Should have listened

[Mjury02]

I know this topic has been covered probably over 1000 times, but I should have listened to the horror stories about lending gear with people. Last night I lent my fEarful 15/6 to another bass player, and needless to say, awful idea. Looks like I'm in the market to get the 15 reconed, buying another one and building a 1515/66. No hard feelings towards the other bass player, but lesson learned. No more sharing gear for this guy.

[Stingray89]

Sorry this happened man. You never know what's going to happen when you let someone use your gear. That's why I always ask for a down payment or collateral for using my gear.

[steveksux]

The trick is knowing who you're loaning equipment to. Some people will take care of it. Some won't. Some will pay to repair it in case of problems. Some won't.

Generally speaking though, if they can't afford to buy their own equipment, they can't afford to fix yours. If they had a cab that they blew because they played too loud with theirs, they will tend to have less concern over your gear than then did with theirs.

If you have to loan gear out, overkill is the only reasonably safe option. Give them way more amp/speaker than they need to do what their intend to do, they're unlikely to blow your gear.

Depending on whether they're trustworthy though, the better stuff you give them the more tempting it is to keep it....

Personally I don't loan anything I can't afford to lose or replace.

Randy

[lbanks]

I actually have a loaner rig (Behringer/X-audio) if I'm put in a situation where 'No' isn't feasible. I explain its good up to about half then it farts. I also explain I need a $50 deposit. (Non-refundable) People don't ask me a lot anymore.

[duff beer]

Originally Posted by steveksux

The trick is knowing who you're loaning equipment to. Some people will take care of it. Some won't. Some will pay to repair it in case of problems. Some won't.

That's the key...the people I lend things to tend to treat them with respect, and if they happen to damage it, fixing it or replacing it is automatic for them.

I lent our guitar player's 16-year old kid a bass for a couple months. When I got it back it was in the same condition he received it in, and he had put new strings on as a way of thanking me.

[fhm555]

Originally Posted by steveksux

The trick is knowing who you're loaning equipment to...Personally I don't loan anything I can't afford to lose or replace.

Randy

+1

These days I only know 2 people I'll loan amps/basses because I know them well enough and long enough to know they have their own top shelf gear so they wouldn't be asking unless it was truly an emergency. I also know they are like me in that they would feel obligated (and be in possession of the required ends) to take care of anything that broke down while in their charge, especially if it didn't belong to them.

Anyone else who asks gets politely referred to a local music store where gear can be rented.

[Konigstiger22]

Originally Posted by duff beer

That's the key...the people I lend things to tend to treat them with respect, and if they happen to damage it, fixing it or replacing it is automatic for them.

I lent our guitar player's 16-year old kid a bass for a couple months. When I got it back it was in the same condition he received it in, and he had put new strings on as a way of thanking me.

Nice! Glad to see some parents are still teaching their kids the right way!

[My name is Mudd]

Originally Posted by steveksux

If you have to loan gear out...

Originally Posted by lbanks

...if I'm put in a situation where 'No' isn't feasible....

I'm not trying to troll here, honest, but is someone holding a gun to your head and demanding your stuff? Do they really not understand a polite-but-firm "Sorry...no"?

[Ubersheist]

Originally Posted by My name is Mudd

I'm not trying to troll here, honest, but is someone holding a gun to your head and demanding your stuff? Do they really not understand a polite-but-firm "Sorry...no"?

There's a few. One I can think of that I personally came across is when our band sort of put on our own festival. We headlined and set everything up, so we also had to provide a backline. We could have rented equipment or borrowed from one of the other bands, but in my situation, it wasn't feasible.

There's another gig where we set up a gig out of town, and got a bad to headline that drew pretty well in the area. Mind you, the area was very rural and not known for any sort of music scene... I was worried, as I never heard of them. When we struck a good deal with them, one of the things they wanted was a backline. Same old band, and again, we were all too broke to rent anything since we were putting all the money up front. It turned out that the player wasn't very experienced, but he was also older and a cool guy with a good head on his shoulders.

The thing to do is watch over them. We were also the roadies for the mini-festival, so we loaded all the equipment and ran sound, so it was easy to see what that bass player was up to and to make sure he didn't do anything that'd wreck the equipment. With shows, I just made sure I was there while he was setting up to go over things, and I hang out for the show to make sure I don't see anything harmful going on. Actually, when ever we set up shows, I always offered to backline my amp as soon as I thought I could trust them. It was one less thing to re-mic, remix, and re-EQ between sets while running the sound.

If I was in a different situation, I'd size the player up and try to gauge his general experience. If he's a guy who's never really played any pro-level gigs, indicates to me at all that he's relatively inexperienced, or if he's in some death metal band that's known for putting on loud shows, then I'd say no. Otherwise, I'm prone to say "no problem." Good judgement goes along way.

I'm also not too picky about my equipment. I got good, road-worthy equipment, so it's not likely to break on me anyway. I also hope that when there's a time where it would be better if I didn't have to lug an amp somewhere, Karma would return the favor.

[lbanks]

Originally Posted by My name is Mudd

I'm not trying to troll here, honest, but is someone holding a gun to your head and demanding your stuff? Do they really not understand a polite-but-firm "Sorry...no"?

Yep. they've got a .45 on me and I have no choice! Please, somebody he'p meh!

[Blade3dge]

In our local scene lending gear is the norm, a few bands have strict policies of not accepting or lending gear simply because there's way too many potential issues that really aren't anybodies fault but aside from that big rigs get shared all the time, if somebody shows up with an Ampeg for example chances are they'll just say **** it and let every other band use it on the night, often people will use their own heads but cabs are passed around more than the local band sluts. It just simplifies load-in/load-out, gives more stage room and makes the overall show sound better as well as saving people having to drag around huge rigs if they've organized to share somebody elses for a gig.

It's funny because I play in a punk/hardcore band so it's not the kind of thing you would expect of this scene but everybody is strangely respectful and I never have any fear of letting people use my Ampeg or even my head.

[My name is Mudd]

Originally Posted by lbanks

Yep. they've got a .45 on me and I have no choice! Please, somebody he'p meh!

Well played, sir!

[iriegnome]

We play a ton of festival and multiple band gigs. Everyone wants to use my rig because it rips, it is light and if only 1 bass rig is used, it usually saves a lot of time. I have lent my rig to many bass players, but I have been backing off of that recently. Especially when someone comes in with a $50 bass and no case!!! If they can't afford a good bass and case, I am pretty sure they cannot afford to pay for any repair for my amp. That said, I would go after your "friend" and collect some dough for the repairs. It is the "You break it, you bought it" thing

[lbanks]

Originally Posted by My name is Mudd

Well played, sir!