What's one of the dumbest/most embarrassing bass moments you've had or witnessed?

Ashdharma · #1 06-26-2009, 10:33 AM

My band played a gig with a band that had some old friends of ours in it, while they were getting there gear onstage and setting up, their new bass player started cursing and looking frustrated.

The guitar player asked what's wrong, bass player says he's getting no sound from his amp, all dials are cranked on the bass and the amp, he just can't figure it out.

Guitar player stops and thinks for a minute, and says wait turn you bass over and asks him if the battery is dead. Bass player says "What F@*&in' Battery?!"

Ummm, the one for you ACTIVE bass!

Oops. In his defense, I hope it was a new bass for him.

lousybassplayer · #2 06-26-2009, 11:34 AM

this should be a fun thread. I can't think of anything too embarrassing that I did off hand, but maybe reading some other stories will help refresh my memory. Dumb stuff, oh i have done a ton of that, but none of it particulalry noteworthy.

EthanTheBassist · #3 06-26-2009, 11:41 AM

Ha! Yeah just a couple of weeks ago, at church, I went through practice a-okay! Then, of course, i go to actually play, and there's no sound! I check and recheck everything on stage, then unplug, change batteries, plug in, those don't work either, unplug, get a new battery from the sound board guys, plug in and it worked! But i missed like 1/2 of the set! Luckily, I was kind of in the corner and my church is laid back, so it didn't cause too much ruckus! Oh well.

Rick Auricchio · #4 06-26-2009, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashdharma

...bass player says he's getting no sound from his amp, all dials are cranked on the bass and the amp, he just can't figure it out.

There's a sign of intelligence. Turn up everything, then when you press the right button you damage hearing and speakers.

quale213 · #5 06-26-2009, 12:19 PM

So the opening band is doing their thing, getting the crowd jacked for the headliners, and I am watching the bassist dance around, strust his stuff. Well, he is wearing tight leather pants (this was like in 2003) and he goes to do a knee slide across the stage. Knees collide with the ground, and leather stops any forward movement of his legs, so instead the inertia forces his face to plummet into the stage floor.
It may have been the funniest thing I have ever seen on stage.

Ashdharma · #6 06-26-2009, 12:33 PM

Oh I've got another one that just happened to a friend of mine last weekend!

Playing a gig, gets way into it during a song,

throws his bass straight up into the low ceiling,

through a ceiling tile, it gets stuck momentarily,

he yanks on it to get it back only to realize that the A string came unwound completely from the peg!

(he wraps his strings like guitar player, not puting the ends into the recess, just laying them in between the sidewalls of the peg! (Fender style tuners)(I know, I know, I've told him!

)

Now he has to hold up the rest of the group while he re-wraps his string and tunes it up!

Oops!

JumboJack · #7 06-26-2009, 02:13 PM

Two things at two different time at my church gig.First time playing with them and I forgot my strap...Second one was last week.We came back up for the second part of the set and I tuned up and forgot to step on the tuner again so I had no sound when the song started.

TheHegemon · #8 06-26-2009, 02:49 PM

Ive been guilty of forgetting the battery in my bass before, I knew it was active it just slipped my mind that the battery could be out lol. Was at a jam session though not a gig, hasnt happened since, i stay stocked up

CDuff · #9 06-26-2009, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by quale213

So the opening band is doing their thing, getting the crowd jacked for the headliners, and I am watching the bassist dance around, strust his stuff. Well, he is wearing tight leather pants (this was like in 2003) and he goes to do a knee slide across the stage. Knees collide with the ground, and leather stops any forward movement of his legs, so instead the inertia forces his face to plummet into the stage floor.
It may have been the funniest thing I have ever seen on stage.

I can't describe how much I want to see this

Jimmy Bones · #10 06-26-2009, 07:06 PM

Eh, every show is embarrassing for me, actually. Our drummer throws a tantrum near the end of every set for one reason or another. He's getting more and more brash, swearing, threatening to kick people out and blah dee blah - even though it isn't his choice to make.

PatAteThePaste · #11 06-26-2009, 10:54 PM

Right away i want to say that this was VERY dumb on my part.

i was with my old band and we played a house/barn party. when we got there i found out we were third so i decided its time to start drinkin. normally i can handle my drink pretty well. but this time by the time i got on stage i was feelin a pretty good buzz. I started jumping around swingin my bass around and whatnot and just havin a good time in general. about three quaters of the way through our set i really started to feel dizzy.
on our second to last song i couldnt take it anymore and walked to the back of the stage, stopped playing and just leaned against the wall for a couple minutes. when it came down to our last song i came within about an inch of passing out onstage, i felt so dumb.

the great part is we recorded a video of the show, so now we have video evidence of how dumb i looked that night.

Lizooki · #12 06-27-2009, 05:53 AM

Just did this a couple of weeks ago.
I play praise and worship. My main bass for this is a Hamer pbass copy with flats and passive electronics.
I decided to take my Washburn B10 and play for this day. Deep growly active electronics. That morning I noticed The battery was getting weak. We got back to church late that evening and I was in a rush to change the battery and I was a measure late when starting.
Yep, new battery, I think the first note moved the front row back 2" it was so loud!

Matt

nitrofix · #13 06-27-2009, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatAteThePaste

Right away i want to say that this was VERY dumb on my part.

the great part is we recorded a video of the show, so now we have video evidence of how dumb i looked that night.

Where's the video, let's take a look.........

lousybassplayer · #14 06-27-2009, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitrofix

Where's the video, let's take a look.........

No video no drunken baffoonery

foomanfat · #15 06-27-2009, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JumboJack

We came back up for the second part of the set and I tuned up and forgot to step on the tuner again so I had no sound when the song started.

I used to do that a lot at my church.
My embarrassing moments are always on stage at church and usually involve a cable coming out of my rig just enough to cut me off. Then I have to fiddle with all my junk to get my sound back.

blockinlay · #16 06-27-2009, 09:18 AM

I've done the tuner pedal switch thing. Check everything else before the most obvious. DuhHeeHaw

CDuff · #17 06-27-2009, 09:43 AM

At a gig in Belfast I saw a guitarist stage dive.... with his guitar still on.
Everybody moved out of the way.

It could so easily have been a very grave situation but the stage wasn't very high so he managed to just stumble and trip and fall onto his guitar in the most awkward way imaginable.
There's such a fine line between tragic and hilarious. This guy landed firmly on the hilarious side of the line.

G00D+~VIBES · #18 06-27-2009, 10:00 AM

Ok...I felt stupid...

I play a 4Pro and always turn the mute on when I'm finished etc. Well the next day I go to play in a little jam sesh and spent the majority of the 3 hours trying to figure out why my bass "sounds like it's under water" at the end I realized I had the 15db button depressed for active electronics...while playing a passive J w/ flats...enter palm face!

JohnMCA72 · #19 06-27-2009, 08:39 PM

I broke a G-string in the middle of a set & didn't have a spare. I never let THAT happen again, I can tell you! I made it to the next break, then moved the D over to replace the missing G. I spend the whole break re-learning my fingerings for the 1st song of the next set, which just happened to be The Who's "The Real Me"! Meanwhile, there was a guy from the audience who said he could play bass, & "offered" to sit in. I wanted to kill him, if I hadn't been so busy. I managed to play the song well enough to impress my bandmates; nobody in the audience had a clue, of course. After that 1st song, the rest was a piece of cake. I sure felt stupid for letting myself get caught like that.

JM

lizardking837 · #20 06-27-2009, 08:53 PM

I was at gig supporting a friend of mine, he was busy talking to people so he asked me to tune up his bass. His bass was unplayable, the neck had a huge bend in it and the strings were almost 2 inches off the 12 fret, and he had it tuned down to C# so the strings were flopping like fish. I snaked a screwdriver and an allen key, and set it up. I got it playable right as he came in. He got pissed off and refused to go on, saying that I'd ruined his bass. I guess there's a reason why the band had two bass players.