Guitar player's 16-year old kid borrowed my bass...

duff beer · #1 03-08-2011, 07:46 PM

...and he returned it a couple months later in the same condition he got it in, and as thanks he had put a new set of strings on it.

Also, at Christmas, the 14-year old son of my cousin saw one of my Taylor magazines and asked me if I had a Taylor. So, I showed him my walnut 414 and his eyes fell out of his head. He shyly asked me if he could try it and I told him he could. The first thing he did (I was about to ask him) was remove his hood so that he wouldn't damage it from the zipper, and then he sat in a chair and played it for a half hour, treating it with respect for the entire time.

I just thought I'd mention these incidents because from what you read here, anyone who lends out gear either gets it trashed or they never see it again.

RFord04 · #2 03-08-2011, 07:58 PM

Ha, you got me. I was totally expecting a horror story here, but it's good to hear you helped some young musicians realize their desire to play bass. Kudos to you sir.

rayzak · #3 03-08-2011, 07:59 PM

That's.... well, that's just swell

Yeah, in spite of what you sometimes read here, I still think the majority of people are good-hearted and well-meaning. Those "other" ones though, OY

walterw · #4 03-08-2011, 08:31 PM

plenty of good-hearted and well-meaning people will still trash your gear if you lend it to them.

you had me going, too, and i'm pleased to read about kids with real respect for other folk's stuff.

duff beer · #5 03-08-2011, 08:33 PM

RFord, the Taylor is an acoustic guitar...this one: http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars...010/Walnut400/

Hopefully we'll read a few more "good" gear lending stories before the bad gear stories inevitably take over...

funkygroover694 · #6 03-08-2011, 08:34 PM

haha nice one man. its like the news, we only hear the bad stuff, even if thats 2% of whats going on in the world

pnut166 · #7 03-08-2011, 08:54 PM

Congratulate your guitarist for raising good kids.

addylewis · #8 03-10-2011, 01:54 PM

Good to hear people can respect other peoples gear over the pond

DRafalske · #9 03-10-2011, 02:00 PM

There's another local band around here, and everyone in that band and my band gets on pretty well. We all go out and support each other we have the night off and a sit-in usually happens. We've played a couple shows together too and usually share equipment in that case. Their bass player is a great guy (and player) and treats my gear with every bit as much care and respect as I treat his with.

D

joe vegas · #10 03-10-2011, 02:01 PM

great! fully expecting the usual horror story!!!!haha and ya know.. those kids will probably grow to be really great players- you can tell by the way they're respecting and bonding with instruments now.

jmac · #11 03-10-2011, 02:05 PM

I gear share often because, while not required, clubs/soundmen appreciate it. None of my gear has been mistreated. But I did have one bad incident.

Three band show. The last band's bassist agreed to share his rig. I show up and it is a beat up behringer head with some crappy single 15. I was disappointed to say the least, but I figure everyone was using it.

I run my rig flat, but flat didn't to cut it on this amp. I struggled to hear myself all set. The second band's bassist didn't sound good either.

The third band takes the stage and I hear this amazing tone. I make my way to the stage to investigate. Yeah, the bassist rolled out a completely different rig.

I thought it was kinda pricky.

TwinBass · #12 03-10-2011, 02:18 PM

I have one.

A friend and fellow bass player was in dire straits. His amp died on him the night before a gig. He called me up and asked to borrow mine. Normally in this situation, I would have told him to stick it (I had a 4x10 blown up by The Georgia Satellites), but I was feeling generous so I let him borrow it for the weekend. When I got it back, he had changed the preamp tube (it wasn't going bad, he just liked a different kind better (and as it turned out, so did I

)), cleaned off some old sticker residue on the rack case, and eventually sold me his fretless for a steal (MIJ Fender jazz fretless in great shape... $200). He offered up his new rig as a backup for mine if the need ever presented itself. Thankfully it never did, but it's always comforting to know that sometimes a little bit of kindness really goes a long way.

electracoyote · #13 03-10-2011, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duff beer

I just thought I'd mention these incidents because from what you read here, anyone who lends out gear either gets it trashed or they never see it again.

Well, that is certainly an extreme point of view, and I rarely read anyone expressing that here on TB.

I do read people saying it's a gamble. To which I agree.

You beat the odds. Congrats.

From the sound of it, just as many people get burned as get their stuff back in the original condition.

Rocksolid · #14 03-10-2011, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pnut166

Congratulate your guitarist for raising good kids.

As a Dad with 2 young boys - this comment would mean the world to me if I were in this situation.

I have always respected my gear, tried to instill respect in my kids but we aren't quite there yet - they are young however.

Nice build up on the story though - fully expected a train wreck outcome.

I've never had any nightmares but have got a bass back with the latch ripped off the case and not a word of apology. Some people are just blissfully ignorant in there lack of respect and inability to care for something.

duff beer · #15 03-10-2011, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by electracoyote

You beat the odds. Congrats.

Both of these kids are good people and treat other people's things with respect, so I wasn't worried. I may have "beat the odds", but when you deal with quality people the odds are highly stacked in your favour right from the get-go.

electracoyote · #16 03-10-2011, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duff beer

Both of these kids are good people and treat other people's things with respect, so I wasn't worried. I may have "beat the odds", but when you deal with quality people the odds are highly stacked in your favour right from the get-go.

Agreed.

The people who have problems loaning gear usually aren't 100% certain of the responsibility level of the person they are loaning to.

The more careful you are about who you loan gear to, the more often it comes back the way it went out.

Most of the complaints I hear on TB about loaning gear have to do with making a snap or uninformed decision and loaning to unknown entities out of guilt, sympathy, etc., and then getting burned.

I have yet to read a thread by someone complaining about the time they loaned out a piece of gear to a well-known and trusted person of high moral and ethical character.

For obvious reasons.

Joe.shaffer · #17 03-11-2011, 01:06 AM

It's nice to hear things like this. I've loaned my gear out a few times and I've only had one bad experience. Glad everything went well.

jlane72t · #18 03-11-2011, 08:27 AM

I like this thread. POSITIVITY

Randall · #19 03-11-2011, 10:53 AM

Great outcome. I know when I was starting out it was so easy to bang the headstock or bass body because i was not used to being carefull as i am now. Zippers/belts also cause rash so those are some smart well brought up children.