Worst beating any of your gear has taken?

Fassa Albrecht · #1 06-10-2010, 08:35 AM

As the thread title says.

Some of mine include:

- Dropping my big Yamaha 5er down a flight of stairs at church 10min before I was due to play. It still remained in tune!

- At another church meet, I was trying out my guitar skills and left my guitar lying across the table. Someone came past, caught the headstock and my guitar dropped 5ft onto stone. It now has a LARGE dent in it.

- At an open mike, someone was a little too drunk and put his foot (and head!) right through my bass drum.

Any others?

parsons · #2 06-10-2010, 08:42 AM

Unloading the van at 3am after tour. Gear is piled up like a game of Tetris in the back. Half asleep guitard pulls his cab out from the bottom of the pile. My SKB rack with my entire rig in it is on top. He pulls, my **** falls down 6ft to the ground and keeps rolling down a hill. It came to rest about 50ft away. It bent the face and rack rails of my SWR SM400 and broke off four 1/4" jacks in the back which had patch and speaker cables plugged in.

2 hours with a screwdriver, rubber mallet and solder and it worked again. Only cost me 4 jacks and a 12AX7.

Jones_Stuff · #3 06-10-2010, 08:45 AM

I regularly spanked my Peavey Mark IV whenever it cut out.

Oh, not that kind of beating...

Fassa Albrecht · #4 06-10-2010, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parsons

Unloading the van at 3am after tour. Gear is piled up like a game of Tetris in the back. Half asleep guitard pulls his cab out from the bottom of the pile. My SKB rack with my entire rig in it is on top. He pulls, my **** falls down 6ft to the ground and keeps rolling down a hill. It came to rest about 50ft away. It bent the face and rack rails of my SWR SM400 and broke off four 1/4" jacks in the back which had patch and speaker cables plugged in.

2 hours with a screwdriver, rubber mallet and solder and it worked again. Only cost me 4 jacks and a 12AX7.

Yowch...

One guitarist I played with was coming back from a gig on a plane. His guitar (a Gibson ES-E335) was in a Hiscox solid case in the hold.

Somehow a baggage handler dropped the case as he was unloading it from the hold. The case dropped 120ft onto solid concrete. The case didn't survive but the guitar survived without a scratch.

Tampabass · #5 06-10-2010, 09:06 AM

One time my Sting Ray got a little snippy with my old upright, talking back to him and such. So the big guy knocked the stuffing out of the little feller. Ray learned his lesson.

Fassa Albrecht · #6 06-10-2010, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tampabass

One time my Sting Ray got a little snippy with my old upright, talking back to him and such. So the big guy knocked the stuffing out of the little feller. Ray learned his lesson.

MNAirHead · #7 06-10-2010, 09:38 AM

I've had Peavey USA stuff through fires.. driven over by trucks.. rained on.. indoor sprinkler on.

Last week dropped a full tall cup of coffee in a MarkVII... ... a little later had rain all over a Milestone.. and my complete PA

I've ran stuff that was rated at 8 ohms ... down to 2 (for years)

I"ve dropped basses off a balcony in the Contour cases and just had them bounce.

dropped amps others off the tour bus

Zero Casualties

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In my younger days I was in a bar fight with a Steinberger

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I could do a death list to the Ampeg, Mackie, Fender, Sadowsky etc that I've destroyed through the years.

Oh the wonders of road life.

gttim · #8 06-10-2010, 09:46 AM

My first bass, a jazz copy, was mistaken for a rawhide bone by my German Shorthair puppy. Left some nice makes on the front and back of the neck. Still playable.

bertbassplayer · #9 06-10-2010, 09:54 AM

All my mishaps seem to have happened when I was playing guitar... maybe that's why I don't usually play guitar anymore.

First this happened to me when I was playing guitar for a show a while back. The stage and the "green room" were separate buildings connected by a outdoor concrete covered walkway. I was walking from the stage to the green room with the guitar strapped on my back and the strap pulled out of it's place and the guitar fell down and hit the concrete. I started using straplocks on everything after this happened.

Another time I was at a gig and took a break, and leaned my guitar on the side of my amp. Someone knocked it over and hit landed badly and snapped off the headstock.

beggar98 · #10 06-10-2010, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gttim

My first bass, a jazz copy, was mistaken for a rawhide bone by my German Shorthair puppy. Left some nice makes on the front and back of the neck. Still playable.

My Boston Terrier mistook my Warwick for a fire hydrant. Had to replace the electronics (which actually ended up improving the tone) and all the hardware on the body. The wood has some funky stains, but other than that the bass plays and sounds great. I named him Jaco, so I think he was angry I wasn't playing fretless...

jnuts1 · #11 06-10-2010, 10:10 AM

i was helping my brother move & i was carrying his keyboard when i fell down his steps, slid all the way to the bottom while simultaneously ripping off 80% of the keys & getting myself stuck in the hand railing. it was not a good day.

Corey Y · #12 06-10-2010, 10:20 AM

I had a Squier P Bass Special that got thrown across a room at a gig, followed shortly after with a kick drum landing on it. When I say "got thrown" I mean "I threw it"

...but that was well over a decade ago and I was in a punk band, what can I say? I cringe at the thought now. I'd sooner cut off my own foot than do that to my Ric or any instrument really.

FuzzBoxVoodoo · #13 06-10-2010, 10:43 AM

Not my gear but I auditioned for a band and when I got there the guitarist told me that I had to tune my bass to his guitar because he broke the tuning peg off of the E string when he crashed his bicycle riding home from a gig drunk.Seemed like the longest audition ever.

spunj13 · #14 06-10-2010, 10:47 AM

i can't be sure WHAT exactly happened (and it all happened so fast nobody else could either)
but i was playing a gig in one night and i THINK that i hit the cymbals with my headstock/neck.
unbeknown to me... i had caught something on the kit and shorn off a large chunk of neck.
got to the end of the song... was flailing around and madly sliding on the neck and then looked down at my hand and it was covered in blood.

(must've been stage adrenaline, because i hadn't even noticed i was tearing my hand open)

that was the end of that bass.

i took all the hardware off, saved as much as i could and gave the neck to the venue (after the whole band signed it).

if only ibanez would sell replacement necks...
that was the end of my SR-885.
replaced it with a 406, and a 405 as well.
i still have the body.
and it makes a good story when i tell people i have 4 and a half basses.

[spunj13]

Seidell · #15 06-10-2010, 10:53 AM

Had just got my new MM Bongo...after playing it for half the day I put it up on the wall hanger I've had for years....go to sleep and wake up to find it and my bong on the floor....the bass landed on my cable and the cable left 2 parallel dents in the front ><

Also had a ampeg 15in combo a long time ago, had a graphic eq on the front.....all the levers got taken off by the arm of my computer chair lol

rutty24 · #16 06-10-2010, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fassa Albrecht

Yowch...

One guitarist I played with was coming back from a gig on a plane. His guitar (a Gibson ES-E335) was in a Hiscox solid case in the hold.

Somehow a baggage handler dropped the case as he was unloading it from the hold. The case dropped 120ft onto solid concrete. The case didn't survive but the guitar survived without a scratch.

was he unloading it when the aircraft was still flying? thats a long way up for an aircraft hold.

not my instrument but the guitarist in my band had just bought a new strat. he had one of those stands that you tape to the top of your amp (so you rest the instrument on the floor and these two prongs hold it up) drummer stumbles backwards and there is a crunch. i turn around from the bar to see the drummer pressing the neck back together willing it to be one peice again.

Dave44 · #17 06-10-2010, 12:04 PM

Had my gear left on an out door stage over night and yeah you guessed it, rained all bloody night. The amp (Ampeg V4B) was dryed out and tubes replaced, still use her once in a while too. The stack on the other hand was completly ruined and I had to throw it all away. I was told my gear would be moved before the night fell so no worries from me as I was currently playing with certain little women at the time and we were ripe for more than playing that night if you know what I mean. And yes, she was worth the heartache. LOL

MakiSupaStar · #18 06-10-2010, 12:05 PM

This thread is a not so veiled attempt for you to brag about your Yamaha 5vr, your amazing guitar skills, and your skills on the drums. Another, look folks I really am a multi-instrumentalist.

Although it is an actual topic this time, so I'll play. I used to have an old Peavey TNT 150. It was a 115 combo amp. After hauling up the stairs of this club Long Beach, I thought it was clearly safe, until I hear it crashing down the stairs like a square wheel. ALL the way down. It put a big dent in the wall too. So when I finally get it upstairs, I plug it in, and it works fine. I used to love that amp.

Fassa Albrecht · #19 06-10-2010, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

This thread is a not so veiled attempt for you to brag about your Yamaha 5vr, your amazing guitar skills, and your skills on the drums. Another, look folks I really am a multi-instrumentalist.

Oh Maki, I've missed you so!

But otherwise, don't start this again!

tycobb73 · #20 06-10-2010, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

This thread is a not so veiled attempt for you to brag about your Yamaha 5vr, your amazing guitar skills, and your skills on the drums. Another, look folks I really am a multi-instrumentalist.

Although it is an actual topic this time, so I'll play. I used to have an old Peavey TNT 150. It was a 115 combo amp. After hauling up the stairs of this club Long Beach, I thought it was clearly safe, until I hear it crashing down the stairs like a square wheel. ALL the way down. It put a big dent in the wall too. So when I finally get it upstairs, I plug it in, and it works fine. I used to love that amp.

still got me one of those. I bought it used 20 years ago. these days its my band rehearsal amp as we run a mixer through my rig for vocals at rehearsal. Its got a nice dirty, mid punch sound to it.