mistreated equipment stories

[lewibassist]

Hiya has anyone ever had someone else mistreat there equipment. Because it happend to me last night. I had just bought a new aguilar cab and i had a gig with my jazz band. We hired a minibuss and the organiser of the band took all the equipment in a trailer with him. When we unpacked the trailer i found a big scratch down the front grill of my cab and all the corners were chipped and the carpet on the amp was dented and ripped. I have only had the cab 3 days. Just woundering if anyone else has experienced anyhtin like this.

Lewis

[fastplant]

Wow, all in one night?? But yeah, these things happen. My band mates have been known to actually toss my Warwick into our van many times. All of my gear is scratched up because of them. But as long as it still plays well I'm happy. ALthough if my bass itself got messed up I'd be crazy mad.

[cosmodrome]

well, i'm over cautious(?) with my stuff since somebody dropped my trace head once. i always carry everything myself, load in, load out. i make sure everything is secured and tied down well. i never let it out of my sight, where ever i am. shame my wick dents and scratches easily but there you go.

but it would be typical for me if my whole set tumbles off stage one certain day.

[Mon Rominee]

I would bitch relentless.

I would prolly also lose the gig.

But I don't spend top money for top gear to have it end up looking like shizz.

If my bandmates EVER threw my gear around, I'd throw them around twofold... That is nothing but disrespect for the person, the equipment, and says nothing for the band in question, if they care not for the state and appearance of the gear they play on.

Ron

[fastplant]

Originally Posted by Mon Rominee

I would bitch relentless.

I would prolly also lose the gig.

But I don't spend top money for top gear to have it end up looking like shizz.

If my bandmates EVER threw my gear around, I'd throw them around twofold... That is nothing but disrespect for the person, the equipment, and says nothing for the band in question, if they care not for the state and appearance of the gear they play on.

Ron

Yeah, none of my gear ever got real damaged, but keep in mind all our gear has cases, so nothing got really damaged, and we played multiple times every week so we were more concerned with getting our stuff down quick so we could go home. I never even really thought about it much until recently.

[Mon Rominee]

Yeah man, that's cool...we have cases too, but they serve to protect from normal travel, not abuse situations...

throwin a pedal board case up on a wheel well, we'll let it slide.

Throw my bass case across vehicle, you get a punch to the head.

Throw my amp at ALL? As the Pixies say "you f'n die.

It really takes no reall extra effort to place something properly. You end up spending more time re-situating something you toss in haphazardly, if it lands awkwardly. That's just lazy. If you're too tired to load up, how can you possibly be in any condition to drive?

All I'm saying. If I ever contemplated tossing my guitarist's AC30 around, there would be hell. Same with my gear. It's just respect.

[McHack]

Originally Posted by Mon Rominee

I would bitch relentless.

I would prolly also lose the gig.

But I don't spend top money for top gear to have it end up looking like shizz.

If my bandmates EVER threw my gear around, I'd throw them around twofold... That is nothing but disrespect for the person, the equipment, and says nothing for the band in question, if they care not for the state and appearance of the gear they play on.

Ron

+1,000,000

This would piss me off to an extreme, & probably get me in a fight. If I EVER caught anyone doing that to my gear, I'd be KICKING thier hineys! No exaggeration...

[gazman_res]

I take the cake on this one..

A few years ago i had a MIM Active Deluxe Jazz. I refit everything. PUPS, Hardware, P/G.

a month or so after the mods were complete my g/f at the time 'kidnapped' this bass and sent a ransom note. She then sent the bass back to me piece by piece.. Each piece was completly charred & destroyed.

How's that for mistreatment?

[fatbassjazzer]

That is absolutley awful. I feel so bad for you. That is one wicked girl.

[gazman_res]

Umm wicked would be an understatement..
She's a lawyer as well.. quite a good one.

[Frank Martin]

Originally Posted by gazman_res

Umm wicked would be an understatement..
She's a lawyer as well.. quite a good one.

Yeah, a lawyer she is... maintaning law and order, protecting personal properties...Did you sue her at least

[fastplant]

Originally Posted by mutantbassist

Yeah, a lawyer she is... maintaning law and order, protecting personal properties...Did you sue her at least

I was thinking the same thing. She must not be a very good lawyer

[Tames]

Originally Posted by gazman_res

I take the cake on this one..

A few years ago i had a MIM Active Deluxe Jazz. I refit everything. PUPS, Hardware, P/G.

a month or so after the mods were complete my g/f at the time 'kidnapped' this bass and sent a ransom note. She then sent the bass back to me piece by piece.. Each piece was completly charred & destroyed.

How's that for mistreatment?

Good god. If that happened, I'd seriously have to kill a bitch.

Anyway, I know it's not really the same lines.. but I have an Epiphone P-bass copy. A few years ago I was carrying a hardshell tuba case downstairs (it's where my bass was located at the time) and had an accident with the case. The bass was sitting on it's stand, about... 4 feet from the bass of the stairs. The tuba case had wheels, but they got caught on the stairs, the thing flipped over and bitch slapped my bass into the floor. It took a pretty good chunk out of it, considering it was tile flooring. I was so upset for a while, becuase even though it isn't the greatest bass, and for sure isn't my main one, it's still upsetting to see something like that happen to any instrument.

Followup:
I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted that bass to look a bit more "distressed" because I knew if I wanted another, just to look good, I'd fork over how ever much I needed, to get one that looks good. I sat the thing on the floor and released agression in the form of jamming a screwdriver as hard as i could into the back of the bass. Wow. Talk about soft wood. I guarantee the thing went in 1/4th of the depth of the body. Just pissed off at the lackluster quality, I gouged out a nice big chunk out of the back. That bass is tore up. Still plays like it always did though, so It's not like I really hurt it. It's as if I'm a deranged plastic surgeon.

[John Deppel]

Originally Posted by Tames

Anyway, I know it's not really the same lines.. but I have an Epiphone P-bass copy. A few years ago I was carrying a hardshell tuba case downstairs (it's where my bass was located at the time) and had an accident with the case. The bass was sitting on it's stand, about... 4 feet from the bass of the stairs. The tuba case had wheels, but they got caught on the stairs, the thing flipped over and bitch slapped my bass into the floor. It took a pretty good chunk out of it, considering it was tile flooring. I was so upset for a while, becuase even though it isn't the greatest bass, and for sure isn't my main one, it's still upsetting to see something like that happen to any instrument.

Followup:
I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted that bass to look a bit more "distressed" because I knew if I wanted another, just to look good, I'd fork over how ever much I needed, to get one that looks good. I sat the thing on the floor and released agression in the form of jamming a screwdriver as hard as i could into the back of the bass. Wow. Talk about soft wood. I guarantee the thing went in 1/4th of the depth of the body. Just pissed off at the lackluster quality, I gouged out a nice big chunk out of the back. That bass is tore up. Still plays like it always did though, so It's not like I really hurt it. It's as if I'm a deranged plastic surgeon.

You hated to see your bass tumble to the floor, yet willingly drove a screwdriver into it?

Seriously, no bass deserves that...

[lewibassist]

It realy anoyes me when some can just throw and damage your equipment without even thinking. The person who damaged mine was a profesional musician, i would have thought he would have had sence to take some care. . Its awfull when somthing you have worked hard for just get damaged.

[Petebass]

The perfect thread for this story from Mr. Duncan Fry, a leading Australian sound engineer:-

"When I was just starting out in the industry, Colin and I worked with a Jazz Funk band for a while. Unfortunately for them, it was at the height of the extended mix disco compilation craze, and despite the band's undoubted talent, audiences responded to them by sitting down and drinking when they played, and getting up to dance when they stopped. (About the best thing you could say about the "Hooked On..." crap by Jive Bunny etc etc was that it taught a whole generation of Australians to clap off the beat!)

Still, luckily for the band (and us) their management had a lot of clout, so there were always 2 or 3 gigs a week.

The bass player either had enormous faith in the two of us, or a misplaced faith in divine intervention, because he didn't have a road case or any kind of cover for his speaker box. And although we took the best care of it that we could, one day the inevitable happened - it fell over in the truck and something sharp ripped through the grille cloth. Incredibly the speaker wasn't damaged, but there was a nasty hole in the cloth; and although he was philosophical about it, you could tell he wasn't pleased. We put a cross of gaffer tape over the hole to stop it spreading.

Musicians definitely have no sense of humour when it comes to themselves or their equipment. The next gig, just for a bit of fun, we put great huge crosses of black gaffer all over the front of his bass cab. He rolled up to the gig, stepped on stage, took a horrified look at the gaffer tape, rushed over to the box, and peeled up the tape to have a look at what he anticipated would be enormous holes! Of course, there weren't any, and he stood on stage fuming as Col and I rolled around laughing our heads off.

From then onwards he carried all his gear himself in his own car!"

[gazman_res]

Originally Posted by mutantbassist

Did you sue her at least

I know she lives in a studio appartment, works for a big time law firm and drives a lexus.. a very nice lexus.. so she must be successful, right?

The destruction of that bass really set me off. And i kinda took it out on her car. I don't think i could sue.. in this case anyway.

[Ugly Cassanova]

I was at a huge houseparty last weekend, and there was a band playing, and my band was asked to play after.

So I went up to the bassist and asked him if I could use his bass. Then to milk it a bit more I told him I've been playing for a while and would not hurt his bass.

Not even 10 seconds later, i put the strap on, and the strap gives out and the bass crashes to the cement floor.

Huge gash on the bottom, I felt horrible.

[bryan bailey]

I kicked over my floor tom today, cause I nearly tipped it over with my stick.

Does this story count?

[The Golden Boy]

Years ago I had a guitarist who either couldn't/wouldn't afford his own guitar cab. I have a 1977 Marshall 4x12 that was in beautiful shape. Since I wasn't playing guitar I figured it'd be alright if he used it. In ONE NIGHT he broke off one corner protector and somehow put like 15 nicks in the tolex. That was the last time he used it. Leach. It took him another 2 years to buy his own cab and he was mighty careful about that- I'll tell ya...