Bass Failure On a Gig (Poll)

[faulknersj]

Cool poll

 

[cnltb]

In nearly 30 years of gigging no bass has ever 'failed' me on a gig.
May be a maintenance thing?

 

[BoogieZK]

Done many gigs in bad conditions, if something fails, it's after the bass.
Most of the time cable, old amps, stage boxes...

Stepped on my cable one time and broke the plug inside the jack plate of my bass.

 

[JakobT]

In case of failures, I always try to bring a spare gig.

 

[bassbenj]

In nearly 30 years of gigging no bass has ever 'failed' me on a gig.
May be a maintenance thing?

Sure some people have failures, but real men never have to worry about a backup bass. Play passive, buy a brand new high end bass every year and be sure to give it a good long test period to flush out any problems before you gig it. No backup bass needed. It's all about proper attention to your gear.

And it also has to do with your resourcefulness. As a guitarist who had duct tape all over the jack that had worked loose on his guitar explained to me: "This jack was making all sort of "static" but I found that if I stand like THIS (strikes pose standing very still) there is no problem!"

 

[Dynacord]

30 years of regular gigging and just a blown fuse in one amp (and a Strobostomp pedal which literally exploded when plugged into AC - 'correct' power supply). Still, if driving, I'll generally take back up head and bass. If flying or taking train (Europe - so not uncommon), just a bass in a bag - though passive or switchable if active, spare strings, instrument and speaker cables, batteries and basic tools - sometimes throw in a GK MB200 as cheap amp insurance. If a double bass gig, I'm driving and then take an electric just in case as double basses can be temperamental beasts...

 

[MD Stingray]

Never a failure in 35 years. Only once I forgot my strap-locks, and had to do the (short) gig sitting on a bar-stool.

On the other hand..
Guitar players breaking a string during a gig, almost always!
Drummers forget gear, almost always!
Keyboard players bringing the wrong stand...often.
Singers..oh well, I am happy if they sing the verse and chorus in the right order, in more or less the right key.

 

[Polfuste]

Following an input jack connection failure at one far-from-home reharsal, i've always carry a back-up. And i was really happy to have one when on a gig, the strap pin (on the bass side) screw suddenly broke under the screw head. I just switched bass between two tunes, as if nothing happened.

 

[Coot]

Snapped an E string on the first note of the first song of the first set...lol While my fevered brain was recalculating the new way I now had to play the song ( yup.. it just had to be Frankenstein by Edgar Winter and not a 12 bar blues..lol), our roadie calmly walked up behind me , threaded a new E in the bridge , wound it on the peg and I tuned next song...(he got more cheers than we did )...my low E missing version sucked

 

[Kirk Bryant]

Hi, my name is Kirk, and, I’m a gig slut. I’ve had ALL BUT FOUR of those things happen.
No joke. And these where all on quality basses. Everything from a vintage 55 P to brand
new modern high quality ($$$) basses. Which is why I’ve carried a second bass for about 3 decades. I’ve been playing professionally 55 yrs and for about 30 years I worked nearly nonstop, 6-10 gigs a week. Angels Clubhouse to the Top Of The Mark. A nine yr old Jerzy Drozd had a short just the other night and I had my backup in hand in about 20 seconds and was up and running by the end of a very short drum solo. In passive basses I’ve had jack Problems, a pickup die, strap screw strip, a pot die and a wiring short, mostly on vintage instruments. I try to play with intensity but not thrash.

 

[Coot]

Oh..also..Early in my playing I watched a world famous guitarist pull a "strap drop "on two beautiful les Pauls in a row on stage. One hit the ground .. his roadie ran out with another and the second one did the same thing..I've had washers between my strap and all my basses ever since .

 

[Sugarskull54]

I had a nut break during sound check. It was dark and I couldn't find the missing piece that broke off. Luckily, the shoes I was wearing had extra fat laces so I wrapped the lace in the nut groove. It actually gave my bass a cool muted tone. Necessity is the mother of invention!

 

[Medicine Man]

To all my dear TB friends who think that bass failure only happens on cheap or poorly maintained instruments, I'm glad luck has been on your side, and I hope you don't ever have to find out the hard way. I carry a soldering iron and other tools in my gig bag (and a backup bass I've needed twice in 30 years) and I can't tell you how much equipment I've fixed for people, at gigs or otherwise. Entropy's a $#@^$ and stuff breaks. It's rarely a bass, so you may get away with it. I'm not going to make the crowd listen to a 10 minute drum solo while my soldering iron heats up. Just sayin.

 

[Teijo K.]

30 years, hundreds of gigs, never even broken a string. I don't have spare basses.

 

[mellowgerman]

Both of my votes were actually from the same show. First, the electronics on my bass failed in transit from home to the venue. I had just installed a filter preamp in my Warwick Starbass and while squeezing everything through the F-hole, a connection was loosened. Worked when I tested it, but in transport it must have gotten bumped out. Since I realized this while we were taking the stage, I didn't have time to break out the tools. My buddy let me borrow his Precision bass. We were playing in D standard at the time though, so when I tuned down (buddy didn't mind because they had already played), the neck flattened out too much from the decrease in string tension and about half of the notes started fretting out. I tuned back up and just played in standard which took a lot of low-note oomph out of our sound that day. Oh well, people still seemed to have fun. Lesson learned; bring a backup bass to every gig (especially if you just got done doing complicated mods to your main bass). Kind of a no-brainer and something I used to do but stopped when I decided I never needed it anyway....

 

[Richard Martin]

Grounding issue on the Squier in my avatar. Apparently Squier doesn't think it is important (and saves a few pennies) to use an actual ground wire between the controls and the output jack. They rely on contact with the control plate to provide ground. My output jack nut backed off a little and then I had a serious intermittent short. This manifested itself right in the middle of a gig. The whole mess of cheap chinese parts and short cut wiring has been replaced with one of these... Invalid Link Removed It has worked flawlessly.

 

[MD Stingray]

for about 30 years I worked nearly nonstop, 6-10 gigs a week.

That's over 12,000 gigs. I am impressed sir.

 

[rashrader]

I bought a new bass that must’ve had a sticking truss rod.... I adjusted it and it never budged until the next day at my first gig with the bass. I had to borrow a bass from another band. That’s it in 35 years of gigging. I think it was my fault too.

 

[dfoehr]

I had a battery die on an active-only bass in the middle of a set. I had a bass blow up 3 preamps within a month. I had to send that bass back three times before they finally got it right.

 

[johnson79]

Broke a string at the first show with my new ASAT. Luckily I had my Fender Jazz as backup.