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Has someone ever damaged your gear?

#141
Back in high school I took the grill cover off of my Plush cab off at the request of our lead singer who for some reason wanted to more closely check out the speakers and their chrome looking dust caps.
The jerk then proceeds to poke the center dust cap and dented it. I ended up having to have that speaker reconed and of course the recone did not involve using a matching chrome look dust cap.
It's now been over 45 years since that happened, the dust cap still doesn't match and it still bugs me.
The amp and cab pictured are for demonstration purposes only and someone should clean up that Naugahyde and hose off that grill cloth.
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#143
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I once let another band use my 210 set up. When I went up to play it didn't work. Took it home to find both drivers and the horn blown. Had someone knock my bass down at some point at a show in December and do some nice damage to it. And I don't leave it unattended and out very much. So I'm pretty surprised. I broke the string myself...
 
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#144
I put a case humidifier in one of my mandolin cases. Somehow it leaked and damaged the finish on the headstock. Cosmetic only, but it’s there every time I take it out of the case. Not a cheap mandolin either. Think boutique bass $$. I should get it fixed but I keep telling myself it’s only cosmetic….but it’s there every time I take it out……
 
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#145
Jscriv said:
Sounds like you're someone in this site that plays things more my speed. What kind of music?
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This was a former band, happened just after undergrad. I think we were trying to play metal, but we had rather varied influences.

We had a reunion show five years ago. What happened was, I grew up in Tennessee but have long lived in the Washington, DC area. Several other friends from high school live here too and somehow the idea got hatched to have a bands reunion. It ended up being like a high school reunion just for all the music kids. Was so fun.

A little stressful because with work etc. This is me playing with guys I hadn't played with on over 20 years, after practicing two hours. Also, I had taken a break from bass for like 10 years at that point. Had been on keys/guitar. Guy on guitar had switched to bass. We lent each other gear.

 
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#146
Some species of low-budget Motley Crue wannabe wrecked my cab’s speaker on a kit share gig, by turning himself up unnecessarily loud during his band’s set.

The speaker gave out at the next gig I played.

The situation has not been repeated (for me; I’m sure he’s still out there drunkenly punishing various borrowed bass rigs).
 
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#149
Early on, we had a worthless guy that played keys with us. He barely had anything of his own and borrowed most everything to play a gig (and we tolerated him for a while.) At a club we played regularly he borrowed the venue's Juno synth, powered mixer, and 12/horn cabinet to hear himself. He placed the heavy cabinet on a wobbly old bar table right on the very edge. I saw it before we started and pushed it back to the center of the table. He moved it back stating he wouldn't be able to hear himself. Into the first song the cabinet slid off the table and onto the powered mixer. It almost flattened the mixer (done for) and damaged the cabinet. He made no attempt to make good on the damage.

He went on to damage/never return other people's music related stuff without making any amends. The last thing I remember he destroyed was a buddy's Gibson SG guitar. He used it and brought it back with the neck snapped in two.
 
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#150
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?
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Had two awful occurrences, as you describe.

First, I lent out my Carvin Bassman amp, and 1X15 cab. Dude put a hole in the side of the cab. Fortunately, not only was he a musician, he was also a skilled carpenter. He properly filled the hole, and nicely put a piece of black Tolex, over it.

Second time, I was out of town, and my band mates decided to hold an open jam-session, in our band room. Well, some ass used my custom Carvin LB50 Koa, and were wearing a very large belt buckle. The scratches were horrendous. No one ever copped to it, either. The bass was made in 1981, and, to this day, I have never put a ding on it. Thus, as with a new car, all of the damage it has was put there by somebody else.

I no longer lend anyone any of my gear, and I do not leave my Bass behind, anywhere.
 
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#151
I left my rig at our jam spot because hauling an amp isn't fun if not necessary. Some of the band members decided - while drinking - that they should go jam and bring friends along. When I came to our next practice, my amp was blown. To this day, I still don't know what they did to my amp.

My son decided he should start playing guitar and bass. Of course this made me extremely excited. Apparently I must be doing something right I thought. In the two years since, he has broken countless strings, sheered 3 knobs/pots off, snapped a tuner in half, and scratched the heck out of the guitar and bass I gave him. There are times I consider taking them back because he's just so flippant about the abuse. I'm oddly okay if he was rocking out and bumped things. But, no, he just throws his clothes in the corner where they are on stands and knocks them over amongst other easily avoidable doofus-ings. I'm tempted to say that it's somewhat my fault for giving him instruments instead of forcing him to work and pay for at least part of the cost, but he bought himself an acoustic guitar and it is treated exactly the same way. I love him, but he's a gross slob of an individual. He's not allowed to touch any of my gear.
 
#153
I never loan gear. I made a single exception to this back in the 80's and let the headliner's bass player use my rig, mainly because it was easier than moving it after our set - gear was big and heavy back then. The guy did his set and then spent the next hour buying me drinks at the bar and telling me how much better my gear was than the garbage that his management had supplied for their tour. Nice guy.

We had a guitarist years ago who was a complete spoiled ass of a person, and he blew up everything he touched, to the point where all we would let him use was a Pignose (remember those) with a mike stuffed in it to FOH. Anyway one day I popped into our residency gig during the day to get something and here is this idiot plugged into my Marshall stack at max volume! After an offer of some ad-hoc dental work there and then he never came near it again (and I took the power cord with me to make sure - I had fitted an IEEE socket to the amp and they were real rare back then so taking the cord was enough to render it safe from this idiot).

Never loaned tools either - I lost too many back when I was a young eager-to-please mechanic, to the point where I locked my workshop door any time I was not in there.
 
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#154
One of my old singers used to dance with and sling his mic stand like Steven Tyler does. Smacked into one of my basses once with it, I went off on him! But I was able to work at steam it out and undetectable.

Sometimes I'm the house player at open jams and its expected to let others use your gear here, so thats why I have a couple inexpensive basses that cost me very little...like under 150 bucks.
 
#155
The band I was playing in was doing some final setup just before going on at a bar gig. One of the venue's front of house PA speakers was on a speaker stand on the stage, but the legs had not been fully spread and it was very unstable. A bar patron accidentally nudged into it and that was enough to send the speaker tumbling into the stage where in knocked my guitarists (tube) amp head off the top of his cab and into his guitar taking a huge chunk out of the body and the neck. The amp case was distorted, but still worked. We played the show and the amp gave out on the last song. The venue ended up paying for the repairs. He was extremely lucky as he was bent over fiddling with his pedals at the time and was awfully close to having the PA speaker hit him. I think it was a 15" too.

I once provided my amp as the backline at a multi-band night as a sort-of good will gesture for the other bands so that they might return the favour and allow us to use other equipment, especially the drums. Out of the 3 other bands that played, one bassist put a prop on my head and scratched the top of it. I could also see the clip light pretty much always on as he was playing his set. I had to run up and change the settings. While I am setting up the next bassist, I hear a huge "thunk" thinking someone had just hit the bass drum - but there's nobody else on stage - only to realize he had taken the jack out of his bass rather than the patch cord out of the head (or turning it off). After the final band finishes and I am packing up the equipment, I see the final bass player had dimmed the master volume on the amp. Luckily, the gain wasn't also dimmed. I don't think any of the bass players did this stuff on purpose, they just don't know how to use equipment. I just generally prefer not to loan out my stuff and only will to people I know and trust will take care of it.
 
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#160
Only happened to me once.

I had purchased a Laney bass head for a cab I had on hand. The Laney was brand new, first practice to try it out. We played for about 15 mins and one of the guitar players stepped on my cable and broke off the input jack to the head. :bored:

I religiously make it a habit when using a cable to always tie it off on the handle or something first to try and prevent that from happening ever since.
 

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