GIG GEAR FREEZE/CRASH HORROR STORIES...

Mudshark23 · #1 02-15-2008, 04:05 PM

while i think most of us have broken a string or two at shows, how many of ya'll had a piece of gear just totally crap out at a show, beyond a string break or patch cord short? and beyond that, what did you end up doing to fix, or get around?

for example, i have had multiple pedals (interestingly enough all by the same company, i don't want to be a basher so let's just say the company's name starts with an "e", but isn't from sweden) glitch out midset. since they were all previously identified troublemakers it was a pretty easy fix on the fly, just take them out of the chain and throw them across the stage. (crowd loved that)

additionally, i have blown out speakers twice at shows, one time so bad i blew out the dust caps so they were concave rather than convex. the fix? ended our set, i like backups but back up cabs for a local bar show ain't gonna happen.

but my personal high water mark for this was blowing a transformer in a head. since it was totally my fault (as running 18V p/u's into both padded and unpadded inputs simultaneously will tend to do, yes, it was crazy but it made sense at the time) i won't name the company.

that was definitely a show stopper, but as we had already played for 3 hours it was about time to stop anyway. but nothing stops the inevitable "one more song!!!" outbursts than smoke pouring out of your head. amp head that is. the former would probably be a good show stopper too.

anyway, i bet some of you have horror stories that probably transcend these. feel free to share...

thesteve · #2 02-15-2008, 04:11 PM

Man...that's a winner...

I am both happy and sad that I don't have any stories like this.

Lesfunk · #3 02-15-2008, 04:45 PM

I had an EBS Fafner burn up at a gig. It just started belching black smoke and stopped working.
The worst (or best) thing was that I was borrowing it from a music store while mine was in the shop!
Just last week I got a Status steath from a fellow TBer and took it to my gig the next night. It was sounding great right through soundcheck right up to the first tune.
1-2...1-2-3-4... Nothing. Silence! AHHH!
Banged on the battery box and restarted the song. Been working ever since

Uncle Ernie · #4 02-15-2008, 04:49 PM

My old Epiphone had crapy bridge saddles that would break strings every gig... eventually I figured it out and moded the bridge, but it certainly made for uncomfortable moments. I also had a cable go bad in the middle of a 1 or 2 songa set at my high school... we were running trough the PA and had no amps, so I went ballistic on the soundman. I didn't figure out it was my cable until our next practice, and then I felt like an ass!

Bassman822 · #5 02-15-2008, 08:35 PM

Peavey Combo300 died on me at 2 separate gigs (broken output choke, shorted output transistors. Ampeg svt350 died on a gig (output mosfet). G-K MB150s-112 (speaker foam surround fell apart). All this within last 5-6 years

bassaficionado6 · #6 02-15-2008, 09:21 PM

The worst thing I've ever done was accidently start playing with the volume on my bass off. I felt really stupid, becasue we were all supposed to come in at once and the first note was kinda lacking without the thundering bottom.

BassmanDk · #7 02-16-2008, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassaficionado6

The worst thing I've ever done was accidently start playing with the volume on my bass off. I felt really stupid, becasue we were all supposed to come in at once and the first note was kinda lacking without the thundering bottom.

If i had a penny for every time that has happen for me....

lewislngvw · #8 02-16-2008, 08:29 PM

was playing at a fairly large church and started playing and didnt have any sound....checked everything and nothing was wrong....until i checked one last thing.....forgot to plug my amp into the cab..man i felt like packing up and going home....havent done that since tho....

Ripper · #9 02-16-2008, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassmanDk

If i had a penny for every time that has happen for me....

+100000... pennies that is

my worst one i think was: i was marching at one local parade... my first summer playing for the band... i was using the school's wireless to hook into my amp... coming up to the reviewing area i play a note to make sure im still on.... nothing... so i go over to my bass cart (thats how i march) and check the inverter... sure enough... the wireless system came unplugged... no big deal... so i plug back in and as im pulling away the tiny little chord on the wireless pack catches on the cart and breaks... luckily i had a long enough chord on the cart that i could play hardwired... but i was still so pissed.

plus i've had the 12 volt car battery that we run the amp off of die, and the power chord on the amp pull out far enough that we had to pull it apart to fix it... before a bills game... that was fun too

wingnut · #10 02-19-2008, 09:07 AM

We played a biker benefit one time and our sound board totally fried. There were sparks and smoke and a few flames spewing out of it, it was a glorious sight! The crowd thought it was part of the show! It was our second to last song, so we thanked the crowd for having us and put the fire out. They booked us for a private party the following month.

winstonthecat · #11 02-19-2008, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassaficionado6

The worst thing I've ever done was accidently start playing with the volume on my bass off. I felt really stupid, becasue we were all supposed to come in at once and the first note was kinda lacking without the thundering bottom.

The tuning-mute switch is great for that. Do a quick tune check using the mute switch (so you don't bother anybody with droning) and forget to switch it back when you start

Pretty embarrassing

mjolnir · #12 02-19-2008, 01:29 PM

I used to play through a Digitech pedal that crapped out on me in the middle of a song at a barbeque gig one night, sizzled and everything. I just unplugged it and went straight into my crappy sounding peavey for the rest of the set.

I used to play using two EV 15" PA speakers, was so proud of the things, bragged about 'em on here about how big and powerful they were...

...Blew 'em on the first show. Both of them. I soldiered on, though... played the last four songs (all southern/roots rock stuff) sounding like a death metal bassist with a horrible distortion pedal. It was great.

grieverOSOK · #13 02-19-2008, 05:55 PM

a friends amp kept crapping out on him at a gig and i opened it up to see if it was something we could fix easily. the previous owner decided that duct tape was better than solder for connecting speaker wires.

Zappstorius · #14 02-19-2008, 10:09 PM

Once my strap broke (on both ends!) during the 1st verse of Too Many Puppies by Primus (which I sing lead)...trying to balance a bass with no strap standing up & playing chords.

I setup my gear prior to a show, went to soundcheck and couldn't figure out why I wasn't hearing any sound. I checked the cable to my pedalboard, from the pedalboard, every single patch cord (I have 10 effects)...about 5 minutes later I realized that I didn't have the speaker cables connected to the head.

Higgie · #15 02-20-2008, 05:49 AM

Playing a small preview of the school musical I was playing bass in to the younger students at school, I step on my compressor to turn it on for a certain part of the tune, only to have the amp start buzzing like crazy with none of my bass coming through.

An embarrased look and a quick reconfiguration of cables later and I was good to go, but it was pretty embarrasing

I've also done the "Where's my volume?" where you check the amps on, all the cables are connected into your pedalboard etc, only to find that the instrument cable has been pulled out of the amp just enough to stop the sound, but not look like it was unplugged at a glance. That was at rehearsal though, so it's all good

BassmanDk · #16 02-20-2008, 06:06 AM

I have a somewhat complicated rig as to finding the fault.
First my bass's volume knob( i always turn it down between songs)
Then sometimes i play with a Planet Wawes cable with on/off switch.
Then comes the TU-2 Tuner pedal.
Finnaly the standbyswitch on the Aguilar.

And back in the days i had my Korg racktuner IN the signalway so i could mute there too.

So it was; No sound - quickly press like 5 switches! and we're not even talking about not plugging in a cable.