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Has someone ever damaged your gear?
- Thread starter Moe Hickey
- Start date
One of my sons was having some issues a few years back, and sold an SX strat clone that I had loaned him. I was furious when he did it, and it still aggravates me to think about it, but he’s since straightened his life out and has a good job now, so I’m happy with that. Plus, he bought me a very nice mandolin a while back, so he’s made up for it.
Other than that, I’ve been the only culprit when something has been damaged and or, sold.
Other than that, I’ve been the only culprit when something has been damaged and or, sold.
I loaned a "near mint" Regenerate Guitar Works jazz to RGW for NAMM '17. Every night before leaving the floor, we'd check over everything, then again in the morning before the floor opened. So one morning mid-show, we came in and found a good sized ding right in the lower bout of my previously "near mint" bass. Someone came in after hours, dinged my bass, then left it there. It's still the only ding in the finish, 5 years later.
Once in high school…
we had a “local teen band” come and play for the school to promote their tunes
the bass player I guess didn’t bring a bass?
But he knew me just over Instagram and fb
Now I have my own gear and pro stuff and I’d prefer not to have people I don’t really know touch it lmao
anyways my school had an old Yamaha trb4P converted to VVT and a BB2000
I so loved
Long story short the guy borrowed the schools TRB4P and the strap fell off and the bottom corner of the bass slammed and hit the gym floor…..
we had a “local teen band” come and play for the school to promote their tunes
the bass player I guess didn’t bring a bass?
But he knew me just over Instagram and fb
Now I have my own gear and pro stuff and I’d prefer not to have people I don’t really know touch it lmao
anyways my school had an old Yamaha trb4P converted to VVT and a BB2000
I so loved
Long story short the guy borrowed the schools TRB4P and the strap fell off and the bottom corner of the bass slammed and hit the gym floor…..
No, but one time i had my new strat open and in it's case and my heavy pedal style tuner on top of the guitar rig. reached for it and fumbled and it dropped on it's edge right onto my strat taking a chunk out of the front of the guitar. I covered it with black tape and left it as is, as a reminder not to do something that stupid again.
A guy once tossed a heavy metal key chain to me while I was wearing my guitar. I didn't know he was tossing the key chain. It hit my guitar and put a significant divot in it. It was a new guitar and I was pretty bummed out about it. To make matters worse, rather than apologizing he insisted his toss didn't cause the damage.
On another occasion I lent somebody a keyboard and a couple acoustasonic amps. When I got them back the amps were filthy, missing knobs, and one had a hole poked in the grill cloth. Additionally the person joked how their dog had been sleeping in the keyboard softcase and sure enough it was destroyed with dog hair. I mean absolutely polluted with animal hair. I was peeved and told them I would never lend them anything again. They had the nerve to tell me I was making a big deal out of nothing. To make matters worse they actually had the nerve to ask to borrow stuff again. When I said no, they were actually angry with me. Pretty odd if you ask me.
And lastly I lent a monitor speaker to a lady to use with her keyboard. She returned it with a blown speaker. When I told her she demonstrated zero remorse. I have decided I just can't lend stuff even to people I assume have the kind of character that would care for my belongings the way I would care for theirs.
While we are on the topic, I also stopped providing PA because I got shafted every time when it came to help with hauling, moving, setting up, tearing down, and paying for wear and tear.
On another occasion I lent somebody a keyboard and a couple acoustasonic amps. When I got them back the amps were filthy, missing knobs, and one had a hole poked in the grill cloth. Additionally the person joked how their dog had been sleeping in the keyboard softcase and sure enough it was destroyed with dog hair. I mean absolutely polluted with animal hair. I was peeved and told them I would never lend them anything again. They had the nerve to tell me I was making a big deal out of nothing. To make matters worse they actually had the nerve to ask to borrow stuff again. When I said no, they were actually angry with me. Pretty odd if you ask me.
And lastly I lent a monitor speaker to a lady to use with her keyboard. She returned it with a blown speaker. When I told her she demonstrated zero remorse. I have decided I just can't lend stuff even to people I assume have the kind of character that would care for my belongings the way I would care for theirs.
While we are on the topic, I also stopped providing PA because I got shafted every time when it came to help with hauling, moving, setting up, tearing down, and paying for wear and tear.
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When I worked at a music store, the manager had just bought an Ibanez thin line acoustic electric. A few days later he leaned against the counter to help a customer and knocked it over and broke the neck. I bought an Ibanez Gio at the same music store. I take very good care of it, but knocked it over a few weeks ago
Attachments
Sure a few nicks and dings, but nothing major.
I do have a story about someone else's bass being damaged though. It's 1968. and I'm in a 5 piece band strongly influenced by The Who. We had a gig at some local teen center or something like that, and our bass player had brought along a spare instrument, make and model I forget. Let's call him Fred. We all brought spare stuff, our gear wasn't exactly state of the art back then, so it was nothing unusual.
At some point I looked over at him and noticed he was playing the borrowed bass instead of his own Vox Cougar. At the end of the song, I think it was a Hendrix tune, Fred smashed the bass to pieces, along with damaging the venue floor. None of the rest of us knew what was going on, and we asked him what was up. He didn't give a better explanation than being "caught up in the moment", and we later discussed firing him (we didn't). I heard through the grape vine that the bass player he borrowed it from was enraged. It was typical for Fred to abuse other people's property while taking good care of his own, and he was slow in paying back loans, as I recall. A spoiled rich kid.
Fred was forbidden to smash any more gear except his own, and the band broke up eventually, because we were all idiots anyway.
Tom
I do have a story about someone else's bass being damaged though. It's 1968. and I'm in a 5 piece band strongly influenced by The Who. We had a gig at some local teen center or something like that, and our bass player had brought along a spare instrument, make and model I forget. Let's call him Fred. We all brought spare stuff, our gear wasn't exactly state of the art back then, so it was nothing unusual.
At some point I looked over at him and noticed he was playing the borrowed bass instead of his own Vox Cougar. At the end of the song, I think it was a Hendrix tune, Fred smashed the bass to pieces, along with damaging the venue floor. None of the rest of us knew what was going on, and we asked him what was up. He didn't give a better explanation than being "caught up in the moment", and we later discussed firing him (we didn't). I heard through the grape vine that the bass player he borrowed it from was enraged. It was typical for Fred to abuse other people's property while taking good care of his own, and he was slow in paying back loans, as I recall. A spoiled rich kid.
Fred was forbidden to smash any more gear except his own, and the band broke up eventually, because we were all idiots anyway.
Tom
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The lead singer/rhythm guitarist in one band I was in dinged my brand new PRS guitar with the headstock of his Squier while he was dancing around. I was pretty P.O.ed about it at the time.
I lent a new wireless unit to a friend's sister for a 'showcase' show years ago and it came back with one of latches for the battery door broken. No apologies ever provided. Flip side - I had to borrow a friend's 5 string bass for a gig as one of my tuners had broken on my 5 string bass. Wore an oversized shirt and no belt for the gig to ensure his mint condition Godin 5 string went back to him in perfect condition.
Back in the early ‘90’s, my first time playing at the Whisky on Sunset, lead singer (who was 6’6”) jumps up on stage with the mic stand, and the base of the stand comes down full force on the headstock my Yamaha bass (don’t remember model #, BB..something), cracks the headstock, and snaps the E string..during a performance with a nearly full house. I’ve had other basses receive small dings here and there, but never as dramatic or violent as that.
I've had the horn in my 4x10 cabinet thrashed TWICE by letting the other band use my rig. Melted the diaphragm, smelled awful. Same cab, 2 different bands.
NEVER. AGAIN. I will never lend an amp to anyone who I can't prove financial or emotional responsibility for it.
NEVER. AGAIN. I will never lend an amp to anyone who I can't prove financial or emotional responsibility for it.
I lent out a Mesa Dual Rectifer Roadster to a "friend" of mine that came back one day later with both speakers blown and i had to send it to Mesa to get the board retraced and i replaced all the tubes. Oh wait, i mean ex-friend, as he didnt chip in a penny toward the repairs. An expensive life lesson.
In 50+ years of gigging shtuff happens. I once had an inebriated gent spill a beer in the top of my vented Peavey MKIII Bass head, we were able to shut down before there was any damage. I collected several hundred dollars from the gent to cover replacement or repairs. Luckily we were able to wash out the beer, dry the amp and all was well iirc I used the cash to buy a CS800.
I usually untuck my shirt when playing.
When I was in middle school I was carry my bass amp and the drummer from my band was carrying my bass and a notebook. The notebook slipped out of his hand so he immediately dropped the bass onto an asphalt driveway to catch the notebook. Makes sense right?
This happened to me for the 1st time last week. I was at a local party and decided to use a Markbass Little Marcus head I just traded for. This was the 1st time I had brought this piece of equipment outside of my house. When setting up I noticed the AC cord was a bit exposed between the outlet and my rig. I covered it up with my gig bag so it could be easily seen. The drummer moved the gig bag (why?) and later on, she ended up walking into the cord. The amp fell onto the floor and got a ding on the corner. At least it still works.
