Words can not express how angry I am right now.

[Derek_L]

Situation: School battle of the bands.

Basically while I was away from my bass somebody had gone and ****ed with it 5 minutes before I went on. They then went and did something to the lead guitarist's amp (changing settings, nothing too major though) and untuned our rhythm guitarist's guitar.

Now, we still won (in my honest opinion we didn't deserve it but I'll explain later) but that's not why I am EXTREMELY angry. I gave up my personal times during final exams in order to do this - I gave up a LOT of time (missed classes, catching up work, outside of school etc,).

I have a couple theorys of who did it (possibly somebody saw me teaching another bass player a couple slap riffs and decided that they should screw with my bass). But basicly what happened was they tightened by E-string so much that it was HIGHER then my A-string (which was de-tuned). My concern is now my bass feels different (and I'm pretty convinced it's not a placebo effect.. Not sure if that's the right word). I'm extremely surprised my e-string did not snap.

So pretty much half way through the 2nd song I just "**** this" and just stopped playing, I could not keep playing,

My question is could this have effected my bass or is it just me being stupid? Should I adjust the truss rod or take it in for a setup and explain the situation?

Thanks guys, and sorry for the probably stupid question.

[bassninja7]

best bet is to get it set up.

with too much tension from the E string alone might have off-set teh truss rod

[OtterOnBass]

Back in high school I played guitar, and my friends decided to form a band. The guy who played nothing took up bass. I couldn't keep my hands off his bass, it was so cool. He wasn't very musical, so when he caught me detuning his bass as a joke, he never let me touch it again.

[Stumbo]

Don't ever leave your bass unattended. Duh!

Yeah, maybe the neck was changed because of the high tension. A setup should clear up any problems.

Don't stay mad. Just get your bass fixed and move on. Spend your energy on learning and grooving with the band. It's history now. Forget about it.

[fretlessman71]

I'm assuming you've re-tuned the bass back to standard? If not, do so, and let it be for a few days. Any damage done by that kind of tuning should slowly but surely work itself out. If you're not happy with the way it plays in a week, take it in.

Placebo effect in reverse, maybe - placebos are supposed to make you THINK you feel better!

Doesn't it stink that there are people out there who think things like this are funny? It's a sick world where nobody cares about anyone else anymore. We've given up watching out for one another and focused on "looking out for number one". No wonder everyone's trying to kill each other.

[Derek_L]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

Don't ever leave your bass unattended. Duh!

Yeah, maybe the neck was changed because of the high tension. A setup should clear up any problems.

Don't stay mad. Just get your bass fixed and move on. Spend your energy on learning and grooving with the band. It's history now. Forget about it.

I know, they made us sit in the hall and leave our instruments in the PA - I'm defiantly getting a lock for it.

Cheers man .

[Derek_L]

Originally Posted by Derek_L

I know, they made us sit in the hall and leave our instruments in the PA - I'm defiantly getting a lock for it.

Cheers man .

Originally Posted by fretlessman71

I'm assuming you've re-tuned the bass back to standard? If not, do so, and let it be for a few days. Any damage done by that kind of tuning should slowly but surely work itself out. If you're not happy with the way it plays in a week, take it in.

Placebo effect in reverse, maybe - placebos are supposed to make you THINK you feel better!

Doesn't it stink that there are people out there who think things like this are funny? It's a sick world where nobody cares about anyone else anymore. We've given up watching out for one another and focused on "looking out for number one". No wonder everyone's trying to kill each other.

Yep, I tuned it the second I got off the stage - I was really worried about the tention.

Haha, yes I wasn't quite sure if Placebo was the correct word

[Brad Johnson]

Originally Posted by Derek_L

I know, they made us sit in the hall and leave our instruments in the PA - I'm defiantly getting a lock for it.

Cheers man .

Next time explain to them why that's a silly thing to do. Yeah, you'll be the guy walking around with his bass but so what? Besides, it looks dedicated

I don't leave my basses unattended in one way or the other.

[enzyme]

As if leave bass unattended.

As if not tune before you start playing.

[Psychotic_Hell]

My neck actually snapped because of a person messed with it.

I was having the last lesson of the day and i thought that i will save some time (because i had to catch the train afterward) and bring it round with me from the music room (which is on the other side of the campus and a mile away from the train)

Long story short, I left it unattended for about 10 minutes and find out that someone dropped it while 'playing it' in the case. It separated the headstock wood from the neck wood.

Good thing it was a starter bass

[ROGI]

too bad you had to learn lesson the hard way ; never leave you bass unattended (if possible).
hope no problem occours!
i never understood that kind of "jokes" and why they are funny, seems like those who done it should have been given a lesson. blah! forget them, if there is no premanent damage to the bass, just keep on playing and giging!

[Dan]

Why didnt you tune before you started playing, or at the very least before you started your second song?

[Derek_L]

We were given 10 minutes to be on stage, if we went over we were disqualified, and I didn't want to be the reason we got disqualified.

I didn't get time to play a riff or anything to test it - it was literally RUN on with your amp and guitar plug in and go. Although even the drummer noticed I was out of tune we just didn't have time - the most I could do was tune to drop D during the prelude.. which is hard to do with a lot of noise and smoke machines around you.

I'm not leaving excuses - I should have tested it and tuned it but I didn't. I had tuned my bass just before we left our stuff in the P.A. it was completely unexpected.

[tom once dead]

by the way, what is the P.A.? and was that the Townsville Rock awards?


Also I kind of have a similar story:
at the local BOTB i took my bass along, which has a weird input jack, It didn't work at first (during a test) So I was told to use one of the supplied basses. But We play in Drop C tuning, So I tuned it down. After that I called my sister to see If I could borrow her husbands bass (I had played it before), So I got that bass, and used it instead.

So Later in the night, The last band is up, and I see the bass player grab the bass. I quickly ran up and told him it was in drop C, So I got onstage and did a 30 sec tune up, got it write enough. But during the set it started slipping out. at the end it was really bad, he just turned the vol. right down and pretended to play. I felt really bad, and went and appologized, he was cool with it though.

Might add, my band also won.

[Jonyak]

so wait... you didn't have 2 seconds to tune your bass??

[Fretlessboy]

without trying to be funny here, how long does it take for you to tune your bass? for me with a 5 it's about a 30 second job.

Guys, for those of you who participate in these kind of events, practice tuning practice tuning practice tuning. It may sound stupid but this is how dissasters are saved. I carry a Peterson strobo-Stomp and a "tuning fork" in case my battery dies. The tone my phone makes when I change functions is a "g"..I always have a reference pitch handy... I hope this is indeed a long term lesson learned. If I am not in my house my bass is on my back and no body tells me to put it down... well they can try

[jgroh]

Originally Posted by Jonyak

so wait... you didn't have 2 seconds to tune your bass??

I agree that I always check the tuning before playing but, the OP said he tuned it before leaving it on stage so I could see in the excitement of the event just jumping on stage figuring it would still be in tune and playing. Im sure it was frustrating but, why didnt you try to tune the thing either in between the first or second song or even in the middle of the first? I sometimes have to make adjustments mid-song and try my best to cover it up but, you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

[Jonyak]

Originally Posted by Fretlessboy

without trying to be funny here, how long does it take for you to tune your bass? for me with a 5 it's about a 30 second job.

Guys, for those of you who participate in these kind of events, practice tuning practice tuning practice tuning. It may sound stupid but this is how dissasters are saved. I carry a Peterson strobo-Stomp and a "tuning fork" in case my battery dies. The tone my phone makes when I change functions is a "g"..I always have a reference pitch handy... I hope this is indeed a long term lesson learned. If I am not in my house my bass is on my back and no body tells me to put it down... well they can try

QFT

[AngryJason]

I have 2 recommendations:

1). Go get a set-up, just to be safe, and

2). Find the b*stard who did this to you, and burn him. Burn him to the ground.

Congrats on the win, BTW. Nice!

[warnergt]

Originally Posted by Derek_L

...they tightened by E-string so much that it was HIGHER then my A-string (which was de-tuned). My concern is now my bass feels different (and I'm pretty convinced it's not a placebo effect..

I'm thinking your truss rod and neck are probably fine but perhaps your E string is so stretched so much, it is just not the way it is supposed to be. All those little coils have probably pulled apart. You may need a new E string to get that old feeling back.