band can muster and all these bikers start pogoing and slamming, breaking beer bottles. It was pretty scary. One big dude bumps into our guitar player knocking him down. Being the brain surgeon that our guitar player was he starts beefing with the guy, which basically ends the gig and the whole club erupts into a huge brawl. I got kicked in the head and was woozy for days. the funny part was, the bikers loved it, still paid us (200 bucks- a fortune), and wanted us to play their next party. We said "thanks, but no thanks". Lesson learned? there's always someone more hardcore than you are.

Bump...

C'mon guys,let's hear 'em.


:o

In early 1986 with my first pro band (second band overall and first as bassist), I was approaching the end of a gig at one of our regular venues when I felt the 'g' string go dead. I looked down and somehow, the screw on the 'g' string's bridge bridge saddle on my p-bass had fallen out - only the string held the saddle itself in place. _fortunately_, the last song of the evening was "mony mony" which didn't use the 'g' string much (just three notes in the chorus), so I had to do a lot of fret jumping to finish the set. that monday, I went to the hardware store with one of the other screws and the bridge saddle, and got four screws and four springs, and rebuilt the whole bridge. (that's the only outward modification, outside of strap locks, I've ever done to any of my basses.)

I was playing in jazz band at my high school. The director got us a day to go play a nursing home and a retirement home(the difference is level of care). We played mostly some swing like "In the mood", and a couple of other tunes they may remember. Partway through a tune at the nursing home one of the patients starts screaming "make it stop, make it stop". I was glad to finish up and get the hell out. The whole place smelled like bedpans

A month or two after i got my amp I had friends over and I was showing them how badly i play. I have a Squier Affinity P-bass, decent starter bass but the pots fall off every five seconds. My volume pot fell off right in front of my friend and he started laughing at me hysterically. I got pissed and picked up th pot off the ground and chucked it at his nuts. He was on the ground in pain. Actually, it wasnt all bad.

Originally posted by darkjoker667
A month or two after i got my amp I had friends over and I was showing them how badly i play. I have a Squier Affinity P-bass, decent starter bass but the pots fall off every five seconds. My volume pot fell off right in front of my friend and he started laughing at me hysterically. I got pissed and picked up th pot off the ground and chucked it at his nuts. He was on the ground in pain. Actually, it wasnt all bad.

HAHA

whata bastard:)

Nice throw/aim;)

-Jon:o

Originally posted by darkjoker667
A month or two after i got my amp I had friends over and I was showing them how badly i play. I have a Squier Affinity P-bass, decent starter bass but the pots fall off every five seconds. My volume pot fell off right in front of my friend and he started laughing at me hysterically. I got pissed and picked up th pot off the ground and chucked it at his nuts. He was on the ground in pain. Actually, it wasnt all bad.

Wow. That actually made me laugh out loud.

Originally posted by Aaren Double J


Wow. That actually made me laugh out loud.

haha,yeah...same here dude.

:bassist: (haven't used that ina while)


-Jon:o

Originally posted by darkjoker667
A month or two after i got my amp I had friends over and I was showing them how badly i play. I have a Squier Affinity P-bass, decent starter bass but the pots fall off every five seconds. My volume pot fell off right in front of my friend and he started laughing at me hysterically. I got and picked up th pot off the ground and chucked it at his nuts. He was on the ground in pain. Actually, it wasnt all bad.


Ahh, nut shots will always be funny. To the guy NOT getting his jewels crushed.

Originally posted by bassman1185



Ahh, nut shots will always be funny. To the guy NOT getting his jewels crushed.

Oh so true my friend

-Jon:o

i have one that isnt really my fault, but sucked none the less. it was at the schools christmas concert and it was time for the jazz band to play (which i play bass for). now the band director we had at the time was a complete jerk, and instead of letting us setup anything before the concert or closing the curtain to let us setup he is standing there rushing us and crap, so me the keyboardist and drummer are having a shi**y time gettin setup, and so the horn players were ready so he expected us to be to, and we kept saying no we need more time but bein the ass he is he started without us. so i just kept setting up and didnt worry about it. so im sitting there with my effects pedal in mute and tuning mode b/c i hadnt tuned yet and then the keyboardist hit the power strip and it reset my effects pedal, which made me blare out a loud e in the middle of the song. well long story short the director made us look like idiots and i told him next time he does anything like that we'll just walk off stage and he can have a band with no rythym section. from then on we had plenty of time to setup ;)

Originally posted by DEFELDUS
i have one that isnt really my fault, but sucked none the less. it was at the schools christmas concert and it was time for the jazz band to play (which i play bass for). now the band director we had at the time was a complete jerk, and instead of letting us setup anything before the concert or closing the curtain to let us setup he is standing there rushing us and crap, so me the keyboardist and drummer are having a shi**y time gettin setup, and so the horn players were ready so he expected us to be to, and we kept saying no we need more time but bein the ass he is he started without us. so i just kept setting up and didnt worry about it. so im sitting there with my effects pedal in mute and tuning mode b/c i hadnt tuned yet and then the keyboardist hit the power strip and it reset my effects pedal, which made me blare out a loud e in the middle of the song. well long story short the director made us look like idiots and i told him next time he does anything like that we'll just walk off stage and he can have a band with no rythym section. from then on we had plenty of time to setup ;)

haha, atleast he learned his lesson

yeah he was a total jerk. he would sit in class and scream at us and cuss us out and stuff, he threatened one kid once too. one day during class he was screamin at us and cussin and stuff then he went to his office (to pout) and slammed the door and so we (the whole class) left and went to the principal. he got fired ;) so now we have a really cool director so you CAN fight authority with success :)

Originally posted by DEFELDUS
yeah he was a total jerk. he would sit in class and scream at us and cuss us out and stuff, he threatened one kid once too. one day during class he was screamin at us and cussin and stuff then he went to his office (to pout) and slammed the door and so we (the whole class) left and went to the principal. he got fired ;) so now we have a really cool director so you CAN fight authority with success :)

So THATS what we should of done with Mrs. Oliver in 8th grade...she threatened to kill Stephen, said she'd chop his hands off if he didn't do his work and said craploads of **** to other students.

this guy was a complete psycho, by the time we were through with him the principal had a large (like 3 inches thick) folder full of papers and on the front it said "band problem" :p

I had a band director who wanted a bass in marching band, I gave it a shot. I didn't actually march but I had to pull a cart with a car battery, a power converter, and an amp that wasn't light. It was interesting, until we were outside and it started to rain. Then the dumb sonuva$&#@! had the nerve to ask why I started to put my bass away and unplug everything.

LMAO

our director did that to us at an outdoor jazz gig. it started raining so he told the saxes to pack up (apparently woodwinds are very vulnerable to water damage) and then me and the keyboardist started doin it too, and he was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING! YOU ARE NOT A SAX" i was like "but we have electric instruments and electronic equipment that will get harmed by the rain so im packing up because i dont want my stuff that I payed for to get wet and damaged"
ugh, wat a dic :rolleyes:

it's amazing the lack of sense for things like that from horn players

This happened about 20 years ago. I drove over two hours to get to the gig, and didn't realize that I forgot my bass until I was there. I was lucky enough to find somebody who rented me their bass for the evening. It was a little Fender Mustang, it felt like a toy. He charged me $50.

I've also fallen down on stage more than once.

I've got to mention this even though it didn't happen to me, but I was playing bass when I saw it happen and I'm laughing right now just thinking about it. At some gig years ago, the guitar player was on the drum riser and decided to jump off to the next riser below. He didn't anticipate how low the ceiling was, and his head went clear up through a ceiling tile and it splintered to pieces that dropped down falling on his head. I'm STILL laughing!

Ok, I have to post one of my stories. It was back in the late 80's and I was playing in a metal band. We were playing a pretty prominent club that is known for having a stage that is about 10 feet off the ground. We were in the middle of our set and the crowd was really into us. Needless to say we were feeding off the energy in the crowd. I decided it would be really cool to get behind the drummer and run out to the front of the stage. I should have taken the time to estimate the distance from my amp to the front of the stage. The front of the stage was about 15' from my amp, my cord was only 12 ft. long. As I was running the cable hit its maximum stretch which spun me around backwards. I was trying to catch my balance when one of the front moniters decided to relocate itself to the spot directly behind my feet. I hit the monitor running full speed backwards. From the perspective of the guitar player I appeared to be over his head as I launched myself off of the stage and flew into the crowd. The crowd of course saw me coming and didn't feel the need to impede my progress so I landed in the middle of the floor flat on my back. Knocked the wind out of me and disoriented me quite a bit. I tried to run back on the stage but this club had a history of people rushing the stage so there was no way to get back onstage from the front of the house. I had to go out through a fire door, around the back of the club and in through the stage door to get back onstage. God I felt like an idiot. The crowd seemed to really love it though. Thankfully the only thing hurt was my pride.

Damn ZonPlyr! That's awesome!

I have a similar one... in Many Ways...

It was 1990, I was playing at a rock club called The Approach in Bourne, MA... near the Bourne Bridge over to Cape Cod. The stage is about 4-5 feet off of the ground and it is straight (flat) across the front of it. Well there were two tall PA speakers that sat up against the stage floor, but angled in slightly, don't ask me why, it really doesn't make much sense to me now that I think of it.

Now that you can slightly see what the stage lay out looks a little like, I can tell you what happened.

The Guitarist liked to run around the stage (at that time a proud Nady owner) and sometimes running towards us and then sliding on this knees, like a true rock-star. Back then I, not as confident of a player and had the stage presense of a floating turd in the bowl, was usually more focused on the fretboard than the crowd. The guitarist did one of his attention grabbing runs/slides, except I wasn't paying any attention and didn't realize until it was too late that he was coming for me. I scooted back and towards the side, behind the tall PA speaker, not realizing that there is a little triangle of space left back there that goes straight to the floor. This was due to the way the PA speakers were angled against the edge of the stage. To the Crowd, It looked like I disappeared and then so did the left half of the sound!!!

What had happened is that I fell in that little slim triangle-space of a whole and the force of me falling snapped the speaker cable off! WHOOMP :eek: ! The sound to that speaker was cut off and I'm stuck up past my waist between Speaker and Stage, still with bass strapped on, it was up to my chin. Felt like a Spinal Tap conundrum!

What a Nightmare... We (Obviously) didn't get paid that night, and the Sound guy (angry aging ex-rockstar) was grumbling as he had to do speaker/cable-surgery with needle-nose plyers.

I have a bit more stage awareness/presense/savvy 13 years later! :D

Originally posted by ZonPlyr
Ok, I have to post one of my stories ... I felt like an idiot. The crowd seemed to really love it though. Thankfully the only thing hurt was my pride.

Oh my I'm enjoying this thread!

Some stories made me laugh and others made me want to cry, but wow, ZonPlr, you got me laughing until I was crying! I don't know whether to be sad I don't have such a funny story, or glad I've never been through something like that.

Okay, think Tom, bad bass experiences. Ah, got one....

It's winter. It's Alaska. To my frustration, my boss made me work late and we were playing a private dance that night. Although we had set up the night before, I still had to drive home to change clothes... and the road conditions were not good. The drive home was so slow I was almost ready to pop out of my skin; the band was going to kill me.

When I finally got home, I couldn't get the car up the driveway, so I left it at the bottom of the hill and ran up to the house. I quickly changed and started for the door when I realized my favorite (at the time) bass was not at the gig. Being a certifiable idiot, I grabbed my beautiful, perfect, 1977 Fender Jazz Bass by the neck and decided to save a second or two and not bother to put it in its case and took off down the hill.

Now, if the driveway was too slick for a 4-wheel drive car with studded tires to make it up, why on earth didn't I realize it was also too slick for a person in dress shoes to run down?

I take that back: I DID realize it was too slick to run down in dress shoes ... the instant I felt my feet were no longer under me. I started to fall hard, and I was falling on top of my bass. All I could think of was, "Tom, you can heal, the bass can't." While falling, I tried to lift the bass as high as I could and rolled hard to try to make it so it would land on me, instead of me on it.

When I got to the gig, the band was furious. They were all on stage stalling as best they could praying for me to arrive. As I came up on stage all three of them started to lay into me at once. I just raised my right hand and showed them the open, still-bleeding gash on my palm, and my broken pinky finger pointing 90-degrees in a direction it shouldn't. That shut them all up instantly and I grabbed my tuned and waiting Ric and we went right into our first set. Someone from the floor saw my distress and got me a towel to wipe up blood. I set the broken finger myself on our first break.

I still have that bass, my beautiful, still-perfect 1977 Fender Jazz bass. And if I had that night to do over again, I wouldn't hesitate to take one for the gear. After all, I DID heal. I would, however, do one thing different: take the extra minute or two to put the bass in its case.

Holy crap dude...that reminds me of the time when we were camping and our great grandparents and cousin came up to visit us and they had brought a cake and my bro was getting it out of the RV so we could eat it, trips on the steps of the RV, starts falling like he is going to land ON the cake, somehow turns around, lands on his back hitting his head on the ground, BUT, saves the cake, WHICH, wasn't in a platic case, BUT, on a plastic tray...can't believe it didn't fall. But all in all, the cake was good and my bro ended up having a lil bump on his head which didn't bother him and we all had a good time :D

well, this isn't exactly a bad experience, it's rather funny.. but I didn't know what threat to put it in.

once at the rehearsal, our drummer had a bad night and didn't get stuff right. the drum kit at the practice space was quite crappy and he was generally pissed off about everything.

we were supposed to play our new song from beginning to end and see if it worked. however, mid-song, the upper hi-hat cymbal got bent up (it was already cracked) and ended up sounding like ****, so the drummer kicked it over in a fit of anger. I though "what the hell, let's just continue playing anyway", but then I realized there was no sound coming out of my amp. Everyone looked at me questioningly, and I looked down at the floor, and I saw that my cable had been perfectly separated by the hi-hat.. I was laughing my ass off..

the drummer payed me for the cable, but it had almost been worth the cable to get the laugh..

This isnt a playing story, this is a watching story.. I was at a local show watching my friends hardcore band play. The stage is something like 6 feet off the ground, and on the stage towards the end were the stands for the PA speakers, also like 6 feet. Thats 12 feet high speakers, and they arent all that light. Now the band was playing, jumping around, and everything was going good, until the bassist made a sudden left turn while jumping around, smashing the stand with his headstock. the stand tips over, sending it and the speaker flying, 12 feet off the ground, quite fast, towards the crowd, namely me. I couldnt really move, i was in shock, one of those Uh Oh moments, when the PA speaker hit me dead in the head. I fell to the ground in dissaray, and the music stopped and everybody was looking at me. I got a mild concussion from my head sandwiched in between he concrete and the speaker. Talk about embarrasement

My band used to practice in our guitar players parents basement. We were down there one night and while takeing a break our singer decided to lean on my stack. At that time I was using a Ampeg B3 on a Hartke 410 Transporter on top of a Peavey 1516 on castors. It stood nearly six feet tall. Well the dumb a** he was he leaned on it with all his weight, it rolled three inches until it hit a peice of carpet then proceeded to tip over and crush the drum set. He rode it all the way down and fell off the mess, about that time the 410 ripped loose from the speaker cord and before he could move splattered him. It was quite funny.

Same 1516 cab earlier that year. I was playing with our school jazz band at a local buisness. To save walking I put my Peavey Mark 6 on the cab and pushed with one hand while carrying my bass in the other. I made it about 50 feet before I hit a big crack in the pavement I didn't see. One of the wheels ripped out of the cab sending the amp into a full flying cartwheel. That amp flipped end over end about eight times and dented every corner. So scared out of my mind that it wouldn't work I pluged it in and tryed it. When I turned it on the fan was clunking and it smoked for the whole hour we played. I still use, but currently it is a parking block in my garage.

No injurys but funny stuff-

Damn dude...what about the singer's accident.

Did the drum set get crashed? what happened to the hartke and the head?

-Jon:o

Sorry to hear that:(

Yeah I just reastacked the stuff and it worked fine. A few of the drums fell over and it may have broken the snare head but I don't remember. As for the singer he lived through it and we fired him last year. This accident happend in 1997.

Let's see....

I decided to replace the pickup in my Precision a couple hours before the gig, and at the club no less. How hard can it be to solder a couple of wires? When you don't know that pots can't be soldered to without a thin layer of silver solder, VERY MUCH IMPOSSIBLE. I was sweating bullets, since I only had the one bass, so I ended up taping the wires to the pot and hoping for the best.

I had the speaker in my Acoustic 360 catch fire one night. The crowd thought it looked cool, but I was most unhappy.

In one of my very early gigs, we played in Sheboygan, where the stage had a diagonal cut at the front. I wasn't watching my step, and went right off the edge, landing on my arse on top of a beer glass (now broken). I got wedged in and couldn't move, and a drunk walks up and starts polishing my boots. I kept playing throughout the entire fracas.

I was playing and got really into it, and decided to jump off my amp into the crowd.....forgetting that the BA-115 is a kickback combo.......heh I lucked out and fell at such an angle I stumbled(THANK GOD) so then I ran into the mosh pit and played in there and it was cool getting beat while playing.

I just hate how the amp kicks back.

One of my very best friends (let's call him "Peter") once came to check us out at a club we were playing at. Peter was in the dance band we had in high school. After the first set I talked the guys into letting Peter sing a song next set. We chose This Masquerade because Peter is an amazing soloist (on sax and keys) and this would at least give him an opportunity to scat.

We played a few songs and then I introduced Peter as "one of the most gifted people I've ever known." He came up and we started into the song.

When we reached the solo section, Peter closed his eyes and started scat soloing into the mic. That's when I noticed it: Peter was wearing white underwear. How did I know? Well, because he was wearing black slacks and when he closed his eyes to solo, he also put his hands in his pockets, making a very noticable oval, white spot on the front of his pants that opened and closed like a chewing shark as he sang.

I looked out into the crowd and saw some people had already noticed, but most seemed oblivious. Wanting to preserve what was left of my friend's dignity, I walked over to him and said in his ear, "Peter, your fly is open." When I spoke, he opened his eyes but kept going with the solo... shaking his head to let me know he didn't hear me.

So I said it again louder and more pronounced, "YOUR FLY IS OPEN."

At that he blurted, "WHAT?!!!" right into the microphone, :eek: making everyone look up to see what had happened.

Assuming this was a rhetorical question, I didn't bother to answer him. Instead, I watched in awe as Peter looked down at his fly so suddenly that he accidentally bashed his head into the microphone, causing a tremendous, reverb-laden explosion sound... and knocking the mic and stand completely off the front of the stage.

Peter didn't even notice. He whirled around and quickly zipped up and turned back to face the crowd. A puzzled look soon crossed his face (where did the microphone go?) as the crowd was spitting drinks at their dates and laughing booze up their noses.

Yep, one of the most gifted people I've ever known. :rolleyes:

One time at band camp.......

I play electric bass in my marching band, and at the 2nd practice that i could be present at, i had to start playing with the band.(before this time i didnt have music to memorize. in 2 days i memorized 6 pages of music.) In order to play on the feild, i have to carry a big, crappy sounding combo amp out and down a hill to the feild. I have to hook up through 4 100 ft extention cords. I am sure you have all heard news of the large blackout that hit the north east last week. well, our skool power was out, and no one knew it because we were outside. We were going to play the whole 15 min. show through and about 2 mins into it, our power died. I was looking through the amp, my cord, and 400 ft of extention cord to try and find a problem for 15 mins. The band got really mad for a that time because the tuba player and i are the only ppl who play a bass line, and they couldnt hear him well. The director got mad as well. After almost half an hour, we figgered out what happened and all had a good laugh. At the time i was hoping the amp had broken and i could get a new one through the school. I have to play out of a spare keyboard amp because our skool, is cheap as heck and wont buy a bass amp. But the amp was fine amd im still stck with it all season. wish us luck!

Man...that sucks :(

I hear all these stories about playing in a band in school or whatever and it seems really fun. Like,I'd love to play a musical...but I'm nervous to ask and all that stuff.Plus,I'd be really nervous playing infront of all those people:bawl:

bump :D

So I have my p-bass sitting on my guitarist's couch in his basement. He's playing xbox while I sit reading the directions on a fire extinguisher. He tells me about A fire extinguisher thats empty, while I am thinking he is telling me about the one in my hand. So I pull the lever. The spray of chemicals shoots 15 feet straight, and covers everything..including my p-bass. To make a long story short, I later found out that potassium carbonate (the chemical) is completely natural, and used as a cleaning agent, so all I did was polish my bass. I sure was scared until found that out, though.

I would have been too!

Once upon a time when I was 8 I was walking home from Sav-ons. We had all just picked up some ice cream cones and I tripped over the curb and rolled and kept my ice cream in the air then I screamed, "My face!" and I cut my eyebrow open, I needed stitches. The real kicker was that after I got up and saved the ice cream and everything. I pushed my thumb through the cone on accident.

Oh and bass rhymes with face.

I was playing a small "concert" in the drummer of the bands garage, for a crowd of about 25. Well, ill start a the beginning I guess. I was at home, waiting for the vocalist to come get me to go to the drummers house for the show. I wait 45 minutes after the show was supposed to start, and the guitarist calls me freaking out because im not there, and i explain my dillemma to him. Well 5 minutes later, the vocalist shows up, and takes me to the house. I arrive, and the band that was playing before us is already broken down and they're strangely disappointed that i didn't get to hear them play. Well we set up, and the vocalist goes to check his mic, and what do ya know, the power amp for the PA blew out, so we're sitting there **** out of luck. I have to give up my 4x10 so he can do vocals, and be heard, and use a little 1x12 piece of ****. About 10 minutes into our performance, about 7 wiggers, scoff and start walking away. So the vocalist is like hey you mother%$*#$ers, why don't you come back here and kick my ass or something. And the pussies just keep on waliking. Then my 4x10 ****s out, so the vocalist just walks into the crowd and starts screaming with no amplification. Actually worked too. but anyways, we play and when we get to our last song Dirty Shotgun, we have about 30 seconds of organized music, then we all just go **** out of our brains, and pull the entire thing out of our ass, until we cant move our hands, or stand anymore. So, before the show, i move back over to my 4x10, to see if it still works, which it did.. so ive got my trusty GK back, and the vocalist tries to get the crowd into it. We feedback, then go into the music, about 2 minutes into the unplanned part of the song, the drummers DB pedal ****s out. so hes stuck playing death metal, with one bass pedal, trying to be as fast, and intricate as possible. It was like hell n a garage. It was fun, and filled with experience however. Oh, and there was the time in Vinton iowa, when our drummer forgot all his cymbals, and we got shut down by a pig after 3 songs. that night sucked, and it was halloween too.

Well, this is not a very exiting nor interesting story, but I just wanna share my most terrible bass-experience with you all. Have you experienced anything like this?

My band has our first self-arranged concert. We have practiced and prepared for it for months. I'm getting on stage, and over 230 people is in the audience, wich is quite much where I live. I plug myself into the amp. Finished soundcheck five minutes ago and everything was fine. The pianist starts playing - I'm not supposed to begin until the refrain of the song. So I turn on the amp. And nothing happends. So I turn it off, and on once again. Nothing happends. What am I going to do? What if the bloody amp is broken? Well, I just start pretending to play like if the amp was on. It all went fine, the soundguy got up there and pulled in the powercord, wich someone had pulled out, after a while. It took some songs, though, before I regained to my old self:D So its fun to think about now, but I still get chills when thinking about the moment I tried to turn on that amp.

If you wanna see pics from this concert, just get into www.aporia.no and press "media" and "bilder," and St. Croix.

Well, this is not a very exiting nor interesting story, but I just wanna share my most terrible bass-experience with you all.

My band has our first self-arranged concert. We have practiced and prepared for it for months. I'm getting on stage, and over 230 people is in the audience, wich is quite much where I live. I plug myself into the amp. Finished soundcheck five minutes ago and everything was fine. The pianist starts playing - I'm not supposed to begin until the refrain of the song. So I turn on the amp. And nothing happends. So I turn it off, and on once again. Nothing happends. What am I going to do? What if the bloody amp is broken? Well, I just start pretending to play like if the amp was on. It all went fine, the soundguy got up there and pulled in the powercord, wich someone had pulled out, after a while. It took some songs, though, before I regained to my old self So its fun to think about now, but I still get chills when thinking about the moment I tried to turn on that amp.

If you wanna see pics from this concert, just get into www.aporia.no and press "media" and "bilder," and St. Croix.

Someone please delete this thread...didn't saw the worst bass related stories thread..

If you just delete the first post, you'll delete the thread....


Chris A.:rolleyes: :bassist:

Nice singer:)

I played my high school's opening dance of the year and forgot to wear a belt so promptly after starting the set and jumping around I started to lose my shorts. Luckily I noticed right away and was able to pull them up and stand in a teribly awkward position to keep them from falling anymore.

I've also broken strings twice at gigs, once it was a low B at the end of our last set, the other time it was an A in the middle of a 3 hour gig.

Ive also had my fair share of colisions with both crowd and bandmates.

Ive had guitarist slam their headstocks into the back of my head, Ive knocked over a drum mic or two, Ive had my bass unplugged my my guitarist stepping on the cable near my amp. Ive also had so many run ins with my singer that its just part of the stage show now.

Peace
Nick

Originally posted by DriveThruEmoKid
This isnt a playing story, this is a watching story.. I was at a local show watching my friends hardcore band play. The stage is something like 6 feet off the ground, and on the stage towards the end were the stands for the PA speakers, also like 6 feet. Thats 12 feet high speakers, and they arent all that light. Now the band was playing, jumping around, and everything was going good, until the bassist made a sudden left turn while jumping around, smashing the stand with his headstock. the stand tips over, sending it and the speaker flying, 12 feet off the ground, quite fast, towards the crowd, namely me. I couldnt really move, i was in shock, one of those Uh Oh moments, when the PA speaker hit me dead in the head. I fell to the ground in dissaray, and the music stopped and everybody was looking at me. I got a mild concussion from my head sandwiched in between he concrete and the speaker. Talk about embarrasement


omg sorry to hear that but that is truely hillarious :d

I guess Ill submit my own watching story.

I was at my friends show and being that they are a kind of modern hardcore speed metal band and Im very fond of headbanging I got right up in front of the stage and was doing my thing going nuts.

The singer of the band was of course doing his thing and going nuts as well. It just wouldnt have been right any other way. So anyways, Im at the front of the stage doing my fast hard headbanging thing, the singer is doing his screaming, fist pumping thing and we both just make contact. My head, his mic.

There was a loud ::THUD!:: through the PA and for a second I didnt know what was going on. I just saw a flash of light and kept going right on and so did the singer. As soon as the song was over he apologized.

Anyways, after the show we run into each other again and by now there was a huge red bump on my forehead. He apoligized again and offered to get me into the next show free and pay for a drink or two as payback for the damage to my pretty face.

Peace
Nick

Nick man, you broke a B STRING?!?!?! how did you manage that?

Originally posted by bassman1185
Nick man, you broke a B STRING?!?!?! how did you manage that?

It must have been a bad string. I was playing with medium/soft touch and the core just snapped.

The strings were probably 3 months old.

Peace
Nick

I broke my E string right at the saddle...I was slapping at the time and I guess I just got too carried away.:hmm:

Smacking my face into a low hanging PA enclosure while jumping around like the shaved gorilla I am not once, not twice but five times in a 3 hour time frame. Broke my nose, lost a tooth and had a nice black eye.

Getting shocked along with my singer and guitarist due to bad grounding at an outdoor festival that was using 220 volt generators. 120 volts can kill you. 220 can kill you and you and you. We got lucky.

I played a gig in my skivies and someone stole my clothes from backstage (fine, the broom closet). Did I mention I had walked to the gig? And it was winter? And it was in Chicago?

This all kind of makes me wonder why I still play.

Smacking my face into a low hanging PA enclosure while jumping around like the shaved gorilla I am not once, not twice but five times in a 3 hour time frame. Broke my nose, lost a tooth and had a nice black eye.

Getting shocked along with my singer and guitarist due to bad grounding at an outdoor festival that was using 220 volt generators. 120 volts can kill you. 220 can kill you and you and you. We got lucky.

I played a gig in my skivies and someone stole my clothes from backstage (fine, the broom closet). Did I mention I had walked to the gig? And it was winter? And it was in Chicago?

This all kind of makes me wonder why I still play.

Oi! shrinkage :hmm:

Sorry to hear that dude.

two of the worst:

On the last gig I ever played, my Hartke head started popping audible fireworks. The guitar player saved my butt with a spare Sunn head.

Another gig - which I got stiffed for - was for a bikers club. The opening band decided they were the headliners and brought in this HUGE PA, utterly overkill for a small outdoor gig.

They think they blew us away, except they were a joke...

we were playing a county cover (rarely play country). i think it might of been "Crazy". very, very intimate - well my warwick 6 (heavy bass) all of a sudden just fell, my straplock let go! it hit the floor and i was just taking my sweet arse time in picking it up. the whole band was holding back the laughter (so was I). thank god it was out last song for the night.

we were playing a county cover (rarely play country). i think it might of been "Crazy". very, very intimate - well my warwick 6 (heavy bass) all of a sudden just fell, my straplock let go! it hit the floor and i was just taking my sweet arse time in picking it up. the whole band was holding back the laughter (so was I). thank god it was out last song for the night.

Was the wick ok?!

Was the wick ok?!

yeah, that thing has planty of bumps and bruises.

I just remembered one from high school. At the time I was a part time guitarist and bassist - I was just kinda learning both.

Was at my buddy's house and we were cranking out some metal for a bunch of friends (metallica, megadeth, that sort of thing) and - I don't remember exactly why this happened, but Charlie the guitarist, and myself on bass, after a particularly smokin' tune...
I went to shake his hand, probably one of those goofy shake-pull-pound-snap handshakes we all did in high school - as soon as our hands came in full contact we were both damn near electrocuted! I mean JUMPIN like a shot went off behind us. It was like one of us was grounded and the other was not - I remember I had my left hand on the fretboard/strings of the bass and he probably had his on his fretboard too - and I think we determined the bass itself to be at fault somehow. So I just never played his bass after that =0)

Last Sunday I got home from watching the Super Bowl at my girl's house. I brought home my geddy lee jazz, and got out of the car to go inside and get some sleep before the monday morning drive. Well - as any of you fellow midwesterners know, it was icy as heck that weekend. My feet flew out from under me, and I landed on my hip. Luckily (or so I thought) I felt myself start to slip, and tucked my chin to my chest so to avoid splattering my skull on the asphalt. Well, it worked, until I saw my very heft jazz bass hardcase coming down. Caught me directly between the eyes, smashing my head into the road. I was woozy for a few hours, and probably suffered permanent brain damage.

Happlily, the bass was unharmed. (I checked it first, before seeking medical attention.)

Last Sunday I got home from watching the Super Bowl at my girl's house. I brought home my geddy lee jazz, and got out of the car to go inside and get some sleep before the monday morning drive. Well - as any of you fellow midwesterners know, it was icy as heck that weekend. My feet flew out from under me, and I landed on my hip. Luckily (or so I thought) I felt myself start to slip, and tucked my chin to my chest so to avoid splattering my skull on the asphalt. Well, it worked, until I saw my very heft jazz bass hardcase coming down. Caught me directly between the eyes, smashing my head into the road. I was woozy for a few hours, and probably suffered permanent brain damage.

Happlily, the bass was unharmed. (I checked it first, before seeking medical attention.)

As long as the bass was ok;)

It's Icy here too,it sucks.

I live on Martha's Vinyard.
Coming home from a gig, on a friends boat at 2:00 pm.
Watching as a wave hits our boat and all the bands equipment goes overboard.
Never seen my 1966 Jazz bass again.

I live on Martha's Vinyard.
Coming home from a gig, on a friends boat at 2:00 pm.
Watching as a wave hits our boat and all the bands equipment goes overboard.
Never seen my 1966 Jazz bass again.
You win.

:eek:

Peace
Nick

I live on Martha's Vinyard.
Coming home from a gig, on a friends boat at 2:00 pm.
Watching as a wave hits our boat and all the bands equipment goes overboard.
Never seen my 1966 Jazz bass again.


:bawl: :crying:

Where did this happen exactly ;) I need Longitude and Latitude dammit!!!

*pirate voice on* Arrrrgh.....sunkin treasure!! *pirate voice off*

Some SKB's do claim to be water tight after all....... :hmm:

WOW MOJO!! I would be pretty devastated. Where on the Vinyard do you live? I used to do blues gigs at a place called the Ritz or something (7-8 years ago), is that still around?





Anyways, last night I raced down to Macon, GA (about a 90 minute drive from ATL) for the blues jam at the JazzPlex... The reasoning for such a long weekday trek was that a group that I'm working with is trying to secure a weekday evening regular gig... they require an appearance @ one of their 'open jams'.

So I get there and the Drummer is the lead singer and moderator of the Blues Jam, he was totally sympathetic to my long drive, so he tried to get me up asap. The only problem is that the house bassist's rig is totally garbage and was on it's last legs (even he said so himself)... Well, by the time I got up, the rig was farting and distorting. So I wanted to head to the car and quickly wheel my rig in... The drummer was like: "no man, we need to keep this jam going, so just get by on the rig as it is..." Grrrrrr (that's me growling), I was pissed cause this thing doesn't represent me well at all!

So we chug along (more like fart-along) through the first tune... The guitarist looks at me to do a solo... So given the situation, my attidude and sense of humour at the moment, I decided to rip the opening line to Cliff Burton's xxxxxxx/pulling teeth (cause with the distortion, it seemed like it fit, mind you this is a 'blues jam').. I got a bunch of healthy chuckles from the audience and the funniest look from the guitarist!

So after we finish the tune (I think that it was a Louis Jordan tune or something,), I requested to just hop out and get my rig (never leave home without it). The drummer finally agreed to let me go and change the rig up... Got it, set it up and then as I'm turning to grab my bass, another bassist (a little over eager to show me up, I might add) plugs in and asks me to 'hit the switch... OH MY GOD/SH!!!! I almost came unglued... SO I basically went and got my rig because theirs craps out and then I had to wait 2 more interchanges till I could get back up again... ***!

So I'm pretty ticked off and to make matters worse an Ex-Marshall Tucker Band Guitarist (Chris Hicks for those that care) hops up with the 'eager bassist' and blow through 'cross-cut saw', which was one of the tunes I was to get up and do... never mind I really would have loved to show some semi-famous guitar legend some chops, that 'eager bassist' wasn't really on his game ... What a buzz kill!

Anyways, I ended up staying till close (cause my friggin rig was in use), played 3 more tunes, still managed to get some love from the folks that were left... Even if the owner of the bar and Chris Hicks had already left.


Kinda of a long wasted trip.... Could have stayed home and chilled with my beer!

Heavy fog, no Long. or lad.
It was a sunburst 66-jazz body with a 72- precision neck.
For J-raj Ritz is still there, blues every Thur-Sat.

Two:
First: Years ago, club on Hwy 1, Cutoff, Louisiana. Two road crew members approach me on break and say "Dude you ain't gonna believe it Crab, we tried to get to 'em in time but they got onstage and knocked over some guitars". Two fighting drunks = 1963 T-bird with machine head broken off! Thank you Jimmy Foster(now Fosters on the North Shore) for the better-than-new repair!

Second: Wife asking "And how does that fit into the big picture?" as I look at a Steinberger on Ed Roman's website. It's a replacement for the one my ex-friend stole from me in 1990.....I quitely call and put a deposit down on it after she goes outside....and visit my bank the next day....

While in the Navy, owning a Spector and my Tune ZiIII, some little voice in my head ... leads me to think... that I should sell my vintage Rickenbacker 4001 to a friend.

So I did. :rolleyes:

It got lost in the mail. :rolleyes:

What was I thinking. I know some postal thief puke is playing that bass today and it makes me ill. :hmm:

Eek.


Sorry to hear all these horrible stories:(

I bet nobody has this kind of expirence before.

My band played for the Chrismas Party last year at my school. We did pretty good on the performance, we played Ziggy Stardust, and that an another sweet story for another day.
Anyway, right after the gig, they ask some guys up to the stage to have a food eating competition, but blind-fold them before they can see the food. ANd than, I just see they open a box of pies, and throw the guys that is blind-folded. Than, I just see a chucks of wipe-cream flying across the air, and landed on my marshall amp, the drum set, and the guitar amp... after all it just messed up. I had to take off the front part off, to actually wipe of the cream off, it was the worst expirence of all...


--------------------

JOe

I bet nobody has this kind of expirence before.

My band played for the Chrismas Party last year at my school. We did pretty good on the performance, we played Ziggy Stardust, and that an another sweet story for another day.
Anyway, right after the gig, they ask some guys up to the stage to have a food eating competition, but blind-fold them before they can see the food. ANd than, I just see they open a box of pies, and throw the guys that is blind-folded. Than, I just see a chucks of wipe-cream flying across the air, and landed on my marshall amp, the drum set, and the guitar amp... after all it just messed up. I had to take off the front part off, to actually wipe of the cream off, it was the worst expirence of all...


--------------------

JOe
they would be hurting still if it were me ;)

drummer hits the cymbal too hard..thus it flies off its stand and slams straight into the neck of my Wal bass and takes out a huge chunk of it...then it continues onto the stage floor where it clean slices my cable in two...terrific.

this story is awful... two things will come to mind after reading this.. insurance and taking the gear in the house after a gig... last may i had my car stolen from in front of my house at about 3:00 am after a gig with all my gear... head, cab, cables, everything but my bass. Boomer (my car is named boomerang it keeps getting stolen and coming back :D ), showed up a week later with no gear in it (duh). Add to the fact i was out of work at the time so i had to borrow all kinds of stuff for a few months to keep playing. so about 6 months later i had taken my stuff out to the car about 9:00 am because i was going to take it to the studio after a job interview. 11:00 am rolls around and i walk back to my house from the interview and.... back window broken out, all borrowed gear gone. $6000 worth of gear stolen from me in less than 6 months. 2 complete bass rigs gone in less than 6 months. i didn't get the job either... :hmm:

this story is awful... two things will come to mind after reading this.. insurance and taking the gear in the house after a gig... last may i had my car stolen from in front of my house at about 3:00 am after a gig with all my gear... head, cab, cables, everything but my bass. Boomer (my car is named boomerang it keeps getting stolen and coming back :D ), showed up a week later with no gear in it (duh). Add to the fact i was out of work at the time so i had to borrow all kinds of stuff for a few months to keep playing. so about 6 months later i had taken my stuff out to the car about 9:00 am because i was going to take it to the studio after a job interview. 11:00 am rolls around and i walk back to my house from the interview and.... back window broken out, all borrowed gear gone. $6000 worth of gear stolen from me in less than 6 months. 2 complete bass rigs gone in less than 6 months. i didn't get the job either... :hmm:

Live and learn: never leave equipment in your vehicle,especially if it's visable... :hmm:

My mate had his first band (about11 years ago) and they where playing their 1st gig in an old church hall, and this possum walked across the exposed beams in the ceiling and pissed all over the drummer and his kit mid song. :eek:

its not a bass, but this guy is unlucky. He owns a les paul standard and he has had the headstock reglued 4 times due to people knocking it over. The 3rd time he got it reglued, he just got it back from the luther, and we were at a soundcheck, he doesnt put the strap on properly and BANG, falls to the floor and breaks the headstock again, before he has even had time to play 1 stinking note. poor bugger, maybe it is cursed or something.

Now I remember what I was going to say. My worst bass experience ever is a cat pissed in my bass guitar case about 8 years ago, and I kid you not, I can open that case today and still smell that crappy stentch. Insignificant to the other stories I have read here though.

I've heard other stories of Gibson's 'stocks breaking...how lame :hmm:


As for the cat-piss case ....Ebay:)

I've heard other stories of Gibson's 'stocks breaking...how lame :hmm:


As for the cat-piss case ....Ebay:)


!. yeh common problem

2. Gee good thinking, might hafta knock off $15 for the smell.

Cheers. :)

its not a bass, but this guy is unlucky. He owns a les paul standard and he has had the headstock reglued 4 times due to people knocking it over. The 3rd time he got it reglued, he just got it back from the luther, and we were at a soundcheck, he doesnt put the strap on properly and BANG, falls to the floor and breaks the headstock again, before he has even had time to play 1 stinking note. poor bugger, maybe it is cursed or something.

I've got an EB-0 that the headstock has come off at least 5 times. I've never broken that headstock off, but it was repaired at least twice before I bought it (my first 'real' bass :D ) Right before I left for the Army a friend bumped the bass while leaning against an amp and the headstock broke off. I had it repaired, then right AFTER I got out of the Army the same guy was in the general area of the bass in a stand and it just fell over. I still give him a hard time about it when I see him. Anyway, it broke one more time when I lent it to a Grrrrl rock band. It's been good for the past 8-9 years or so.

I did, however break the headstock on a 1965 Epiphone Olympic. I feel bad about that.

This happened a few years ago, I volenteered to play bass for a Junior School Musical (Ali Baba, HAHAHAHAHA), all fun and games, I enjoyed it. The entire ensemble, actors musicians, teachers, etc were rehearsing in a huge sports hall, called THE CENTER!!! After the last rehearsal I was walking with my 200w combo amp in my arms across the packed hall, I was sure that nothing was in my way, except for swarms of kids darting back and forth like rabid monkeys, but they are easy to push out of the way. I had checked my route and KNEW nothing was in the way, except as I was walking the guitarist decided his guitar was too heavy and put it down RIGHT in my path, what happens? I trip over the sob, my amp goes flying as I tower over it and try to avoid smashing my head on any of its harder parts, but nooooo, my heap hits it in such a way that my neck bends unaturally and very painfully. That sucked. It must have looked funny cause about 50 kids start to laugh, I was pretty embarrassed. I was laughing about 10 minutes later when the pain eased off. All fun and games...

Well, I guess it's bass related.
I knocked my guitar player out COLD about 15 seconds before our last set was to start on a Saturday night (You know, Sat night, the high energy set!!).
TJ is kinda short, 5'4" 110lbs if he's lucky, me: 6' and a solid 220, and to top it off I wear my bass kinda high like Mark King used to do.
Anyhow, the headstock on my Yamaha BB5000 (this was back in like 1992) was about the size of his face and about forehead level with him. I spun around with my bass strapped on as he was walking up behind me on my left and POW!!!!!!!!! Right square in the forehead, and down he went with a pretty good cut pouring blood too!!
Around 5 min later he woke up pale as hell looking like someone tried to cut his face off. I swear I thought I killed the f$@ker!!!
The funny thing was, the DJ at the club was announcing us coming back on stage and then the music stopped......silence.....nothing.......no noise....nada sound...........except me saying over and over "Holy S%*t!!!! I think I killed him!!!!!" (we were supposed to start when the DJ stopped)

He skipped about half of that set, came up and finished the night. The keyboard player (it was top 40 dance stuff) kept thanking everyone for being patient with our lack of guitar parts and thanking me for damn near killing the guitar player!!

To add insult to all this, you should have seen the lump on the back of his head from it hitting the stage! He fell right flat on his back. I think he was out before he hit the stage because he didn't even put his arms out to catch himself, just straight back on his heels!

Looking back, I think that was one of the funniest things that ever happened on a gig!

Well, I guess it's bass related.
I knocked my guitar player out COLD about 15 seconds before our last set was to start on a Saturday night (You know, Sat night, the high energy set!!).
TJ is kinda short, 5'4" 110lbs if he's lucky, me: 6' and a solid 220, and to top it off I wear my bass kinda high like Mark King used to do.
Anyhow, the headstock on my Yamaha BB5000 (this was back in like 1992) was about the size of his face and about forehead level with him. I spun around with my bass strapped on as he was walking up behind me on my left and POW!!!!!!!!! Right square in the forehead, and down he went with a pretty good cut pouring blood too!!
Around 5 min later he woke up pale as hell looking like someone tried to cut his face off. I swear I thought I killed the f$@ker!!!
The funny thing was, the DJ at the club was announcing us coming back on stage and then the music stopped......silence.....nothing.......no noise....nada sound...........except me saying over and over "Holy S%*t!!!! I think I killed him!!!!!" (we were supposed to start when the DJ stopped)

He skipped about half of that set, came up and finished the night. The keyboard player (it was top 40 dance stuff) kept thanking everyone for being patient with our lack of guitar parts and thanking me for damn near killing the guitar player!!

To add insult to all this, you should have seen the lump on the back of his head from it hitting the stage! He fell right flat on his back. I think he was out before he hit the stage because he didn't even put his arms out to catch himself, just straight back on his heels!

Looking back, I think that was one of the funniest things that ever happened on a gig!
i know how funny this can be!

i had the same thing happen at a jazz band gig last year. we were warming up and i heard one of the trumpet players call my name behind me, so i turn around to see what he wants and BAM! back of the tuner smacked him dead in the eye. had a good black eye, but man oh man, we were rolling laughing.

I will sum this one up quickly. I was in a battle of the bands a few years back. I was rocking the stage pretty hard & at the time I was 220 myself. I had a few drinks on top of my rack. They all spilled over & dripped right into my head causing my amp to stop working. I played the rest of the show without feeling the bass. Not a big deal, but we lost the BATTLE.

Sean

Did you get the amp fixed? :confused:

Actually, I let the amp dry out for a few days & it worked fine once a turned it back on.

Sean
Hear my band FREE OF CHARGE! (http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Left_Undone/)

This happened just last night. I went to see my friends band
play at a show with 5 other bands. A hardcore punk band comes on and they are doing the usual flip out scream stuff
when all of the sudden a sock falls out of the bassists pants! I laughed my ass off. Some kids picked it up and kept it i think.......eww!

Worst bass related experience....I was playing a gig in St. Augustine, Florida and I spit right in a girls face, accidentally of course, but she was freakin hot and digging my style(i.e. standing right in fromt of me and watching me!!!). I totally ruined any chance for some out of area code action. DAMN!

Damn dude,that sucks...

What'd she do post-spit?

question - worst bass realted experience?
answer - playing in colorado springs, this towns live scene is crap!
other than that - the time i was on stage playing and my amp kept cutting out...came to find out that a guitar player was "warming up" and his wireless had the same freq. as mine, causing interferance.freeking twangers !!!

playing a show in front of about 500 people...I had just put new strings on my bass...I'm playing and all of the sudden 2 strings broke during one song!!! I was slapping and I guess that I popped too hard or something...any ways i didn't have a back up so we had to stall while one of my friends went home and got his 4 string (i play a 6 string) and brought it back then I had to figure out how to play our stuff on a 4 string while we were going....it was deffinately interesting to say the least.

I dunno, she just kinda disappeared after that.....

She's probably planning your demise as we type. :hiding:

This past semester at college I was playing bass for the Show Choir at a gig in the college theater. We were playing a really “technical” song that consisted of advanced choreography and demanding vocals from the singers, all this being done while running around dancing. My bass part was a jazzy bass-walk, it was easy so I could look around while I played. (Side note: We weren’t gonna play a song that uses the guitarist and I in the choreography so I played with a cable. Also, we use this thing called “sequence,” Its basically a MIDI backing track that the meat of the music in the show.) The song is at its climax and we were giving it our all. All of a sudden, the power goes out on the bands side of the stage and the electronic drums, the sequence, and guitarist, who used a wireless and a POD, are dead in the water, but guess whose still in the monitors because he’s running on phantom power? Yeah, me. Our sound guy, mixin board, monitors, and mic receivers use a different power source so they were still live, and continuing with the song. When the power went out, some of the singers looked over to us, while singing and dancing, and gave us that deer in the headlights look. Funny as hell! But luckily, Im still playing the music because it’s the same pattern over and over again and everything came so fast, I never hiccupped in my playing. So basically, these folks are doing there thing to just a walking bass line. Funny as hell! They were able to finish the song and no one in the audience who has seen our show before could tell something went wrong. How do you like that for professionalism? BUT IT GETS WORSE!!! We traveled to France this past May and played two shows at Noirmontier. Our drummer couldn’t come so the musicians recorded our music to a cd in a studio, took out the bass and guitars, and used a portable CD player ran from the stage to the mixing board and used that as our sequence. It was done that way so our keyboardist/ sequence operator could stop and start it. THE SAME SONG MENTIONED ABOVE STARTS and midway through the power is lost AGAIN but this time to the entire place! (we were suckin some serious juice!) The main engineer who ran the theater was sitting on the steps of the entrance by the front of the stage. The place goes black and he TAKES OFF running across the floor in front of the stage! All you could see was some bright colored shirts dancing and STILL singing in the dark. This time, everything was cut so all you heard were the singers, still singing, just without the mics, and the sound of the footsteps hitting the wooden floor! I **** you not! Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. There wasn’t anything I could do so my crazy ass just starts doin the Carlton dance, (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) acting dumb and ****. Two seconds later the power comes back on while the singers are continuing on and the CD starts playing from where it stopped, so since we were already beyond that point in the song, it’s quickly shut off and I pickup where the singers are at. Since everything got so ****ed up, the singers, and myself, got kinda lost in the end section that is repeated a lot and we couldn’t get back on the right track, so everything starts to fall apart until everyone just stops while in the middle of the choreography. There was a second of silence, overflowing with embarrassment, that passed before the French crowd (who were awesome, by the way) cheered us on. We acted as if nothing happened, smiled, apologized for nothing, and continued on with the next song. Im not one to say “This is what you are supposed in your situation.” But in the midst of chaos we came out looking like some pros.

Walking into orchestra rehearsal carrying my carved upright and the case strap broke. Bass fell ~14" onto the concrete landing on the ribs/endpin.

Cracked ribs, broken bass bar, cracked top, broken soundpost. Needed multiple crack repairs to ribs and top, new bass bar carved, new sound post sized and set, the top regraduated, and some edging/purfling work on the top before re-attachment.

Final repair bill: $3500

Yay insurance.

--
aborgman

Last summer, I played a gig with my hardcore band where my guitarist and I attempted some synchonized guitar-throws. My throw went fine, but the straplock on my guitarist's gitter came right out and the guitar went headstock-first into the stage, breaking on of the tuning pegs right off. That song was finished basically with just bass, drums, and vocals (I still had my fun :D ). At that point, the string lost a whole lot of tension and there was no way to easily retune it. So we relative-tuned to that one extremely low string, and finished out set sounding like mud...

Then comes the next band, another metal group out of Maine that had just returned from their first tour up the eastern seaboard (drove down to FL, and drove their way back to Maine gigging about every other night or so). Halfway through their set, one of their guitarists does an impromptu throw, and the same thing happens! Only this time, the headstock on his brand-spanking new Ibanez S-series guitar breaks clean off, rendering his guitar useless. I believe he would have had a backup if the same thing hadn't happened to his other guitar weeks prior during their trip.

Oye

I was playing recently with a band called "Snowblind" filling in for a recently departed bass player, the singer was high on angel dust and sounded like Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein... PUTTIN ON THE RIIIITTZZZZ!!!. He was so bad that 2 chicks stood in front of him and flipped him the bird consisantly for the entire set. SUUPEER DUUPER. They were screaming "Fv@% YOU" so loud I could hear it on the stage. The rest of us were just trying not to laugh. When we got done, my friends were like "WHO the HELL was THAT guy?" ...He's the singer, I quit

My worst experience isn't nearly as bad as some of the ones I've read here...

It was an outdoor performance in a park in San Francisco, lots of experimental audio performers, noise acts, etc. So it's our turn, and right in the middle of our first number the old Acoustic 270 head I was using to amplify my Hondo bass totally crapped out on me. I was like "son of a bitch must pay!" So I spent the rest of our set kicking the head around, throwing it on the concrete, throwing large and heavy objects on it, taking a Skil-saw to it and making lots of sparks and smoke (we're a strange band), and generally just taking my anger out on the head. After our set someone asked if they could take it home as a souvenir, and I gladly let them....

I had the speaker in my Acoustic 360 catch fire one night. The crowd thought it looked cool, but I was most unhappy.


Now THAT's funny.

My worst bass experiences always involved amps breaking, but I've learned a lesson, anyway. Actually, two lessons in one shot.

Around 15 years ago - out on the road playing club dates, played a gig at a club where the hallway to the women's bathroom was about 2 feet of space between the back edge of the stage and the wall. Some drunk girl wobbled into my rig on the edge of the stage back there. The rig teetered but did not fall ... but the plastic cup with about 1" of beer on my rig tipped over and the beer went into the vent. Snap, crackle, pop - smoke came out the top, amp fried and dead.

Thankfully, the club had a junky 50 watt no-name guitar amp that some local guy had left there. I played the rest of the night through that amp into my cabinet, which sounded crappy but at least avoided the alternative -- end of gig.

I had three more dates to play before getting home, with no bass rig and had to scrounge equipment at each one to pull it off, which COMPLETELY sucked (I didn't have the $$ to just go buy an amp as a replacement).

Bad scene. The two lessons learned were - never put anything liquid on top of your rig. The second was, ALWAYS carry a spare amp. No one is lucky enough to have gear only crap out in non-gig situations. I've had amps quit on me only twice at gigs in the intervening 15 years -- and each time I walked out to the car and got my spare bass head out and the gig continued. Get a spare -- mine was first a really awful Kustom and then my main bass head (the fried one referred to above - a Peavey) eventually became the backup.

Well I was playing hills cafe in austin which has an actual elevated stage and dance floor. not used to that. During shows I normally leave the stage during one song while playing and mingle with the crowd while still playing. I thought this would be a great opportunity to work on my big rockstar jump. I mind you the stage is about 3 feet high and 4 feet away from the dance floor. So I find the prime time and go for it. well it didnt go picture perfect. for those of you that are airborne you know what a plf is. feet, ankle, knee, hip, side, shoulder, head. thats how I landed. BUT DIDNT MISS A FREAKIN NOTE! yea baby. the band ragged on me for a while about it, but did have to give it to me for not loosing the overall groove. A blind person wouldnt have noticed a difference.:bassist:

My mate had his first band (about11 years ago) and they where playing their 1st gig in an old church hall, and this possum walked across the exposed beams in the ceiling and pissed all over the drummer and his kit mid song. :eek:

Hahaha :D

I know I posted this here before on some thread, but its a good story:

We were in a little club- we were doing cover stuff and kind of jam bandish stuff and except for me, everyone in the band were completely sloshed.

One of our guitarists was plastered and could not continue by the third set so he handed me his guitar and wandered off .
So this was a bit weird- but nowhere near weird as it was going to get.

Things kind of get vague in my memory, but I remember handing my bass to a the brother of the other guitarist who could play some bass and I played guitar. So we had things going again where we could finish out the gig, but at some point we were bouncing around and having fun when the sloshed brother on my bass trips ...
and let me try to get the domino effect in the right order:

He first gets some cords twisted around his leg, He falls into the drum set knocking cymbals and bits and pieces all over the place, then he tries to stand up, and immediately falls over again knocking over the guitar amp I'm playing through (and the beer that was sitting on top of it) The beer falls into the amp which immediately makes a horrible shreaking noise and smoke and sparks come flying out of it.
Everything just stopped. We were all (well except whats his name) standing there with our mouths open- Within the space of 10 seconds almost every thing on stage was knocked over or ruined.

I can still see it. Oh well, at least my bass survived the whole thing without a scratch!
We got paid for being entertaining at least...