Has Anyone Had A Bass Go Down During A Gig?

[xbloodpactx]

yeah this happened to me last week, I came from work so i asked a friend to lend me a bass on our gig coz we were in the same line-up then i have his P-bass on stage, tuned the E string to a low C# then during our set, the nut is loosing the string, it pops out every second! can't get a stage performance with it. worst!

 

[bad_andy]

Yes. Batteries in active basses die. Strings break on actives and passives. 1/4" jacks crap out. That's why I always bring two basses to any gig I'm getting paid to play.

 

[groooooove]

i had a bass "go dead" on me. the problem turned out to be the "easy access battery compartment" wasent pushing the battery down all the way, and it wasent making contact. that bass also has no active/passive switch, and i had no backup. ended up playing a guitar through my octave pedals for the rest of that set.

ive broken strings plenty of times on stage, but i always get through that song fine.

 

[MooseLumps]

You know, something strikes me as odd...
Those of us in bands always worry about packing spares and whatnot, but I have been working with a lot of jazz combos, small symphonies, quintets, ect. And these cats almost never bring a backup. I met one standing bassist who packed some spare strings, and a conductor with a bag full of tools and strings and junk, but that's about it. I regularly see bassists come for gigs who leave their bass laying around in the middle of the hallway and such things.

What's the difference, orchestra instruments never fail? I don't think so. That mindset is foreign to me.

 

[savit260]

, but the string breakage is a bit hard to believe.

Believe it

You know, something strikes me as odd...
Those of us in bands always worry about packing spares and whatnot, but I have been working with a lot of jazz combos, small symphonies, quintets, ect. And these cats almost never bring a backup. I met one standing bassist who packed some spare strings, and a conductor with a bag full of tools and strings and junk, but that's about it. I regularly see bassists come for gigs who leave their bass laying around in the middle of the hallway and such things.

What's the difference, orchestra instruments never fail? I don't think so. That mindset is foreign to me.

I'd think that the average orchestral performance is just a bit easier on an instrument than your average rock show.

Not that a failure couldn't happen, but I'm sure the odds go down quite a bit.

 

[rfclef]

Had the Varitone on my Birdsong go out on a gig... if I was nice anf left it in one position, it worked and I made it through the gig... (Scott sent replacement and paid for install...). Since then I have always had a spare, just in case... I figure something can happen at no fault to you OR the bass (a bump, a trip, etc) and I figure at some point in my life a string might break (guitarist had a long string of broken strings on gigs this summer)... I hope one day to have a second Birdsong as my backup...

 

[BioDriver]

When I was in high school the battery in my Ibanez died at a show and I had to use one of the other bassists' J bass to finish off the set.