Most unusual cause of damage to your gear?.

[Sneakypete]

Well OK not gear exactly but everywhere my gear goes so does a cardboard box (like a shoebox) containing a soldering station, some small tools, a few plugs and sockets, bits of wire etc etc. Due to garden "improvements" in progress for nearly two months at home and my garage full of cement bags I've been keeping my gear in a quiet corner at the dayjob (an engineering workshop) covered with a dustsheet. When loading up for a rehearsal night this week I found my soldering station had been shot - a .22 airgun pellet had gone clean through the 24V psu and smashed the on/off switch. A colleague had brought an airgun into work to fit a completely illegal spring (will easily put a pellet through 3/4" plywood) and had been target testing it without realising my gear was behind the target. No other damage fortunately and I always turn the cabs to the wall but the thought what those little lumps of lead might have done.... Now I keep my gear in my own cramped little office.
Has anyone else suffered damage from an unusual or unexpected source?

[mooreon131]

I don't know how unusual it is, and its damage caused by my gear, not to it, but when I first started playing, I was at my friend's house for band practice. We were playing gone away by the offspring, and during the guitar solo, I tried to drop to my knees and hold the bass up in the air like zakk wylde did with his guitar in the "bark at the moon" video from 2007. Whether my timing was off or the ceiling was too short, the headstock of my bass hit the ceiling HARD! So to this day, there's a half inch deep dent about the size of the top of a pack of cigarettes in his ceiling. Looking at it makes me all warm and fuzzy...

[kcole4001]

The guitar player's German Shepherd crapped on my DOD flanger many years ago.
No real harm done, just needed a good cleaning.
The flanger still works great, though the dog has since died (natural causes).

[billgwx]

Bass guitar left out on stand encounters two young toddlers with screwdrivers in hand...toddlers 2, bass 0! Bass still plays fine and looks fine from a distance, but close up there are a couple of screwdriver-shaped nicks through the finish and into the wood.

Almost had another beauty happen yesterday morning. My above-ground lawn sprinklers are on a timer--I had moved them to cut the grass, forgot to put them back in place, and left one right under an open awning window where my Telecaster was also sitting on a stand. Sprinklers came on at 5 AM--luckily for me I had fallen asleep earlier that night in a nearby easy chair--heard those things come on and leaped out of the chair to turn them off! Tele got a touch wet but no serious damage done. I shudder to think what would have happened had I gone to bed as usual.

[EpiRipper]

Incorrectly wired 3 phase power at an outdoor gig cost me an amp and wireless unit, my guitarist lost his effects board and the sound guy $15,000 in fried PA gear. An hour late for showtime we were up and running. Dry guitar, bass running through foldback and the soundguys 'B' rig, the show went on. Not the ideal gig! Fortunately the venue paid for all repairs.

[EricssonB]

As a teenager I had a cheap 2x10 guitar combo that had those funky foil bubbles covering the center of the speakers. My brother dented one and within a few weeks it developed into a crack that would buzz loudly whilst playing.

So I figured, okay, ripped edges of metal foil buzzing against itself -- no big deal. I'll use a lighter to melt it away a little bit.

Well, the speaker cones were made of paper...

[1dgbass]

Hard to explain, but one of my knobs came off and I reatached it with superglue. I use too much and now it's tough to turn the knob. Works fine though. There is all superglue around the bass of the knob. Anyone here have their knobs come off? I've had my bass about three yrs and my tone knob also came off once. It's an american standard jazz.

[Downunderwonder]

Drunken local clown decides to perform a "snatch" weightlift manouver on the "coffee" table right next to me and takes a dink out of my headstock.

[Rockmusician]

The only damage I ever suffered was letting the bassist of a well known band use my gear because their equipment truck broke down. He ran an SVT4 PRO in biamp mode even though I asked him not to and blew my speakers. He refused to pay for them.

[JBuckley]

I had this 115 Peavey combo that didn't have any front grill. One night after practice, we're loading up the car and my guitarist put his case right through the speaker cone. We fixed it with epoxy and I played with it for another 15 years. The head finally stopped working, but a friend of a friend is now using it as a cab (with the same epoxied speaker) and it sounds great.

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by EpiRipper

Incorrectly wired 3 phase power at an outdoor gig cost me an amp and wireless unit, my guitarist lost his effects board and the sound guy $15,000 in fried PA gear. An hour late for showtime we were up and running. Dry guitar, bass running through foldback and the soundguys 'B' rig, the show went on. Not the ideal gig! Fortunately the venue paid for all repairs.

I feel your pain... something very similar to this just happened to my band last weekend:

Electrician's F-Up Fries Gear - ARRGH!

[iamoldschool]

Originally Posted by 1dgbass

Hard to explain, but one of my knobs came off and I reatached it with superglue. I use too much and now it's tough to turn the knob. Works fine though. There is all superglue around the bass of the knob. Anyone here have their knobs come off? I've had my bass about three yrs and my tone knob also came off once. It's an american standard jazz.

This happened to my lead guitarist. Half of the split-shaft volume pot broke off and rather than replace the pot, he super-glued a toothpick inside the knob, then glued the knob to the half pot shaft. Knob stayed on, but he couldn't move it and it was not at max volume so his tone was effected. Cost him 13 bucks to have the pot replaced by a tech including the cost of the pot. Rhythm guitarist and I both offered to fix it for him, but he lives 40 or so miles from each of us and didn't want to be without his Strat for more than a day.

[AwkwardLoudness]

I have a guitar that was mildly damaged in an earthquake...in Kentucky. The damage was only cosmetic.

[Stilettoprefer]

My bass has a slight peachy scent after I spilled some of my snapple on it at band practice.

One night in church the air grabbed my acoustic guitar off of a pew and smashed it against another pew, now there's a huge chip out of the binding next to the strap button and a slight lift in the top. Fixed the chip with some superglue and sharpie. the guitar is still useable, it's just a toss around and camping warrior though.

There's a good sized dent on my telecaster from the trunk of my dads car.

[pklima]

Put a couple of scratches on my DB while climbing a tree. At least it was a well-paying gig...

[pasta4lnch]

I used to work for a producer - he had a kid in for a writing session once. he picked up an acoustic (one the producer cherished) and simply strummed a chord. nothing crazy. the neck cracked clean in two

we were referred to this crazy dude in Brooklyn who fixed it so good you'd never tell anything was ever wrong w/ it ...

[Stilettoprefer]

Originally Posted by pklima

Put a couple of scratches on my DB while climbing a tree. At least it was a well-paying gig...

Care to explain why you had a double bass in a tree? Haha

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by pklima

Put a couple of scratches on my DB while climbing a tree. At least it was a well-paying gig...

Agreed, this one definitely calls for the full story.

[TolerancEJ]

Originally Posted by Stilettoprefer

Care to explain why you had a double bass in a tree? Haha

Originally Posted by jaywa

Agreed, this one definitely calls for the full story.

I Third this motion. Please explain.

Well-paying gig in a tree? Did you perform for Tarzan? George of the Jungle? Monchichis?

[shadowtippy]

Originally Posted by pklima

Put a couple of scratches on my DB while climbing a tree. At least it was a well-paying gig...

For some reason, I have never been tempted to play bass in a tree. I'm sure there was a good reason, other than money, for doing it. Story, please.