There is another well-known pro that only uses one bass.
Mr. Jeff Berlin reportedly owns one, yes just one, bass.
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Bass Malfunctions that Impacted Gigs - With Poll!!!
- Thread starter Baird6869
- Start date
There is another well-known pro that only uses one bass.
Mr. Jeff Berlin reportedly owns one, yes just one, bass.
Doesn't seem like a reason to not use an active bass if that's the sound you want/like.
That happened about 17-18 years ago. I didn't know much about active basses then and always left it plugged in during breaks, not knowing that would drain the battery. I had a Gibson Grabber that I used as well and it became my main instrument.
As I matured as a player, I happened to gravitate towards Fender Jazz and Precision basses. So passive has, by default, become my thing. Nothing against active basses, I just never used an active bass on a gig since then.
Never had a bass break during a gig (or any other place), but I always bring a backup to a gig or session. It's like leaving an umbrella at home - as soon as you do, it is guaranteed to rain lol.
Twice in about 25 years.
One bad jack about 10 years ago.
One broken tuner a couple months ago - had a Gotoh GB7 where the main shaft (part string wraps around) snapped off at the gear.
I pulled my backup off the stand and kept playing - minimal impact.
Agreed 100%.
Like you I've been gigging for 30-odd years and haven't had many malfunctions, but "stuff" happens... in fact, it's inevitable. Here's my list, starting with the worst:
- The nut broke on my brand new 1983 MusicMan Cutlass I (Stingray with Modulus graphite neck). Problem: E string went flopping off the side of the neck. Impact: Cutlass was unplayable, I finished that gig and played subsequent gigs with my FrankenPJ backup bass until the nut was replaced on the Cutlass.
- The jack went bad on my Warwick Streamer Stage I. Problem: intermittent/horribly noisy output. Impact: Streamer was unplayable, finished the gig and played subsequent gigs with my backup bass until the Warwick jack was replaced.
- A half-dozen broken strings, various gigs. Problem: bass crippled. Impact: finish the set with backup bass, replace broken string between sets.
I think I'm forgetting something, but the point is illustrated well enough: failures can happen even when you're using excellent gear. Impact is minimal when backup bass is present. Without the backup, impact becomes critical! In cases 1 and 2, I'd have been dead in the water without the backup. Even in case 3, the backup bass allowed the show to continue, rather than screech to a halt while I replaced the string.
Mine was always a broken string. On a four night gig it was usually on Friday.
Used to break at least one a week.
Used to break at least one a week.
He had strung the bass with ADGC strings (bass was setup/cut for EADG) Bass is now in Santa Rosa for new bridge and nut setup. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Yup.
Set up and sound checked with my vintage P Bass, all was cool. 10 minutes later hit the opening downbeat...nothing, no signal from the bass.
I always keep a backup on a stand behind my amp, so I grabbed/swapped it and jumped in at the 1st chorus.
When I got home I checked the P to find a ground wire solder joint let go.
Set up and sound checked with my vintage P Bass, all was cool. 10 minutes later hit the opening downbeat...nothing, no signal from the bass.
I always keep a backup on a stand behind my amp, so I grabbed/swapped it and jumped in at the 1st chorus.
When I got home I checked the P to find a ground wire solder joint let go.
Dead battery, broken string, worst was a jack that went bad and started crackling badly. Fortunately I had a back up bass in all cases.
I almost always bring a backup bass and amp. For some really small things I won't, for gigs where it won't matter if I have to quit, like an "unplugged" benefit set or something. If it's more than 1 set of music, I bring the back-ups.
I almost always bring a backup bass and amp. For some really small things I won't, for gigs where it won't matter if I have to quit, like an "unplugged" benefit set or something. If it's more than 1 set of music, I bring the back-ups.
I was playing a gig on drums once where the bass player broke a string (the G on a 4-string bass - I couldn't make myself type that he broke his G string). He finished not just the song, but the whole set (about 3 more songs) playing with just 3 strings. And if you didn't look at him, you'd never know he was missing a string.
Played a charity gig last fall and was watching one of the other bands playing. The guitarist was lighting it up big time. Then I noticed that he had broken a string, but was still jammin'. I noticed he had another guitar on a stand. Assumed he would switch guitars between songs. He didn't. I took a closer look at the guitar on the stand. Same string was broken on that one.
They were BY FAR the best band on the bill that night.
Just remembered a break down. Drummer finds a screw in our practice room, no one is missing a screw, genius drummer throws it away. Fast forward to our next gig. E string breaks and bridge pieces fall to the ground. Luckily I have a back up that day and my main bass goes on with a replacement screw since genius threw the original away.
I've had some "interesting" issues over the years;
Had a bar back drop some stuff on my cable and chop it in half
countless broken strings due to my aggressive playing style
drunk girl knocked over a bass and my mic stand
guitar player bumping my tuning pegs and knocking things out of whack
female singer flung a scarf my way, caught my tuning pegs, and chaos ensued
head died while on stage
[to name a few LOL!]
Had a bar back drop some stuff on my cable and chop it in half
countless broken strings due to my aggressive playing style
drunk girl knocked over a bass and my mic stand
guitar player bumping my tuning pegs and knocking things out of whack
female singer flung a scarf my way, caught my tuning pegs, and chaos ensued
head died while on stage
[to name a few LOL!]
Broke an E string during a sound check. Didn't have a back up bass, didn't have extra strings. The headliner act (Buck-O-Nine) graciously gave me a string to replace it, but the bass was out of tune after/during every song. I tried doing the old, "pull the hell out of it" routine to stretch it out, but to no avail.
More interesting: Had my bass amp blow a fuse during a Skatellites set. They were only travelling with their instruments and using their openers other gear. Lloyd Brevett himself plugged in and blew a fuse on my amp. Neither of us was pleased about that.
More interesting: Had my bass amp blow a fuse during a Skatellites set. They were only travelling with their instruments and using their openers other gear. Lloyd Brevett himself plugged in and blew a fuse on my amp. Neither of us was pleased about that.
I can't imagine not bringing a backup bass to a gig (given you have the means to have a backup). It's just common sense to me. Someone already said this, but if you're there to do a job you should have the tools to do it!
Anyway, my rant is over haha. I'm a little younger than some of you guys on here, but i've been lucky enough to tour the country playing in a couple rock bands. I've learned that no matter how much you prepare, something will always go wrong.
Probably the worst/funniest story I have happened pretty recently. I hadn't played a show for about 2 years since my last band broke up. I've been putting a new band together and we wrote a bunch of great songs and booked our first gig early this year. All of our friends showed up and we were just killing it after being stuffed into a basement together for over a year writing and rehearsing.
About the third song in I jumped up onto my drummers kick. In my mind I was about to do the most epic ninja backflip ever. What actually happened was a lost my balance and just kinda toppled off to the side hahaha! I fell into our guitarists rig and knocked it over (luckily it was pretty much against a wall so it just kinda leaned awkwardly). I fell and rolled into our guitar stand on the side of the stage and knocked them together. I must have also landed directly on my basses body where the input jack was. I later found out that I loosened the wiring for the ground in the bass and also destroyed the cable I had my bass plugged into.
My rig started making the most god-awful sounds you can think of! It took me about 5 minutes to assess the damage and get everything back in order. Because I destroyed both the bass wiring and cable I legitimately could not figure out how to get playing again through my amp thinking it could only be the bass or cable, never thought it could be both...obviously I was in an agitated state haha. I ended up getting a fresh cable and going DI for the rest of our set on my backup.
I don't think I will ever live that down with my friends, but at least I was able to finish the set!
Anyway, my rant is over haha. I'm a little younger than some of you guys on here, but i've been lucky enough to tour the country playing in a couple rock bands. I've learned that no matter how much you prepare, something will always go wrong.
Probably the worst/funniest story I have happened pretty recently. I hadn't played a show for about 2 years since my last band broke up. I've been putting a new band together and we wrote a bunch of great songs and booked our first gig early this year. All of our friends showed up and we were just killing it after being stuffed into a basement together for over a year writing and rehearsing.
About the third song in I jumped up onto my drummers kick. In my mind I was about to do the most epic ninja backflip ever. What actually happened was a lost my balance and just kinda toppled off to the side hahaha! I fell into our guitarists rig and knocked it over (luckily it was pretty much against a wall so it just kinda leaned awkwardly). I fell and rolled into our guitar stand on the side of the stage and knocked them together. I must have also landed directly on my basses body where the input jack was. I later found out that I loosened the wiring for the ground in the bass and also destroyed the cable I had my bass plugged into.
My rig started making the most god-awful sounds you can think of! It took me about 5 minutes to assess the damage and get everything back in order. Because I destroyed both the bass wiring and cable I legitimately could not figure out how to get playing again through my amp thinking it could only be the bass or cable, never thought it could be both...obviously I was in an agitated state haha. I ended up getting a fresh cable and going DI for the rest of our set on my backup.
I don't think I will ever live that down with my friends, but at least I was able to finish the set!
Countless un predicted amp failures but never a un predicted bass failure.
so never been paranoid or had a reason for a backup bass. Just like anything, back up is good practice just never had enough mishaps to follow through.
and my backup amp has never failed so by backup became my regular, so I dont even need to back that up now.
I did have one bass failure that was my fault, I knew a connection to a pickup I didnt solder well enough could possible break. but it was working at the start of the show and did go out later on, which I knew was a 50/50 chance. So the failure was expected and I was aware of it, and decided to take the risk from being lazy.
It was the neck pickup on a jazz bass so I had to finish the show using just the bridge.
so never been paranoid or had a reason for a backup bass. Just like anything, back up is good practice just never had enough mishaps to follow through.
and my backup amp has never failed so by backup became my regular, so I dont even need to back that up now.
I did have one bass failure that was my fault, I knew a connection to a pickup I didnt solder well enough could possible break. but it was working at the start of the show and did go out later on, which I knew was a 50/50 chance. So the failure was expected and I was aware of it, and decided to take the risk from being lazy.
It was the neck pickup on a jazz bass so I had to finish the show using just the bridge.
I was 19, in a cover band's 1st gig at the Student's Union. 2nd song was "Fool for Your Loving" and, in that pause before the chorus riff, I jumped up and kicked the air - all rock star likee. Back on the ground, I swung the plec mightily for the E and heard nothing. Nor any of the following notes. Someone had placed an old-fashioned mic stand with a solid, heavy base over my cable and I used up the 6" of free play before I even started the jump. The yanked guts of electronics were hanging out of my broken scratchplate.
I ran off backstage and (asked first) grabbed the next band's Antoria, which was righty, of course. Meantime, the floor engineer had wandered on stage to trace the missing bass signal and accidentally kicked out the extension lead to the two guitar amps. I came back on just as the vocalist shouted "drum solo!" I joined in with improv bass solo (at which I bite anyway) on an upside-down bass that I now realized was tuned DADG.
I since always bring a 2nd bass and full string set. Years later, the bassist in the band on before mine snapped his A. Chuckling, I watched as he opened my case to find a lefty and I knew that the final band's bassist played fretless. The poor guy's face I put my fresh A on his bass while he spent a couple of mins standing around like a spare part.
I ran off backstage and (asked first) grabbed the next band's Antoria, which was righty, of course. Meantime, the floor engineer had wandered on stage to trace the missing bass signal and accidentally kicked out the extension lead to the two guitar amps. I came back on just as the vocalist shouted "drum solo!" I joined in with improv bass solo (at which I bite anyway) on an upside-down bass that I now realized was tuned DADG.
I since always bring a 2nd bass and full string set. Years later, the bassist in the band on before mine snapped his A. Chuckling, I watched as he opened my case to find a lefty and I knew that the final band's bassist played fretless. The poor guy's face
I put my fresh A on his bass while he spent a couple of mins standing around like a spare part.
Once had my bass snap into several pieces on a break at an outdoor gig. Body into three pieces, neck snapped in two.
Bass was on a stand in front of my two 4x10 stacked cabs. Singer was digging thru his duffel bag which he had put behind my amp for some reason. His butt somehow hit my stacked cabs and toppled them over forward on top of my bass. Snap.
No spare with me, but I had my electric upright in my car from an earlier gig. Imagine playing Brick House and similar songs on an electric upright for two full sets after that..... Definitely different.....
FYI..... I ALWAYS bring two basses now.....
Bass was on a stand in front of my two 4x10 stacked cabs. Singer was digging thru his duffel bag which he had put behind my amp for some reason. His butt somehow hit my stacked cabs and toppled them over forward on top of my bass. Snap.
No spare with me, but I had my electric upright in my car from an earlier gig. Imagine playing Brick House and similar songs on an electric upright for two full sets after that..... Definitely different.....
FYI..... I ALWAYS bring two basses now.....
