Structural Damage from playing bass?

[behemecoytl]

I'm curious to hear stories from anyone who has ever done structural damage to your house, garage, basement, club, studio... just from playing incredibly thunderous bass?

i wonder sometimes, as my whole house shakes...

[runmikeyrun]

Had parts of the ceiling fall down in our jam spot when i cranked up my rig... 1500w through 2x15 and 8x10. Let that low B rumble and it would rain white chunks.

[sonic assassin]

i recording with my DIY sub kick to test to see if it worked, and then ran the audio back through my amp (with EQ flat of course) at low volume.

pots and pans started rattling and i could hear things in cabinets shifting. apparently i found the resonant frequency of the kitchen..

nothing broke, but it sure sounded like i could have if i tried hard enough.

[Stempelloos]

Our band practiced in a basement. It was in a 3 floor building that was built around a concrete frame. The frame had it's foundation on sanddunes. Some top volume practicing sessions could get the frame of the building into vibration, this would result in trembling through the floors.
Concerts were played in the venue above the basement.
Some bands (exceptions) were able to produce such a volume during concerts that the house gave a kind of shiver or shake through it's frame.
Like a light earthquake.

Checking the building after a few years of soundblast showed cracks in the concrete frame at the lower floors and higher walls around the stage and basement.
Reason to believe that vibrations had something to do with that.

[Jimmy Bones]

Knocked the screen off the small window in my garage when I cranked my Peavey/Carvin/SWR setup. Also loosened a nut on the already shabby garage door setup.

Also make my cymbal stands fall over and my floor tom crawl across the floor.

[Indiana Mike]

I've broken countless picture frames and when Im playing I have more rattles and buzzes in my house now than ever before. I think the nails holding it together are backing out.

[Stempelloos]

Low tones have a big physical force.
To get all the windowpanes shaking, hit the low C of my analog synthesizer tuned at it's lowest frequency.
(VCO 1 in '32 scale, VCO 2 in "16 scale tuned one octave lower,
connect the wheel, frequency modulation at 10 with the wheel
turned at it's lowest point, synthesizer volume at 9, 50 watt 2x 12' speaker cabinet at 9, good lot of attack at envelop generator 2)
This sound is hardly hearable, but the rattling and shaking of the windows and floor tell you that there's something going on.

[PartyFindsYOU]

I dunno... I cranked my 100w practice amp on a split level house with all wood floors and it shook the whole building. I don't think we damaged anything, but if I had a serious rig then I would not advise using it on the second floor of most houses.

Resonant frequency sucks!

[Linas]

I had a 2x10 sitting on top of a 2x15 that was next to my drummers kit. Somehow the 2x10 vibrated off and landed on my drummers high hat and messed it all up. Cab was fine :-).

[Alexander]

Unfortunately, yes - and it got us kicked out of our guitarist's house... Bass rattled two coffee mugs from their wedding off the shelf - one went into the cat's litter box and the other broke. A few weeks later, bass caused a small ladder to fall off it's hook and hit the PVC water pipe going to the outside, spraying our 2nd guitar player (and his equipment) with water. It caused a small flood before we could get it shut off.

We moved practice space soon after that...