Bass Failure On a Gig (Poll)

[Ductapeman]

Looks like I've had all these failures and more in the half century I've been banging on these things. Good thing no one asked about anything that may have broken because of the bass, I used to view playing bass as a contact sport and may have gotten a bit rowdy in my younger days--

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I wish we had more breakdown of data. Input (or output whatever floats your boat) jack failures are the most common, but were these failures on SX basses or on a Sadowsky? Or any of these failures other than battery dies, that’s negligence. More common on lower end basses or relatively level across all lines!?

 

[Stevorebob]

Just posted this elsewhere. Very sorry for those of you reading both threads...

I always bring a backup. A 2-bass gig bag makes it easy.

In 40-plus years of giging, I’ve had a catastrophic failure once.

But thinking about this, do other musicians take backups? Drummers don’t. Guitarists, yes. But what about sax or trombone players? Keys players? And I’m sure it’s a rare double bassist who brings along a backup. Things can go sideways with any instrument.

 

[petrus61]

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.

That’s really what’s at the heart of a lot of this. Much of this stuff is a non issue with preventative care and common sense. Are people really just grabbing basses from a pile at random two minutes before a gig and hoping for the best?

 

[Altitude]

I always bring a backup. A 2-bass gig bag makes it easy.

In 40-plus years of gigging, I’ve had a catastrophic failure once.

I guess we all just have to do what makes us feel right. If you've been playing for 40 years and have had one failure that whole time, is it really sensible to bring a spare, or is it (statistically at least) a profound overabundance of caution?

 

[Stevorebob]

I guess we all just have to do what makes us feel right. If you've been playing for 40 years and have had one failure that whole time, is it really sensible to bring a spare, or is it (statistically at least) a profound overabundance of caution?

I think it’s both sensible and an over abundance of caution. I feel better having a backup. YMMV.

 

[Fuzzbass]

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.

We all have to make our own choices. For me, backup is well worth the minimal effort for the following reasons (and probably more if I gave it more thought) -- not necessarily in order of importance:

• IMO, it would be inexcusable not to have backup in the event of bass failure at the gig. Every guitarist I perform with brings 2 or 3 guitars; no reason for a bassist not to bring at least a 2nd even if it won't be played
• Backup is like insurance: provides peace of mind
• I like having the option of choosing between basses at the gig, and I sometimes play more than one. So it's for fun as well as prudence
  
• My backup bass also provides backup strap, backup cable, backup clip-on tuner, possibly backup strings and battery
• Doesn't apply to me, but some bring >1 bass so they can do fretted and fretless, 4 vs 5 strings, etc: that's built-in backup

Finally: gigging is risky, but that applies to the primary as well as the backup. I usually keep both basses setup and available onstage for easy access, which equalizes the risk. And given that we're talking actuarial analysis: as noted I've had some bass failures in those thousands of gigs, but never had one disappear, never had one damaged by a drunk customer or bandmate, etc etc. Theft/damage could happen to me this weekend, who knows -- point is, I haven't experienced that, while I have experienced a half-dozen or so failures.

 

[iwearpumas]

I've had cab malfunctions.

 

[delta7fred]

Apart from breaking a string or two when I used to play very aggressively in the early 70's I've never had any sort of bass failure at a gig.

I did have a battery die while recording once but I flipped the switch to passive (G&L L2500) and carried on. That was a failure on my part, not the bass.

 

[bassbenj]

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!

well I"ve not had a straplock fail since I've been using them (Dunlop) other than the strap comes out if you failed to insert the pin properly and get it to lock. Oh wait I take that back! I had a Jazz bass that came with Schaller locks. One gig it came loose because the nut on the lock unsrewed itself. People use locktite on that but I just changed it to Dunlop on everything.

However, back when I used normal buttons strap failure was common. What would happen is the hole in the leather at the button would stretch and pretty soon the bass has the strap popping off the button all the time, which of course I would do my best to ignore as long as I could. Then one day the "hole" just gives out and the strap is dead. Which is why I always try to have all straps the same so you have backup. straploks seems to have eliminated all that problem.

 

[Groove Doctor]

I guess we all just have to do what makes us feel right. If you've been playing for 40 years and have had one failure that whole time, is it really sensible to bring a spare, or is it (statistically at least) a profound overabundance of caution?

I call it being a professional. At $200-400 each per gig, there’s no excuses.

 

[eliascalles]

I call it being a professional. At $200-400 each per gig, there’s no excuses.

do you bring a spare amp/cab or combo as well?

 

[Altitude]

I call it being a professional. At $200-400 each per gig, there’s no excuses.

I suppose.

Would you agree that in order to be consistent in our treatment of risk with mission critical tools of trade:

• We should be carrying two laptops to work each day.
• Keep a second cell phone at the ready in case the first one clocks out.
• Uber drivers should always have two cars available.
  
• Dentists and doctors should buy and maintain two x-ray devices in their offices.

Obviously, I'm being ridiculous. All those situations are different. Specifically, there's way, way more probability of failure on a laptop, a cell phone, a car, and an x-ray machine than there is on a bass guitar.

 

[Liam Wald]

While I can certainly understand how things like that happen, in my more than fifty years of gigging regularly I have never had an instrument failure.
I have been very fortunate and have always had high quality instruments. And also the fact that I have done what I can to learn all about the instrument. I do my own setups. I know the bass inside and out.
I super connect and I play my instrument every day.
Could it happen? Oh course. Anything can happen. Will it? Probably not.
And if it does? It wouldn't be the end of the world.
So would an unforeseen failure at this point in my life be justification for carrying an extra bass around for the last fifty years? I don't think so.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Why is there no broken string on that list?

Because I don't consider a broken string a bass failure. While it may stop things (at least temporarily), it's a known wear and tear part of the setup.

 

[Smallmouth_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.

That also is also a factor that I do consider (theft).

Sometimes the tight stages that I play don't allow for a backup to be out and quickly available, so at that point, you're kind-of in the same situation as doing a quick fix on the bass you have (provided it is fixable) in terms of the amount of time it will take you to get up and running, especially if you keep the spare in the car.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

We all have to make our own choices. For me, backup is well worth the minimal effort for the following reasons (and probably more if I gave it more thought) -- not necessarily in order of importance:

• IMO, it would be inexcusable not to have backup in the event of bass failure at the gig. Every guitarist I perform with brings 2 or 3 guitars; no reason for a bassist not to bring at least a 2nd even if it won't be played
• Backup is like insurance: provides peace of mind
• I like having the option of choosing between basses at the gig, and I sometimes play more than one. So it's for fun as well as prudence
  
• My backup bass also provides backup strap, backup cable, backup clip-on tuner, possibly backup strings and battery
• Doesn't apply to me, but some bring >1 bass so they can do fretted and fretless, 4 vs 5 strings, etc: that's built-in backup

Finally: gigging is risky, but that applies to the primary as well as the backup. I usually keep both basses setup and available onstage for easy access, which equalizes the risk. And given that we're talking actuarial analysis: as noted I've had some bass failures in those thousands of gigs, but never had one disappear, never had one damaged by a drunk customer or bandmate, etc etc. Theft/damage could happen to me this weekend, who knows -- point is, I haven't experienced that, while I have experienced a half-dozen or so failures.

That brings up a good point. I wonder how many people have experienced a damaged bass due to having an extra around/out. Either getting knocked over by yourself or another band member. Drink spillage. And the worst of all: theft.

 

[eliascalles]

Specifically, there's way, way more probability of failure on a laptop, a cell phone, a car, and an x-ray machine than there is on a bass guitar.

I've had the battery die in my active x-ray machines, which is why I only use passive ones now.

 

[Fuzzbass]

That brings up a good point. I wonder how many people have experienced a damaged bass due to having an extra around/out. Either getting knocked over by yourself or another band member. Drink spillage. And the worst of all: theft.

The guy I was replying to made that point, not me.

Here's the bottom line: theft/damage has never happened to me in 40-odd years, whereas in that time I have had a half-dozen-plus failures that were not field-repairable. Having a backup bass ready saved the day in all instances. Backup is a great solution even for repairable failures such as a broken string: just switch basses mid-set or mid-song, without forcing the band to stop the show.

Theft/damage sucks, and I don't deny that it *could* happen to me in the future, but the only true prevention for that is to bring zero basses to the gig and that's not particularly feasible. I don't believe that bringing two basses poses a significantly greater risk than one.

A possible measure for those who are extra concerned about theft/damage would be to bring a super-low-budget bass as backup -- I know someone who does this. I don't own any basses that I wouldn't miss a lot, however I do own a few that have accumulated playing wear to the point where it wouldn't bother me if they got another ding or three.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I agree that bringing a spare is a good idea, but for me it all depends on the gig, how far away it is from home and if there is secure storage at the location, even something as simple as a side closet near the stage. What about guitarists? Do they bring two electrics and two acoustics? Most of the guitarists I've played with only bring one of each. And I've seen fly rigs for Nashville musicians that mostly take one of each. I think we like to overthink things here on TB much of the time.