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Earthquakes And Gear

SurferJoe46

SurferJoe46

Feb 22, 2010
9,057
763
The Bitterroot Mounts, Montana
#1
Anyone getting a little 'concerned' about all the E/Qs going on - especially in SoCal and Arizona?

I wonder if I should take special precautions with my gear - you know - like not standing my basses up in front of the amp/cabs and such?

It seems like a lot of hassle to actually put the basses into their hard cases all the time.

The other evening I didn't know what to grab first - the cab on top of the 115 or the basses in the rockin' stands!

We hopped violently up-n-down for about 10 seconds. Not side-to-side or rolled - the whole place violently hopped!

We are about 6 miles from that last big 5.4 epicenter that was reported NNW of Borrego Springs (that's us here in the hills) and the earthquake-guessers think there's better than an 80% possibility that we're in for some more 5.0s and better in the next few weeks.
 
#5
I've only ever experienced one earthquake ever. And the only thing I noticed, was my bass seemed to go out of tune. Is that even possible?

I would consider keeping gear in different rooms. That way if something awful was to happen, the odds of total loss would be greatly reduced. We are all hoping that you and your instruments stay safe...
 
#7
I lived in Northridge during the Northridge earthquake and my upright bass was badly damaged - repair estimates exceeded $4,000 in 1994 dollars.

That quake was so violent, and the damage so severe, that I'm not sure anything I could have done would have protected my upright (part of the damage was caused by a brick chimney smashing through the living room ceiling).

In hindsight, the best thing I could have done was assure my insurance coverage was adequate. Standard homeowner's insurance doesn't take care of damage caused by earthquakes, and the deductibles are very high, so it pays to protect your gear the best you can - just in case.
 
#8
It's not really a case of you feel a few, that means a big one is coming. Dude, they are ALWAYS coming. It's not "if" it's "when".

You/we/a gazillion people live on the Ring of Fire. There are always going to be huge, destructive, deadly earthquakes. The next one in any particular are may be a few minutes from now, or 10 or 100 or 10,000 years. Nobody knows.

It's always smart to protect your basses. But the best thing you can do is to protect yourself. Make sure to have a couple day's water supply, a radio, a flashlight and batteries. It's comically little in reality, and you may not even be home when it happens, but if you are you are likely not going to have power or clean water for several days.

Listen to Jazzdogg. A freakin' chimney fell through his house. Now picture a much bigger quake that Northridge. Because eventually, that will happen too.
 
#9
Right you are, onestring! I remember bailing water out of the swimming pool in buckets and boiling it on our propane barbeque until the utilities were deemed safe to turned back on. There were enormous tent communities throughout the San Fernando valley for several weeks after the quake. Two houses on our street were red-tagged and had to be taken down.

I also remember that physical damage and debris made it impossible to gain access to our earthquake survival kits for several hours. It took care to navigate through a maze of broken glass and other damage, and there was lots of debris to move to clear a path through the destruction. It took me over an hour just to get out of the house and check our utilities and elderly neighbors. I had to break a window to get into my garage workshop because supposedly stationary power tools were strewn about like children's toys, blocking the doors.

Preparedness ain't optional, it's imperative.
 
#10
Well - we've got the required food/water/tents and stuff in 4-55 gallon steel containers, situated in the back yard. We live on acreage, so there's not much possibility of another building collapsing on us.

We also have survival packs in every room except the living room. My bed is a behemoth affair that can prolly support the whole house if not just the roof and we are on a block stemwall all around the periphery of the house. No chimney other than the stovepipe for the wood burning stove, so the roof isn't even a problem.

We actually hopped up and down during this last 5.4. Nothing sideways about it at all- no rolling or swaying.

My amp was seeing daylight under it a few times and the closet doors jumped off their tracks. I believe we were right on top of the epicenter for this last one.

So - basses-in-their-cases and they will stay at the foot of my bed and the stacks and amp/cab will have to be a single level for a while.

If I don't post at least every day, come dig me and my basses out.
 

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