Bass Failure On a Gig (Poll)

[Mark Reccord]

While I do think it's a decent idea to have at least one backup instrument at a gig, in nearly 30 years of gigging (including a lot of years as a touring sound engineer) I've only ever seen what I would call show ending failures of instruments (i.e. more severe than a broken string or dead battery) a handful of times. It's never happened to me as a player. IME, the vast vast vast (vast) majority of equipment failures on gigs are cable failures of one kind or another. This applies to instruments and amps on stage and to PA and lighting equipment equally. If something isn't working at a gig, 90% of the time it's a cable issue.

 

[LBS-bass]

While I do think it's a decent idea to have at least one backup instrument at a gig, in nearly 30 years of gigging (including a lot of years as a touring sound engineer) I've only ever seen what I would call show ending failures of instruments (i.e. more severe than a broken string or dead battery) a handful of times. It's never happened to me as a player. IME, the vast vast vast (vast) majority of equipment failures on gigs are cable failures of one kind or another. This applies to instruments and amps on stage and to PA and lighting equipment equally. If something isn't working at a gig, 90% of the time it's a cable issue.

I will say that I have had problems with my output jack going loose, but never at a show. You can generally feel when that's happening, things start feeling loose, so you take the thing apart and you solder the connections, thereby avoiding the pending catastrophe. If you don't know how to solder, you take it to a tech who does. I've never had an equipment failure like this that didn't announce itself in advance. Maybe I'm lucky.

 

[Altitude]

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.

I'm no actuary, but it seems to me like the effort of carrying another bass to maybe thousands of gigs in a decade doesn't line up well with the risk of failure on only 1.5 of those gigs. Especially when you consider how the spare bass probably sits in the corner in its case all night, and is IMO susceptible to walking out the door on a set break. Just my personal take.

 

[Thumpr]

As I read though this thread as it grows I note a lot of "not me, but my guitar player" or "my drummer always" Might be an interesting poll to see who position wise has been most likely to create gig issues. For me it's drummers by a landslide. Forgot stick bag, forgot bag with all the bolts to the cage, forgot throne riser... endless list.

 

[Tony In Philly]

Especially when you consider how the spare bass probably sits in the corner in its case all night, and is IMO rather susceptible to walking out the door on a set break. Just my personal take.

That's why many of us have 10 basses. We have spares for the spares.

 

[MoeTown1986]

I had a Stingray 5 for about 4 years. Played 100+ gigs a year with that bass. The humbucker actually died on me mid set one night. Luckily, I had a Ray 35 that I kept tuned down a 1/2 step for Eb songs. I grabbed it and finished the night out. I remember it being a pain to get a replacement pickup. I contacted Ernie Ball, told them what happened. My warranty was out, so the new pickup cost me $125. They wanted me to ship the entire bass to them for them to swap it. I refused as they're located in CA and I'm located in MD. I finally got them to just ship the pickup to me but they wouldn't do so unless I shipped the busted pickup to them first. Strange company. I no longer play Stingrays. Back to Fender I went.

 

[MoeTown1986]

That's why many of us have 10 basses. We have spares for the spares.

Haha, yup! Every time I find a bass I REALLY like... I buy a matching one... or two... or three.

 

[spiritbass]

I broke a string on my jazz bass back in the early 80's. I didn't have a spare string, but I did have my thunderbird with me, so I rocked on...

 

[Dynacord]

I'm no actuary, but it seems to me like the effort of carrying another bass to maybe thousands of gigs in a decade doesn't line up well with the risk of failure on only 1.5 of those gigs. Especially when you consider how the spare bass probably sits in the corner in its case all night, and is IMO rather susceptible to walking out the door on a set break. Just my personal take.

I know a guitar player who had a backup guitar (in a case on a smallish club gig) start to walk during a set. Fortunately, he spotted it and managed to chase it down.

 

[Altitude]

I had a Stingray 5 for about 4 years. Played 100+ gigs a year with that bass. The humbucker actually died on me mid set one night. Luckily, I had a Ray 35 that I kept tuned down a 1/2 step for Eb songs. I grabbed it and finished the night out. I remember it being a pain to get a replacement pickup. I contacted Ernie Ball, told them what happened. My warranty was out, so the new pickup cost me $125. They wanted me to ship the entire bass to them for them to swap it. I refused as they're located in CA and I'm located in MD. I finally got them to just ship the pickup to me but they wouldn't do so unless I shipped the busted pickup to them first. Strange company. I no longer play Stingrays. Back to Fender I went.

Yup. Ernie Ball is notorious for that behavior and for protecting the IP in their electronics. It's pretty impossible to get them to ship electronics separate from a bass; I guess they don't want people using their stuff in builds, or whatever.

I think they have become that way in part because Fender has failed to protect the designs on anything about their instruments other than the model names and the headstock design. Imagine a world where the split P pickup was a protected design available only from Fender.

 

[Altitude]

I know a guitar player who had a backup guitar (in a case on a smallish club gig) start to walk during a set. Fortunately, he spotted it and managed to chase it down.

How'd that situation resolve? What do you say to a dude walking out the door with your bass without it going south fast?

 

[LBS-bass]

I'm no actuary, but it seems to me like the effort of carrying another bass to maybe thousands of gigs in a decade doesn't line up well with the risk of failure on only 1.5 of those gigs. Especially when you consider how the spare bass probably sits in the corner in its case all night, and is IMO susceptible to walking out the door on a set break. Just my personal take.

Yeah, you have to set it up and have it ready to go on the stage where it's unlikely to be stolen, otherwise it's a huge liability. And it still is during your break, but that's true for all your gear at that point.

 

[Dynacord]

How'd that situation resolve? What do you say to a dude walking out the door with your bass without it going south fast?

He was more than a little stunned - said the guy looked like a junkie and bolted but he (the guitar player) had the case back in his hands. Just barely caught up with him right as he got to the door. This was at the Mabuhay Gardens which was the legendary punk club for San Francisco. Also in SF, I worked in a guitar store and we had a guy just grab a guitar and bolt. He got away with it.

 

[rtslinger]

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!

All of these

Input jack stepped on my guitarist snap off the jack deep inside
Pickup died mid show
Battery died I had a screwdriver, but I didn't have one small enough to fit the screws.
accidentally hit my bass on a brick wall and snapped off the tuning peg while in the gig bag but I replaced them with some nice gold ones

playing cold out door event bass on a stand during the opening act by the time we were to go on cold temps caused the neck to bow so bad the strings were laying right on the neck unplayable.
Stripped out strap pin never stopped me from use the bass? two second toothpick fix always have toothpicks in the gig bag.

 

[Altitude]

He was more than a little stunned - said the guy looked like a junkie and bolted but he (the guitar player) had the case back in his hands. Just barely caught up with him right as he got to the door. This was at the Mabuhay Gardens which was the legendary punk club for San Francisco. Also in SF, I worked in a guitar store and we had a guy just grab a guitar and bolt. He got away with it.

Just yesterday I saw a post on the Facebook "Gear for Sale" group by a music store owner. He had a nice G&L L2500 hanging on the wall and apparently someone walked right out the door with it. I guess it happens.

 

[Dynacord]

Just yesterday I saw a post on the Facebook "Gear for Sale" group by a music store owner. He had a nice G&L L2500 hanging on the wall and apparently someone walked right out the door with it. I guess it happens.

Yep. This was actually a '65 strat... Refin at least.
Talking with a guy who managed a busy record store and he talked about how a guy came in and, taking his time, selected about 20 record albums - then bolted out the door. He managed to catch up with him and tackle him on the street (this was early 80's).

 

[StayLow]

Would be interesting to see a poll of bass failures vs. amp/cab failures. I've seen far, far, far more of the latter, yet how many bring a backup amp and cab(s) to gigs?

Not surprised to see strap locks as a major cause of failure. The *only* issues I've had of that kind were due to strap locks. Life's much better after refusing to ever use them again.

If using passive basses (or checking batteries) with no strap locks, the chance of failure is reduced massively according to results in this poll.

 

[eliascalles]

Which brings up another question: how many of you do preventative maintenance? For example, if output jacks are a common source of failure, are any of you replacing them periodically before any indication of failure or breakdown? And if not, aren't we just expecting that it has to fail to need to change it and if it's on a gig, so be it?

I go over all my regular gigging instruments once a week. Takes me about an hour.

 

[Altitude]

Not surprised to see strap locks as a major cause of failure. The *only* issues I've had of that kind were due to strap locks. Life's much better after refusing to ever use them again.

Also, unless you're Steve Vai whipping your guitar around your back, does anyone really need strap locks?

 

[eliascalles]

just curious for those with strap lock failures. what part fails? which locks? I use schaller locks on my instruments and other than one of the two pieces wiggling loose or not locking it in correctly I can't quite figure how it'd fail. thanks!