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ever rent your bass!?

thehangingmist

thehangingmist

Dec 14, 2007
6,367
302
New Delhi, India
#1
i got a call and this guy wanted my bass for rent! i was like hell no, sorry, no way! :p
he explained he has a equipment rental company and they need a fender bass for a gig so some one gave my number to him. now obviously i wasnt interested at all, i started wondering why would someone rent out their own personal gear!? i cant even imagine "Renting" any bit of my equipment
to those of you who do, how do you make sure you will get everything replaced if the worst happens, ie it gets lost or broken!?
but seriously i didnt get why would you call a bass player for it and not a music store who might be much more willing to do something like that. so i gave him a few numbers of the stores in the city and asked him to check that

i found it really funny though that he told me it is a foreign bass player (no name guy for a no name band) who would be playing it and all, i dont understand whats the relation between nationality and playing instruments :P
 
#2
I once got a call from a clubdate office that had a problem. Their bass player had somehow forgotten his bass and lived too far from the gig to go home and get it and return in time. The gig was moderately close to me. I offered them my bass for the same price as doing the gig. That way I didn't have to deal with them.
 
#3
Rental fee of what you'd charge to play the gig, plus a cash deposit of the full list price of the instrument (PLUS any mods made to it) payable in advance, and refundable after it's verified to still be in identical condition as you lent it. If there's any damage to the bass, you keep the full deposit. Digital photos of the instrument to be taken both immediately prior to loaning and upon return for comparison. If, after visual and playback inspection (or in the case of amps, tech inspection, fee of which is deductible from the deposit) everything is ok, the deposit is returned in full (minus any bench fees for the tech doing the inspection). With a signed written contract outlining the above.

That should either turn them away, or make it worthwhile. With your Geddy Lee, that's roughly $1400 US deposit plus whatever the modded pickups, etc. cost. After what you went through earlier, I'd be VERY hesitant to lend out a bass, especially one as nice as what you got in the end. Maybe change the rental scale described above to double the $ :)
 
#5
Never rent or LEND out gear for a gig. I lended one of my older rigs out a few years ago...came back with a blown horn and a rattling speaker....learned my lesson.

It's never a good idea to rent out your gear...too many things that could go wrong and most musicians aren't able to draw up a contract that would hold up.
 
#6
IME, people seem to have little respect for gear that is not their own. People will thrash it and not think twice about it. I only lend gear to very few people whom I have known for many years. I know that they respect their gear and they have always done the same for mine. I would never lend or rent anything to a stranger.
 
#8
Tell the "equipment rental company" to buy their own gear to rent out to others. If he is just renting the gear himself, then think what an unreliable and shady company it must be! With no guarantee of any kind that you'd get your bass back at all, never mind in good condition. The whole point of a rental company is they invest in an inventory of gear, and then they profit off renting the same gear out multiple times, and they write off the depreciation in their taxes.
 
#9
i lent my MIA jazz to a producer/engineer for a few days for $50. actually $30 + new strings. didn't even give much thought to it. didn't know what band/bassist would even be playing it (though i think it was for some dropkick murphy's demos). it must suck to live in fear of everyone in the world trying to rip you off.
 
#13
bongomania said:
:eyebrow: Dude. If you are older than say 12 years old, and have not been actually ripped off, then you must live in a special little bubble.
Click to expand...

23. toured all over the world. shared the stage with thousands of bands. worked with several engineers/producers. the only time i've ever been wronged was american airlines losing my bass on a european tour. but they compensated me for a rental for the tour and the bass was returned safely to my house. no harm done. i'd also like to think i've never wronged anyone myself, but if someone were to purposely rip me off, id take it out on them tenfold and thats a fact. but going into every situation - musical, business or otherwise - with your guards up 100% of the time, sounds like a terrible way to live if you ask me.
 
#19
ive learned my lesson from lending gear ahah i dont know if any of you at TB show up to a gig without your amp but when doing shows with my metal band 75% of the time id have some one from another band come up and ask my band (not even me personally) if we brought//if they could use my bass amp, i was usually more then generous becouse i like my amps sound and i like hearing with diffrent bands/basses/stlyes but one time i had a guy who just wanted to borrow my head, he had his own speakers, i asked him what happend to his head and he said it blew at his last show which should have been the red stop light but hey **** happends and if i was in the same position id hope there was someone that would do the same.So very reluctantly i agreed to let him use it as long as he was careful. the first song started and he was slamming on his bass with a pick and struming chords so hard my limit light was on bright and full and before my little red light next to the words - peak - started to flicker i was already on top of my amp turning the gain and master back down to regular levels.... there was no need for any of this to happen, i havent lent my gear out sinse then

sorry for the textitis ahaha hope this will help some of you decide if ever in this position! :bassist:
 

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