Bass Failure On a Gig (Poll)

[goldenglory18]

I've sheered off a tuning peg by going WAYYYYYY too hard.....

 

[Stevorebob]

I had a pickup malfunction. A short or something. The humbucker no longer bucked hum. Badly. Worse than a single coil. Fortunately, I had a second bass on hand, and the gig was close to home, so I could retentive another bass easily.

 

[onlyclave]

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

In 29 years of gigging, practice, music school and rehearsals I’ve broken the G string once, A string twice and had a cable just stop working entirely. I gig about 30 times a year and I must be lucky or I just keep my gear in top shape, but I have brought a backup with me for the last five years.

 

[electracoyote]

Why is there no broken string on that list?

Good question, assuming that we're defining a "failure" is any issue that makes it difficult or impossible to continue playing, disrupts the momentum and continuity, and requires a "fix" of some sort to continue in a normal fashion.

I personally hate stumbling through songs with a missing string. Yeah, I can do it, but why would I? It's hardly the ideal, especially when you have carefully rehearsed and are comfortable playing relatively complex bass lines with all strings. I want to be a good entertainer, and the prospect of sweating it out with a missing string is far worse than hauling a back up and keeping it at the ready. I'll change the damn string at break; I'd prefer the 5-second switch-a-roo and keeping the momentum going strong.

 

[eldorado2001]

(It's actually an OUTPUT jack)

 

[FSGrind]

Not sue if this the right kind of fail for this post, but it sure as heck is a fail so I'm going to tell the story.

So, my old band was gearing up for our first tour. I was playing keyboard at the time & a friend of mine playing bass. First night of the tour, while we're playing our bass player's GK amp rumbles off of the cab he's using, smashing onto the floor. Now, as you can imagine he's kind of a space case for allowing this to happen anyway, so our singer goes over & helps get the amp set back up in a few seconds & we continue with the song. However, maybe 20 more seconds into the song the amp falls off the cab AGAIN, smashes to the floor but this time it breaks the instrument cable in half, so now we have no bass for the rest of the song. After the song the singer makes a joke into the mic about it & he makes sure the head wont fall again. After that I played bass for the duration of the band's livelihood & he switched to keyboard. I couldn't believe when the head fell the second time & broke the cable. Something out of a movie.

 

[PullThePlug]

My vote went for "change in action."

I had this Ibanez (MIJ SR500) that would always go sharp on 7th fret, A string. Instead of E, it would play a perfectly intonated F. The 8th fret did the same thing too.

Set ups didn't work, and there was even space between the string and the 8th fret. It was an anomaly.

Frustrating part is that it would be in tune at home or rehearsal, but magically shift out at gigs.

Good riddance, that bass is LONG gone. I'm now bitten by the short scale bug, I love love LOVE Fender Mustangs.

 

[Marc valero]

Came close to a nut problem when my bass collided with rhythm player's guitar, Chipped the nut leaving a sliver on the G string side, but it didn't affect the sound or playability and I had a luthier replace it.

 

[AriaPro_SB1000]

Had batteries fail a couple times (why I'd like to find the Phantom power supply for my Ibanez Musician) and actually broke a G string one night...

 

[Altitude]

About 34 years playing, never had a catastrophic bass failure on a gig.

I've broken strings, but maybe fewer than 5 over the duration. I carry spares. I do recall seeing a buddy play back in the 80s on 6th Street in Austin. He broke an E string and had no spare. There were so many live clubs on 6th Street then that he was able to go up and down the street asking to borrow one on a set break.

I've had some patch cables clock out, but always had another.

Never had a bass become non-serviceable. I hope this post didn't jinx me.

 

[FunkyFlashFive]

I voted for the loose connection because that's the only failure I've had that has made a bass unplayable, whereas I've had some others that were able to be worked around. The joint to one of the pots on my main bass went out between songs back when I was doing a contract on a cruise ship. I had to finish out the night on my fretless, and then solder it back on the next day, luckily I had smuggled a soldering iron on (it was considered a fire hazard) so I was back to normal quickly. I've also had a strap button strip out, but I just balanced the bass on my bent right knee while standing on my left foot flamingo style and finished out the set so I didn't count it for the poll. Same with a cracked nut that just meant I had to make sure to fret g on the d string rather than use open g.

 

[groovaholic]

I marked other, because the failure was a broken string.

But I see that you have a caveat in the first post excluding strings.

So, I’ve never had a bass fail on a gig - but I’m pretty OCD about upkeep between shows.

 

[Drucifer]

I forgot to mention, by far the most common failure I've had myself or seen with bandmates is either a broken strap or broken strap knob. My spare bass always includes a spare strap as well. Also, I can't count how many times a guitar player in the band has shown up without a strap. That seems ridiculous to me.

 

[BassGeekJack]

I got a passive P bass from a guy who hollowed it out and put active EMGs in it... something I never thought I would like, but it actually sounded great! Lo and behold the battery dies during a gig and the only way to change the battery was to loosen the strings and take off the entire pick guard. Not time for that. Luckily I also play keyboard in the band, so I played the key and bass parts on that (terribly, I might add– I usually just do one or the other). Lesson learned: never get an active bass without easy battery access.

 

[Fuzzbass]

After reading through this thread ( Who has had a bass die during a gig? ) and being surprised at some of the similar failures that many of you have experienced, I thought it would be interesting to have a related poll.

For the intents of this poll, the choices are specific to the bass itself only. So, faulty patch cords, pedalboards, straps, amps and string breakage does not count. Likewise, accidents such as your drummer's stand falling over and severing your headstock does not count. Dying batteries only count if it is related to the inability to get access to it, as the it is not an actual bass failure; just user error in not changing a depleted battery.

I would also limit the failures to gigs only. So, please do not include bass failures that happened during rehearsals. I'll leave it up to you if you want to include failures that occurred at soundcheck.

Vote on as many items that apply!

I've seen many people say "backup bass isn't necessary if you have a quality bass and maintain it properly". That's false: In the 40 years I've been playing I have always owned and maintained quality basses, yet problems have happened (even with high $ boutiques) that forced me to use a backup bass. The most unusual was when the nut broke on my brand new Music Man Cutlass I, on its debut gig way back in the 80's. The E string went flopping off the side of the neck. But sometimes "routine" failures such as loose wires happened.

True, failures haven't often happened in 40 years. Roughly 1.5 per decade, not including string breakages and weak batteries. I've gigged pretty frequently, too. But those few failures are why I ALWAYS bring a backup bass to gigs. At the times those failures occurred, I would have been dead in the water without backup.

 

[landry.bass]

I broke a string once during the first minute of the first song of a set.

 

[NKBassman]

Basses don't have input jacks.

 

[cnltb]

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!"

'real men'?!?!!
What does that have to do with anything?!
Brand new bass every year?!
You seem to lead an expensive lifestyle..
Neither do I buy new basses every year nor have I ever used duct tape.

 

[Skullheadrac]

the only bass failure i've had at a gig is when i borrowed a bass for the gig (out of town gig)

 

[Liam Wald]

I would be interested to know the answer to this.
What percentage of instrument failures at gigs were low end budget instruments and what percentage were high end hand crafted instruments?