Murphy's Law

[Bob Clayton]

a bad thing that could happen. ur playin a song at a gig, and a string snaps, better hope u have extra stings, or another bass

[ZuluFunk]

I kept hitting my volume pedal accidentally. Ended up not using it anymore. SOund guy hated the idea anyway.

[tufnuts]

Originally posted by Wicked7Shark
also being the tech for the band i have a good grasp on how to fix problems as they arise. my main problem is when somebody elses stuff goes out and then i have to trouble shoot it. seriously i don't know how the band would get along without me. battery goes dead on one of our guitarist's pedals and the're hitting their strings and nothings coming out and i walk over and thats the first thing i see is the weak battery light on their pedal and i just want to slap them. i have enough things to worry about than to have to worry about changing out other peoples batteries.

Bingo. I totally feel ya man. Me being somewhat able to figure things out, I get to be the technician. We have one member that will break at least one string a show. That's cool, just swap out to the backup guitar between songs, and change the string between sets...shouldn't be to tough. But he has yet to figure that out. And of course he doesn't have a tuner of his own. So let me break it down how this goes.

Playing a song. The string-breaker does his duty. Then turns to me....while we are playing...and says he needs to use my tuner. Which is a stomp tuner, which would mean that I will have to unplug my bass for him to use it...while we are playing...no. I tell him to go get his other @!$# guitar. So he gets it, and of course it's not tuned up. So he spends an entire song trying to get it. So after that song, I get to tune it for him....Ugghhh. Not fun.

Also, I get the enviable task of constructing whatever we need. I actually do not mind doing this. But when I hear that I did something wrong, I get to inform them I didn't get paid for the sucker. And it's warranty expired the second he used it the first time

[Hategear]

Originally posted by jvasquez18
...the worst thing that could happen is playing in front of a crowd that hates your kind of music. this one band...kept on jamming as if...everyone loved them.

Hey, my band did that once (or thrice). We were playing a gig as a favor for a friend and the only people that showed up were rave-types (to see the rave-type DJs they had booked for between our sets). We played one-and-a-half sets to our girlfriends and mothers and then packed it up. There is only so much humiliation I will take for free.

Another time, we were booked into a bar that usually hosts acoustic open mic jams. Needless to say, a four-piece metal/hard rock cover band didn't get over too well and the next time our guitarist brought up playing there again, I told him, "NO WAY!"

EDIT: On several occasions, I had to set up right near the bathroom door. Inevitably, some yo-yo, with no regard for anyone but himself, will come pushing through, ON STAGE to get to the bathroom. This has happened to me on a handful of gigs. Makes me wonder why the guitarist never has to set up near the bathrooms. Oh wait, it probably has to do with the fact that he can't play for sh*t even without all of the distractions.

[Bassbarbie]

Our band once did a gig in a marquee using a generator as our power source..... only it wasn't powerful enough! No sound came out of my bass at all when we all played together. When everyone stopped and I checked out my sound it was fine. It took several songs before we realised the generator just couldn't give enough power to us all at once... I just had to sort of mime after that - the rest of the band were OK. Next time I'll be wary of generators!

I do a bit of singing too, and went through a phase when I kept getting shocks on my lips from the mic. I was told it had to be static, and it's onset happened to coincide with a change in the P.A amp.(red herring!!) I then realised I only got the shock if I was touching the strings. I got it checked and it turned out that the amp lead had failed - the case was actually live! It could have been nasty!

Another word of warning.... don't get locked in the toilet when you're just about to go on! I was paying my last visit before playing in a large venue (by our standards - hundreds of people + sound guy, lights guy etc. ) - when I shut the door, there was no lock or handle on the inside... oops! I managed to get out in time but I think I left some claw marks!

My slo-blo fuse in my amp was the wrong value, and every now and then I would trip the fuses in the venues we played at..... actually I still haven't changed this yet! They don't sell them at the corner shop.

[nil]

let's see...

- stepping on cable and pulling out of bass - tick
- being provided lousy DI patch cord that cuts out - tick
- reliable tube amp blows fuse, no spare - tick
- reliable tube amp dies completely, band too unprepared to adlib - tick
- broken HOT wire in inst. cable - tick
- 9v battery dies in FX with no true-bypass - tick
- strap comes off - tick
- hit guitarist in head with headstock, + resulting flat tuning - tick
- get carried away so much that you coil your cable around your leg - tick
- having to spin the other way to uncoil said cable (looks real smart) - tick
- instrument jack won't hold plug securely, plug falls out - tick
- head falls off cabinet and bungs the only speaker cable - tick
- standing on wedge monitor that decides to tip and almost drops you in the audience - tick
- bass rig setup too close to poweramps, causing BAD hum - tick
- audience streams through doors, still no power to rig (or line out) - tick
- fingers cramping during an important piece - tick
- rescuing (another person's) spilt beer from making it's way into amp internals - tick
- kicking bass drum back into position after every song 'cause someone forgot carpet - tick

ummm, I think that's about as bad as Murph has slapped me. The lessons learnt were simple:

- wireless kit
- new batteries
- lotsa powerade/gatorade/water
- power extension cables and distribution boards
- plenty of spare cables, fuses, strings
- and amp you don't have to push constantly
- getting enough space on stage before playing!