• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Has someone ever damaged your gear?

#181
My brother was filling in for a band, so asked if he could borrow one of my basses. Lent him an early ’70s Beatle Bass copy, which was fine but told him it was in dire need of a setup. Apparently he mentioned this to a mate he was staying with. Said mate then decided he would set my bass up for me. Tried to adjust the neck but the truss rod was ‘tight’, so he decided to give it a bit more oomph. Truss rod straight through the fretboard. So he then decided to repair it himself, and replaced the fretboard with a length of highly glossed Merbau,fretless, but fret makers burnt into the side of the neck with a soldering iron, and set for a 34” neck, not a 30”. And while he was at it, decided to rewire the electronics to give me ‘more tonal possibilities’ !!! No apologies, but very proud of his efforts, saying “it’s only a cheapie”. It was pretty much unplayable.
This bass has sentimental value to me, (that’s another story), and I’ve repaired it myself to where it’s playable, but it ain’t the same.
 
#183
A drummer's cymbal stand fell over, knocking my SX P-Bass copy off its stand and putting a little notch in the edge of the fingerboard. Not a "valuable" bass, but at the time my #1 due to tone and playability. No harm done, really.
I've also had a bass blown off its stand when playing outdoors. Since then, I always try to find room to lie them down flat, when outdoors.
I have a '71 Strat, bought new for me by my father back then. In the '80s, I lent it to my bandmate to use for several years. He put some serious buckle rash on it, but in those days a '71 Fender was still an everyday CBS era workingman's tool, so I didn't care. Now, if I decided to sell it, the damage might knock a thousand dollars off my asking price! :crying:
 
#184
slam dunk said:
I think if you’re a working musician taking any and all the gigs you can, somewhere along the way, someone’s going to damage your gear. Accidents happen, especially at rock or country gigs in bars where the rowdy patrons aren’t always clearly separated from the band.
What is most infuriating is when a band member or employee damages my gear and won’t admit it. I find the damage and absolutely no one comes forward, but I know it’s not the way I left it. I hate, ´´ it was like that’´.
Click to expand...

Is that still a 'thing' anywhere in this country?
I've gigged since 1988 up and down 4 western States (and one Southeastern) and have never seen anything rowdy at all like Blues brother/Roadhouse you see in the old movies.
 
#185
Yeah, just recently I let my roommate borrow my Squier Mini P for some recording that he wanted to do.
He had a dizzy spell and fell over on top of it busting the headstock off of it.
The replacement should be here in a couple of days.
 
#186
Oh yeah, I got a good one. This happened back in the 80s and I'll tell the story in a nutshell. One of my best friends was lounging on my bed talking to his annoying girlfriend on the telephone. I was telling him to end the call because he was taking way too long and my dad's going to get pissed, but he wouldn't do it because she didn't give him permission to get off the phone; yeah you read it right, he was whipped! He finally got so frustrated with her he slammed the phone down on my bed and I heard crack, crack, crack. Well, he didn't realize that he just hit my white Ibanez bass that was laying right next to him. I grabbed the phone from him and told his annoying girlfriend what he had just done and hung up on her. He then fell to the floor and broke into tears. The End.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Miles_ONeal
#187
I've loaned guitars to teenagers before. Twice, one came back with a bridge saddle missing.
A very trusted friend borrowed a Mackey 16 channel mixer and some mics and stands in perfect shape. The mixer came back with bent controls, the mic stands had tape all over them (in one case holding the mic holder on), and an SM58 never made it back. Trusted friend still in some ways, but not loaning him gear again.
Another trusted friend borrowed a guitar amp for youth group to use. When it came back to me, it had been sitting for months in an open outside building, exposed to the Texas weather. The controls are shot.
 
#189
I once lent a P Bass to an uncle who had joined a band and he returned it with minus a tuner that broke off after it fell over, and an ex girlfriend slammed the boot of my car onto the neck of another that was in a gig bag breaking the nut, I still have the P Bass. Thankfully the others have gone. (Except the uncle, but he’s got his own now)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Miles_ONeal
#190
I broke a full size Steinway grand piano. Dropped it off the stage six feet down into the (empty) orchestra pit. It landed upside down, everything crashed, broken wood everywhere. The hammers were broken and knocked out, the strings snapped, keys when flying. It was an incredibly loud, glorious wreck.

A long time ago I worked as a stage hand in a concert theater. Four of us had turned the piano onto its side to remove the legs and pedals to move it off stage. We had only done this operation 2 or 3 times a week for two months so far that season. Except this time something got away from us. I had a momentary thought of trying to catch the piano as it started to fall over. Then I remembered this thing weighed a ton and could crush a man. We all jumped out of the way. Theater's insurance covered the replacement, and no one got fired.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hurricane Jimmie, mikeswals and Miles_ONeal
#191
steve_ss said:
I broke a full size Steinway grand piano. Dropped it off the stage six feet down into the (empty) orchestra pit. It landed upside down, everything crashed, broken wood everywhere. The hammers were broken and knocked out, the strings snapped, keys when flying. It was an incredibly loud, glorious wreck.

A long time ago I worked as a stage hand in a concert theater. Four of us had turned the piano onto its side to remove the legs and pedals to move it off stage. We had only done this operation 2 or 3 times a week for two months so far that season. Except this time something got away from us. I had a momentary thought of trying to catch the piano as it started to fall over. Then I remembered this thing weighed a ton and could crush a man. We all jumped out of the way. Theater's insurance covered the replacement, and no one got fired.
Click to expand...

In high school, a friend and I watched a guy fly much too quickly through a turn with an upright piano in his pickup bed. It did a beautiful flip, and landed in succession on its back, its base, and its front. The sound was glorious, the destruction spectacular and spread out.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: steve_ss and mikeswals
#192
My 91 Sadowsky jazz was in its stand in an area of the stage that I thought was safe from patrons. It was. However it wasn't safe from the sh*thead lead singer, who (on break) went blundering through the area without watching where he was going. It fell and smacked the leg support of the crash cymbal stand, leaving a nice big gash on the lower bout.
 
#193
About 5 years ago, brand new Englehardt upright (replacement for one that was destryed in a house fire) on its stand at an outdoor gig. DJ just set up one of his speakers on a stand right behind my bass when the speaker fell forward knocking my bass off its stand onto the wood floor. Amazingly no damage so....the answer is "no".
 
  • Like
Reactions: Miles_ONeal
#194
I lent a telecaster to a friend to borrow, he decided to use it for a show. The guitar came back fine, but there was sticky spilled beer all over the outside of the case. I said what the hell? Instead of taking responsibility and apologizing, he blamed it on someone in the band. I couldn't believe I had to explain what it means to accept responsiblity when things are borrowed.
Years later I later traded him that guitar and case for one of his guitars. Once the trade was complete, I said, congratulations, you've now spilled beer on your guitar case, not mine. It was a satisfying moment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Miles_ONeal
#195
Well not a bass but it still pissed me off.

I used to hang with this guy I met through his brother; I met his brother at a recording studio where I worked.

I had a small home studio (hybrid setup, computer and an analog deck, analog console and outboard gear) and I wound up doing a lot of his songs with him. It was more or less a local guy to hang with and do some recording and have some fun. He got most of the benefits out of the relationship but I didn't mind. Not many people in my area to jam with quite frankly and he lived about 5 miles away.

Well he had a bad drinking problem, exacerbated by health problems (congenital heart defect) which the drinking did not help. He also had a lot of other health problems so was on painkillers which along with the drinking....well he tended to have about an hour at each session before he got too sloppy to do anything.

Well at the time I was in between setups, installing a larger console and rewiring things so my setup was a small Mackie, outboard preamps and I had it facing the other way, with a pair of JBL 4408 studio monitors mounted on speaker stands. Just kind of out in the room. We were using existing tracks, but adding overdubs to them. The plan was later one when I got the new console setup we would go back to using that.

Well he gets really sloppy one night, as in staggering and such, then he staggers and FALLS INTO the monitors, knocking the onto the floor and dinging up and scraping the wood on the side of one of the monitors.

I went nuclear on his ass because this was clearly not ok, took him home immediately and banned him from coming over; I would not even return his phone calls or messages.

Eventually I relented because at the core he was a nice guy, just kind of a mess so he started coming back over.

The dude was in his early 40's and at that point had had TWO heart valve replacements (the first one started leaking so he had to get another one) so I just felt kinda bad for his situation. But he still drank and all he just had reigned it in a bit.

Well in the end I was glad we got back together because about a year later he just upped and died; had an aortic aneurysm while on vacation with his family. I was actually on travel, stuck at an airport (in the plane, waiting) in Wyoming on my way to Denver when I found out.

But yeah, people who damage gear through ineptitude, not caring, drunk, whatever are a real trigger for me.

Analogeezer
 
  • Like
Reactions: spiritbass
#196
getrhythm said:
About 5 years ago, brand new Englehardt upright (replacement for one that was destryed in a house fire) on its stand at an outdoor gig. DJ just set up one of his speakers on a stand right behind my bass when the speaker fell forward knocking my bass off its stand onto the wood floor. Amazingly no damage so....the answer is "no".
Click to expand...

Well, at least he tried.
 
#197
Moe Hickey said:
My son was telling me about a bass player he is jamming with in the Bay Area who has a 78 Fender P. For some reason, it became very wet and the player's wife unknowingly put it in a gig bag. (Yep. Rode hard, put away wet) Some time later, the guy goes to retrieve the bass, and it has suffered extreme duress. The bass is saved, but not without harsh discoloration. And, it had stayed in tune.

For me, one of my son's high school friends dropped a Rickenbacker 620, and it carved a trophy divot out of it. Still played.

Anybody else?
Click to expand...
OK, I had an old Precision that was resprayed in olymopic white lacquer from bare. We were playing a big summer concert outdoors and a friend of the band wanted to play a couple during intermission using this bass, What could go wrong? Well the bugs were biting this night and the guy was wearing spray insect juice like OFF or what ever. Long story short it trashed the finish.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Miles_ONeal

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back