Bass Failure On a Gig (Poll)

[Jim Carr]

Other: Neck broken off upright by falling speaker column.
Had an electric with me.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

Two tuners, a couple of strings and a jack.
Not often, but all it takes for Murphy to show is one little bit of overconfidence.

 

[edervjo]

Mine have always been amp/chord/house DI box failures. Never the bass.

 

[gln1955]

My biggest failure was when my fingers became disconnected from my brain.

 

[ThudThudThud]

Had a headless bass with double ball end strings, and a Steinberger licensed bridge have a tension thumb screw strip out. Since the bridge was so self-contained there was nothing else to do but play on the other strings (it was the D string if I recall correctly). Made for quick thinking. Good job I don't drink when I play.

 

[CallMeAl]

Been playing for 3 decades. I've never found myself with an unusable bass at a gig. I did break a string. Once. I always carry extra 9 volt batteries (most of my basses are active) and extra set of strings. I've never felt the need to bring a "spare" bass, although I've brought two to many gigs, just because I want to switch for some songs and/or sets.

Just curious, what kinds of basses are you using? What is your minimum standard for quality and craftsmanship?

 

[diegom]

Those output jacks can start crackling at the worse possible moment!!!

 

[_Some Dude]

Neck pickup died on a Jazz bass (loose connection at volume pot)

Saddle screw on vintage style bridge vibrated out and fell on the floor.

 

[lowphatbass]

Years ago I was doing a live, in church recording with a gospel choir. During the run through my bass stopped working(lost all sound). I’d fixed broken jack wires and what not before so I took the cover off to see what I could see. There were no broken solders or wires and the fact that it was an Alembic meant I was dead in the water.
I ended up having to play the other bassist’s Tobias or Roscoe(can’t remember). I do remember it was a 6 string, is never really played 6 before and it was quite distracting.
I voted preamp and pickup failure...the bass was stolen and gutted shortly after so I never found out what the problem was.
That’s my sad story.

 

[Bassosaurus]

Fortunately I have only broken a string - I can remember it happening twice but it's been a long time.

I had spares and was able to change them quickly. Always had a spare battery during the times I had an active basses. It's never happened since I started getting decent setups on my basses.

 

[Bassheart365]

Just curious, what kinds of basses are you using? What is your minimum standard for quality and craftsmanship?

I owned and played a single bass for almost 20 years - a G&L L2000. I now play Dingwall basses and a Le Fay Singer.

 

[diegom]

Not in the poll, and it happened on a six-string guitar... Just sharing because it's funny!

I had recently (early 80s!!) seen a video of Adrian Belew bending the neck on his Strat, to lower the pitch of a note he was holding. Being a Strat, he could've easily used the bar, but I thought that move was the coolest thing I had ever seen!!!
Fast forward a few days, playing a gig of all-original music. In the climactic point of the guitar solo (on the first song!), I took my beloved, but very-poorly constructed, les-paul copy, and made my move! It had work in rehersals, but this time, the guitar had had just enough and I ended with the neck on one hand and the body of the guitar hanging from the strap. The only things connecting the two, were the strings!!!

The rest of the show was all on my nylon-string acoustic...

 

[Stewie]

A drunken nitwit jumped up ion the stage between sets and kicked my upright. My wireless and the jack were knocked off the strings. It looked bad but only took a second to put it back together. There were a couple Fenders within reach so it wouldn't have been a big deal anyways. It's easy to stash a Fender behind the amps. I'll do it if there are no other acts.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Broken string doesnt count? Wouldnt that be the most common occurrence besides maybe battery failure?

I don't consider the strings as a bass failure. It's like oil or gas in a car; you know you have to change it periodically and refill. i.e. It's not the bass' fault if a string breaks!

 

[Dean N]

Broken string, but I attribute that to user error.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Would have been useful data to also include a selection for those who have never had a bass fail in any significant way (i.e. easy battery changes or string breaks or no failures at all). Then we could see how insignificant this really is.

Actually, the poll was meant to indicate what fails most often for those have experienced a failure. I would be more inclined to raise another poll with the simple "yes" or "no" selection for the question: Has your bass ever failed/broke on a gig? to see how significant it really is.

This thread was meant as a supplement to the other bass failure thread, mainly for the poll.

 

[arbiterusa]

I carry backup now because I can afford to. Nice to have the margin. But I gigged for 25 years owning only one bass and it was not a problem.

The most common gear failure I see is guitarists breaking strings, which seems to happen even to the pros. The most common nasty one I see are guys who step on a cable and tear a jack out.

 

[DJ Bebop]

I had a battery start to die in my bass.
Kinda cool though, I was getting this Jack Bruce fuzzy thing going.
I finished the night with it that way.

Good Times

 

[npbassman]

I broke a string on a gig once, back in 2002 so I pack an extra set of strings in my gig bag. No other electrical or mechanical failures in my 25 year gigging career so I bring one bass to the gig.

 

[mark roberts]

Preamp failure. Ampeg classic tube pre. Cold solders or bad solders. I understand that I am not alone in this. Nice preamps, not so sure of the quality and don’t use anymore. Btw, always racked, bought new, never dropped (handle my own equipment), no warning. I can’t think of any other circumstance in which to never use a product again. Fails on a gig with no warning...get it fixed, sell and out of there.